This year's diving was dominated by turning 40. I'd like to share some of the highs and lows with you....
In January, I took an IANTD ice diving course. I've always dived in the ocean so, for me, this was very special... In December last year I did the theory and in the beginning of January we (a group of 6 divers) started some training dives in a local lake. Given that all the divers on team were capable, the training was mostly focused on team protocol, laying line (something that wasn't personally a big surprise to me given my wreck diving background) and navigation. The actual dives were done in the Czech republic in a lake near the north eastern border with Poland. For me this was the first time travelling to the Czech republic and the first time in Poland (we drove through Poland to get there). It was also the first time being pulled over by the Polish police and the second time in my life being refused entry to a country because the border guards had never seen a Canadian passport before.... The Polish police turned out to be ok, just a bunch of teenagers having fun with foreigners and after encouraging the Czech border guards to call their superiors (the first time in several years they had received an update on international visa agreements) we were allowed to carry on.
This part of the world is beautiful. And I should know. I grew up in the Rockey Mountains, which is the baseline of "beautiful" to which all other "beautiful" is compared ... If you can get there, go there! You certainly won't be disappointed.
The dives were breathtaking. Air temperatures where we were diving were about -17C and the water felt like "shelter" from the elements. Victims of the cold were one DUI drysuit (not made with sturdy enough materials for the cold) and just about every inflator we had... On one dive both my drysuit and my wing were frozen and I had unclipped everything and was manipulating it by hand while at the same time laying line for my buddies..... (I have a brilliant picture of this moment that I should post some time...) The diver with the DUI drysuit was also the instructor. His suit partially flooded and the undersuit froze solid to the trilam in the time that it took him to get out of the water and back to the safety of our cars.... We needed to cut him out of it to avoid him getting hypothermia....
He insists that the fit is worth the "inconvenience" but he spent €4000 on that drysuit and to me it's just another reason to wonder why DUI has such a good reputation.
In the end, three of us were "certified" for ice diving. I love having the bar set high and I love it even more to be found "satisfactory" by someone whose highest possible qualification is "that looked ok".
Fast forward to April. I've made quite a number of dives since January, but most of them have been puddlestomping (no-deco dives in less than 30 metres) & training. In April the water is warm enough to start deco diving again. I usually start out with some "practice" dives with my buddy "M". So there we are, standing on the side of the local training 'puddle' (40 metres deep) and "M" says to me "Rob... bad news... I forgot my flipppers".....
6 *hundred* flawless dives and the guy forgets his flippers the *one* time I'm standing on knee deep water on the shore of the local training puddle in 50kg of gear.... I say "see you in an hour" and walk into the water..... 1 hour and 7 minutes later I'm back on the surface. Max depth 36 metres. Unfortunately, I had swum a little further up and came out of the water where he couldn't see me. I walked back to the car but by the time I got there (a few minutes late) he was standing on the roof of his truck with binoculars in one hand and his cell-phone in the other.... not exactly our best day but fortunately not a sign of things to come....
28th of april..... just before the cuttle fish season. I had a really remarkable moment with a squid that I wrote about in this: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=139808: post. More remarkable than the moment itself was the buddy I was with. We've only started diving together the last two years but we have had several *spectacular* moments like this when we're together.... I'm so blessed to be making friends with people who feel the spirit of diving in their heart....
June: I'm back home in British Columbia. This is where I learned how to dive and had many of my formative experiences. This time I was diving with my friends Bill and Bruno. I haven't been diving there since (for my feeling) Jesus walked the earth and even though we went to sites that I've been do many times they seemed new, fresh and different to me... Crabbing with Bill and Bruno was absolutely hysterical. Bruno has a unique skill in spotting keepers and his light has only one function...pinning down crabs, upside-down so he can sex them...
His reflexes are sharper now than I've ever seen them. The feast of crab, wine and good times was simply legendary. I think this was one of the best times I've had in years...diving or not....
We also dove on Vancouver Island. Snake Island and a couple of wrecks. We met a couple of Scubaboard regulars on the boat (they had it figured out before we did). Bill showed his stuff on the deep dives. Bruno doesn't like the deep so he sticks around 100ft and follows the bubbles. Bill kept going down-down-down to see the massive anemones. Fields of them clinging to the rocks like forests of ghostly flesh; our light penetrating the infinite darkness like shards of sunlight where it doesn't belong.
