Diving - Marcus D. Hanwell's Blog

LIDS 2007

Monday, March 12. 2007

On Saturday Louise and I set off from home at about 6:45 and picked my friend Alex up at just after 7:00. We were headed for the London International Dive Show 2007, Louise and I attended LIDS 2006 last year as well as the last two that are held in Birmingham. The shows are a great chance to see the latest dive gear, meet people from the dive industry and get discounted dive gear.

We were supposed to be meeting Mark down there but he was a little delayed. I think we got there for just after 10:30 and he didn't arrive until gone midday. The show seemed a fair bit smaller this year and I particularly noticed the lack of a Suunto or an Apeks stand. There was still lots to see though and as usual we didn't quite get as much time as we would have liked.

I managed to get another book signed. This was The Art of Diving and Alex Mustard signed it for me. Check out his site, there are some amazing photos on there - the book is filled with beautiful shots. It was nice having a quick chat with him

We also chatted to a very nice lady on the Tony Backhurst stand about liveaboard holidays in the Northern Red Sea. I know I have only just got back from there but I really want to dive the Thistlegorm! They have own liveaboard of the year three times I think. We even saw Tony Backhurst himself but he was busy chatting away to someone. Their boats look great, it was disappointing that the boats doing the Northern Red Sea itineraries do not offer free Nitrox but other than that everything looked great. Hopefully January/February next year we will make it out there.

I got myself some new 12L oxygen clean scuba cylinders and a Fourth Element Thermocline T-shirt to take the edge off that chilly UK diving I also ordered a pocket dive log stamp from Dive Logs. I was trying to control my spending this year so I think I managed to stop myself from buying anything else. We just filled in competition entries and I helped my friends to pick out some masks, snorkels and fins.

We had a really good day and set off back at around 17:30 after discussing the day over Pizza Hut. We were going to get something a little more upmarket but we really didn't know the area and they were the first group of shops we found. Got back after 21:00 very tired but with a good haul of new toys. Lots of brochures to look over too.

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 12:46 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Coldest Dive Yet

Saturday, February 24. 2007

On Wednesday I went and did my coldest dive yet - 7 C. I think before that I had experienced as low as 10 C and figured it wouldn't be too much colder. After about 20 minutes I could feel my hands and feet going numb and we got out after 30 minutes on the first dive. I was in my Oceanic two-piece semi-dry suit but what was more surprising is that Mark, my dive buddy, seemed even colder in his dry suit.

We did go in for a second shallow dive and just used up the rest of the air in our tanks from the short first dive which was to about 20 m. It was good fun but both of us agreed you need something better to see than the stuff in Stoney Cove to make it worthwhile. I think it took about half an hour for the feeling in my feet to return! I miss Egypt - it was 22 C over there at the end of January... I think that is about as cold as it gets out there too.

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 15:57 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Dive Holiday in Hurghada - 27th Birthday

Sunday, February 18. 2007

Long time no blog... Life has been really hectic and I rarely have time to stop right now. On 23rd January Louise and I along with four friends went to the Hilton Long Beach Hotel in Hurghada, Egypt for a week. As luck would have it my 27th birthday fell in the middle of our week away (on the 26th of January). I didn't think we were even going to make it out to Egypt in the week leading up to our holiday with the fence blowing down, a client's server going down and the car misbehaving but we got there in the end...

We got to the hotel pretty late on Tuesday, just in time to get a little food and some beer before getting some sleep. As usual I didn't manage to sleep on the plane and so was exhausted. Our room was really nice, all our dive gear made it out with us, we packed lightly enough to avoid excess baggage charges and the weather was great.

On the first full day we went down to the resident dive cetre, Pirates Diving (not a very nice web site), my friends signed up for their PADI open water course and we took our dive gear down to the centre and did a beach dive in the afternoon. They kept us waiting around for a few hours until the divemaster finally turned up. I was getting impatient to hit the water, but he got there after a few false starts, we kitted up and jumped in off the jetty. It was a nice dive, warm water at 22 C but the reef was pretty barren and there was a sandy bottom at about 7 m and so no blue to stare off in to.

