That’s All She Wrote…

That’s All She Wrote…

I knew this day was coming, and here it is; My last dive at Bainbridge….  But…I think we made the best of it!

On Wednesday night, John had an idea that this weekend might be a bit of a mess with dive classes, and people trying to get that last one in, so I got a text when I got home that meeting at 9:00am would probably be a good idea. I agreed!  I met Rob last night, and got my fills, then came home and packed the rest of my car.  6:00am came really early, but that coffee tasted SOOO good!   I decided that since I was pretty much ready to go, I would just leave… so at about 8:00 I jumped in the car, and started for that last ride down to Bainbridge.

When I arrived, I saw a few cars ahead of me and it was a little early, so I thought that I’d just run over to the rest room, then by that time they’d be opening up the door at 9:00, as I threw something into one of the trash cans, the door was opened, and Susie, yelled out “Good Morning!” to everyone, and Steve was out chatting with people, so I returned the greeting, and signed in.  Stopped at the gate as I drove by and wished Steve well, then made my way back to the tables.  I got a few for our crew, and unpacked the rest of my gear and started setting up.  I took a little walk around Upper A, and decided to take a few pictures of the water. With the sun hitting it, it really is a nice place to visit, just a shame that below the waves it’s a little murky!    Rob was the next to arrive, then John.  John was consulted for some coordinates for the Barn (out AND back) so he gave his opinion on their plan. When it was time to formulate our last plan, I think that must have stuck in his head, and some of what we were talking about ended up NEAR the Barn, so why not?!?!  One last Barn run for old time’s sake!

After we all geared up, we made our way down the steep access, put on the fins and masks, and hoped that we had no leaks today. Rob called for a 20 foot bubble check, so we all descended.  At the tree, we all seemed ready, so we started through the foggy viz.  A few minutes into it, I saw John heading towards the left, and Rob went right-ish around a tree, then I lost Rob.  I slowed a little, and tried waving my light to alert John, but he missed it.. I swam a little further, but still no Rob.  So I sat there for a few seconds, then started swimming forward, and spied one of the lines, and thought that I’d follow that, and see where it went, hoping that I’d find at least one of them there.  Good choice!   I saw one light, then a second light.  Apparently Rob won, and I came in last.  (not out of the ordinary)    Back in our formation, we were soon passing the Pennsy, and heading for the CAT.  At the CAT we continued down the slope past the Deep Boat, and over to the small pipes and the line. We followed the line out until we saw the collapsed building, and the Step Van, then passed the tanker and headed over some more collapsed building debris.  We were at the Barn a few minutes later, and John and I swam through it, Rob is still kind of cautious, and went along the side.  We all checked in outside, and John took his heading for the SOUTH wall (not the North wall) At the wall we just followed at about 85 feet, and took in the sights. I didn’t think we’d see it, but pretty soon, we were staring at the Outhouse…I immediately “snorted” and thought “This is sort of a long way to get to the Outhouse”. We assessed it in the daylight, then continued past the Tripod Tree and along the wall. I could see in the distance that the Pump House was close by, so I looked at my computer, and noticed that I had about seven minutes before I went into DECO, so we got that about right.  I gave the area around the Pump House a quick look just to see if that little Lobster was still around, and he’s gone!  So I started to ascend with John and Rob until we hit the line to the CAT.  Along the line we did a nice deep stop, then came back in towards the bowl, and headed towards the wall.  John started out along the wall, and turned when he noticed crud raining down from above, (Dive class?)  So he turned us (I got a nasty calf cramp in my right leg) and followed the wall in to where we would do our safety stop.  About four minutes into the safety stop, I felt like I was getting a little too close to Rob and John, so I attempted to back fin, only to get a nasty cramp in the upper part of my left leg (which caused me to need to kick forward, under John) When I couldn’t clear it, I ended up floating up to about two feet to finish my safety stop, then started back down. At eight feet, I noticed Rob looking for me, so I just blew out, and started dropping faster, and fell on his head (sorry!)  We swam to the usual spot, to finish!

