Diving Thoughts

On 24 Jan 2010, I went out with Hong Kong Underwater Club. The boat left from Tso Wo Hang up near Sai Kung at 09:30. I have to admit that I wasn’t feeling 100% after a fairly late night involving an excellent curry and one or two more beers than were perhaps strictly necessary. But the tanks were delivered to Mr. Chan’s junk by speedboat, and then we were off. Bruce the DM has chosen Basalt Island as the first dive site in the hope it would be sheltered. When we got there there was quite a swell running and the visibility wasn’t looking all that inspiring. To make matters worse, he’d put me on the 2nd wave, which I try and avoid at all costs. Like SCDC, HKUC do their diving in two waves or flights, to ensure that there is always cover available in the event of a problem. So if you’re on second wave you have the luxury of more time to get ready before you need to dive as you can start kitting up once the first wave go into the water. Many people see this as an advantage, but I prefer to have more time to sort my gear out after I’ve finished diving, so I can relax on the way home. Consequently it must be about 5 years since I’ve been on the second wave. So after roundly abusing Bruce for that decision, I went to sleep for an hour.

I woke up to find we’d arrived and the first divers were regarding the water with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. This seemed to be justified when Lucy came back with ear trouble and told the rest of us just how bad the visibility was. The trouble was that the deeper you went the worse the vis was, but the shallower you were the worse the surge was. Mike reckoned that 10 metres was the optimal depth.

Rita and I started kitting up, and we had a reprise of the getting into the drysuit hilarity that she pioneered 2 weeks earlier. This time it did seem to be slightly easier, but the neck seal didn’t seem to seal very well on her neck. Although she was OK unless she looked down. Anyway we finally got kitted up separately. She was inside getting help from anyone who was there. I was at the front of the boat. So once I’d got myself sorted out, why wasn’t I helping? Because I was diving independent twins, and I found it really difficult to get through the doors into the main cabin area. Instead I waited for her to put in an appearance so we could do a buddy check.

This week I’d dispensed with my cheap and nasty wing – the Wing with No Name. I was using Calvin’s OMS wing which I borrowed last year and have still got because I haven’t seen him since! Now I remember why I stopped using it. Partly it was because I got the No Name Wing, and partly it was because the inflator valve sticks open on Calvin’s, rather like the one on my Halcyon. So I was forced to disconnect it and inflate the wing orally. In addition to Calvin’s wing, I was wearing Andreas’s semi-dry, Andrea’s boots, Andreas’s hood. Oh and  Catheryn’s Jetfins (which I wanted to try out). Meanwhile Rita had my fins because the foot pocket was bigger than hers and could accommodate her drysuit-clad foot better than her own. She also had Steve P’s hood. So while we’ve both got a fair amount of dive gear, not a lot of it seems to be our own!

We dropped into the water and Rita immediately started to notice cold water trickling down the back of her neck. Actually so did I, but I was expecting it. We pressed on, using the anchor line as a guide, and the visibility got worse as we went down, and finally we came off the line at around 12 metres. We headed inshore and started to get shallower. Visibility was around half a metre and the bottom was littered with urchins. Rita kept off the bottom to try not to put any holes in her dampsuit. Unfortunately we got separated in the poor visibility and had to surface. It turned out that Rita had drifted up slightly and as the air expanded in the drysuit, she was forced to focus on that instead of following me.

We regrouped on the surface, and since we’d not gone very far, we went back to the boat and got her an extra weight. Dropping down again to 12 metres, this time I decided to head along the shore line along the same depth contour rather than taking us in shallower to where the surge was more of a problem. Despite the conditions, there quite was a  lot to see.  Some nice orange soft coral, some of the purple broccoli coral, lots of shrimps, many attracted to the light from our torches. We also found a nice  big filefish, as well rockfish and a few crabs. It was actually far more colourful than I’d been expecting.

