No Winter Diving for You!

OK, the last time I was able to get out and into the water was December 20 which was the last day of Fall. Today was technically the first FULL day of Spring?  So the Winter Dive Nazi’s decided to not allow me any winter dives!   (ok, I can’t TOTALLY blame the Winter Dive Nazi because right around the holidaze, my mother in law got that nasty flu, and my wife and I were pretty busy running between Hummelstown and the Wilkes-Barre area to see her in the hospital, and take care of other family affairs for her…then when she got out, we “re-celebrated” the Christmas Holiday with her, which happened to be the weekend that Rob and John went out, the next weekend was when the quarry froze over, and apparently there was still a nice chunk of ice on top of the bowl as of Thursday, so we were holding our breath (which is a no-no for divers) to see if the ice melted…it DID and we were able to dive this weekend!

Since this was my first dive of the year, I had to get my membership fees taken care of for 2015, so since I had a little business in the Middletown area on Saturday, I figured I’d take a quick run down and drop off my money. I also wanted to see what the construction was that a few friends of mine were talking about down near where the Giant Market is located, so I killed a few birds with one stone on that trip.  On my way down to the quarry, I noticed a sign that I THOUGHT might have said “Conoy Township is NOT a Gun Free Zone”  But I wasn’t sure, and since I would be driving back there today, I made sure to look…IT DID, and has apparently been on even the NATIONAL news… (I’m oblivious to most things, so I missed it) 

I was able to get up pretty early with the excitement of getting back out diving after a three month (and two day) lay off. I was meeting a friend for dinner last night, and as I was leaving, I put my doubles in the back of my car, only to stop myself with the rest of the gear thinking “you’re parking it in a public place, and it’s probably not a great idea to leave X-amount worth of dive gear in the parking lot of a bar/restaurant where people would be drinking a lot because it IS College Basketball Playoff time!   So I waited until I got back home to load the rest of it and did it fairly quickly…then worried most of the way down because I didn’t make sure everything was in the car this morning…thankfully it was, and it wasn’t long before I was worrying if I’d remember how to assemble it, and that everything worked after such a long layoff. 

As I assembled everything, I double checked that it went where it was supposed to go.  I also had to analyze my breathing gas, so I put my regulators on my tanks, then turned them on and calibrated my analyzer. As I was analyzing, my primary regulator started to trickle a little, so I asked Rob (who does annual service on them) to give them a quick look.  He made an adjustment, and we tried it again. Same thing so after the third adjustment, he said “use your back ups and bring this over to the shop tomorrow when you come to get your fill”  So I used my Zeagle primary after swapping the transmitter between first stages. 

Since it was our first dive of the year together, and we figured that the visibility would be decent, but we pretty much kept our options open for where to go. However, with the amount of people out today, we had a feeling that the “pristine visibility” (well pristine for this quarry) that we THOUGHT would be there would be a little kicked up, so Rob had his plan, back up, and contingency in his mind.  I was just worried about things not working right, or forgetting how to do this after a three month (and two day) lay off!  We dropped in from the steep access, and met at the 20 ft. tree to check for bubbles, we continued on and swam through the trees past the Dolphin Tower, and over to the pipe.  We followed that until we saw the CAT, but saw someone coming up the hill in front of the CAT just kicking the living crap out of the viz, so Rob opted to go a little more towards the right, and down the steeper part of the hill to the Deep Boat.  At the Deep Boat, he continued a little more to the right, and we soon found the line that goes to the debris pile that was a building, and followed that (well not until Rob gave me Hell for kicking up my own little spot as I reached the bottom of the hill, he was just mad the other guy screwed up his original plan)  We followed the line, and we were soon staring at the debris pile, and the tool box.  We checked in, and followed between the tool box and Step Van, and swam along the ridge back to the pipe, then started up the slope.  We were both starting to get a little cold (my right hand was freezing, at this point I figured that I had a slight leak, since I couldn’t warm it up)  so we followed the ridge out to where the Aqua Adventures Truck is located, then around the back and through the trees, past the crane arm, and the boats, and took our safety stop amongst the algae.  Both of us got leg cramps at this point (In the same upper part of the leg) so we did our own job of kicking things up at that point.  We both settled into our spots, and finished our stop.  When we were done, we exchanged OK’s and made our way to the exit, and finished our dive.

Duration: 39 minutes

Deepest Depth: 93 feet

Coldest Temp: 35º

Not too bad for the first time out in a while, a few minor adjustments needed, and I have to make sure that my glove doesn’t have a hole in it (it doesn’t I filled it with water and it didn’t leak…I have a few other options…besides just not screwing the glove on correctly)  When we got out of the water, John and Ron were about to dive, but Ron had a catastrophic hose failure, so Rob loaned him his set of primary regulars, so he would be able to dive. They were still in the water by the time we finished packing and headed to lunch, so we guess they had a decent dive…(other reports would be nice...hint hint)

After we packed we went to PizzAtown for a sandwich and a beer.  I won’t be in the water next weekend since I’ll be in Secaucus for Beneath the Sea, but there’s always that possibility we’ll be out the following weekend (well on Saturday, since Sunday is Easter)  I’ll keep ya posted.

Ok, 2015 is off to a great (and late) start, just a few short months until Wednesday night diving, can’t wait! 

Just the Two of Us…..

I put the call out to see if anyone wanted to join us today, and no takers…One is just getting back from somewhere warm, another is still somewhere warm, so no one in our little group wanted to join us… In fact NO ONE wanted to join Rob and me, we were the only ones that were at the quarry today!  I was the first on the sign in sheet, Rob was second, and no one was there when we were finished… I guess everyone is out finishing up their Christmas shopping!  (heck, I haven’t even started!) 

Today is the last day of Fall, so why not celebrate it by doing a dive! After last week’s adventure, I mentioned to Rob that this weekend was probably free, so we decided to keep it open.  A few personal things happened, but the logistics worked out that I was able to get back into town, and get one in.  Rob suggested putting a notice up that we were going, but no one bit, so it was just us. Since the visibility was pretty decent in spots last week, Rob decided to bring along his GoPro and do some filming.  We had no plan in order so it was just a follow the leader sort of thing, and since I navigate as well as I ballet dance, Rob did the leading.

We dropped in from the steep access, which is getting shallower by the minute, and met at the 20ft. tree to see if anything weird was leaking.  All bubbles were intentional, so we kept going. First past the boat where the Fuzzy Caterpillar used to hang out (didn’t see where he ended up) and through the trees past the Pennsy and the Dolphin Tower over to the pipeline.  We took a slight left at the pipeline, and headed towards the CAT.  Since the visibility is pretty darn decent, I was able to see that just to the right of the CAT there’s a deep drop off, and it’s not just a foggy area. I don’t recall if I knew that, I’ll have to root through some old reports from this time of the year, but it looked pretty cool from my vantage point.  We looked at eash other at the CAT, and kept going towards the Deep Boat.  At the Deep Boat, Rob pointed towards the back wall, and I agreed, so we swam towards that past some of the usual landmarks (The board, a few trees). At the wall we started left, and followed that over the 110ft. trench,  past the Pump House and over the rocks.  The visibility was pretty foggy, so we think we missed the Tripod Tree and the Outhouse, so Rob pointed back in.  Back over the rocks, and along the bottom of the wall, we must have swam below the Pump House, so Rob started up the hill next to the telephone pole.  It’s ironic that I saw the deep part to the right of the CAT earlier because that’s where we ended up at the top of our ascent, right next to the CAT. Rob turned left again, and we were soon at the Aqua Adventures Truck.  Rob decided to swim through it (to film, I’m guessing) I opted to meet him at the back end.  When he got through, he looked at me and gave me the signal to go over the wall, (I knew he wanted to film over there) so I agreed, and we headed over to the wall to do a quick safety stop.  After the safety stop, we swam over the road, which is a lot shallower due to the decreased depth of the entire quarry, and popped into the Lagoon (where an ice cream headache was re-established)  We swam over the building debris, and past a boat over to where the pipeline is located.  Rob swam through first, and I followed, noticing the pile of shells on the bottom of it.  Out of the pipe and around past the boat, we headed to the wall.  At the road again, we popped back over into the bowl. Just as I was attempting to descend, and started descending, I got a cramp in my leg and had to dump air from my suit since I just put a little bit in and surfaced.  Cramp gone, and back to 15ft. we swam along the road to our exit point, and we were done! 