Continue reading "Dive Holiday in Hurghada - 27th Birthday"

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving, General, Photography at 06:03 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Got My PADI Divemaster Card

Friday, December 22. 2006

When I got back from work today I had a very big letter from PADI. I didn't think they were going to get it to me in time for Christmas but they managed it in the end! They seem to have butchered the photo I took so long getting ready for them. I got a nice head and shoulders shot like they asked for, printed it at exactly the size they wanted, trimmed it down and sent it off. They seem to have used the nastiest scanner they could find, butchered the colour and zoomed right in on my face and skipped the shoulders part they asked for.

It is nice to have my first black card though - ready for our holiday out to Egypt next month. Everyone from Tigerdive went out yesterday to the pub too and I got my Tigerdivemaster engraved hip flask too. I am sure that will come in useful over the holiday season.

Back to writing up my thesis now... Need to get it finished, need to get it finished, need to get it finished... I want a shave - it's all itchy!

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 10:13 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

Got My PADI Divemaster Number Today

Tuesday, December 5. 2006

I got an email from PADI member services today with my Divemaster number. I was quite excited to receive it but was hoping I would have the card by now. It is quite special as you keep this number for the rest of your professional qualifications with PADI. It doesn't mean that much if you are not into diving though.

I might not be able to go diving for quite some time though as I am stuck writing up my thesis as well as being pretty broke due to the way in which PhDs are funded over here. It will be a tough holiday period writing up and being broke but this should be the last one as a student! Hopefully next year will be a good one for work and diving - ideally I will have lots more time to do some development too!

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving, General at 14:54 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Finished My PADI Divemaster Course

Monday, October 30. 2006

Over the last week I have spent a couple of days making sure I had done all the paperwork, completed the last few exams and went through knowledge reviews. Then I got roped into doing the open water course with Lucy and Craig, with Gordon divemastering too. Unfortunately he got caught in traffic and it was just me until Sunday when Mick ended up divemastering too.

Mark and Lynda did our supervising certified divers in open water dive and it was a tough dive with lots of interesting issues. We got through it in the end though! Once I get some photos of myself that I can live with on my certification cards (as Mark warned me they keep this picture instead of using a new one each time) I will send off my application. I am really pleased I have finished the course, I have learnt a lot and it has been really tough at points but it was definitely worth it.

I probably won't do much more diving in the UK until next year now as I don't have a dry suit (or the money to get one). That is probably a good thing so I can devote more time to writing up my thesis as that has slipped behind schedule a little. I will probably manage one or two pleasure dives before the end of November, and then I will have to wait until Egypt at the end of January. Hopefully all of our open water students had a good weekend and enjoyed the diving too.

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 04:40 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Divemaster Mapping Project

Friday, October 13. 2006

On Friday the 13th of October I set out with Mark (buddy) and Vonnie (surface cover) to do my mapping project at Stoney Cove. As we were driving down it looked very foggy, but we were certain it would clear, probably... As we got closer the car engine started to act strange and I started to worry a little about the mechanical viability of our car! It got us there but the fog still hadn't cleared. We were nearly an hour late in getting started and I was beginning to worry we wouldn't even be able to see the buoys once we had them in position.

Nethertheless we perservered and got ready. We went over my plan and took the buoys down to the waters edge. After doing our buddy checks we dropped in off the slipway and dropped down towing a buoy each. As we dropped down I spotted the road and we followed it to the edge of the 22m shelf, then followed that round until we found the cairn. Eventually we found the cairn (I was beginning to worry) and then took a sharp left. Once we hit the coach I was feeling much happier and we tied Mark's buoy off onto the coach making sure the line didn't have too much slack in it.

I took a few pictures and then we headed off for the Stanegarth. I was surprised by how quickly we found the Stanegarth - I always think it is much further away from the coach. As we were securing this buoy to the bow I began to wonder just how much slack I had left for the buoy on the bus - was it still above water? Once the buoy was tied off we had ten minutes to explore the Stanegarth a little before heading off for the 4m blockhouse.