Duration: 52 minutes

Deepest Depth: 93 feet

Coldest Temp: 36º

Not the worst dive in the world, but a decent dive to end our time at Bainbridge!   I felt pretty decent throughout, and except for those cramps at the end, thought that I had a decent dive.  When I exited the Barn, I felt a little floaty, but it’s easier to compensate at 90-ish feet than 20, so I was able to get back under control. Looking at my air consumption, I could have done a lot better, I know I was sucking air the last bit of that trip before we started ascending. (I looked, I haven’t had bad breathing like that since about 2013)

After we packed, I gave the place a quick last look, got in my car, and drove out of there.    Rob and John will be spending their Sunday at about 20 feet with an Open Water class. One of the last classes to get certified there, there was a certified father there with his two daughters getting them certified. They won’t have the time we had there, but I’m sure if they stick with it, they will probably remember the cold dark depths of where they learned.

Click on the next one for a little more.....

The Last Drive…..

Over the years, I’ve had several “lasts” that I knew I was having… my last day of school, my last days of drum and bugle corps, the last “gig” I had with the last bar band I played in, my last day at a job I had for 19 years, and the one thing in common with all of these was the last time I had to drive to the “venue” for the last time doing “whatever”.  So that last time getting into the car, putting the “gear” I needed into it, and going to the place was always a mixed thing.  You always have that “life passing in your mind” kind of feeling where you remember the first time you walked into that place, and met those people for the first time, and did whatever you were doing for the first time.  The past few weeks driving down to the quarry, I’ve had some of those feelings, and have had to reminisce about some of the people and things that happened while I was coming here.  In some cases, I’m thankful that I’ve written some of these memories down, and can go back and read them! (my mind isn’t what it used to be…)

My first arrival at the quarry was on August 25 2004.  Not long after I got into this activity.  On my 40^th birthday (October 7^th 2003) I was snorkeling in the Florida Keys, and decided that I should give diving a try. (hey it LOOKED kinda fun!)  Almost one year later, I was two dives in from a Discover Scuba session in the Keys, and ready to take my Open Water “check outs” at the quarry.  Being a rather large person at the time, renting a wet suit wasn’t a good option, so I tried buying a BIG one from a place online, and that seemed to do the trick…. No hood…no gloves, but in August, the thermocline wasn’t an issue since we weren’t going THAT deep, and we weren’t staying in THAT long…sucking down an 80 wasn’t a big thing!  (And I also figured that since we were going to the Keys with reckless abandon, who’d NEED a hood, gloves and anything more than a 3mm!)(boy was I wrong!)(but more on that later)  But 125 “diving minutes” later, I was a certified diver, and figuring that I’d probably only have a few more dives in that quarry for my Advanced Open Water, next summer.

The next six dives I did were all in the Keys, But for some odd reason I hung out with a class using a rented steel 95 from BSC and did two in August of 2005, before my next two dives in the Upper Keys after the Orange Bowl in January of 2006. After I took my Nitrox course, I went along on two dives with Jeff who was giving dives 3&4 to an Open Water student, and I learned to use a 7MM with hood and gloves because my days in the Keys seemed numbered. (and if I remember correctly, the 7MM was on sale, pretty cheap, and I thought I could do the “occasional” dive up here in the frozen North) Not too long after that, Jeff hooked me up with some guy named Rob Sullivan and his friend Rick McCann since I mentioned that I’d like to maybe start doing a few more dives at Bainbridge.  Little did I know that I’d be doing a helluva lot more dives with Rob!  (and a helluva lot more dives at Bainbridge)

I originally met Rob at Lebanon Valley’s pool while he was going through his Open Water classes, I was already certified, and Jeff said ‘come on down’ so I could do some warm up dives before I went on a Florida trip.  But this first Wednesday night at BSC was one of my original “classic” dive reports that I used to put up on the old Divers Descent website, and I think Rob still reads it occasionally when he’s had a bad day. But July 19 2006 was the first night Rob and I did a dive together at BSC and we’ve never looked back. Talk about someone that you are “comfortable” diving with, you can anticipate their next move,  you know when it’s “just not happening” and you know when it’s time to call it. And you also don’t feel bad if each other needs to call it because that’s just how it works.  (we’ve had a FEW of those! In fact I found one 12 minute dive in 2007 that just meant earlier beers!)  When I tell my wife that I’m diving with Rob (or John, or a few (very few) other names) she doesn’t worry about my well-being.

