Oak Park 9th January 2010

Double dive at Oak Park but forgot my camera so wasn't really motivated to blog the dive.

My buddy was Rod on the first dive and a third diver informed us he would be joining us for the second dive, after he had been paired with someone whom he decided to leave to his own devices (hmmm...)

The third diver told me he had dived Oak Park over 250 times (hmmm..) and then said that if he looses us he would not surface as there is too much danger of boats in the area (hmmm...).
I asked what he planned to do if he lost us or vice versa and he said it wouldn't happen as he would "stick to us like glue". Rod and I agreed to surface if we got separated.

Before diving we agreed a dive plan to head out to the cave and return. As this was Rod's first open water diving since certification he was using quite a lot of air, so we planned to keep moving out to the cave to ensure we made it, as Rod was very keen to see the cave.
Anyway 5 minutes into the dive the third diver finds a moray eel which he points out to us and we acknowledge. Rod continues to head towards the cave as this was the dive plan. I signaled to the third diver to keep moving  but he was too fascinated with the moray eel. As I was losing sight of Rod I followed him to keep him in my vision and signaling to the third diver to follow. He ignored me and then saw another buddy pair of divers that he swam towards and took them to show them the moray eel. (grrrr....)

I used my underwater rattle to signal Rod and he came back. I must say I was worried that this "third diver" loose cannon was going to end up a DAN statistic if anything malfunctioned. He had decided to tag along with us and I felt responsible. My instinct was to leave him but I had visions of standing on the waters edge looking anxiously for him as the rescue helicopters circled and I would have found it difficult to justify leaving him.


It was all shaping up for disaster with a novice diver and a total idiot in the water with me. We waited 10 minutes while this guy showed everyone his eel. Really for someone with 250 dives on one site he did seem to be over enthused about a moray eel (hmmm...)

We never made the cave but we did all return safely. I will be avoiding this 'third diver' if I ever come across him again.


DIVE LESSON
Beware the self professing expert that refuses to follow basic open water protocols!

Bare Island 2nd January 2010

Two dives today at Bare Island. My buddy was Marcus who I have dived with previously at Voodoo and the dive master was Marek.

First dive was quite eventful. We saw Blue gropers, giant cuttlefish and an octopus who had captured a shell fish but the shell was too big to fit inside his cave. He sat like with a tight grip on the shell but couldn't get it to squeeze into his lair.

Octopus with shellfish too big for his lair.

During the break between dives a huge storm came in which was actually quite refreshing after the heat before the first dive.