Neither of us had ever seen the blockhouse, and I didn't have a bearing for it. So we headed off on a north-easterly bearing until we hit the wall and ascended to 6m. After that we just followed the wall round and in theory we would see the blockhouse. Theory proved correct and we did find the blockhouse although it seemed devoid of nice places to secure a buoy. We settled on a medium sized rock as the best thing we could find. We even found a pike willing to pose for us before heading for the surface.

Then it was time to take our bearings. Thankfully the coach buoy was above the surface (half submerged though - phew) and the fog had cleared. So we could get bearings on all our objects. I checked Vonnie had seen us on the surfacebefore we started taking bearings. Then we swam to the Stanegarth buoy we had placed on the bow (I was surprised to see just how long the Stanegarth is with the permanent buoy on the stern). We took bearings from this buoy and the pub arch before leaving the water and having some lunch.

We got some air fills over lunch and dropped back in to retrieve our buoys. Before doing that we had to take some more bearings off the bus stop and the coach buoy. We collected up our buoys very quickly and looked around the Stanegarth a little more before heading back with our buoys. We did a very slow midwater ascent whilst collecting in the rope from our buoys on the way up. We had all our bearings and our buoys back and so it looked like the mapping project was done with.

We did a third dive in the shallows under the pub arches, around the Nautilus and back around the blockhouse to finish off the day before heading back home to fill in log books. Looking at the bearings I obtained for the day they seem to make sense and look reasonably accurate. Despite it being Friday the 13th - I have never been a superstitious person and so this day was chosen as Mark could get the day off and we didn't want to be playing with buoys on a crowded weekend.

This was the last practical exercise for my PADI divemaster qualification and so I should hopefully be ready to qualify at the end of the month. My PhD does seem a little further off though...

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 17:32 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Great Weekend at Capernwray

Friday, October 6. 2006

Just to balance out my blog a little I thought I would add a note about what a nice weekend I had doing my trainee divemaster internship with Tigerdive last weekend at Capernwray dive centre. I was helping Lynda with the Advanced Open Water course. We had four students who were all really nice. They had a few small problems but overall the whole weekend seemed to go really well.

I got to feed the fish, I got the last of the open water dive sign offs I need for my PADI divemaster course and we had a great weekend. The trainee divemasters also qualified on the Saturday evening - hopefully I will do the same at the end of the month. I stayed at Capernwray house just down the road instead of camping this weekend and it was a great place to stay. Should hopefully be staying there on my last trainee weekend too.

I got a great tired diver tow time and completed my rescue assessment too. The course has been pretty tough but I feel like the end is in sight now. I just need to get a few more exams done and complete my mapping exercise. I have really enjoyed diving over the summer and am glad I took up the divemaster course. It has been tough finding the time necessary as I am also very busy writing up my thesis which is a little delayed right now. I should really get some sleep now...

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 23:35 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Diving in St Abbs

Friday, September 15. 2006

We went up to St Abbs last weekend on a diving trip - probably the last of the year before it gets too cold and rough for me to go giving in my semi-dry... We drove up on Friday in our new, old car - a used Renault Megane Scenic. We thought the car was massive, but once we had loaded it with two sets of dive gear, cylinders, camping gear and the dog it didn't seem so big anymore.

Fully laden we set off on our journey. We were hoping to get there with some daylight left, but unfortunately time was not on our side and it was pitch black when we got there at around 21:30. Some friends were already there with their tent up and cooking their dinner. We got the car shining some light on our pitch next to their's at the Crosslaw camp site Louise found for us. They gave us a really big pitch and the facilities were good.