During that time besides Rob, Rick was another one who was with us a lot early on, Rick and I did a few here and there that we weren’t supposed to do, and I always remember him saying “don’t tell anyone I had you here”  before I was “advanced” certified!   Rick was one who had to move on, but we then had another guy, Lee Hansen who came along. Lee was a LT. Colonel in the US Army who was being stationed in Carlisle for some advanced military training, he found me on Scubaboard seeing my “Hershey” location and figured that since I was in Central PA, I’d know where to go.  He sent me a note and asked me if there were any places locally to dive, and if there were any good dive shops around, he needed to get his regulators serviced when he got into town.  I told him about “DDS” and Bainbridge (not to mention Dutch Springs where he pretty much became a resident on the weekends) and said I’d meet him at the shop that Saturday, I also met John Weaver for the first time there that day (who happened to be working in the shop) John’s another person who’s been around for a long time, and continues to dive with us to this day.  It seems that the last three people left in the “Scared Turtle” divers that continue to dive at BSC regularly are Rob, John and me.  Early on John would dive a lot with his daughters, but as his daughters went away to college, and did other things, he ended up with us more so than anything.  He and Rob seemed to do a lot of different dive courses together as well.  It was always fun with Rhea who made as much noise as I do down there! I remember one dive when we came back up and Rob said to me “wow, you were really burping and making a lot of noise down there tonight”, and Rhea goes “that was me!”  With a big proud smile on her face!  John’s wife Anne seems to only come to Dutch Springs with us, but I seem to remember her a few times at BSC.

A few others that I met at that time besides some of the shop principles were Frank Lynch who got “re” certified (I think “re”) about the time I was getting certified, and did a lot of diving with us,  Layne Wonica, who has apparently surfaced again for one of the recent trips, (and I ran into him about a year back at the ”Grange Fair” up near State College)  and Christopher Rosing whom I originally met in a PADI Equipment course, but started showing up on a lot of Wednesday nights, he ended up doing a whole lot of diving with us. One fun time was during my Advanced course, Christopher was there for a few of the “modules”… one of them being my search and recovery…he saw where I dropped my “object”, helped me recover it, then we just did a “fun” dive for about 20 minutes to pass the time and make it look good!

Another good regular at the time was Lee Millard.  It seemed that if I wasn’t able to dive with Rob, Lee was there, so I had a good Wednesday night crew to dive with.  One of my favorite times at the quarry with Lee was when I first got my dry suit, and Lee was ready to try his in open water (he DID try it in a pool)  But in March (which was pretty early for quarry diving at the time)  Lee and I decided to go “dust off the platforms” (his comment) and try out our suits for the first time in the quarry.  It was a fun time, and the dive report I wrote up had some funny stuff, including my feet first ascent, and our passing each other going up and down at the line!

A few years back Todd Swain started diving with us, I think I first met him on his daughters Open Water dives that I was hanging out. Not long after, he started hanging out with us on Wednesdays. He’s obviously gone crazy with the cave thing, and purchasing the rebreathers and scooters, and…ok, he wins as far as cool dive gear!