We surfaced after 40 minutes and went back to the boat where we decided to be lazy and skip the second dive. We weren’t the only ones, although we did seem to be in the minority that had actually enjoyed it. But then I suppose our goal was different from most people, as we were really there to re-test Rita’s drysuit, which she handled very well. But it was still quite wet inside, but at least now we’re confident that a lot of the water is coming in past the neoprene neck seal.

Bruce moved the boat to the south-west corner of Kau Sai Chau, which was much more sheltered. The people who dived all said that the second dive was better. But by that stage, I’d stowed all my gear and was warming up over a cup of soup. As the divers got back, Rita broke out the hot sake, which went down very well. Certainly the 2 litre carton didn’t last long, and this could be a popular innovation during the winter. Hats off to the Japan Diving Club, who had done it the previous week as they celebrated the first dive of the year. Several SCDC people were on hand for that, which is how the sake idea got back to us. Meanwhile Bruce and Lucy from the Underwater Club provided Dundee cake and gingerbread, which was really good.

Next Thursday remember to ask Catheryn what the hood on her coat is for, as I found it a very convenient place to put the empty beer cans to save me walking to the bin. But I think Joerg got the blame.

Thanks very much to the Underwater Club for making us so welcome.

You can see the results of Super STAR Network’s survey on BCDs by going to their website. It showed that 50% of respondents had had a problem with their BCD, 42% rarely and 8% occasionally. The most common problems are stuck inflator valves and accidental button operation / confusion.

28% of people never get their BCDs professionally maintained, and a further 18% only do when a problem happens. I have to admit to being in that 28% who have never had their BC professionally maintained, although I have cleaned up the inflator valve whenever I’ve had trouble with it. I have problems with a stuck inflator valve on a Halcyon Eclipse wing almost every year. Mine is the old metal inflator which Halcyon did seem to have trouble with and don’t use any more. What tends to happen is that it sticks slightly open, but not enough to be obvious. Gradually I find my buoyancy is off and I have to dump some air to maintain it. Eventually it dawns on me that I’m having to dump air while my depth isn’t changing, at which point I realise what’s happening and disconnect it. Then I have to take it apart and clean it up. On a Philippine dive trip soaking the bits overnight in vinegar seemed to do the trick.  I really should change it to the newer plastic one, but I quite like the response of the metal one – the plastic one doesn’t feel quite the same somehow.

More recall news, this time from Cressi, who are recalling Cressi Ellipse Black MC5 regulators distributed between March and August 2009. The problem is related to the high pressure port being partially blocked which can lead to an inaccurate reading on the pressure gauge. this from their website:

The words “Cressi Black” appear on the cover of the regulator’s second stage, and the words “Cressi MC5” are visible on the regulator’s first stage. (See photo above.) Retail price ranges between $280 and $309.

Hazard: Partial obstruction of the High Pressure port can produce an inaccurate reading on the pressure gauge, resulting in a slow descent of the needle in the pressure gauge. The inaccurate reading on the gauge poses a drowning hazard to divers.

Remedy: For a free repair, consumers can return the Cressi Ellipse Black MC5 Regulator to any Cressi-authorized dive shop or directly to Cressi- sub USA at One Charles Street, Westwood, NJ 07675.

For more information, call Cressi-sub USA at:
(800) 338-9143
between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, or visit the website www.cressi.com

For more information, please visit their website.

After Halcyon’s problems with Over Pressure Valves last year, this time it’s the turn of Dive Rite.  The following quotation is taken from their website:

The Over Pressurization Valve (OPV) springs found on Dive Rite wings manufactured between June 2006 and October 2008 may rust and fail allowing the buoyancy compensator devices to leak. The wings may be red, blue or black in color and have serial numbers falling between 42000 and 72000. The following models are affected by this recall: Travel, Venture, Rec, Trek, Classic, Nomad and Super Wings It does not affect EXP or 360-branded wings. The recall does not affect lift bags, surface marker tubes or other Dive Rite inflatable devices.