I have to say that the weather was absolutely amazing too - we had sun all weekend and on until Monday when we set off back home. The first days diving was pretty tough - the entry and exit is not that easy anywhere at low tide, and apparently these were some of the lowest tides for ten years or more. Once in the water it was great though and the best thing was that the visibility just got better and better each day.
Cave exit off the St Abbs beach

I managed to snap a few really beautiful photos both above and below the water. I had a really hard time picking out a few for this post. I got my sixtieth dive in on the Sunday morning where we did a really nice long dive off the beach with quite a group of us out. Saw a really weird fish but forgot my camera and so couldn't photograph it, but we never spotted the elusive wolf fish.

It was a great weekend and just goes to show how beautiful the UK coast line is when most are trying to jet off abroad for their diving fix! I will certainly be on the lookout for some more UK based diving. Admittedly I do have a week away in Hurghada, Egypt booked for the end of January coinciding with my 27th birthday! Hopefully it won't be too long until we get back out in the sea (I fear it will be next year now though).

Best get back to thesis writing now...

Update: Photos from our trip are here if you would like to look at any of them.

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 09:08 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

What a Bank Holiday Weekend

Tuesday, August 29. 2006

I was hoping to get some work done over the bank holiday weekend but instead we just haven't stopped at all since Friday evening and I haven't gotten any work done until this morning! Started off going out for a curry with Louise and some friends from work along with their partners. It was a really nice curry but the waiter made me laugh as he had put mad hot next to my order and I had found it enjoyable but far from mad hot

Saw a few guys from the magnetics group in the pub before we left and realised how rarely I make it out these days - they had redecorated and refurbished the bar without me even noticing any of the work going off...

Saturday morning it was over to Tigerdive early to help out with my first open water course as a trainee divemaster. It was good fun but a really long day. I think I got there at 8:30 and wasn't home until just before 21:00. It was quite a small group, with only four students in the end but it was still enjoyable and an opportunity to learn more about being a divemaster in a teaching assistant role.

Then straight off to town for a few drinks with some old friends I haven't seen since school. They met up for a meal at 19:00 but I knew I probably wouldn't make it in until later. It was strange seeing them after so many years and I hope we manage to stay in touch a little more in future. I remember my days at All Saints quite fondly on the whole.

I got a lay in on Sunday and then we went off to visit Louise's family at her sisters for the weekly coffee morning. After that we went shopping at CCC and Decathlon for some camping supplies. It was good fun but I took ages deciding between three tents. We had the two man fold out, the three man dome tent and the three man tunnel tent.

After much deliberation I decided on the three man tunnel tent because Louise liked it more and I thought a little extra space would be good. Hopefully it will be a decent tent. I will be using it up at Capernwray this weekend along with some of the other goodies we got. I think we will be borrowing Louise's parents bigger tent when we camp up at St Abbs the weekend after. In the afternoon I went to help out with the open water course again. Didn't get home until late an then just collapsed on the sofa and had a bite to eat.

Sunday day I spent reorganising my office and tidying up to make the perfect thesis station as I really need to accelerate my thesis writing if I want to be finished by the end of the year. It looks pretty good now and it feels better having a change. Then some friends came round for dinner and stayed until quite late drinking some wine and Jamesons...

In the middle of all that Louise picked up our new used car - a really big Renault Megane Scenic. It is pretty nice although well used. It is one of the oldest cars I have ever driven (P reg) but has lots of space for diving and camping gear along with us and the dog. My dive box just slides into the boot which is great. Hopefully it will prove to be a reliable car - but we have only had it for a few days so far.

Best get back to writing that thesis - I have written all these words on here but none of them count towards my thesis

I will work on a thesis-o-meter tonight to track my progress throughout the final months.

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving, General at 05:49 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

First Trainee Divemaster Dives at Capernwray

Monday, August 7. 2006

Well I did my first dives in open water as a trainee divemaster yesterday. I got to Capernwray at 9:00 and was helping out with the advanced course. I did three dives throughout the day (deep, wreck and search & recovery). It was quite good fun but the visibility was absolutely awful for most of the day. We also overran and I wasn't out of the water until 5:30 that evening (I was literally the last guy in the water). I was very tired and had worked hard.