Duration: 44 minutes

Deepest Depth: 91ft.

Coldest Temp: 37º (still warmer than the air!)

A nice dive to end Fall!  Barring the cramp at the end, and my foot giving me a little cramping issue early in the dive, I think it was a pretty darn good dive to (possibly) end the year!  (27^th & 28^th are still in play for 2014)  This week’s air temperatures were a little colder than last weekend, but there was no wind this week, so it felt better. (I also brought a hand warmer, and activated it before we got in the water, so it was working when we got out…THAT helped a lot!)  It was still hard to believe that no one else showed up while we were in the water, I can’t honestly remember a time when we were the only two people there for the whole duration.

We packed our gear and headed to PizzAtown for a quick lunch.  Probably getting a fill Monday night, and discussing if we’re going to try to sneak one in after the Christmas Holiday, and then work on the New Years Day adventure!   Tough to believe that it’s that part of the year again, it didn’t seem like a long time ago when we were doing the New Years Day dive in 2014! 

Hope to see you all again, soon!  Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!   I hope you and your families have a great holiday!     See you next time!

Baby it’s Cold Outside!

December is a strange month. Remembering back to my childhood, December ALWAYS had lots of snow, and was cold, and you just didn’t go swimming.  Now that I’m older, and the bones are creakier, getting into the water in the North is just an everyday thing, and nothing to think twice about doing. However, due to circumstances beyond my control (The Penn State Football schedule, and my wife) I haven’t been able to get out diving as much as I’d like to be. Looking at my dive log, the last three dives I logged were November 2nd, September 24^th, and today.  With that sort of record in mind, you can imagine that things were rusty.   We tried last Saturday, but Rob was having some sinus/cold issues, so it just didn’t happen, so when this weekend broke free, the opportunity was a good one!

I was at my usual table at Upper A, setting my gear up (well trying to remember how to set my gear up) and John pulled, up, followed shortly by Rob.  As I put my regulators on my cylinders, and turned on my air, I heard a leak, and thought “not again” but this time it seemed to be a hose issue as opposed to a first stage issue. It was soon remedied by swapping hoses with another set of regulators I had along. Good to have back-ups!  Getting everything ready was a testament to our love of this activity, we were COLD!   No doubt about it, and the thought that we were jumping into water, just made it that much more appealing.  Standing in the same spot in July, in intense heat and humidity is another testament to our love for this activity, and trying to decide which scenario is the better of the two is a tough choice….ask me in July!

Once we were all put together, gas tested, and dry suits zipped, we made our way to the water.  No serious dive plan was planned, but a quick route of,  Cat, Deep Boat, Step Van, Outhouse, etc. was agreed upon, and thumbs down was the next move.  Knowing that I was a little rusty, I was overly cautious with my descent, and seemed to make it to 25 ft. as opposed to 20. John checked in with me, and I was OK, Rob looked over and gave me the OK sign, and we were ready to go.  Past the one boat, and through the trees, we were soon passing the pipe with the yellow cage on it and staring at the back of the CAT. At the CAT we all looked at each other, and everything seemed fine, so we kept going.  Soon we were at the bottom of the hill and at the Deep Boat.  John eyed up the line, and we were following that.  As usual I was a bottom dweller, and was able to keep the line well in view.  When we got to the Step Van, I saw John “convulsing” and thought “cramp!”, so I just held on to the tool box, and waited him out. Rob was fiddling with his compass, and between the two of them appeared to be formulating our next move. (little did I know that Rob wasn’t able to really see his compass due to a lens in his mask moving, and the small numbers on his compass)  We were soon following the bottom, (I was ON the bottom, and even taking some of it with me) and arriving at the tripod tree, then making a slight maneuver to the Outhouse.  At the Outhouse, we all checked in, and turned and followed back along the bottom of the wall.  I was SOOOO tempted to slide into the fog of the 110’ Trench, but decided that it wouldn’t be a great idea, and stayed close to John and Rob.  We were at the Pump House, and I could see that the Lobster was about ready to put up his Christmas tree, since the Christmas tree stand was sitting on the edge of the little building.  At this point we started up the slope, and to the Aqua Adventures Truck. John penetrated, and Rob and I went around back.  After John made it though, we started along the line out to the CAT, and did a deep stop of sorts.  At the CAT, we started over towards the wall, and followed that for a few minutes.  Next thing you know Rob was looking at me and signaling “20” for a safety stop. So I slid up to 20 ft. so my computer started the countdown.  The next five minutes, I was playing a game of yo-yo, and glad I wasn’t breathing oxygen since I was sitting at 28 ft. at one point. John looked at me and asked how long I had, and I still had two minutes. Rob looked like he had one.  After another minute or so, we started over the wall and into the clear Lagoon. (although I experienced my first “Ice cream headache” of the day, it was COLD in there!) Along the bottom, and over one of the collapsed buildings to the boats, and what was probably the clearest I ever saw of the pipe.  We swam through the pipe, then around the boat, and back along the wall, where we popped back over the road.  Along the wall again on that side, and we were at the exit point and finished.

Duration: 49 minutes

Deepest Depth:  95ft.

Coldest Temp: 37º

After a long layoff, not a horrible dive, but much room for improvement.  I stayed too close to the bottom for most of the dive, and hit once or twice, and I couldn’t hold a safety stop to save my sorry butt! But otherwise, I felt pretty good, almost like riding a bike!   Tearing things apart on the surface was pure Hell since it was really cold.  At this point I will admit that the heat and humidity of July are a better option, I can always get cooler, but not warmer. (note to self, bring the chemical hand warmers for post-dive if we get out next weekend)  After a clumsy (due to gloves) tear down, we quickly retired to PizzAtown for a much needed lunch. (and those two cold Mad Elf’s went down like nothing!)

Ok, as usual things to continue to work on, but otherwise a pretty good dive after such a long layoff.  As I said, hopefully next weekend cooperates and we can do this again!  Not a lot of time left in this year!  Quarry fees didn’t change for 2015, so that’s a good thing!  See you soon!

Missed it by THAT much!

November 2^nd! I didn’t get to dive in October.  I have this odd personal goal to try to dive 12 months consecutively, and I still haven’t been able to do it.  Oh, I’ve done at least one dive in each month, but never for 12 consecutive months…. This year we got messed up with the ice in February, so that messed up the last one, now, I missed October, so….back to the drawing board…at least if February gives us a Frozen quarry, I won’t be QUITE as upset as I was last year…ok…Let it go….

This time of year is mixed for me, I’m happy that the college football season is here, and that I still have season tickets to Penn State, but the weekends are funky in regards to when I can get out and dive.  Depending upon the schedule, I can sometimes, come home after a game, get a good night’s sleep, then get up and go in the morning, but this season has been kind of crazy (and add in that we are going to two away games, doesn’t help get me out diving)  The Wednesday night season is over, and until the clocks change, why NOT keep the Wednesday nights open…. On October  1^st I sat in my living room, at about 5:30pm and thought “there’s no reason we couldn’t be diving tonight”  Anyway...enough of my complaining… I WAS able to get to a game yesterday, and out today!

I shot a note to Rob earlier in the week, and we decided that we’d talk about it again on Saturday.  After the game, I called him, and he was still willing to go. John was also in the mix so we had a little group.  I had to miss the Columbus Day dives due to one of the aforementioned away games, but now I was back in the mix.  This is also the end of Daylight Savings Time, so that extra hour of sleep helped!

We were meeting at 11:00am.  I looked outside when I did wake up, and saw that it was blustery, might make for some fun setting up, but I knew I wouldn’t sweat my buns off getting into my dry suit. (And Susie said that a few people that were out yesterday said that the water was warmer than the air.)  My Dive Rite regulators were in for their service, and hopefully to fix a leaking issue, so Rob texted me and said that they were ready, and he’d bring them today so we could test them, and make any adjustments tomorrow night if necessary. (I just had to put my transmitter on, and the clips) 

We sort of formulated a plan once we got down to the water, John ran it by us, and it seemed to be a good one. (And I’m sure I’ll mess it up since we covered a LOT of ground…so correct me if I’m wrong)  Down to 20ft. for the bubble check. (well after I wet breathed the regs and made sure they were fine in those respects)(safety first!)  We got to the tree, and no errant bubbles to speak of from anyone (Rob serviced his this week as well) and we were off!   We followed John past some of the trees, and over the boats past the Pennsy until we hit the pipe, and started down past the CAT.  We looked at each other, and things still seemed fine, so we continued down to the Deep Boat.  Another quick glance, and we were soon swimming over the 110 ft. trench and out towards the Outhouse. There was a lot of swirly stuff on the bottom (Cue the Pink Floyd music) and it was neat to swim through, but I had to focus and keep an eye on John and Rob, so I didn’t lose them.  Over the rocks, and soon someone saw the Tripod tree, and we were at the Outhouse.  After checking in again, John took a heading, and we were headed out to the Step Van.  A few fin kicks later, and there was the rubble from a building, and the Step Van.  Next up was back out towards the Deep Boat, then past it and over the hill down towards the pump control building.  The visibility was pretty crappy there, so no use in going down any further.  Back towards the CAT, then along the ridge over to the wall. We passed over the pretzel jug on a stick, and were soon at the wall and making a left.  We followed the wall for a while, and we ended up just below the Aqua Adventures truck. John went through it, Rob went over it, and I went around it.  We met at the back, then followed through the trees out to the wall. Once we passed the boat with the fuzzy caterpillar on it, we started up to our safety stop.  Five (and a half) minutes later we were headed out and back to our exit point.

Deepest Depth: 94 ft.

Duration: 48 minutes

Coldest Temp: 37º

Not a horrible dive for being out of the water for over a month, but a few little things went “wonky” for me.  Down at depth, I couldn’t seem to get back off of the bottom, when I did, I got a little floaty, and was afraid I was going to do a feet first ascent, probably just an out of practice thing, but always a concern, when I’m not THAT comfortable. (well and narced)  But no mishaps to speak of, really.  Regulators breathed fine, and it good to have the Dive Rites back! Both John and Rob did work on them, and they did a great job, thanks guys!  Rob’s seemed to work fine for him, so nothing equipment related went wrong, and we made it back in one piece, so that was a good thing!

The weather was still cold and windy, so putting everything away was a challenge (and I cut my finger on something so it was a challenge trying not to get blood all over everything)  After we were done packing, we decided that lunch was in order, and since PizzAtown was on our way home, we decided to stop!  (and have a cold beer as well)

Can’t say when I’ll be back in the water, another away game next weekend, then a home game that we don’t know the time yet.  November 22^nd is another away game that I won’t be attending so there’s a possible weekend (well unless the Mrs. decides we should go out of town, then…bummer!)  (well unless it includes a winery or brewery…)

See you next time!