Jeremy Does His CCR MOD 2 Course

Met Rich Stevenson (plus family) at Bristol airport and the half of the team, Kev Penney (a mate of Jo's from the North east) and Paul Brown (who owns Hastings diving centre). After a bit of faff with luggage (No boxes over 35kg after 1st of November, Kev got stung for excess and we all had to show our cylinders where empty we finally left. Landed in Arrecife and met firstly Robin and finally Lee from deco stop diving who was our host for the week and also doing his CCR MOD 1 instructor course. Off to the hotel Sirocco in Costa Teguise, settled in a adjourned to the bar for a beer.

Saturday was a similar scene though we where fairly slick by now, so we left the shop by 9.30. Same location Porto del Carmen. 50m dive today with drills and skills, manual running of the unit at depth. Next a shallow dive with more skills, more manual o2, bailouts onto Open circuit, bailout removal, all to be done with neutral buoyancy. back to the dive centre then off to hotel again. We are all good today and have only a couple of beers whilst planning tomorrows first trimix dive. Off to an excellent chinese for a meal and then back in bed for an early night.

Sunday 60m trimix dive. Lee started showing his true colours, blending was a nightmare for him and there was always some disaster going on. Usually with his blending panel or compressor. Still he had mixed the gas and we left the shop by 10. Into the water and off we go. Long surface swim out to the drop off then down to a sandy slope which ambles down to at least 60m. Practice running the unit by manual setpoint again on the bottom. We run very short bottom times (15 minutes on this dive) to reduce the need for long stops. The bailout plan gives us a total run time of 54 minutes but the VR3's had everyone ready to surface about 10 minutes before that. So a long shallow deco stop with more drills.

Monday was a dive on the local wrecks. A collection fishing boats. Gentle amble round and then down to forty metres for more drills. Running semi closed this time. using Robin and Rich as markers the Closed circuit team swam round in circles trying hard to use up the PPo2 and then flush it out. Must have looked very funny like a couple of dogs chasing each other in a cloud of dust around the garden. A long surface swim back to a little harbour then lunch on the quay and back to the shop. wash kit and back to the hotel. Debrief from the day and plan for tomorrows 70m dive. Tuesday a new site this time at a place called Male. Its a nudist beach! We get there and amble gently down the steep slope to entry point with stages. Lots a fat germans starkers. A few worth looking at but not many! Second trip down to the steps kit up and away we go. Swim out then a gentle potter down to 70m. Manual control of the set point using the cylinder valve on the bottom then we start deco. Adding in extra stops at 21, 18, 15, 12 sees us gently back to the 6m stop. Up till this point the dive has been very quite, with only the solenoid and my own breathing to listen to, at m the urchins are making a hell of a racket, lots of clicking noises. At some point on this stop everyone looks up and notices the swimmers. Well its more interesting than most deco stops I've been on. Rich wastes a few quids worth of trimix on giving a German whale a jacuzzi. Some of the boys also try reg sharing on the inspiration. This is done by one diver sitting on another's back and handing the mouthpiece between them. Needs practice but it can be done! A rest on the entry point before we climb the steps and back to the van. Rich has a nice skin bend forming when we dekit. Same routine lunch, dekit, debrief and then quite a heavy nights drinking. We have finished the official bit and tomorrow we have a choice of sites.

Kev and I opt for the easy option of the wrecks , whilst the other two want to do an 80m dive. However come the morning Lee has run out of Helium so we all end up doing the wrecks. What's the diving like, vis is excellent 30m plus, the marine life is limited though we did see a couple of rays, and some octopus, and the water is warm 26-28 degrees. It only rained at night and was generally very hot and sunny. We had been advised to take dry suits (bad mistake!) I dived in thermals and a dry suit which was quite comfy set up even if I did get nipped around the back of the knee.

Final night we hit the town big time, Rich and his misses and her daughter plus the four of us plus Lee and his misses. A curry then lots of beers in various bars. Thursday was very hot, sticky and hungover. The flight back was chaos at the airport, I got stung £60 for excess, then got tannoyed to show my cylinders here empty and only just got on the plane. Lanzarotes very pleasant, everyone speaks English (phew!) and the hotels and restaurants are excellent. I would recommend the trimix course to anyone but do it closed circuit and save yourself a fortune on the gas bill. Rich was a great instructor and we had loads of laughs. (For the boys only, the totty count was fantastic! )

Oh the cost, guiding boat and gas bill was £180, the course cost £500 flights where £265 and I spent £270 on hotels food and beer. Not cheap but worth it.

Jez