This is how I roll (make that dive)

Here's my gear:



My Primary Regulator



My Secondary



My Tank (Free advertising for my local dive shop) I did end up using the flash in these pictures, so the tank actually is a darker shade of blue. I completely intend on strapping a smaller pony tank on this one as a extra safety measure down the road and that tank is going to be maze ;) So yes, I'll be U of M underwater as well as above!



My BC from the left



My BC from the Right



My 1st stage, note the small knob on the right



My sweet computer! The knob in the previous picture is really the transmitter to this wrist mounted computer. Very cool to eliminate a hose, not to mention the features this computer has.

There's also lots of stuff not pictured: 7mm semidry wetsuit, hood, weights, underwater lights, and a small writing board...for telling Becca no, we aren't bringing that junk back with us!

The hardest part was deciding on the BC. In the end I decided to go with the Seaquest Pro QD with i3 Technology. It was difficult because I also liked Scubapro's Knighthawk. I'm sure I would be happy with either one, but in the end it came down to the pockets. For some reason (past history) I expect to be carrying all of Becca's stuff, so it makes the most sense. The i3 Technology is interesting, unlike any other BC out there, the inflation is done by the lever on the left side of the vest. If I do one thing, it's lots of research before any major purchase. There are people that like this and there are people that hate it. Divers seem like an interesting group, there are those that embrace technology changes and there are those that think anything new is bad. I say interesting because it seems like a thermocline split, it's one way or the other. Anyway, the major gripe seems to be in a emergency situation, somebody not familiar with the BC, may not know how to inflate or deflate it. The cool thing about my setup, because I don't have a traditional octopus secondary, my secondary works just as you would expect (or like every other BC out there). So, really I have three ways to inflate my BC, i3 lever, power inflator on my secondary, and finally I could manually inflate off my secondary if I had to.

My special treat is my computer. I did have to spend some extra time deciding on this as well. Just like everything I do, logic dictated my decision. Okay, well, maybe some personal want crept in the decision process as well. For the cost of a normal dive computer connected with a cable, it was easy to subtract that cost off this computer and make the price not seem as bad. I won't even lie, there's no doubt in my mind this computer is way more advanced then I'll probably ever be. But, that's the point. I want to grow into it, instead of the opposite of getting a cheaper computer and in two years be kicking myself for not getting this one. The one feature that I think will be awesome is I can get a second transmitter and put it on Becca's tank. Then it's possible for me to keep an eye on her air as well. I think we all know that once she sees a turtle, checking her air will be the last thing on her mind!

Oh, forgot to say why all the gear was needed, especially with summer almost over. It just makes sense to take the advanced class next and I can squeeze it in this summer. This class is shorter in duration then the beginning class and it takes place in the middle of August. It continues to improve the fundamentals, but it also will allow me to dive deeper. For that, instead of diving in the shallow Gull Lake, we end up going to a quarry for this class. Figured it just made sense to have my own gear so I didn't have to rent, plus with taking the class the dive shop really gives a great package deal. Plus, if you haven't noticed, I'm geeked about getting out there and exploring! I'm already predicting that next year will be lots of shipwreck diving.

Christmas In July

I've been such a good boy this year, Santa came and visited me early! That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I'm sure I fixed his DSL, maybe gave him some invaluable computer advice, or maybe it was just because I'm such a model upstanding citizen and he just likes me. Hopefully, you weren't drinking anything as you read that, because most likely it's coming out your nose or you are choking right now because we all know better. The bottom line, my house is full of new dive equipment, and I like it! I am literally Rascal(my cat) with a house full of catnip with excitement. I want to put on all my gear and roll around in it. It's seriously, almost to that point.

Yesterday was the day. After countless hours on the internet reading reviews and forums and a couple of visits to the dive shop to physically look at gear, the decision was made that it was time to buy. If I wasn't geeked enough, I can't believe the dive shop had almost everything I wanted in stock. I walked into the store expecting to place my order and then have to deal with days of waiting, instead I was shocked when they casually starting assembling everything. I left the store with everything except gloves, they did need to order those in my size, but the did give me rental ones to tide me over. I think they half expected me to drive from the store directly to the lake. I'm excited, but come on, I have some restraint. Okay, the only reason I didn't was because it was kind of late by the time I left, otherwise I probably would have.

