Hey all,
for all those who are interested, I got a story for yall about my weekend in Zeeland. Plenty of diving!
The first of 3 in a year organised 'diving camps' of our club... Was looking forward to it for weeks!!! And last friday, the day was there. And on we (me and my dad) went for a 1,5 - 2 hour trip with our caravan.
When we arrived at the camp site, we quickly stalled out all our stuff and we immediately went diving!
It was a pretty good site. Water was about 13 degrees. Not that bad. At least until we reached the 12 meters. We hit the thermocline, and me and my dad both decided that felt a bit too cold, so we climbed up a little and the rest of the dive was fine. Viz was about 4 meters. Really not bad. Nothing really special to see, it was just a good dive. Oh, except there were a lot of nudibrances. Really beautiful... we even caught one laying her eggs in the grass.
When we got back it was hot dog time!!! And when the sun was starting to set it was time for the 2nd dive already. Night dives are always great. I got buddied up with a very experienced diver. So we went in, and ofcourse no problem, for the first 10 minutes
, then his torch started to let him down. No worries, he had a spare one... WRONG. Didn't work either. Still no problem, the sky was clear and the moon supplied us with enough light so we could easily make that dive with just one torch. Viz again was pretty good. About the same as the previous dive, but then again... it was the same site. Saw some pretty big eels, first time I've ever seen them. Was a nice experience. But my buddy only had a double 7 ltr. filled up to 80 bar, so we called it a dive after 30 minutes. As soon as we got out of the water the weather started to change. Lightning started to take over, so no need for torches at all. Rain was pouring down, so getting dressed was heaps of fun. After the dive, we got back at the camp site, and everyone went to their caravan and probably fell asleep after 10 minutes. Diving just drains your energy.
The next day everyone was as fresh as a fiddle again and it was time for a new dive. This time at a site, I had never been before. The weather was great, which can't be said about the water conditions. Me and my buddy got in, and we both noticed this wouldn't be a great dive. Viz was no more than 20 cm's, but we thought that if we would swim on for a while, it might change on the deeper end... Just... it didn't get much deeper than 6 meters. So after 5 minutes of swimming straight ahead, my buddy gave the 'this is crap, let's go back'-sign (not really an official sign for it, but in those circumstances, everyone would know what he meant.), and so we did. On shore we decided to give it another go a couple hundred meters east. Didn't make no difference, conditions were the same, so after a total of 14 minutes spent under water, we called it a dive. Only thing we saw was 1 lobster with fog-lights. He too couldn't see a thing. hehe.
When we got back at the cars, we realized we were the last ones back. Everyone else gave up way sooner. So then we went to fill our tanks. By the time we got back, we had half an hour to prepare for the next dive, which I gratefully used to reorganise my weight belt (wasn't very content with it the way it was now). For the last dive, I dove with someone I hadn't dove with before. About the same level of experience (40+ dives), and we're both in the 2** (rescue diver) class. No problems at all, and this time we had great viz! Up to 6 meters! Really happy about that. hehe. (Temp was about the same at every dive. Between 12 and 14 degrees.) Again we hit the thermocline, but this time we ignored the cold and stayed at depth a little longer. We saw some nudibranches again, some lobsters, and that was about it. Mostly I just enjoyed the great viz. Meanwhile my dad was diving with mr. Superdiver. I think he (let's call him Bob) made like 10 dives so far, but my dad said he was still flapping and twirling and doing this and that like it was his first dive. Ok ok, some people are slow learners, but he was really something. Carried about 15 kg's of weight, which kept falling out somehow... He had it integrated. My dad was more busy correcting his trim and rearraging all his stuff than enjoying the scene. On top of that he sucked all of his air so fast time as if he was going for the world record. Double 7 ltr, 220 bar. One would think plenty of air, but oh well... Sounds like I'm coming down on him, which I actually am (a little), but ofcourse I really hope he'll be doing better soon. Cause he too is only trying to enjoy his dives.
At night it was time for the bbq! Chatted for some time with some other 'clubbers'. Hit the sack pretty early again.
The next day the plan was to dive at about 11 am. So we did, enough people who were willing to, so our group of 6 cars drove on to the site. On our way we passed another site, and my eyes almost rolled out of their sockets... And I'm sure mine weren't the only ones. The site was covered in divers. The entire parking lot was full and even outside of it people were dressing, getting ready to dive. Must've been at least 120 divers. But when we reached our planned site, we realized the situation wasn't much different from the other site. About 50 divers getting ready to dive, a couple just got out of the water, one glance over the dyke and we saw 40 more divers in the water, and 40 more on shore just about to get in. So... no... Then a couple people suggested to go look for another site, but apparently most of the people got a little intimidated by the great number of divers, that we called the whole thing off... Ah well, that's the price you pay for diving after 7am on a sunday morning in Zeeland. Too bad, but on the other hand, my suit wasn't dry yet from the dive before and really cold, so that comforted the thought of not being able to dive.
Back at the camp site, the people who hadn't left yet, participated in bbq no. 2 (since there was so much food left from the night before), and afterwards most people left for home. And so did we. So that was my weekend. Diving, bbq-ing, sleeping. Doesn't sound so bad if you ask me. Hope to get wet again soon. Better stop typing now, cause I'm not sure a whole lot of people would want to offer their little spare time to read this story. Hope to hear some reactions.
Thanks for the reading (if you made it all the way down here).