Then came the most disappointing part of my whole day - despite talking to both the instructors about being assessed it turned out that neither of them could or would... I have to say it was very disappointing to have left home at 6:30, and to get back after 20:30 and not manage to get a single sign off as part of my trainee divemaster internship. I will be asking about the rules on this as there was a meeting recently about this and either I have misunderstood it or the instructors have.

Trying to take some positives away from the day I do have a better idea now of what is expected of me in my role as a trainee divemaster. I also feel that I fulfilled many of those roles and deserved an assessment. This has made me determined to get the situation clarified so that I do get properly assessed in future dives. I also got three more logged dives too.

I got my wreck specialty on Wednesday too, and should be doing the classroom element on the nitrox course on Saturday and my deep specialty at Stoney Cove on Sunday. After that I intend to avoid any further courses other than my divemaster internship until I have completed it. We will see how that goes...

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 05:54 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

PADI Rescue Diver Course - I Passed

Monday, July 10. 2006

On Saturday I did the open water section of the PADI rescue diver course. It was a long day, starting at 5am waking up, getting my dive gear in the car and setting off just before 6am. Then I had a two hour drive up to Capernwray and met with Tigerdive and my course mates at the Truckhaven services just across the road from the dive site for our briefing at just gone 8am.

Once we got to the dive site I had to register, we had a briefing on the site and then kitted up. I think we got into the water for about 11am and we did our first dive and the only one we could log for the day (the others were all too short). Mick (a trainee divemaster) led us on a whistlestop tour of the site. We did a short surface swim to the helicopter buoy and descended on it down to 12 m. I was buddied up with Alistair for the day, with Sara and Ian buddied up too. We circled the helicopter and then Mick led us past another couple of boats and we finished on the Sessner (I think it is called) before ascending to 6 m and starting the exercises - diver problems underwater.

We were just constantly watching everyone for what they were going to do to us next and just when I thought it was over Mick simulated an out of air situation and we ascended with him breathing from my octopus. After that we had diver problems on the surface, panicked divers and it went on! We were in the water for most of the day and it was the most exhausting course I have done so far. I think it was really worth it and I feel like I could really make a difference if I needed to help a diver in trouble now but it isn't a course I would have wanted to do before I was confident underwater and above it.

I am now a certified PADI rescue diver - I have a badge, a certificate and soon even another PADI card to prove it! I spent most of Sunday recovering from Saturday...

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 12:59 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

Diving in the Farne Islands With Seals

Monday, July 3. 2006

Last Wednesday evening we drove up to the a place called Seahouses and checked into our bed and breakfast. We then grabbed a quick bite to eat and a few beers before getting to bed for some rest before our first taste of diving in the UK sea. We dove in several locations in and around the Farne Islands with Sovereign Diving. Thursday morning we had an early start out on the boat.

We started off with a wreck at about 20 m just off the side of one of the small islands called Knivestone, and then got a little lunch and after a good surface interval we were at our next dive. This was much shallower at about 6 m on a sandy bank just off a beach. It was called Corrington and there was quite a spread out wreck and loads of life. The highlight of which were the lobsters for me.
Lobster on patrol

We all had a really nice meal together in the evening at the dive operations restaurant after washing our gear down and leaving it to dry. Shared a few tales and took in all the photos of the seals hoping we would be lucky on our second day of diving and meet some seals!

We saw a few seals from a distance on the first dive, but the currents were really strong. Louise didn't feel very good after that dive so she gave the last dive a miss. I buddied up with Mark and Grant on the last dive and that had to be the best of the lot for me. We went through quite a narrow gulley, caught sight of some seals playing around near us. Had a quick look at the wreck at about 12 m and then came up and did our longest safety stop ever whilst playing with the seals. I have put all the decent pictures I got here along with my favourites in the sub album.

All in all a great introduction to UK diving. Shame Louise missed the best dive, I suppose it means we will just have to go back some time. When we got home I had to complete the knowledge reviews for my rescue diver course and had a really long day at TigerDive doing the classroom stuff and pool work. Next Saturday is my first visit to Capernwray to do the open water part of the course.