Are there any hobbies out there that aren't expensive? If there are, I haven't found them! I thought photography was going to my big one, diving has caught up very quickly. If there's any good news, it's that my new dive gear, I'll be set for a very long time with my only real expense being tank fills. Oh wait, I still need one more hobby...pilot! Lets see, if I get that license and I get my equipment for that hobby, the plane, then I'll be in business! Then I'd be able to not only fly to any location I want to dive, but it would also work for photography, so really that's the last piece of the puzzle ;)

Tonight, I'll work on getting pictures of my gear.

Previous Weekend Catchup

Before you the reader complains that I'm going out of order, first remember that I belonged to the slackers back in High School, it's amazing I'm still actively working on this blog! It seems like I've been so busy the past few weeks, this entry needed me to dig through thousand plus pictures! This, of course, is a weekend review of my 4th of July airshow weekend.

Last year was my first ever airshow. I knew what to expect this time around and it helped. To prove that I'm learning, last year I took every photo on action mode. It worked great, except when taking pictures of the WWII aircraft, my shutter speed was so high that it froze the plane's propellers. When looking at those pictures, they look they are toy models or at least like they should drop out of the sky because their prop has stopped, not planes in motion. I did improve on that mistake from last year. I still made some that I won't admit to this year, but lets pretend I didn't make any!

I enjoy the luck of these two shots. Maybe I'm the only one that sees it, but to me, the cloud looks exactly like the F-18 I took earlier in the day:



It was a gorgeous day for an airshow, the morning didn't have a cloud in the sky and the temps were mid 70's, perfect! This year was a special treat because I received an invite to attend a private party at the airshow. This was awesome because it gave me access to a great area to watch the show with only a handful of people. Instead of being in the mobs of people with the smelly, dirty, loud kids crawling all over me and endangering my equipment, it was open with plenty of room to stretch out and not have to worry about my stuff.


Here is a shot of the F-15 and P-51 doing the Heritage flight:


Last year I thought the airshow dragged on and on with too many stunt planes and not enough cool planes. In the end, it probably turned out to be equal with the number of jets to stunt planes as the year before, but this year I thought they did a better job of mixing the planes together. It was nice to only watch a couple of prop planes, then get jets, instead of five prop planes in a row being put to sleep. I was especially excited to see an F-15 this year. Wow, is that plane impressive.



The headliner group this year was the Thunderbirds. The Blue Angels show was great last year and I love the F-16, so I thought for sure the Thunderbird's show would be out of this world. With that setup, you know a but is coming. I really wasn't impressed with the Thunderbirds. Even though the Angels and the Thuderbirds do roughly the same routine, it just wasn't as fun for me. I can't place my finger on one thing, but the white F-16's don't look as good in the sky as the blue F-18's and I being the harsh judge that I am, the Thuderbirds weren't as precise as the Blue Angels were and finally I don't think their show lasted as long. That part was strange too, for some reason after the show ended, the Thuderbirds continued to practice, which was cool because I got more pictures, but they were doing moves they didn't do in the show. It left me feeling like we didn't get a full show and in the end left me disappointed because I always thought the Thunderbirds were better then those Navy clowns in the Blue Angels! Turns out I was wrong to ever doubt the colors of Maze and Blue of the Blue Angels (haha even got a U of M reference in with an airshow)!



The evening ended with fireworks. It seems silly saying this, especially after a day of always wanting to be closer, but I think we were too close to the fireworks. I think fireworks look so much better with an object in the frame, the best I could do was the fence I was sitting in front of. One of these years, I'll find a great spot to watch the fireworks from, yet have something interesting in the shot. Until then, these are nothing more then practice!

Even though I was a little disappointed with the show, it was fun.

Certified!