Due to the serious implications of an OPV spring failure, consumers should stop using the recalled diving equipment and have the OPV spring immediately replaced by a Dive Rite authorized dealer or distributor.

We apologize for any inconvenience and encourage Dive Rite wing customers to contact your local Dive Rite dealer or Dive Rite directly at 800-495-1046 with any questions.

You can find out more, including instructions on how to replace the spring,  from Dive Rite’s website.

While it might not be snowing here, Hong Kong has been a little chilly recently. So when I looked out of the window on a grey and frigid Sunday, I really didn’t fancy diving. But I’d signed up for a dive with South China Diving Club, so there was very little choice. Besides, Rita was going to try out her “new” drysuit for the first time, which was bound to be entertaining. We’d picked up a custom-made suit from Seaskin when we were in the UK in April, and by the time we got around to diving in Hong Kong again, it was far too warm to contemplate wearing it. It was bad enough trying it on in the apartment with all the aircons going full blast, especially when the undersuit arrived. The undersuit had been slightly delayed, so Seaskin delivered it to Hong Kong at no extra cost, which was very good of them. In fact Seaskin were very helpful throughout. But this was its first outing, and since neither of us had ever dived a drysuit before, I was expecting a lot of laughs.

We picked up Marcus and Dive Marshal Catheryn, and headed up to Tai Mei Tuk. This was also going to be the first time I’d seen Hong’s new boat, bought to replace his previous one which had been wrecked in a typhoon last summer. It’s a different style of boat from the old junk, with a large interior cabin and a steering position up on the top deck. Unfortunately the forward and rear areas are quite small which will make it very crowded for a large number of divers. But on Sunday there were only 6 divers and one non-diver, so it was fine.

We headed out to Crescent Island, which offers a very sheltered dive site, and a nice environment for Emma, our non-diver, to relax on the boat. While the corals along the shoreline and around the island in the middle, offer shallow, but very colourful, diving with lots of hard corals.

       That's the way to do it! (John Hurt, Alien)

Rita started kitting up 45 minutes in advance, which looked a bit premature until she tried putting her head through the neoprene neck seal. To say it was a bit tight is an understatement. Stretching the seal seemed practically impossible, in fact it would have been easier to compress her head. After several attempts, copious quantities of talcum powder and  the judicious use of a headscarf, she finally managed to get it on. All of which made us realise just how hard it was for Alien to burst forth from John Hurt’s stomach. The only real difference I suppose is that Alien wasn’t too worried about the damage it was doing on its way out, whereas we were trying desperately not to tear the seal.

Anyway, with the suit on, she and Catheryn were ready to do a buoyancy check. Catheryn was wearing her new, thicker undersuit for the first time, so it took both of them a while to get their weighting correct. Meanwhile Joerg and I left them to it, and dropped down to the sandy bottom at around 13  metres. From here we headed into the island in the middle of the bay, where we came across a wide variety of hard corals. There was also a massive school of thousands of small shrimp floating at around 6 metres. It was a shallow, but pretty dive. Joerg did a superb job of navigating us back almost to the boat, although the bit where he wrote “got lost” on his slate had me a bit worried.

The dry suit was a qualified success. Rita hadn’t come back shivering uncontrollably as she does after most winter dives. But she hadn’t come back completely dry either. It’s going to take a couple more dives to try and work out whether there is a small leak, or whether the film of water on the inside was caused by condensation and perspiration. Also with the thick undersuit, she found the external boots and fins were a little too tight.  The good news was that she was able to dive with the suit without too much trouble. While she found it more difficult than diving in a wetsuit, she was able to cope, and properly weighted, and with boots and fins that fit, will hopefully enjoy it more next time. One thing we might have to add is a pee valve because getting the neck seal off is even more difficult than getting it on, so it looks as though she’ll have to keep the suit on for the entire winter!

While Scott and Marcus did their dive the rest of us had a relaxing lunch watching a wild boar wandering up and down the beach, and played with Hong’s dog.