Ramón
for all those who are interested, I got a story for yall about my weekend in Zeeland. Plenty of diving!
The first of 3 in a year organised 'diving camps' of our club... Was looking forward to it for weeks!!! And last friday, the day was there. And on we (me and my dad) went for a 1,5 - 2 hour trip with our caravan.
When we arrived at the camp site, we quickly stalled out all our stuff and we immediately went diving!
It was a pretty good site. Water was about 13 degrees. Not that bad. At least until we reached the 12 meters. We hit the thermocline, and me and my dad both decided that felt a bit too cold, so we climbed up a little and the rest of the dive was fine. Viz was about 4 meters. Really not bad. Nothing really special to see, it was just a good dive. Oh, except there were a lot of nudibrances. Really beautiful... we even caught one laying her eggs in the grass.
When we got back it was hot dog time!!! And when the sun was starting to set it was time for the 2nd dive already. Night dives are always great. I got buddied up with a very experienced diver. So we went in, and ofcourse no problem, for the first 10 minutes
, then his torch started to let him down. No worries, he had a spare one... WRONG. Didn't work either. Still no problem, the sky was clear and the moon supplied us with enough light so we could easily make that dive with just one torch. Viz again was pretty good. About the same as the previous dive, but then again... it was the same site. Saw some pretty big eels, first time I've ever seen them. Was a nice experience. But my buddy only had a double 7 ltr. filled up to 80 bar, so we called it a dive after 30 minutes. As soon as we got out of the water the weather started to change. Lightning started to take over, so no need for torches at all. Rain was pouring down, so getting dressed was heaps of fun. After the dive, we got back at the camp site, and everyone went to their caravan and probably fell asleep after 10 minutes. Diving just drains your energy. The next day everyone was as fresh as a fiddle again and it was time for a new dive. This time at a site, I had never been before. The weather was great, which can't be said about the water conditions. Me and my buddy got in, and we both noticed this wouldn't be a great dive. Viz was no more than 20 cm's, but we thought that if we would swim on for a while, it might change on the deeper end... Just... it didn't get much deeper than 6 meters. So after 5 minutes of swimming straight ahead, my buddy gave the 'this is crap, let's go back'-sign (not really an official sign for it, but in those circumstances, everyone would know what he meant.), and so we did. On shore we decided to give it another go a couple hundred meters east. Didn't make no difference, conditions were the same, so after a total of 14 minutes spent under water, we called it a dive. Only thing we saw was 1 lobster with fog-lights. He too couldn't see a thing. hehe.
When we got back at the cars, we realized we were the last ones back. Everyone else gave up way sooner. So then we went to fill our tanks. By the time we got back, we had half an hour to prepare for the next dive, which I gratefully used to reorganise my weight belt (wasn't very content with it the way it was now). For the last dive, I dove with someone I hadn't dove with before. About the same level of experience (40+ dives), and we're both in the 2** (rescue diver) class. No problems at all, and this time we had great viz! Up to 6 meters! Really happy about that.
hehe. (Temp was about the same at every dive. Between 12 and 14 degrees.) Again we hit the thermocline, but this time we ignored the cold and stayed at depth a little longer. We saw some nudibranches again, some lobsters, and that was about it. Mostly I just enjoyed the great viz. Meanwhile my dad was diving with mr. Superdiver. I think he (let's call him Bob) made like 10 dives so far, but my dad said he was still flapping and twirling and doing this and that like it was his first dive. Ok ok, some people are slow learners, but he was really something. Carried about 15 kg's of weight, which kept falling out somehow... He had it integrated. My dad was more busy correcting his trim and rearraging all his stuff than enjoying the scene. On top of that he sucked all of his air so fast time as if he was going for the world record. Double 7 ltr, 220 bar. One would think plenty of air, but oh well... Sounds like I'm coming down on him, which I actually am (a little), but ofcourse I really hope he'll be doing better soon. Cause he too is only trying to enjoy his dives.At night it was time for the bbq! Chatted for some time with some other 'clubbers'. Hit the sack pretty early again.
The next day the plan was to dive at about 11 am. So we did, enough people who were willing to, so our group of 6 cars drove on to the site. On our way we passed another site, and my eyes almost rolled out of their sockets... And I'm sure mine weren't the only ones. The site was covered in divers. The entire parking lot was full and even outside of it people were dressing, getting ready to dive. Must've been at least 120 divers. But when we reached our planned site, we realized the situation wasn't much different from the other site. About 50 divers getting ready to dive, a couple just got out of the water, one glance over the dyke and we saw 40 more divers in the water, and 40 more on shore just about to get in. So... no... Then a couple people suggested to go look for another site, but apparently most of the people got a little intimidated by the great number of divers, that we called the whole thing off... Ah well, that's the price you pay for diving after 7am on a sunday morning in Zeeland. Too bad, but on the other hand, my suit wasn't dry yet from the dive before and really cold, so that comforted the thought of not being able to dive.
Back at the camp site, the people who hadn't left yet, participated in bbq no. 2 (since there was so much food left from the night before), and afterwards most people left for home. And so did we. So that was my weekend. Diving, bbq-ing, sleeping. Doesn't sound so bad if you ask me. Hope to get wet again soon. Better stop typing now, cause I'm not sure a whole lot of people would want to offer their little spare time to read this story.
Hope to hear some reactions. Thanks for the reading (if you made it all the way down here).
Ramón
