Stupid scooter tricks

[Jon]

I was camping and diving this past weekend with some of my scuba buddies and I think that I made at least one, or even two , freediving converts.

After showing htem how close they could get to the fish we decided to break out the scooters- almost all tec divers ahve at least one scooter. They were amazed at how fast they could go without hte extea drag of tanks on their back. They also were much more relaxed because they weren't building up all that CO2 from kicking.

I decided to take a nic elong run at a shallow depth, around 20', to look for lost gear. Almost all of the sunken trees at Lakw Wazee point straight up. I found one that points straight out horizontal- think impaling spike form the opening scene from the movie "Gladiator".:waterwork

I hit the thing with my head and proceed to push the end of the sunken sapling through my good Picasso wetsuit.:duh After I back up to get teh tree out of my suit I surface to access the damages.

I found one really nice whole that I now need to sew up.

 

[Jon]

When I went to ask my buddies how bad the back of my suit was, they told me that I had a nice hole in it, but wanted to know why my head was bleeding.:duh

 

[caymandiver]

ouch! I hope your head heals soon. Nothing like having bad things happen to your gear. Hey but at least you showed those tech guys what's up!

I just had my wet suit stolen. When I buy my next one I've decided to write, "Stolen Wetsuit, contact Chritian at 949-9477" on the inside of the suite. Some where everyone will see.

I've also decided to write "I've pissed and took a shit in this suit" somewhere hard to see. He He He rofl

 

[Jon]

My buddy, Gert, had a much better time with his scooter. He has even decided to start training to imporve his depth and bottom times. He will alaways be a tec diver at heart, but now realizes how much he can imporve his scuba diving by becoming a better freediver.

He was so enthusiastic about it that he is even looking into adding some freedivng gear into his shop, which is AMAZING since we are in Wisconisn and not Florida! I think he might even get an underwater hockey team going this winter through his shop.

BTW: My pride was hurt much more than my head- it's pretty thick to begin with. Tomorrow I'll start gluing, and sewing, the suit back together.

Jon

 

[caymandiver]

That's great news Jon! It always touchs me when freediving gets spread around. :waterwork Please give me a tissue..

No really though. That's awesome. I feel that tec divers and freedivers are so similar in some way. We both want to go explore the scariest hole ever and feel comfortable in the darkness. ok.. maybe not everyone.

Have you tried any of the fiber glass fins yet? I've tried both carbon and fiber and I actually like the fiber better.
The reason why I'm asking is because it's pretty cheap, the matrix came with sporsub foot pocket assembled, and very tough. It would be perfect for bumping into submerged trees! :t Would be a great gear for ANY shop to have! We all know we bump into stuff. Me defnitely included. I bumped into a paddle in a pool today!:duh Nothing like the damage done to you tough..

cheers!

 

[Jon]

I haven't tried the fiberglass fins yet, but my buddy, Ted, has ordered a pair of "hards" for himslef.

Jyri is sending along a pair of "extra hard" for him to try as well. When they finally get here we'll give 'em a go and see how they compare to the fins we have now.

Since I have bonded my C4 blades to my SPorasub foot pockets I am just in love with them. They wrok so nice, but I am still worried abou breaking them and could see why a pair of fiber-plastic fins would be better.

 

[Jon]

I tried using my monofin with the scooter, ONCE.:duh It really is a lot harder to steer and I found it much more difficult to control than with bi-fins.

I also tried scuba diving, once, with my monofin. It just doesn't work that well unless your doing straight forward freediving. I was freediving off of the charter boat that I work on when I had to go swim and rescue this diver who popped up way off the wreck. I swam him back to the boat, with the monofin on, and then felt a bit sea-sick from the swells. I grabbed tank and went to the bottom to rest my stomach. I found out that you really need to have the tank valve, and waist strap, adjusted just right so you don't keep smacking the back of your head when you dolphin kick.

I have a Waterway monofin and find the foot pockets to be extremely uncomfortable. I try to use it for about 20 minutes and then need to go back to my bi-fins to recover. A while later I'll put the thing on again and can usually only last 15 minutes the second time. I have thought about a SEBAK monofin, but I just can't justify the money right now.

Since the British diver were visiting i thought that I'd break out all the toys in my basement while we dove some of the local lakes- carbon fins, monofins, cameras, scooters, wetsuits. The only thing we didn't get to try was spearfishing, wich is much better in the winter when the good spearing lakes have more than 3' of vis in them.

Thanks for the invite, maybe this winter I can get down there.

Jon