Desperate to dive with the new O2 Clean Cylinders that I bought from NikNaks and happy I have my own dive gear again I arranged to go out with Cumbernauld Sub Aqua for an easy shore dive and also through DIR Explorers I had arranged to meet up with Iain Smith.
I met up with Stew, Annie, Billy, Stevie & Tony at the Tryst car park in Cumbernauld at the rather lackadaisical time of 8am oh how we love long lie ins on a Sunday.
Off we headed to the Pitstop for the obligatory healthy breakfast 
, not far from the Pitstop the police found an Unidentified Flying Subaru in the bushes….
Davey Muir turned up wearing a new special prototype FiLth Element Dive undersuit.
The special lilac colour ensures that your core temperature stays warm as it frightens the blood away from your legs ensuring circulation where you need it most but not to your head obviously, more than one brain cell in this creature would create cramped living conditions.
After a short discussion around what site to use for today we selected the ever popular Conger Alley, it’s about now I start feeling really sorry for Iain, the poor bloke has not long returned from a G U E Cave1 course in Mexico and here I am taking him into cold, dark, lifeless & don’t forget miserable Loch Long.
Iain spends a long time with me helping setting up my harness and discussing the reasons behind the adjustments, The one piece harness goes on much easier today than it did with my own attempts at adjustment, With the cylinders bolted on tightly, the drysuit on and all ready to go, we watch everybody else surface from their first dive, did it really take us that long to fettle my harness?
We discuss in detail the valve drill and Iain offers to demonstrate to me when we are in the water and that we would launch our dsmb’s at the end of the dive, Iain shakes his head at my use of a transmitter for an SPG, and advises I should reverse my first stage configuration to ensure the diaphragm is protected on the inside of the rig, I vow to change the first stages although at this point I like my transmitter keeping an eye on my gas for later analysis.
We receive a few comments as predicted from other divers regarding the amount of time we have spent adjusting and at this point we decide its about time we got wet in the salty stuff.
Iain quickly runs through G U E EDGE briefing / pre dive checks and we agree to a dive plan, run time, maximum depth, average depth, we discuss the environment and the site.
We enter the water and do kit matching, essentially checking our configurations.
We head out to the six metre point, at which point Iain signals that I have to watch and he will demonstrate the valve drill, he moves his torch from side to side while simultaneously reaching back and shutting down his right post, breathing his reg down the switching to his backup reg. Iain then demonstrates the isolation manifold drill and the left post drill, while maintaining perfect buoyancy control, Just trying to watch Iain I manage to plough a furrow in the silt, nearly manage to bounce off him and this is while I do nothing but watch. I have a long way to go…..
I do not take Iain up on the offer of watching me do a shut down drill, however I do experiment a little and can reach my right post, my isolation valve and with difficulty I can reach my left post, This is going to need plenty of practice!
After I bury my head in the silt once again we decide to head off and explore the reef, I am leading the dive and continue ahead, we signal all ok and I navigate my way to the reef.
There are a few tube worms, some small queen scallops, some large edible crabs, a couple of conger eels, a Balan Wrasse and a female Cuckoo Wrasse. the usual Loch Long life.
We slowly work our way up the reef coming more into the green zone from the sheer darkness down at the twenty metre mark.
My hands are getting cold again, I need to invest in warmer gloves, the water is between 9oC and at its coldest around 7oC.
On our ascent we do one minute at nine metres, one at six metres and one at three metres however in reality we spend more time at around five metres due to launching the dsmb’s, Iain doing it perfectly and me doing it not so well.
After a enjoyable 53 minute dive and on the surface swim back I get tangled in some kelp, get tired and get annoyed at myself, I really feel the cold now.
I am too cold to do a second dive, so pack my kit and off we all head to the Village Inn back at Arrochar for some soup and some deco juice.
The Dive Profile:
Gas Use: EAN32
Stats: Dive 237 Max depth 21.9 Metres, SAC 15.2 Litres per minute, Weight 5KG (over weighted), Run time : 53 Minutes
Enjoyed myself and learned a fair bit, it was good to see somebody in the water that has done the training I am trying to embark on, it was also good to catch up with the CUSAC bunch and meet a new dive buddy for the future.
Diving Rocks!
Davie.
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