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving, Photography at 14:46 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Diving at Stoney Cove Yesterday

Thursday, June 22. 2006

I went diving yesterday at the famed UK dive site - Stoney Cove, with an old school friend Matt for the day. He also works at the local dive shop, SDS and sold me half of my new kit. So if it wasn't all top notch I had the guy to complain to out there with me

We got there at about 10:30 and were allowed into the bottom car park - now I know why everyone obsesses over this as I saw how far we could have been walking in full kit. It cost £15 each which I thought was pretty steep to just let us dive in their old quarry but I am new to all this.
Matt in the wheel house of the ship wreck

Matt in the wheel house of the ship wreck

Marcus in full gear before taking the plunge

I just know everyone wants to see me covered head to toe in neoprene so you are in for a treat - Matt took a photo of me just before I jumped into the water but didn't quite manage to get my head in the shot. As Matt hadn't been diving this year he wanted to take it easy so we avoided the deep bit in the middle and stuck to a floor of about 22 m maximum depth.

We took in a few of the sites on our two dives including a big boat (must check its name), a transit van, a Wessex helicopter and a submarine with one of those geocache signs on it. We even saw some fish here including a couple of monster pike! You can see all my other pictures here - I got quite a few. All my new equipment worked really well and there were no leaks in my camera stuff. I did a test deployment of my DSMB and we did our safety stop off it on our second dive.

I was quite amused though as I had told Matt about the diving I had done out in Malta and how they had asked me if I breathed (I do by the way). They wouldn't let me have a 15 L cylinder, even on our 35 m dives as they said I would never need it. In their defence they were right and I usually came up with 60-120 bar I think at the end of every dive. Matt got me a 15 L and a 12 L, and himself a 12 L and 10 L. Needless to say we were coming up for him on the first dive and I finished with 110 bar, and the second I think he had 30 bar and I came up with 100 bar... I think he believes me now. It is all these 10 km runs I think

We had a really good day, finished it off with a beer in the resident pub. I now have Stoney Cove in my log book too, although I did scratch the face of my dive watch a little on the second dive

These were my coldest dives to date at 11 C, but my Oceanic semi-dry suit kept me nice and toasty warm. Matt did fine in his drysuit too. I still haven't spotted the appeal of dry suits, but it may become apparent up in the Farne Islands next week!

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 11:04 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

First Dive in the UK!

Tuesday, June 13. 2006

Did my first dive in the UK on Friday of last week! I went to the Blue Lagoon inland lake. I hired some kit from TigerDive and went with a few of the people who frequent their online forum. We got there and we started kitting up and the day nearly ended there in disaster. The high pressure hose to the SPG blew on my hired regulator! Never seen that happen before and it really did scare me.

Fortunately I was able to borrow a set of regulators from one of the dive masters there, and I had only lost 20 bar of pressure despite all the noise it made. It really was true what I read about the pin hole in the high pressure hose reducing air flow

It was a beautiful sunny day and in the end we got into the water. It wasn't as deep as their site claimed (or we couldn't find the deep bit) - we managed a maximum depth of 6 m and didn't see any fish. I did see some newts, tadpoles and lots of tiny larvae.

The first dive was just under an hour and I came up with half a tank left. The water was lovely and warm but I discovered 6 kg was too much lead. We had a nice cup of coffee and a great bacon sandwich, after which we went in for another short dive. We looked around the boat wrecks and the tank. There was also an artillery gun that was on its side and a few platforms to sit on. I practiced inflating an SMB too - good for when we go diving in the Farne Islands at the end of the month.

