Wrecking a weekend…

Posted on June 12, 2012 by

Sunday it was time to join Dennis Chow up at Porteau Cove to work on my Wreck Diving course with Dave Stewart and his better half…lol.  You can tell that I’m pretty confident that Dave doesn’t read my blog yet, so I’m safe making comments like that…lol.  It’s not because Dave is bigger than me and was once a pro-fighter that I am careful, it’s because he is the new Service Department Manager at Ocean Pro… in other words he makes sure my gear works…lol.  In all seriousness I couldn’t imagine a better group of people to do my wreck course with!  Very similar to my Ice Diving experience there were bound to be moments when one or all of us were faced with some concerns, fortunately day one was Sunday and all we were looking at doing in the way of skills was swim out to the wreck, identify hazards look for entry / exit points and make notes on our slates.  Very similar to the dives i did with Dennis last year when working towards my Wreck certification.  With my new pencil in hand (you can read about my pencils here) I marked down the areas I thought I could snag myself on and marked out entry points on the wreck (their really just holds so you come out of the same hole you go in…lol.

The dives were nice and easy, I think the most dangerous part of the day were the little Lions Mane jellyfish that were spotted through out the dive.  Who knows what next weekend will bring but I know we are all a little nervous about the actual penetration.

Posted in Porteau Cove, Wreck Diving | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Scuba Diver Seeks Fellow Scuba Diver…

Posted on June 4, 2012 by

Did that sound like a classified ad?…

Good, cause that is very similar to the on-line ad I answered back a couple months ago.

I know, I know, why would I answer a classified ad from someone looking for a fellow diver? Well, simply, cause I love to dive!..lol.  Here I was, looking through classifieds, shopping for used dive gear when I came across an ad looking for local divers.  At first I thought I must be mental for thinking about responding but then I thought, “Hey, what could it hurt to respond…”

It didn’t hurt, in fact it resulted in me meeting an amazing diver who, once we got our schedule to mesh, met me up at Porteau Cove for a couple of the best dives I have done up there in a long while.  One of the highlights of the day, besides the diving of course, was meeting up with Roy Mulder (no relation Fox Mulder of the X-Files…lol).  You can read all about Roy in my article written in Ocean Pro Divers blog “Superheroes without the mask and cape….“.  Roy was up at Porteau doing facilitating an educational program on local marine life with the Marine Life Sanctuaries Society for a group of children.  As it happens a Skate, the largest I have seen by far, washed up on shore and the M.L.S.S. did a talk on Skates as well since this was probably the closest any of us was going to get to one of this size and certainly the only time we were going to be able to touch and get such a close look at this creature.

After visiting with Roy during my surface interval it was back into the water for dive number two where again we visited the Grant Hall and I practiced my navigation skills (which are getting so much better than way back when I started with I May Not Know Where I Am But Now I Know How to Get There… .)

With gear cleaned and packed, pictures of the skate on my phone and a new friend and amazing dive buddy’s contact info in my address book… it was time to head home and call it a day.

Posted in Andrew TM Harris, Granthall, Porteau Cove, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Old Friends, New DM’s and Great Food!

Posted on May 28, 2012 by

Sunday marked the second Ocean Pro Divers BBQ of the year, I can’t believe it’s been a month already!!  It was a great turn out lots of new divers finishing off the last of their certification dives for Open Water and/or Dry Suit.  After listening in on the Dive briefing presented by Monti Richardson and Matt Mendes it was time for me to pull my gear and start building my kit.  It was great to see some of the new DM’s there like Dave Stewart and Scott Denham along with lots of of familiar divers some I haven’t seen since the last BBQ and some not since Christmas!.

With my kit together it was time to see what mischief everyone else was up to.  Wes was showing off his new dry-suit and everyone was oooh’ing and ah’ing over it.  People were telling Wes how nice it must be to have a wife like Shannon who can buy him nice things like his new light…lol.  Other recreational divers were slowing building kits and chatting among themselves while Ashley inflated one of the shops kayaks so she could take her nephew out.

With everyone well on their way to being geared, Scott Denham, a longtime dive buddy of mine and newly certified Dive Master, walked us through our dive briefing and prepped us for the day.  With 7 divers going in, it was nice and easy to partner divers up in 2′s and a group of 3.  Then with the plan of trying to stick together as a big group, we all set out for the water.

Once in and out to the first dive marker it was noticed that one of the divers had a leak in his BCD inflater so Scott swam him back to shore for repairs and I took half the group (me, my buddy and one of the other divers) and we went ahead to do our dive and Scott led the remaining 2 divers on their dive.

