- Our little group of intrepid Vintage Divers was joined by a few of our friends who dive modern PLUS a bunch of other divers... I think there had to be 30-50 divers up there last weekend!
- Fall Colors - The leaves were still mostly green but Ron had the idea that Fall Colors mean diving as many different colors of dive equipment as possible. Ron had a BRIGHT Yellow wet suit that could be seen for miles! And Jeff wore a beautiful Red suit that turned black at around 80 feet deep. I just wore my Sea Hunt GRAY suit. But there were also lots of different colors of corrugated double hose regulators.
- Another theme was double and triple tanks - I brought Twin 38s, Twin 48s, and Twin 72s. Jeff brought his newly acquirred triple tank set that was formerly owned by Bryan Pennington RIP. And of course Ron brought doubles AND triples of all sizes and colors!
- Favorite and Interesting Double Hose Regulators - Jeff was showing off his beautiful Over Pressure Reg. Ron had a genuine "Jack the Frogman AquaMaster which he thinks might be his Easiest Breathing regulator. My favorite for the last year is my souped up JC Higgins replica... I was showing off how I can make it free flow with a quick kiss of the mouthpiece (Thanks Bill Tucker and Vance for the the tune up tricks.)
- The water was beautiful... Clear and slightly warmer. Usually at 80 feet is 41 degrees. This time it was 44 degrees and we were amazed at what a difference that seemed to make in reducing hypothermia. Of course we could easily find 41 degrees and colder by just going deeper! Ha! Deepest dive was 130 ft by SwimJim but most of our diving was down to 80 feet to keep the bottom times longer while staying in the No Deco Zone.
- Tribute to Cousteau - Ron put on a great demonstration of his one piece Cousteau wet suit with yellow stripes, yellow tanks and yellow helmet. This was seen by a bunch of the other divers besides us.
- Golf Ball Door Prizes - Ron entertained the whole crowd with his numbered golf ball door prizes. I swear he was out there at 7:00 AM diving to hide a bunch of numbered golf balls. All of the divers were told about it and searched for them like an easter egg hunt. They'd come from the other end of the parking lot with the golf ball they found and take home a prize from the prize box.
- SwimJim's Award Winning Chili - He thawed out 4 qts of the stuff on top of his truck and heated it up for any and everybody who was hungry. I think I finally grew some hair on my chest from eating that delicious chili!
- I was planning to make 3 dives per day all with twin tanks. First two with 30% Nitrox 38s and last dive with normal air (20% Nitrox) using either Twin 48s or my Twin 72s. All 6 dives I managed to get my buoyancy about neutral at 20 feet depth (using irremovable clip weights). With that set up, I stayed neutral down to 80 feet with just a half a breath of air into my horse collar BCD. I haven't been so comfortable and effortless in my swimming all year. It was a great way to finish the diving season.
- That's my report... Hope you enjoyed it! SwimJim and Ron took additional photos and I hope they'll post them here.