It was a good laugh although I do prefer diving in the sea I think... The equipment issues pushed me into getting my own gear sooner rather than later too. I got myself an Apeks XTX50 regulator set up with the nice DIN300 fittings, and a ScubaPro Knighthawk BCD which is pretty nice with the tech wing style inflation at the back and integrated weights. It was a gentle introduction to UK diving with a bit of a scare at the start of the day - thankfully everything went smoothly after that

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 14:20 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Great Holiday in Malta

Monday, May 8. 2006

Just a quick note to say we had a great holiday in Malta in the end. The diving improved greatly in the end and Aquaventure showed us some great sites. Unfortunately they never managed to get us out to the Camino caves which would have been great to see. I did go on four really nice wreck dives though to the Rozi and the Um El Faroud - doing some penetration into the engine room of the Um El Faroud. Louise and I also went to the much older wreck of the HMS Maori on our last dive of the holiday which was excellent and he even found us a sea horse which I got a few shots of.

I have put up the digital photos here but have not had chance to improve the colours and stuff yet - some of them look much better with a little tweaking. A lot of the wreck photos also look amazing in black and white. I don't think I have any prize winners yet but they are a great set of pictures for my first diving holiday with the camera (in my opinion at least). I would love to hear what other people think of them. I really have the bug for diving now too so I am hoping to get into the UK diving scene a little over the Summer too. Some of the videos I made are really big, they play fine under Linux for me but Windows seems to have issues on friends systems...

We also went horse riding while we were away, it was Louise's idea and we both really enjoyed it. The weather wasn't great and the food didn't improve at the hotel at all but we had a great time in the end. I also got quite a nice tan. The Internet over there was so amazingly unreliable and slow too with the wireless taking up to 20 attempts just to associate with the router sometimes. Good to be back in the UK where things like this work a lot better

I am packing again this morning though as I am on a residential course out at Lake Windermere for a week with the UK GRAD programme. Cut off from civilisation again... Then I can play with my photos a little and get my SLR photos developed too - I have quite a backlog now. Great holiday though and I am about ready to get back into my work now - get that thesis written up!

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving, General, Photography at 02:27 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Got to Malta and Did Our First Dive Out Here

Wednesday, April 19. 2006

We got to Malta safe and sound. It was really hot at the airport but got really cold by the time we got to the hotel. When we got here it was like the hotel time forgot - it seems to be stuck about forty years in the past which is why so many old people are here I guess

It is nice enough but quite basic for a four star hotel - the Mellieha Bay Hotel.
Sea slug

We went on our first dive today with Aquaventure who are at the beach in our hotel complex. I have been looking forward to going on another dive for a good few months now but I was disappointed I am afraid... It was the shortest dive I have done so far at only 34 minutes, the shallowest at a max depth of 7.6 m and an average of about 4 m. It was also the coldest (15 C) and the one where I had the most air left at the end. I came up with just under 130 bar... There were very few photo opportunities in Slugs Bay too - I will put a few up with this entry though such as the sea slug I found.

It was nice to finally get to use all this new equipment though. My underwater camera enclosure seemed to work well, although the woman who sold it to me just told me I need the fibre optic kit to get rid of back scatter... If she had told me that when I asked at the dive show I would have bought one there and then. Never mind - I will get the best photos I can with what I have available. Even though the water was cold my wet suit kept me warm. Louise gobbled through her air - she only had 80 bar left but she gets a lot more nervous.

We have arranged a car for the next four days (three full days) and have two dives booked on Friday, one on Saturday and one or two on Monday I think. Hopefully I will get a few wreck dives in next week too as well as some caves. I really hope the diving does get better - I think we were spoilt in the Red Sea!
Mellieha Bay Hotel

Lousie managed to beat me this morning too - she pasted me at Scrabble whilst we were sat at the side of the pool. Back to the evenings entertainment anyway...

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving, General, Photography at 14:44 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Just Finished Reading Going Postal by Terry Pratchett and Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

Saturday, April 15. 2006

On my recent trip to Baltimore I read my second Discworld novel - Going Postal. I have to say that I enjoyed this book much more than Thud! It is a very clever book and it appealed to me on many levels. I especially enjoyed the Clacks and the parallels my mind drew with areas of modern life and some of the practices of the operators of the Clacks. Moist was a fun character if not a little predictable, all in all a great read in my opinion.

