Archive for April, 2011


Buddy Up! Good Habits for Divers!

Filed under: Gear and Training — Leave a comment
30/04/2011

Dive Brief

We’ve all been there, standing around in our gear, listening to the dive guide lay out the dive and wondering somewhat worriedly about which person you’re going to be paired up with. It’s a normal event on vacations, drop in dives or similar circumstances where you’re not with the people you usually dive with. It can occur during training as well, when established pairings are broken up to expand your comfort with others and other dive styles and equipment. Regardless of your partner’s experience, divemaster or the newest open water diver, there are a few things that can make your dive easier and here they are:

  1. Have a quick chat with your buddy, get to know their skill level, comfort with the dive and their dive history; this isn’t an inquisition, but you’ll have a better idea of how the dive will go.
  2. Review hand signals. Different areas and agencies can use different signals, or may have developed their own “short hand” versions. A quick review on the surface will save time underwater!
  3. Plan your own dive; are you an avid photographer? Does your buddy want to stick to the shallows? Use the dive guide’s plan as a template and work your dive plan into it. Let the dive guide know what you’re planning to, so they’re aware of what you’re up to.
  4. Kit check each other. Not every diver carries the same gear, so familiarize yourselves with each other’s equipment.
  5. Communication is key. Stay within visual distance of each other at minimum, and signal when you’re moving and the direction of travel. No one likes taking some pictures or checking out something really cool then looking up to find their buddy is gone!

Our Plan

It’s the little common sense things like this that often get overlooked by divers eager to hit the water after too long a surface interval. Most of it you can do on the trip out in a boat or during the gear up session in the parking lot. Getting into this as a habit is good thing, guaranteed to make you more popular as a buddy and set you up for the sort of thinking that comes in handy as a divemaster!
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Bioluminescence and Kelp! Q Cove by Night!

Filed under: British Columbia, Underwater Photography — 1 Comment
22/04/2011

Curious Rockfish


Quathiaski Cove, better known as Q Cove to the locals and divers in the area, is an enjoyable boat and sometimes drift dive on Quadra Island. I’d been in the area ages ago during a diving vacation with some friends after an overseas tour, and returned to it for some fun by moonlight recently!

Feed!


Q Cove is a boat access only dive, and follows along a shallow wall to a gently sloping bottom of sand and loose rocks. I hit 12.9m for maximum depth, but if you’re hunting for Sea Pens or other unique fauna, you could easily hit 18m during high tide. Like many other dives around Quadra Island, and the area in general, the area is somewhat tide sensitive; live boating and drifting are very real possibilities here. In particular, it can become a mild drift dive as you pass the point and get near the old ferry docks. As a night dive, you should be sure to take the normal precautions and carry a spare light and a visual surface signal device. Parts of the area are heavy with kelp as well, so having a dive knife or set of shears won’t go far wrong either.

The Sunflower Star King


The area had a fair amount of particulate matter in the water, and complex constellations and galaxies of bioluminescence in your wake or around your arms and hands with even the tiniest motions! My frustration with my camera’s inability to operate in lowlight conditions has never been so great! A video would have been amazing. Beyond that, the waters were light on life that night, with only the usual culprits to the area, although there was a Sailfin Sculpin that his from the camera and a somewhat lost looking Blue Rockfish. The sea stars were enormous… one of which had a disc at least 50cm wide and over 20 rays! I thought it was a strange growth before I approached it and saw it for the monstrous Sunflower Star it was!

Grazing by Night


Like any night dive, you have to plan for this sort of thing; while Q Cove is firmly in the beginner to intermediate area of skill, night diving is still inherently more risky than day time diving. I heartily recommend the dive site to those interested, and hopefully you’ll find the luminescing as captivating as we did and spot more in the way of life!

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