My group descended and despite some pretty bad visibility we stuck close together swam for the hose and swam our course towards the underwater sites.  Visibility was a problem through the whole dive, clearing in around 30+ feet but only enough to see approx 10 feet around you which was generally only enough to see your dive buddies and make sure your group didn’t run into another one.  Even though we stayed very close together the bottom disturbance was minimal and I managed to get several pictures that I was happy with before getting the signal that a diver had surpassed 1000PSI which was the signal for our return swim back so that we could reach shore and walk up the stairs with 500+ PSI left in all tanks.

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Lunch was amazing as normal, lots of burgers and hot dogs and snacks to go around giving us lots of time to visit and listen to the newly certified divers excitedly share the details from their dives.  It’s no wonder most instructors, including Ocean Pro Divers owner Shannon (Shaz) Kozak, view Open Water as their favourite course to teach!  If you’re a diver, think back to your first open water dive and I’m sure you’ll agree… for anyone who has never tried it, check out Ocean Pro’s website and sign up for a class and join me and get in “Over Your Head!”

Posted in Andrew TM Harris, Ashley Graham, Mathew Mendes, Monti Richardsen, Ocean Pro, Ocean Pro Divers, Photography, Porteau Cove, Shannon Kozak, Wes Kozak | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Shooting in the Cut and Drifting in the Bay…

Posted on April 17, 2012 by

Sunday marked the first Ocean Pro Dive BBQ of the year, a sunny day up at Whytecliffe Park joined by Wes’ Underwater Photography class and Shannon’s Dive Master candidates. After a dive briefing conducted by the Dive Master candidates it was time to partner up and prepare for a day of diving.  Virpi was there and with here typical huge smile asked to dive with me so we could practice taking pictures.  What a way to spend my birthday weekend, yesterday at the Aquarium and today with one of my favorite divers, miss Virpi Kangas herself!

With gear all set and the camera’s primed we set out for the painful Whytecliffe hike down the back trail to the cut, you can read all about the cut in  Diving the Marker and Experiencing The Cut! and in Cuts, Records and Bad Buddies…...  Today’s plan was simply swim out into the cut, descend to 60 feet and work our way around the point and back into the bay.  Dropping down along the cut is one of the most exciting things, as only wall divers can really relate to, as the wall is covered with so much life you almost have no place to rest a hand without crushing something.  Being really careful with our buoyancy we came across the new dive memorial that was recently set-up to honor the diver lost last year.  Then proceeding to our depth we cruised along looking for interesting life and of course the elusive great pacific octopus, known to find little shelves or cracks to call home.  After a solid 45 minute dive we had reached and only just past the the point in the bay so we decided on the shorter surface swim back into the cut and the longer hike up to the vehicles just n time for burgers and snacks.

Dive two we decided to head out into the bay and just float around for a while, see if we could get some good pictures in the shallower depths before having to turn around when one of us got short of air (usually me) or one of us got cold (usually Virpi…lol.)  In this case neither of us got cold or ran low on air, we simply swam out taking pictures, turned and slowly meandered our way back in towards shore taking pictures as we went and eventually ran out of area to swim as we neared shore.  Then it was the ever fun task of hiking all the way back up the path to the vehicles before calling it a day.  I must say, this was a birthday weekend for the memory banks!  Thank you to everyone who made it such an amazing weekend!

Posted in Andrew TM Harris, Buoyancy, Ocean Pro, Ocean Pro Divers, octopus, Photography, Scuba Diving, Shannon Kozak, Underwater Photography, Virpi Kangas, Wes Kozak, Whytecliff Park | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Best Birthday Ever…

Posted on April 16, 2012 by

As a kid I always remember going to school after a birthday and bragging about all the cool gifts I got from friends and family, I also remember how jealous I got when someones party or presents sounded cooler than mine… I mean how childish could we be!  Worrying about who got the best stuff or had the best party… phew am I glad we grew up!  Oh.. by the way, MY BIRTHDAY WAS THE BEST EVER!!!

All joking aside this was easily one of the best birthdays of my life.  My birthday this year fell on Saturday, and coincidentally so did my shift at the Vancouver Aquarium.  So my only request from my family for my birthday this year was for them to join me down at the Aquarium and watch me dive and clean the exhibits.  With the help of Gabriel Avelar (Coordinator, Volunteer Services) who, in the Aquariums typical fashion, went above and beyond to meet my family and escort them down to the underwater viewing area where they could watch, take pictures and even video tape me cleaning.  After finishing my duties for the morning, this day it happened to be the wall and rocks directly beneath the platform, I was able to surface and Kristi passed me a sponge and told me to go wash the windows, which also happened to be where my family was.  Nothing quite beats the the feeling inside when you see you boys smiling at you and blowing kisses through the glass.  Or the look on your youngest nieces face as giggles as she watches you swim into glass.  The look of pride on your Dads face as he is telling people that walk by and watch, that this is “his son” in the tank.  I’m not sure how clean those windows got, not too sure Kristi or the Aquarium were too concerned about the windows either, all I know is the Aquarium gave me an opportunity few will ever have.  Oh, people will have birthday parties at the Aquarium, and many of those will be with family, but I got a chance to share my love of diving with my family, with my Dad, my older brother Phil and his youngest daughter Laura, my sister Becky and my little brother Matt, and most importantly my beautiful wife Jenn and our boys Robert, Joshua and Charles!  It was unfortunate due to courses and cats (I’ll save those stories for another entry) that my two sisters-in-law Marisa and Amber and Phil and Marisa’s oldest Julia were unable to join us.  But that just means that I get another chance to show off my skills and the Aquarium by having them come out… plus who knows, maybe when we do it again my new niece or nephew (Matt and Amber’s first) will be there to join us.  I’ll post some great video shot by Matt shortly and some of the pictures taken by Matt and Becky and Dad as well.