Over the years a few other people wove in and out of our crew, John Cheeseman, decided to dive with us, then went to other shops, then found other people, then stopped being affiliated with shops, but would dive with certain people occasionally. Mostly a nice person though, as is his wife Liz.   Justin was another one that was there early on, and disappeared after a while.  Lou Starzl came for several Wednesdays, but disappeared just as quickly as he appeared. Lou experienced one of the FEW dives where I was able to lead!  I did the hard part and got us to the pipeline that leads to the CAT, and he took over from there!  Ron Hivner and his lovely wife Mindy show up occasionally. It seems that the past few years Ron did a dive with Rob and me the first and LAST Wednesday nights, although this season he went with us a few more times. Mindy isn’t much of a BSC fan, but she’s taking her divemaster course and has no choice.

Here’s where I get to mention Jeff and Annette again.  I think the last time I got to talk about them was when Jeff was closing down his website and I was starting this one to post my dive reports,  and I thanked them for the help early on. Honestly, without the two of them, I probably wouldn’t have one eighth of the dives I have in the quarry, and would probably be one of those “need a refresher I’m going on a vacation where I might do four dives” kind of people.  I wouldn’t own my own cylinders, a dry suit, or even one third of the equipment that I have.  Jeff got me into the quarry, and that’s why this is a tough thing!

Other people through the years that we didn’t dive with, but saw on a fairly regular basis;  Jim Brown, who I originally met on a PA diving website while inquiring about the whole Bainbridge thing way back, before Jeff just said “ come hang out on a class, and I’ll introduce you to a few guys on Wednesday night”,  “Beanie and Cecil” (Of which we did a dive with Beanie a few Wednesday’s back since Cecil didn’t show up)  Then there's the guy that blows in, does a solo dive and gets annoyed at everyone because he left his DECO bottle on a platform, and thinks he need to do some DECO, but blows it off because he’s mad. (but we guess is OK because he just grabs his gear and leaves) The guy that gets annoyed because we all started diving doubles, and continue to dive in dry suits during the summer. And thinks we’re in over our heads (ok, we ARE diving!)  And others that are just too numerous to mention.  (mainly because my mind isn’t as sharp as it once was)(I blame the viz)

Now to the people that RAN the Quarry. Steve and Susie.  Most of the time, it seemed that Steve was puttering around doing something, either over by the barn, or on his little golf cart,  and Susie was in the shop checking creds. 99% of the time when I got there I had to hit the men’s room (due to the extreme hydrating that you’re supposed to do before diving that I did on my way to the quarry, yeah I read the books!) and Susie wanted to talk!   Not being a rude person, I usually stood there and talked to her, and was polite.  Got to know her FAIRLY well over the past 11 years, and thought that she was really a nice person. (what's funny was we were talking today and she asked me how old I was...when I told her she was amazed that I was 51!  She thought I was late 30's!   God Bless her!!!)  Steve got to know me from just seeing me, and knowing that I was one of his patrons.  We’d chit chat about different things, and he’d join the conversation when Susie and I were talking up a storm.  I always got a “Hi Ben, how are ya!?” whenever I saw him.  Great people to know, and just fun to chat with whenever you had the time. I feel bad that some people were rude as hell towards them when they announced the closing, I’m not the happiest camper about it, but when you want to retire, and you get no good buyers, what can you do!? I wish them well, nonetheless!

Anyway…a lot of great memories from me, I can only imagine what everyone else has…and the things that I forgot, forgot to mention, and the things that I’ll remember after I post this!  We can only hope that at some point the new owners realize that this place is still worthwhile for what it’s been used for over the past 30-odd years!  Things don’t look good as far as diving here in the future, but we can only hope… I just checked my stats, I did 225 dives there from August 25, 2004, until today, including my Open Water, Advanced Open Water, and Nitrox dives.  Rob and John said that they had a lot as well.

Leaving Bainbridge is like breaking up with an old easy girlfriend…she may not be the prettiest thing, but you know you’ll always get a reliable trip to the Pump House and occasionally:  A Barn Run!

 I’m gonna miss ya old girl! So long old friend, thanks for letting us blow our bubbles and make some great memories there!

My First AND Last Wednesday Night Dive....

Today I decided to get a little nostalgic....the first part is from 2006....