We also dived a couple of wrecks. Human remnants of cruelty and hatred placed deliberately where they can do some residual good.... Bruno surprised me on these dives. At ease on a deep wreck, at ease penetrating the guts of of the formor pride of the Canadian Navy..... Showing calm and deliberate skill and good judgement in less than ideal circumstances.
On this trip we were also reunited with our old friend "D". "D" is one of my oldest friends. I've known him since before I could distinguish "boy" from "girl". He's grown up to be a sexual deviant with absolutely enormous muscles and an equally huge sense of humor. You wouldn't know it to look at him but he's a sensitive and empathetic man. We've all turned (about) 40 this year. 1/2 done.... 1/2 dead.... no longer "sexy" to the younger women.... Full of insecure thoughts. Full of "wanted to" "should have" and "probably should". All suffering some regret, some hope, some desire.... Our mid-life crisis. This, in some way, also puts it's stamp on our diving. We're experienced but not too old to push boundaries. We're wise without being boring. Adventuresome without being reckless..... lacking the youth to do the things we should have done when we were still that age.....and happy what we survived the stupid things we did....
After Canada the rest of my summer just sort of cruised past. I made the longest dive I've ever recorded and a couple of serious penetrations of (for me) previously unpenetrated North Sea wrecks (incidentally very comfortable dives) but it all seemed like an epilogue. In some sense I feel as though things are very much on the rails but on the other hand It's been an emotional year. I've found myself being impatient and irritable. I've needed to take a several month long break from Scubaboard. I peaked early and dipped. I did manage to take other courses this year but the stimulation of my mind isn't compensating for the unrest I feel in side. I don't know what I need.... and I don't know why. Is it my age.... is it the stress of my job... Is the the realization that life is giving me "pull" when I could use a little "push"... I don't know.
Next year I also don't konw what to expect. I'm taking a mix course right now. In April I'm going back to Egypt. After that....I don't know. I want to dive some "unaccessable" (hence the mix course) wrecks with the North Sea crew. We'll see how it goes. We're working on a video right now. I'm just one of the divers and they music guy.... I'm hoping that will give me a high next year too.... I guess we'll have to see how much push and how much pull we get from things to come...
In any case, I'm statisfied with this year, and happy that we're pushing ahead with another... It's not the first time I've had this feeling and it won't be the last...
R..
In January, I took an IANTD ice diving course. I've always dived in the ocean so, for me, this was very special... In December last year I did the theory and in the beginning of January we (a group of 6 divers) started some training dives in a local lake. Given that all the divers on team were capable, the training was mostly focused on team protocol, laying line (something that wasn't personally a big surprise to me given my wreck diving background) and navigation. The actual dives were done in the Czech republic in a lake near the north eastern border with Poland. For me this was the first time travelling to the Czech republic and the first time in Poland (we drove through Poland to get there). It was also the first time being pulled over by the Polish police and the second time in my life being refused entry to a country because the border guards had never seen a Canadian passport before.... The Polish police turned out to be ok, just a bunch of teenagers having fun with foreigners and after encouraging the Czech border guards to call their superiors (the first time in several years they had received an update on international visa agreements) we were allowed to carry on.
This part of the world is beautiful. And I should know. I grew up in the Rockey Mountains, which is the baseline of "beautiful" to which all other "beautiful" is compared ... If you can get there, go there! You certainly won't be disappointed.
The dives were breathtaking. Air temperatures where we were diving were about -17C and the water felt like "shelter" from the elements. Victims of the cold were one DUI drysuit (not made with sturdy enough materials for the cold) and just about every inflator we had... On one dive both my drysuit and my wing were frozen and I had unclipped everything and was manipulating it by hand while at the same time laying line for my buddies..... (I have a brilliant picture of this moment that I should post some time...) The diver with the DUI drysuit was also the instructor. His suit partially flooded and the undersuit froze solid to the trilam in the time that it took him to get out of the water and back to the safety of our cars.... We needed to cut him out of it to avoid him getting hypothermia....
He insists that the fit is worth the "inconvenience" but he spent €4000 on that drysuit and to me it's just another reason to wonder why DUI has such a good reputation.
In the end, three of us were "certified" for ice diving. I love having the bar set high and I love it even more to be found "satisfactory" by someone whose highest possible qualification is "that looked ok".
Fast forward to April. I've made quite a number of dives since January, but most of them have been puddlestomping (no-deco dives in less than 30 metres) & training. In April the water is warm enough to start deco diving again. I usually start out with some "practice" dives with my buddy "M". So there we are, standing on the side of the local training 'puddle' (40 metres deep) and "M" says to me "Rob... bad news... I forgot my flipppers".....