In short, I don’t know what you did for your birthday… but mine was better.. BAZINGA!

Posted in Andrew TM Harris, Birthday, Family, Vancouver Aquarium | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tonights Stoke…

Posted on April 9, 2012 by

Well, I finally met my instructor, she was feeling better and was able to show up for my torture swim lesson…lol. In the pool we started with some quick warm ups which consisted of bouncing up and down a few times including dunking ourselves right under the water.  Then it was time to get started for the night.  After reviewing what was covered in last Wednesdays class we got started.  Now our instructor, it turns out, is a fan of working the legs!  So to prepare for our backwards crawl we lay on our backs and swam a lap using just our legs, then it was a lap focusing on rotating our shoulders, using nothing but, you guessed it, our legs…  Once back at our start it was time to introduce the arms… of course we’re still using our legs…lol.  After a few laps it was time to rest the arms, (yeah cause it was my arms that needed a rest…lol,) and grab a kick-board and race from one end to the other!  I made it about 3/4 of the way before my legs started screaming at me like they were about to break off as if they were a lizards tail…lol.  After finishing the last quarter it was time for a slow swim back…legs burning the whole time!

Back at the start and hoping my quivering legs can keep me standing so that I don’t drown in the lane it was time to rest a few minutes.  Then with the other member of my class finishing her lap the instructor got us started on forward crawl.  For this we were doing half laps with the instructor following behind stopping us as needed to give tips and pointers.  It actually felt like some of it was coming together… almost as fast as my legs were falling apart!  Finally 7:45 rolled around, I know only 45 minutes, and it was finally time for class to end, now for the big challenge of the night… climbing out of the pool!  Here’s hoping my legs can keep up on Wednesday and still have enough energy left to make it all the way home.

Posted in Andrew TM Harris, Dive Master, Physical Fitness | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Strokes…

Posted on April 4, 2012 by

Earlier tonight I began to prepare for the next leg of my dive journey.  With Dive Master class scheduled for August it was time to start preparing for what I am sure will be one of the hardest tests of my life.  You see to qualify for Dive Master I need to be able to swim 400 meters non-stop, then do a 15 minute tread with hands out of the water for the last 2 minutes.  This is followed up with an 800 meter swim with mask fins and a snorkel and then to finish off my night of pain do another 100 meters dragging another diver both of us in full dive gear…  and we all know how well I did in “Fitness… I don’t need no stinkin’ fitness”.

So, to save myself a repeat embarrassment I have signed up for swimming lessons at Sungod Aquatic Centre and tonight, was class number one.

Now to get an idea of the lead up you need to understand that I have never taken formal swimming lessons, I was schooled by my mom with the “jump off the diving board and paddle like mad” method..lol.  So when looking at courses I had three choices and the wonderful staff at the Aquatic center made it rather easy to figure out.  Option #1 Into – aka “you’re scared of the water and our goal is to get you into the water”. Option #2 Beginner – aka “you can almost swim one lap without dying, our goal is to help you finish that lap”. Option #3 Strokes – aka “you can swim laps, we’ll make you faster”.  So when I showed up tonight I had already missed class on Monday but was reassured that I’d be fine.  Class started at 7 and unfortunatly our instructor had gone home ill so we had a replacement, an 18 year old polo player…weee.

After jumping into the water our instructor had us swim half a lap, then back… no worries.  Then another lap, this time a full one… ok, I can feel the muscles in my legs now… Now another lap, then another, and again… Ok, now I see why this course is called strokes… I’m about to have one..lol.

After several laps he had assured me I was doing a good job and it was time to rest a second.  Next it was off to the deep-end to work on treading water.  Oh good, part two of nearly drowning during my open water physical…lol.

Now in the deep-end it was time to demonstrate my feeble skills in treading.  Our instructor then proceeded to show us a “beater” tread Which is where you move you legs in a beater-like pattern that if mastered (as he demonstrated) will allow you to rise up well above hip height out of the water!  Now if only I could master that, for my 15 minute tread…lol.

Posted in Andrew TM Harris, Dive Master, Dive Master Training, health | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment