travel blog - the last dive

what an exciting week of diving it was
the day before
murray, nick and i
had achieved our goal of die-coreness
that was the 15th of january, the saturday
sunday was to be an easy day
as we were one of the only groups diving saturday and sunday
keeping our boat crew from having their days of rest
rocky and daren are great guys!
sunday was planned to be a desat day
that´s desaturation for those that don´t know
and tho our computers would easily clear us for flying
and allow us to do 2 or 3 dives
we all decided to take it easy
and end the week on a great note
at our favourite site
mary´s place
one dive
long and deep
that was the plan
everyone made it
i must say
as far as fun goes
that had to be the funnest dive of all
we had all gotten used to the routine by then
we´d all dove the place at least once before
and most of us twice
jumping into the water
we went off in any which way
and explored the chasms and swim throughs in ones and twos
i hit 120 feet early on
swam through the deepest parts of the trenches
and then slowly came up
playing at different levels to give my body time to adjust to the changes in depth
in a nice easy manner
i noticed off to the side of a trench
on top of the wall
erin, mikayla and nick
were engaged in some weird game
where nick had managed to get one of mikayla´s fins off
and was teasing her with it
it was quite funny
and looked harmless enough
so i let it be
and drifted about looking for critters
at one point
i saw a large king crab in a hole
and signalled for a nearby diver to come check it out
norm 1 came and took a photo
but not in the direction where i knew the crab was
confused,
i swam over and noticed an even larger crab
right beneath the other one, at a different angle
which was what he had photographed
very very cool
at that point
erin swam over
and right in my ear
i heard
an ominous sound
the sound of a breath
i twitched
and glanced upwards
and there was daren
floating innocently off angle
looking in a different direction
i KNEW however
that it was all an act
and that he was likely messing with me
i quickly checked my tank
and found that the air had turned 2.5 turns towards the off position
sneaky bastard =) hehhee
i pretended to see him and signalled that there was a huge crab beneath me
i got to say this
he was GOOD
he didn´t once smirk, smile or in any way show
that he had been messing with me
then he went on
to point the crab out to a few more divers swimming by
during which time
i managed six turns on his tank
before i slipped a bit
and i think he may have seen my fin out of the top corner of his mask
i was floating upside down
directly above him =P
the game went on
but now i was aware
that i was being stalked
and he wasn´t able to sneak up that close on me again
and mess with my air
at one point
i turned and saw him very close
and knew i had caught him in the act
he quickly grabbed my power inflator
and tried to inflate my air cells
to which i promptly responded
by hitting the purge valve
of the regulator in his mouth
shooting a blast of air down his throat
we both fell away laughing
and i shook my finger at him
saying he was a naughty boy
with a grin on my face the whole time
i guess daren got tired of trying to sneak up on me
later he told me
that he had tried 4 times
but after the first one
i was too wary
so he clamped down onto my tank from behind
and tried to manhandle me
i turned left and right quickly
but he was too good
and i couldn´t get him off my back
so in a flash
i reach straight back
and ripped the regulator out of his mouth
at which time
it started freeflowing like mad
it also caused him to let go of my tank
and stop trying to turn my air off
my cackle of success quickly faded
when i realized that he couldn´t stop his reg from freeflowing
i figured the diaphragm had flipped and was stuck or something
he signalled to me to turn his air off
i knew immediately what he wanted
... see if we could get the diaphragm to reseat itself
without the pressure of the air messing it up
i turned his air off and back on
but to no avail
it was messed up big time
i offered him my air
but he shrugged away
and stripped out of his scuba unit so fast
you had to see it to believe it
he attempted to fix it himself a couple times
air on
air off
purge, block, flip
nothing worked
i could see him grinning the whole time
shaking his head
finally he went up towards the surface
we had been down deep and long...
maybe 45 minutes by then
but he went up calmly
turning the air on to take a breath
and shutting it off again to conserve air in the tank
i felt a tiny bit bad
but then
he was the one that started it
and it was really quite funny still
the messing around
got pretty crazy down there
people inflating bcs
and unstrapping tanks
all over one of the best dive sites on the entire island
it was an amazing dive
and we had alot of fun
i caught a couple of the ´kids´ trying to mess around with me
but i did not retaliate
because i knew we had been down deep and long
and i seriously wanted to keep it fun
and i knew they weren´t quite ready to match me just yet...
tho in the future... hehehee =)
i just shook my finger at them and grinned
and let them go for another try
that dive was the only dive
where i came up with 500psi in my tank
usually i came up with between 1500 and 2000
most of it was lost
laughing at people
and having my bc inflated at depth
at one point
i had an eerie feeling
and spun around quickly
lo and behold
there was daren
at 42 feet
with no scuba unit
he had come in breath-hold
and in stealth mode
silent and quick
with just his mask and fins
for one more try
at my air tank
i laughed at him and offered him my reg
but he just shook his head
and swam back to the surface
a HECK of a lot of fun!!!
and a great way to end the week of diving
spirits were high
and the sun came out
everyone was in a playful mood
and it felt like one big happy family
to end this blog on a truthful note
after telling the ¨kids¨ why i didn´t retaliate
they finally fessed up to what they had been doing all week
someone apparently had put buns into my bcd
but that didn´t work in attracting fish to me
then one of them actually had managed
to tie a bun to a string
and stick that string on my tank
while i was diving
earlier in the week
i even remember seeing the string floating loose afterwards
and never once knew
i had a bun on a string floating above my head
kudos to erin
for figuring out to come in breath-hold silent
and watching her depth so she didn´t pop a lung
and loop it on lightly
so i wouldn´t feel it happening
i cannot wait now
for the next time
i get to dive with her
GRIN!
hehehee