After 6 weeks, it's over! This weekend was the final step to become dive certified, the open water tests. I had dreamed of doing these tests in the teal blue, 80 degree, crystal clear water of the Caribbean swarming with colorful fish. Instead, the reality of doing my open waters in Michigan turned out to be slightly different then my dream. The water color was goose crap green (yes, I believe that is a color at Lowes), the temp was 70's on the surface and high 40's at depth, and although fish were present, they weren't colorful. Oh and one other thing, instead of the possibility of finding sunken Spanish gold from a treasure ship in the Caribbean, I was treated to the junk at the bottom of Gull Lake, like an ice shack.

The open waters consist of two dives on both Saturday and Sunday. The first dive was a follow the leader type dive. Seven of us (the two troublemakers, the twelve year olds, did theirs the day before) headed out with the instructor in the middle of us. In theory, we would all swim shoulder to shoulder on a little tour of the lake four people on one side of the instructor, three on the other. I say in theory because that's almost what it was. Coming from the pool where it's possible to see the entire length of the pool, to the lake were things about four feet could be seen, six feet the object was a blob, and anything over eight feet is invisible was quite a change. One of the guys on my side couldn't clear his ears as we started our decent. He spent almost the whole dive on the surface trying to follow us trying to get down. I can't even say what was going on the other side because I only had visibility to the instructor. The instructor was "showing" us various things on the bottom, but out of the four or five things we were suppose to see, I think I only saw two and one was because I almost ran into the railroad crossing sign! Visibility was horrible, we did make it down to 47 feet and I it was cool to feel the temperature change at the various levels. I'm glad I had a thicker wet suit on then the one I used for the pool work!

The first dive ended at something they call the platform. It looks like nothing more then a dog cage on it's side. It's just a spot to stand without sinking to the bottom and stirring up the crud, as if the visibility could get much worse. At this point we rose to the surface. Come to find out we only have six of us. We spent about five minutes on the surface looking for any signs of the other guy. He happened to be the male half of one of the couples, the wife seemed a little stressed as the minutes passed and there was no sign of him. My thought was if he got stuck on something, there's almost no way anybody would find him until it was too late based on the visibility of the water. Turns out he lost sight of our group and ended up finding another group of divers doing their open waters. It ended in the best possible scenario, but it was slightly unsettling to know even the instructor didn't realize he was missing until we surfaced.

The reason for the platform was to run through the drills of clearing our masks and regulator recoveries, and finally buddy breathing. The real point of doing them is for the first time when doing these, the safety of the pool is gone, there is no possibility of shooting to the surface in an emergency. Things went smooth and this was the end of day one.

On Sunday both dives consisted of navigating underwater. Seems strange to work on this on the very last day, but I don't make the rules. We split into two groups, I had 5 in my group. It was suppose to work almost like our first dive the day before, one person was the leader who was also the navigator. One person pulled the dive flag, and the others were suppose to stay shoulder to shoulder. In my mind, we were horrible! I took flag detail, I'm not sure what the other three people were doing, but starting out, we weren't together at all. The leader and I would stop and wait for the others to get caught up, then the waves would literally bounce me like a worm on a hook with the bobber being the flag. At one point I remember watching the instructor swim under me to get the others in line and pointed in the right direction. I thought, "okay, this is good", we'll be fine now that he's getting everyone situated. While I'm watching that, next thing I know I've got the dive line tangled all over me! I'm untangling that as fast as I can because now I'm losing site of everybody. I made it, but I really burned through a lot of air. We were suppose to end the dive with 1800 psi of air left, I finished the first dive with 1550 psi, mainly because of that goat rodeo in the beginning. It definitely wasn't pretty!

The last dive was more of the same. This time I thought we did better, it could have been better, but it wasn't as much of as a fiasco as the first time. I'm embarrassed to say it, but I have a feeling the other group with the two trouble makers did better then we did! I would much rather do these dives, especially starting out, with only two people. Five people are way to many to get everybody descending at the same rate and sticking together.

Even though I thought we did horrible as a group, this concluded our diving. Then again, we didn't come up a diver short, so in that respect I suppose we did pretty good. We packed up, headed back to the dive shop to get some pizza and finish the last step, enter our dives in our log book. My log book is officially stamped, certifying me dive. I have to wait a few days before I get my official card (hence the repeated photo on this entry).