Having escaped from the drysuit, Rita was in no mood to put it back on again, so for the second dive, Catheryn  came along with Joerg and myself. Joerg led again, and took off like a train with Catheryn and I struggling unsuccessfully to keep up. Initially I thought it was going to be easy enough to follow the trail of silt that Joerg’s powerful fin kicks were disturbing. But eventually we concluded that we’d lost him, or more accurately that he’d lost us. So we surfaced and he finally reappeared about 100 yards away. Perhaps it wasn’t just the athletes that the old East German authorities were busy doping!

Reunited we tried again, and this time we headed to the north-west shore of the bay, where there was a rocky reef, and some more hard corals. There was a variety of different fish, but the high point was a dragonet in about 5 metres. Unfortunately none of us had a camera, so you’ll just have to take my word that it was really pretty.

Back on board and it was time for a recuperative beer. All in all an excellent day’s diving. I’ve always liked Crescent Island. It’s usually very sheltered and calm and is also a very pretty, remote environment. The diving is easy, but there is a lot of colourful hard coral, and usually a large variety of small fish. Many years ago I did some really good night dives here and it might be worth us trying to do that again.

Thanks a lot to Catheryn for organising it all.

Thanks to Wing, who has just forwarded me some information about the Diving, Resort and Travel 2010 Expo, which will be held on 16th – 18th July 2010. It is being supported by the Hong Kong Underwater Association and the Hong Kong Tourism Board. To keep up to date with information on the Expo you can visit their website.

Scuba STAR Network’s air quality survey must be coming to an end soon as it’s for July / August. So here’s a last minute chance to contribute. You can fill in the online survey from their website.

Last Sunday Rita and I went out with Hong Kong Underwater Club for a couple of dives at the dollos. The dollos are bizarrely shaped concrete blocks which are used to protect the shoreline in front of High Island reservoir dam. This is now the third time I’ve dived there in the last month. Not that I’m complaining, because yet again we had fantastic dives.

However for a bit of variety on our first dive, we  headed away from the dollos and along the rocky reef below the south-west shore. Depth was between 5 and 10 metres and there were plenty of fish. More exciting was a lovely flatworm that was bobbing gently before us in the current. Later on we came across an octopus in a hole, which was very brave and started to emerge as we retreated, but hid away as soon as Rita tried to take a photograph. He needn’t have worried as her camera was telling her there was a memory stick error! The dive was mainly in lovely warm water, but if we moved away from the slope, we were suddenly hit with quite a strong, cold current pushing us towards the dollos. The temperature variation was a quite striking 4 degrees C., from 29C. to 25C. in a very short distance. And while it wasn’t too difficult to swim against the current, it was surprisingly strong in an area I’ve not come across one before.

For the second dive we decided to see if the barracuda were still loitering around the dollos. They were out in force, there were hundreds of them, mainly between 5 and 8 metres. There were also quite a lot of cornet fish too, as well as a variety of other fish. We swam in and out of the passages between the concrete blocks, looking at the crabs and a small shoal of stripeys, and at one point we came across a large lobster which was a nice surprise.

All in all a great day’s diving, rounded off nicely with a few beers on the way home.

Thanks very much to the Underwater Club for inviting us out and for organising a great day and 2 excellent dives.

Last year, after 3 months of marriage, Aleki Taumoepeau was working in Wellington harbour when he dropped his wedding ring. He quickly threw an anchor in to try and mark the site. Three months later he did a dive but couldn’t find it. This year, 16 months later, he went back to try again, armed with GPS coordinates. As he was getting cold and tired, he spotted the anchor at around 3 metres depth, with the ring lying really close to it. They’re now calling him Lord of the Ring.

Maybe Big-Ears at our dive Club could try something similar in the hope that, if he’s trying to recover his wedding ring, his missus might actually let him out to go diving.

The story is on the BBC website.

