Midweek TWEEK!!!

[ljjames]

tomorrow (wednesday), cove 2, 7pm arrival time!

[bfann]

I'll be there with my new long hose! (Watching the speed and ease of that s-drill Guy and Lamont did definitely convinced me this is the way I want to go.)

[cardiver]

tomorrow (wednesday), cove 2, 7pm arrival time!

Arghh! Wasting that beautiful slack on Cove 2?

[Norris]

RIGHT??? Its going to be AWESOME tomorrow!

[LCF]

I'll be there. I do want somebody to do S-drills with me -- I've gotten EXTREMELY rusty.

[renoun]

I'm heading down tonight if I don't get thwarted by Mariners post-game traffic. If there are any spare can lights kicking around I would be happy to use one.

[LCF]

I'll bring a couple of spare lights.

[ljjames]

Despite the weather we had a great time at our Midweek tweek!!!!! We had divers new and old to the group attend, it was great to see all the new/old/regular faces! Group 1 went out to do some skills and drills, ascent drills, S-drills, etc... Group 2 went out to work on water comfort, buddy/light placement, neutral buoyancy, and night diving... (so as you can surmise, truly ALL levels of diver are welcome, there is a place for everyone)

I think the best part of my dive was watching my new buddy's global awareness start to open up. going from focused completely on inflater and buoyancy to looking around, being aware of team placement, and being, quite simply "there" as a buddy team-mate as opposed to someone I was 'taking' for a dive. I LOVE it when everything clicks and you get to see the moment of learning... it makes it 200% worth it. As a reward, for both my new buddy and Larry who was along as my co-mentor second set of eyes, after telling them we'd basically just swim around in circles over the mud, we actually went to see the shallow Octo in the rock pile (only one home) which pleased BOTH of them greatly... A surprise OCTO!!!! YAY!!!!!

Anyhow, THANK you all again for attending, it's y'all that make these dives worth it!

Sorry Lynne about keeping you awake with the hot coco and brownies

[lamont]

Group 1 went out to do some skills and drills, ascent drills, S-drills, etc...

We went out to the can buoy and I introduced them to timed descent/ascent drills. These are used to practice deco stops and timing moving through the water column, and they're just good precision buoyancy control drills since you're moving through the water column quite a bit and don't have too long to get comfortable in your drysuit before moving to the next level. Then we did a free descent almost straight onto the octo and checked it out. Also found a *huge* gunnel that was about a foot long at least. Swam upslope to about 20 feet and then did 2 s-drills (out-of-air drills) and then hit the surface.

[LCF]

Ross and I had the perfect training dive -- a great mixture of skills practice and sightseeing. Mask skills in midwater, S-drills and bag shooting . . . and then an impromptu practice of search and recovery, as I went down to find Ross's lost fin! (And found it, thanks to his quick thinking in dropping his spool when the fin came off.) And in between, a swimming octopus, several lovely decorated warbonnets, an assortment of nudibranchs and two Red Irish Lords.

And then, to be met in the parking lot with steaming hot cocoa -- not "sort of hot after a couple of hours in the thermos" cocoa, but FRESHLY MADE, and with marshmallows to boot! And Laura, never apologize for providing chocolate. I knew that brownie was not compatible with a good night's sleep, and I ate it anyway . . .

Come to the dark side -- we have BROWNIES!

[disappearinjon]

Nice to run into everybody and say hi, look forward to diving with y'all sometime soon (when I'm not waiting on a no-show buddy, I'm not chilly before I put my wetsuit on, and when my mother's not in the hospital...)

[bfann]

Thanks to everybody for a great dive last night!

Special thanks to Lynne who loaned me a great can light, Laura for the brownies and hot chocolate and Lamont for leading us through ascent/ descent drills and making sure I didn't kill myself during my first s-drill with a long hose. Can't wait for next week!

-Brian