However Dan Brown's Digital Fortress was a big disappointment to me. It was predictable and terminology was used in a clumsy and in some cases incorrect fashion. He made the common mistake of calling crackers hackers and tried to dramatise the breaking down of a firewall in a way that really did not work for me. If he really did consult with ex-NSA agents I fear for the security of the NSA! I thought it might be a fun read but it really wasn't. I may yet read the Da Vinci Code but after reading this book I am in no rush to get it.

So a bit of a mixed bag. I found Dan Brown's writing pretty simplistic with silly amounts of twists at then end that were almost funny but not really. Whereas Going Postal was a really fun book that had me amused all the way though. I have bought Night Watch and Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett - both were recommended by friends.

I also bought The Art of Diving on a friends recommendation as his friend Alex Mustard did all the photography. I have to say the photos are amazing and I can only hope to take pictures approaching that quality whilst I am in Malta. I also bought An Essential Guide to Underwater Photography by Michael Aw and Matthieu Meur when I was at the London Internation Dive Show (Amazon doesn't seem to have this) and got it signed by the author (first book I have ever had signed). Hopefully that will help me to take some nice pictures - I tested out my underwater camera enclosure and strobe yesterday ready for the holiday

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving, General, Photography at 11:24 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

London International Dive Show (LIDS)

Tuesday, April 4. 2006

Well I thought I would create a new category for scuba diving as I will hopefully get the chance to write about it fairly regularly. Louise and I drove down to London on Friday and stayed at the Novotel just next to the Excel exhibition centre in the docklands. We managed to find it fairly easily in the end although the drivers seem to drive more psychotically the closer we got to London...

We decided to go to the first day on Saturday 1 April and had bought our tickets about a month ago. We got there just before opening on Saturday morning to see Jean-Michel Cousteau opening the show. We also saw him a few times during the weekend at our hotel. Once we got on our mission began... Enter all the competitions going on the off chance of winning something cool and find everything on our list.

The first thing we found were our wet suits. We had done our research and had decided on a wet suit system that would be suitable for UK diving in the summer as well as places like the Red Sea. I got an Oceanic Shadow system which I was very pleased with. Full 5 mm semi dry wet suit, 5 mm shortie to go over it in cold conditions or on its own in warm conditions. It also came with a hood. Louise tried on about five wet suits I think and in the end chose a Body Glove wet suit system - it was a better fit for her but now we don't get to look really sad on holiday with matching wet suits!

After we got those we took them back to our room in the hotel and went back in for more shopping. I got my underwater camera enclosure and strobe for my Fuji F10 and found the Cressi Sub Matrix mask I wanted too. Then we went over to SDS (local dive shop) to look at their dive computers and other bits. They were probably the most helpful and I took quite a while deciding between the bulky Uwatec Aladin Tec and the compact Suunto Mosquito. In the end I decided upon the Suunto after flirting with the idea of getting a Stinger... Also got some split fin Tusa Xpert Zoom fins, some nice boots, an interface for my dive computer and a really nice Tusa snorkel from them.

By this point we were starting to feel tired and took our bags back to the room and broke for lunch. We had got most of the stuff on our list now. I found a nice titanium dive knife, and then we got some bits from a few other shops and a dive bag to take all this stuff on holiday with us as well as a mesh bag for the beach/boat. Quite a bit poorer but happy with our haul we made our way back to the room just before it all finished at 17:30.

After irritating Louise for a while checking out all my new stuff she made me go for some dinner with her. The buffet at the hotel was very nice as was the wine we ordered to go with our meal. I just can't wait to try out all my new stuff now! Two weeks until we leave for Malta, although I have already tested out the free diving features of my dive computer at the gym... And we both tried on all our gear on Sunday night together to make sure it all fitted together OK and seemed complete. I need to test the underwater enclosures for leaks before we leave too.

Posted by Marcus D. Hanwell in Diving at 05:01 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

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