Lynne,
What a nice trip report. I love the pictures and it was an honor for me to spend some time diving with you and Peter. I can't wait until we get the chance to do it again. Hopefully next time Bob can make it too.
For my part I have to say that day 1 was a bit intimidating. We had to get up ridiculously early and I wasn't on my game when we got to the boat but despite feeling out my comfort zone I managed to successfully infiltrate a GUE/DIR boat at least well enough that nobody was rolling their eyes and asking me to get off before we left the dock!
Once I was in the water though, I felt relaxed and the dive on the Saskatchewan was fabulous. I have to admit that you were right about the standardized gear. The fact that my own gear is very similar to the gear you brought for me to dive with did help a lot. Aside from your tanks being a bit heavier than mine are, it was a pretty simple matter to get dailed in. Naturally I expected you and Peter to both look fabulous in the water, which you did, and since it was my first time diving on a boat full of GUE divers my goal was to at least not come across looking like flailing noob in dire need of rescuing. In fact, it was a big relief to immediately see that DIR diving sharply resembles scuba diving, and although the need to ask some basic questions about things like the dive planning probably made me fit in more like a huge yellow bathtub duck than a dressed-in-black-DIR chameleon, I felt that it went pretty well.
I also really enjoyed meeting the other divers on the boat and it entirely convinced me that my negative experiences with the DIR community in the Netherlands are definitely not typical of everyone. That day left me feeling more confident about the idea of contacting JP than I ever have been before and Peter's idea of "being that guy" has really taken root. I'll be doing this in January, once JP and Anne Marie get back. Who knows, you may yet succeed in converting me. I guess if I do go full DIR at some point I'll have to swap out my awesome wing for one that vents slow and has an inflator that's a bit short but oh well
You may have thought that the second dive was a bit of a wash, being on a rubble bottom, but just being there with you and Peter and taking the time to scour the bottom for interesting subjects was more than enough to make me happy despite being a bit uncomfortable with the leaking mask. It was also gratifying to hear from Dave after the fact that we were the only divers in the group who actually surfaced where they expected to see us. LOL. All in all, I found the dive quiet and controlled and it was fun for me to just hang there and try to keep communication open with two photographers who despite the varying degrees of the inevitable "moth to candle" positioning in the water that is part and parcel of diving with a camera never lost awareness of their own diving or the team.
I especially noticed this during the second day. By that point I was pretty sure I had passed the "borg-cupcake" test and I had the same "click" that you did with the communication. I felt as though I were diving with my regular dive buddy. It was our 3rd dive together but it might as well have been our 300th. During the 3rd dive, communication fell into place to the point where we were communicating almost entirely with eye contact and body positioning, which is exactly how I do it with my buddy Arthur too. Diving like that reminds me of dancing a tango where reading the other person becomes a part of your own dance too. It felt great to have that happening and made it SO easy to dive with you. Sadly Peter's attempts to actually lead the dive fell of deaf ears but oh well....
The last dive cemented one thing for me, which is that this isn't going to be the last time. I thoroughly enjoyed myself both under water and between dives and this is clearly a case of "iFriends" making the transition to real-life friends. It was bound to be easy though, since both you and Peter are what-you-see-is-what-you-get types of people who don't present yourself any differently online than you are in person. I'm already looking forward to the next time.
R..
What a nice trip report. I love the pictures and it was an honor for me to spend some time diving with you and Peter. I can't wait until we get the chance to do it again. Hopefully next time Bob can make it too.
For my part I have to say that day 1 was a bit intimidating. We had to get up ridiculously early and I wasn't on my game when we got to the boat but despite feeling out my comfort zone I managed to successfully infiltrate a GUE/DIR boat at least well enough that nobody was rolling their eyes and asking me to get off before we left the dock!
Once I was in the water though, I felt relaxed and the dive on the Saskatchewan was fabulous. I have to admit that you were right about the standardized gear. The fact that my own gear is very similar to the gear you brought for me to dive with did help a lot. Aside from your tanks being a bit heavier than mine are, it was a pretty simple matter to get dailed in. Naturally I expected you and Peter to both look fabulous in the water, which you did, and since it was my first time diving on a boat full of GUE divers my goal was to at least not come across looking like flailing noob in dire need of rescuing. In fact, it was a big relief to immediately see that DIR diving sharply resembles scuba diving, and although the need to ask some basic questions about things like the dive planning probably made me fit in more like a huge yellow bathtub duck than a dressed-in-black-DIR chameleon, I felt that it went pretty well.
I also really enjoyed meeting the other divers on the boat and it entirely convinced me that my negative experiences with the DIR community in the Netherlands are definitely not typical of everyone. That day left me feeling more confident about the idea of contacting JP than I ever have been before and Peter's idea of "being that guy" has really taken root. I'll be doing this in January, once JP and Anne Marie get back. Who knows, you may yet succeed in converting me
. I guess if I do go full DIR at some point I'll have to swap out my awesome wing for one that vents slow and has an inflator that's a bit short but oh well You may have thought that the second dive was a bit of a wash, being on a rubble bottom, but just being there with you and Peter and taking the time to scour the bottom for interesting subjects was more than enough to make me happy despite being a bit uncomfortable with the leaking mask. It was also gratifying to hear from Dave after the fact that we were the only divers in the group who actually surfaced where they expected to see us. LOL. All in all, I found the dive quiet and controlled and it was fun for me to just hang there and try to keep communication open with two photographers who despite the varying degrees of the inevitable "moth to candle" positioning in the water that is part and parcel of diving with a camera never lost awareness of their own diving or the team.
I especially noticed this during the second day. By that point I was pretty sure I had passed the "borg-cupcake" test and I had the same "click" that you did with the communication. I felt as though I were diving with my regular dive buddy. It was our 3rd dive together but it might as well have been our 300th. During the 3rd dive, communication fell into place to the point where we were communicating almost entirely with eye contact and body positioning, which is exactly how I do it with my buddy Arthur too. Diving like that reminds me of dancing a tango where reading the other person becomes a part of your own dance too. It felt great to have that happening and made it SO easy to dive with you. Sadly Peter's attempts to actually lead the dive fell of deaf ears but oh well....
The last dive cemented one thing for me, which is that this isn't going to be the last time. I thoroughly enjoyed myself both under water and between dives and this is clearly a case of "iFriends" making the transition to real-life friends. It was bound to be easy though, since both you and Peter are what-you-see-is-what-you-get types of people who don't present yourself any differently online than you are in person. I'm already looking forward to the next time.
R..