My FIRST Wednesday Night Dive

(This is a reprint from a story that ran on July 19, 2006)

I’ve made a commitment to myself to dive more this summer, Jeff said something like “Yeah right, I’ll believe it when I see it” and then mumbled something to the effect of “you warm water wimp” So I’m finally starting to hold up my end of the bargain. Two weeks ago, I accompanied Jeff and Matt Brown on Matt’s dive 3 & 4 of his certification where I broke in the 7mm (which has been hanging on its hook since I purchased it LAST summer…well, make that last spring, along with the hood and gloves I bought at the 2005 Splash party, to take advantage of the low low prices and friendly service you’ve come to expect at DDS) and broke in my brand spanking new Nitrox specialty! (Yeah baby VooDoo gas!) So since I had more time on my hands I checked if anyone was diving soon, and th  subject of Wednesday came up...”Alright, I’ll give it a shot!” Rent the tank, pack the dive bag (in the semi darkness of my basement due to the power outage Tuesday night) and set everything out to run to Bainbridge after work. (work never seemed so long…shame I can’t get overtime for my perception of how long the day went!) Anyway, got home, tossed everything into the car (well except the tank which was ever so GENTLY laid into the trunk) and started the rather quick drive to the quarry.

Checked in and went back to Upper A and set up my kit. I met Rick and Rob whom Jeff set me up with for the evening, and started talking dive plan. Being three of us that have followed on a lot of dives, one of us had to lead, Rob volunteered.

While setting up, Rob found that his tank sprung a leak (dang purple “O” rings!) so rather than risk a flame out on re-entry, he set off to the shop to have it repaired and his tank refilled. Rick and I cooled our heels and waited for Rob to return, which he did after making it back down the road in record time! We set up only to find Rob had another leak, this one in his dry suit inflator hose, so a quick repair and we were ready to squeeze into our wetsuits. Down the road and after a quick safety check… thumbs down and we’re off.

Rob led, and lead he did! The frustration of his equipment issues took over and I think he would have left Justin trying to catch his breath. We learned a new signal in those first 10 minutes, kind of a combination of the PennDot worker “slow down” motion and a hound dog panting. (thankfully, Rick works in Cardiology, but we didn’t need his services at depth) Rob got the message and kept it slow the rest of the dive. (Hey, I needed my cardio workout anyway!) I was afraid to look back and check if Rick was following me because my neck may have snapped from the “prop wash” coming off Rob’s fins. Rob commented later that he was at 52 feet while I was at 51, I had to stay at least a foot or two above him to avoid swimming INTO the current!

We didn’t find the Pennsy, but we did find a boat. (According to Rob we at LEAST found the quarry)

We took a short break to get our bearings and finished out the dive at around 20-25 feet, weaving in and out of the trees.

I think I made some strides with the 7mm, when we stopped I had a half decent hover happening and I didn’t shoot to the surface at all this time. (That’s a lot of neoprene to wrangle) In the “issue” dept. for me, I didn’t get to achieve, with my mask, what me, Tupperware and a Walrus have in common. (We all like a tight seal) So I was clearing my mask a lot. Other than that not a bad dive at all!

Interesting thing to note, my last 3 dives have all increased my personal depth limits by 1 foot each! (Dive one July 1st, 49 feet, dive two July 1st, 50 feet, and July 19th, 51 feet!) At this pace I’ll be ready to take my “Advanced” in approximately 30-40 dives! (mmmmm…NO!)

We packed up, went to Little Italy and munched. Now I’m on a 168 hour surface interval if the wife lets me go again next Wednesday (or unless I can get out this weekend, that is)

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

(Stats on that dive:   Duration 28 minutes, Deepest Depth 51 Feet, Coldest Temp 58º)

The LAST Wednesday Night Dive  (August 19, 2015)

Well it’s finally here.  The last Wednesday night… Hard to believe that after all of these years this is all over.  It was really fun while it lasted!  I loved the mid-week diversion that you got for those four months, and dreaded the eight month layoff when it was over and done with for the season, I can only imagine how I’ll feel now with it ending six weeks earlier, and being done for good!