Now, all I want is my own equipment and a couple months in the Caribbean to practice my new skills!

As the Wheel Turns

This weekend was John's visit. As you can see, it didn't take us long to get after each other. Even though I had him in an inescapable head lock, attempting to break his will to ride this foolish 35 miles, we did it anyway. More on that in a little bit.



It was really great to see John again. This visit was especially memorable because for our tune up ride, John talked Chuck into joining us. John was very responsible in getting my first job in college. I'm positive if it wasn't for Chuck, I would have got overlooked. My first interview with the director left some doubt in his mind. I was called in for a second interview, this time with Chuck to get his opinion. I'm not 100% on this, but I think the only reason Chuck gave me the thumbs up was because he liked my tie! I owe both of these two guys a lot for setting me up with a wonderful job that provided me with some great experience prior to graduating. That being said, sure I'll ride around in 80 degree heat because they think it's fun, but I think an air conditioned "thanks" in a nice restaurant is easier!

All joking aside, I was really great to enjoy a nice bike ride together. The last time the three of us biked together was the dreaded bet that started this tradition. Both times I walked away with a smile on my face, but this time the ride was actually fun!



This year's torture ride was different. We road at a nice easy pace, took plenty of breaks, and we actually road together this time. I think maturity is setting in or maybe I just like John more not, but I didn't feel the need to torture him. Turns out being nice to him, he still hurt his knee with a few miles to go on the trail. Go figure, last year I tried everything possible to break something on him, then this year I'm nice and he gets hurt. Well, we've always been different, maybe this is the sign of the times because his left knee is the causing him trouble and that's the same one I'm having trouble with. When I say I am disappointed we couldn't get more biking in...I'd be lying through my teeth!



Have you ever seen a smile this big before? Just when it seemed like this would be the first visit that didn't involve any torture, this is how John's visit ended. To set the stage we decided to go out and play some pool. By some miracle, I played the best pool I ever played, winning all four games we played. I was riding the high cloud, life was great! I should have stopped while I was ahead! On John's last visit, we played some games at the local arcade type place. He won some, I happened to rule the air hockey table. Well, this year it was decided we would have a rematch in air hockey. Against my better judgment to walk away with my pool victories, I couldn't pass up also holding the air hockey title. I got the first game...then the last game of the night, John got me. Hence the mile wide smile.



There's the final, now I have to wait another year to get my revenge! Just when I thought this year was mine, John got the final laugh with a 7 to 6 win. I'm counting the days until the wheel comes around and we get to do it again!

Last Dive Class

No class work tonight, because it was test night! Mommy Becca was after me all day to study. I'm not sure exactly how many evil eyes or questionable growls I received today, even though I explained how every time she checked on me, I happened to be on a break. All the times she didn't come check on me, I was studying! I'm slightly embarrassed, I probably should have studied more. I barely passed with a 97%! Okay, it was pretty easy, though I am slightly embarrassed I missed three. One was a trick question, one I should have known and didn't think about it enough, and the last was a blind guess (I definitely never read that answer in the book...but I have to be honest towards the end, I skipped around in the book).

The pool work tonight felt more like work. I've reached the point where the pool isn't fun and I'd much rather be in the clear waters of the Caribbean chasing fish! The first drill was standing on the edge of the pool with fins and mask straps around your left arm while holding your scuba tank in the same hand, then taking a giant stride off the edge of the pool yelling "Naui" and sinking to the bottom of and putting all your gear on. I'm sure yelling "Naui" was the most important step. I can't help but wonder if this is really training for if you happen to fall overboard while on the dive boat, on the off chance you happen to be holding all of your gear.

The second challenge was going to the deep end with everybody, removing the tank and vest and slowly one by one the instructor would inflate one of the vests sending the tank to the surface and requiring us to share air. The two trouble makers (the twelve year olds), didn't last too long, but the eight of us stayed down with only three tanks. I would have liked to see us try with only two, but I guess we did good enough because the instructor called it a day at that point.

Just have the open water dives next weekend and I'll have a shiny new dive card!