Due to the unfortunate demise of SCDC’s scheduled boat in a recent typhoon, it looked as though the weekend’s diving was going to be scrapped. But the Hong Kong Underwater Club (HKUC) very kindly invited us out on their boat instead.

After a bit of excitement in the morning, involving Catheryn hijacking our van, changing the departure time and completely failing to tell us, we got to the boat fashionably on-time. We set off from Tso Wo Hang and headed to Tai Long Wan, which has long been an HKUC favourite. Anchoring near the channel between the 2 islands that make up Tsim Chau, we had 3 other dive boats in close attendance. Fortunately they were doing training and despite their tenders racing around dropping people off and picking them up, they weren’t a problem.

Rita and I headed through the channel between the 2 islands before heading left towards the mouth of the cave. This cave runs through the island and on the seaward side where we were heading, the floor starts in around 10 metres. It’s also quite a large entrance on that side. There is an air space all the way through apparently, but the surge can often be a problem. We headed into it with 2 very small torches and after about 20 metres, decided to come back another day.  If there had been no surge, or if we’d had better torches, we might have pressed on, but we decided that discretion was the better part of valour. There was quite a lot to see, but it did involve quite a long swim. A better way to do it may be to surface swim part of the distance to the entrance, or better still, get a tender to drop you off on that side of the island.

After lunch we headed to the cement wreck, but after a short debate as to exactly which part of the headland it was on, I was able to persuade them to go to the Dollos instead. These are the bizarrely shaped concrete monstrosities that are intended to protect the shoreline in front of one of the dams of High Island reservoir from wave damage. Although I like the site, I’ve not actually dived here for several years and Rita had never dived here, so we were looking forward to it. I do remember that there used to be a school of maybe 200 juvenile barracuda, so I was hoping we’d see them. Well, things have changed. The school of barracuda has turned into something of Sipadan proportions. We were swimming among them for the entire hour of the dive. There were also some big butterfly fish and a large cornet fish. The concrete blocks were good to swim through and around too, with a variety of more shy creatures hiding among them. Without a doubt the best dive I’ve done this year for fish life.

I would like to thank HKUC for their hospitality and for a very enjoyable day out. It was a lot of fun, great diving and yet very relaxing.

The Scuba STAR Network have a new survey out. This one on air quality. Please go and fill it in at http://www.scubastarnet.com/11801.html.

Last week I was fortunate enough to be at a talk by Dr. Wilson Li of the International Association of Hand-in-Hand Divers. It was given at South China Diving Club’s weekly meeting and was a Medical Seminar on Adaptive Diving for the Disabled. Among other things Dr. Li covered :

• Common physical and mental handicaps, chronic illnesses
• The personality, behavior and social adaptation of the Disabled
• Special considerations in adapting scuba diving for the Disabled

Dr. Li’s presentation was enthusiastic, informative and  inspiring. Very few of us had any experience of diving with disabled people, and were not aware of the pleasure and in some cases, the medical benefits, they can gain from diving.

One of the most impressive stories was about Matthew Johnston. When he was 7 he was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), which is a debilitating neuromuscular disease. By the time he was 27 he only had mobility in his thumbs and depended on a ventialtor to breathe. Typical life expectancy for people with this illness is 30 years. Despite this he dreamed of diving, and had the determination to make his dream a reality. He may not be diving in the sense that most of us go diving, and he does require a dive team to support him. But few people can have had the determination to overcome such insurmountable odds to experience diving.

Closer to home in Hong Kong, the International Association of Hand-in-Hand Divers (IAHD) is working to help disabled divers to try diving. They now have over 100 members and have run a number of Discover Scuba Diver Courses for Physically Handicapped People.  They have even organised overseas trips to the Philippines.

If you are an instructor or just a diver who is interested in helping out, you should take a look at their website – http://www.iahd.org.hk/, although it is only in Chinese at the moment. And if you get chance to go to one of their presentations then I would thoroughly recommend it, as it may change the way you think about diving and instructing.