6 *hundred* flawless dives and the guy forgets his flippers the *one* time I'm standing on knee deep water on the shore of the local training puddle in 50kg of gear.... I say "see you in an hour" and walk into the water..... 1 hour and 7 minutes later I'm back on the surface. Max depth 36 metres. Unfortunately, I had swum a little further up and came out of the water where he couldn't see me. I walked back to the car but by the time I got there (a few minutes late) he was standing on the roof of his truck with binoculars in one hand and his cell-phone in the other.... not exactly our best day but fortunately not a sign of things to come....
28th of april..... just before the cuttle fish season. I had a really remarkable moment with a squid that I wrote about in this: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=139808: post. More remarkable than the moment itself was the buddy I was with. We've only started diving together the last two years but we have had several *spectacular* moments like this when we're together.... I'm so blessed to be making friends with people who feel the spirit of diving in their heart....
June: I'm back home in British Columbia. This is where I learned how to dive and had many of my formative experiences. This time I was diving with my friends Bill and Bruno. I haven't been diving there since (for my feeling) Jesus walked the earth and even though we went to sites that I've been do many times they seemed new, fresh and different to me... Crabbing with Bill and Bruno was absolutely hysterical. Bruno has a unique skill in spotting keepers and his light has only one function...pinning down crabs, upside-down so he can sex them...
His reflexes are sharper now than I've ever seen them. The feast of crab, wine and good times was simply legendary. I think this was one of the best times I've had in years...diving or not.... We also dove on Vancouver Island. Snake Island and a couple of wrecks. We met a couple of Scubaboard regulars on the boat (they had it figured out before we did). Bill showed his stuff on the deep dives. Bruno doesn't like the deep so he sticks around 100ft and follows the bubbles. Bill kept going down-down-down to see the massive anemones. Fields of them clinging to the rocks like forests of ghostly flesh; our light penetrating the infinite darkness like shards of sunlight where it doesn't belong.
We also dived a couple of wrecks. Human remnants of cruelty and hatred placed deliberately where they can do some residual good.... Bruno surprised me on these dives. At ease on a deep wreck, at ease penetrating the guts of of the formor pride of the Canadian Navy..... Showing calm and deliberate skill and good judgement in less than ideal circumstances.
On this trip we were also reunited with our old friend "D". "D" is one of my oldest friends. I've known him since before I could distinguish "boy" from "girl". He's grown up to be a sexual deviant with absolutely enormous muscles and an equally huge sense of humor. You wouldn't know it to look at him but he's a sensitive and empathetic man. We've all turned (about) 40 this year. 1/2 done.... 1/2 dead.... no longer "sexy" to the younger women.... Full of insecure thoughts. Full of "wanted to" "should have" and "probably should". All suffering some regret, some hope, some desire.... Our mid-life crisis. This, in some way, also puts it's stamp on our diving. We're experienced but not too old to push boundaries. We're wise without being boring. Adventuresome without being reckless..... lacking the youth to do the things we should have done when we were still that age.....and happy what we survived the stupid things we did....
After Canada the rest of my summer just sort of cruised past. I made the longest dive I've ever recorded and a couple of serious penetrations of (for me) previously unpenetrated North Sea wrecks (incidentally very comfortable dives) but it all seemed like an epilogue. In some sense I feel as though things are very much on the rails but on the other hand It's been an emotional year. I've found myself being impatient and irritable. I've needed to take a several month long break from Scubaboard. I peaked early and dipped. I did manage to take other courses this year but the stimulation of my mind isn't compensating for the unrest I feel in side. I don't know what I need.... and I don't know why. Is it my age.... is it the stress of my job... Is the the realization that life is giving me "pull" when I could use a little "push"... I don't know.
Next year I also don't konw what to expect. I'm taking a mix course right now. In April I'm going back to Egypt. After that....I don't know. I want to dive some "unaccessable" (hence the mix course) wrecks with the North Sea crew. We'll see how it goes. We're working on a video right now. I'm just one of the divers and they music guy.... I'm hoping that will give me a high next year too.... I guess we'll have to see how much push and how much pull we get from things to come...
In any case, I'm statisfied with this year, and happy that we're pushing ahead with another... It's not the first time I've had this feeling and it won't be the last...
R..
