Chris Long tagged posts

First day of Advanced Course

First day of advanced course – Deep Dive

Orientation Dive at Karamana Resort in the Red Sea. Shore Dive in 5mm wet suit. Did weight check first. OK with 10kg. Finned down gradually to 20m Nice Coral, many reef fish. Breathing ok, but still using lots of air. Was not cold but T was freezing (poor thing). Dived with a group of 3 other English people. Nice Dive. Good warmer upper! Before starting Advanced course

Shallow dive. Very nice. No current. Only wore a shorty and 8kg of weight. Better air consumption but still first to the boat.

Cydive got the current check wrong and sent us the wrong way around a small island. Had to fin very strongly on the way back and I gulped air!! Felt very uncomfortable – especially as my air was dissapearing fast. First time in full wet suit with 12 kgs of weight. T and I surface in the end some 100m from boat and had to fin back against current. Completely knackered and the first dive I did not enjoy one bit!

Dive with Cydive of Paphos Cyprus. Very Unimpressed!! Wreck dive onto the Vera K which sits in about 10m of water. No fish. Not a lot to see other than the wreck which was ok. Nice Dive. Enjoyed it!

Shallow dive in reasonable viz. Number of swim-thu’s where bubbles emerge through the rocks – hence the name!! OK dive but I’ve been spoilt in the Maldives. No fish! Still really enjoyed getting back in the water.

Last dive of this holiday!! Bit sad but lovely location makes me feel better. Jumping Jack Flash is a channel with sevral tilas rising to 5m (some as low as 15m). Jumped in from boat after 50 min ride from Filetheyo. Straight down to 15m when we realised Angela had lost her weight belt. Yan went down for it and surfaced whilst we hung out at 15m! T and I went up to 10m and waited for them and finally they joined us!! Little current took us on drift at 22.4m. Lots of reef fish, snapper etc. Really nice. Me first to 100 bar again! and we slowly asended to 10m where I buddied off Yan’s nitrox. At 60 bar we f=inned across the channel over the Tilas and surfaced after a 5m safety stop. Not to choppy on the surface. Really nice dive. Loved it!

Night Dive with Iris (instructor) and Bob (over 100 dives). Felt really comfortable. Descended to about 18m and drifted with current from exit 6. Finned against the current a little towards exit 5 first and then drifted. Really really beautiful dive. Great colours.. so much better with lights. Lots of reef fish. Very quiet and peaceful. Bonded with a Pipe Fish which hovered just a few inches from my mask. It was incredible and I am hooked on night dives. Average depth for dive was 11.5m and my air lasted for 50 mins. Getting better! Finned in from exit 7 right up to the beach. Loved it!

Afternoon boat dive with T, Bob and Angela. In the water at 15.06. Dived straight down to 26.8m and kept on bottom for some time before acsending to Tila. Lots of reef fish and quite good visibilty. Not much current! T and I hit 60/70 bar first and ascended together to a safety stop at 5m. T had problems with bouyancy and bobbed up. I tried to keep her down a bit and think I pissed her off! Great dive! I loved it!