A few different “shops” (dive groups, what have you) were having “farewell” tours tonight, and the Scared Turtles were right there with them!   I think we were represented almost all of the Wednesday nights by at least ONE of our members (well of the current members in good standing, that is) and tonight was John, Rob, and me out in full force!   We didn’t have as many people at Upper A, which was nice because it gave us all a better chance to mess with Ron.

The plan was once we got through the murky bowl area, to drop down and head out to the outhouse, come back towards the ledge and follow that in, come up and finish back in the bowl. Or something fun like that.

We all wandered down the steep access, and the orders for a 20 ft. bubble check were given. I was hoping that my leak from my second dive Sunday was just something I neglected to do, and it seemed like it was, so at the tree, I felt like I was dry on the inside.  “OK’s” were handed out all around, and we started on our journey.  As we started through the nothing-ness, I somehow got stuck on a tree, so the lighted “ok” wasn’t returned in time, so as I got free, I saw Rob turning, and was able to give him the “all is fine” signal.  John was going through things, and I wasn’t recognizing anything, (who could in that visibility) Rob also admitted that he didn’t see anything that he remembered. John said that once he ‘bumped’ into the pipe, he knew where he was. (knocked a little sense into him) (of direction, I guess)  I saw the pipe, so I followed John under it (well I bounced under it)  We were soon passing where the Aqua Adventures truck should be, and the signal to go down the hill was given.  We were soon alighting on the Pump House, and starting along the bottom of the wall.  The visibility here was a little better (although the fog over the 110 ft. Trench was inviting)(cue Careful with that Axe, Eugene!)(Google it Rob)  Along the bottom of the wall until the Tripod tree was in view which meant only one thing; Outhouse!  John went by and gave it a quick shake, as did Rob, a few more boards fell. I shook one of the boards, and surmised that thing is going to stay standing for the next millennium!  So I just cleaned a little dust off the top, and turned to follow the rest of the crew.  John was taking a heading, and we were soon passing the Volkswagen rock and swimming into the nothing-ness towards the wall.  Several fin kicks later, we were going past a few trees. (or through them) John took a heading and soon we were looking at the “other” Toolbox (I peeked into it) and soon the Tanker.  Passing the Tanker, John looked down into the hole and said  he saw Huck mulling about, so he gave him an “OK”, and it was returned.  We followed the ridge until we saw the line, then followed that for what seemed like a good half hour. (it really wasn’t)  We were soon at the pipes that the line was attached to, then passing the Deep Boat.  We started up the slope, and as we got nearer to the CAT John’s light went out.  I was wondering if he turned it out for some reason, but when I saw a different beam, I knew that his primary light must have somehow given up.  We took a little break at the CAT, then continued up and into the murky bowl, through the trees, and along the walls. (I bumped into a few)  A few minutes later we were at our safety stop depth, and just hanging out watching (and messing with) fish. I wonder what the fish will do when they have no one to play with?  Oh well, not my concern after this weekend.  Five minutes later we get the all clear, and we’re heading for our exit spot and we’re done!

Duration: 44 minutes

Deepest Depth: 93 feet

Coldest Temp: 36º

Other than light issues, masks leaking, getting stuck on trees, sinus issues, and cruddy viz, it was a pretty good dive overall!  I think the worst part of it is the viz in the bowl area, but the mask leaking was a common thing that we all shared, and probably the biggest annoyance. (John’s mask clearing bursts in the light was something to behold as we swam along the ledge) But there IS something about snorting quarry water that I won’t miss! Hahaha!  (ok, yeah I will!) 

After packing it up we took a drive down to PizzAtown for a beer and quick snack.    We’ll be back for one more on Saturday (well if we can get these steel cans filled up)  Then there’s some dive classes on Sunday, not sure if I’ll make it for those, but Saturday should work for me.  Hard to believe I probably only get one more in this cold dark hole.