Equipment Testing Day ! :)

So today my diving buddy couldn’t make it and I had all this equipment I wanted to try out. I have been using each of the new equipment at different times but not all together so today was the day. The only problem is without a buddy I couldn’t push it to far otherwise it wouldn’t be safe.

When I got to the dive site I saw some guys getting in the water so I had a bit of a chat with them and we paired up as we each took turns taking our dives to various different depths throughout the bay. I wanted to explore around the ledges and stay down longer but because my buddy wasn’t with me and the fact that I didn’t set up the dive buoy meant it wasn’t a good idea to stray to far away from where I had initially taken the dive and where my spotter was positioned.

I started the day just doing laps across the bay doing freestyle just to get a bit warmer and to get my daily exercise. When I got out of the water it was freezing but I dried up, warmed up a bit with some tea and then quickly wet my body got into my wetsuit and went in for the dive.

I wanted to test the fins that I had just bought in some deeper water as I haven’t had the chance to try them at depth (only in the pools so far). It takes a bit getting used to at the start but once you get into the flow and the rhythm of the kicks it feels really smooth. I feel that my legs are still somewhat wobbly going down but after a few more laps in the pool I think it should be alright. I also feel that the Cressi Gara Modulars (with the default black fins) that I have are pretty stiff and really tough for surface kicking, but once you are underwater they are awesome. Thinking about it I might buy the green blades because they are supposed to be softer and better for surface and medium depth. Since im not going past 20m at the moment I think they might be better then the default black blades for now.

Anyway it was a good day until it was time to get out. Towards the end of the day the swells became huge and getting out of the water was difficult. I had my camera pole, I had fins on and no one to help grab the stuff whilst I got out. The waves were big and they where all breaking on the dive exit. A few people had gotten cuts on their legs throughout the day and one spear fisherman who had got in at the wrong time ended up with cuts and scratches on his face, legs and arms, so instead of getting out the normal exit I swam to the beach which was about 300-400m, got out and walked about 500m’s or so to where I had placed my gear 🙂

By the time I wanted to get out at the normal exit I was already exhausted and the break not letting me get out easily wasn’t helping. Using the fins for the first time made my legs tired and I could feel the lactic acid build up so the 400m paddle to the beach was tiring 😛 I have to say though, I would rather be tired then have cuts and bruises all over my body, so paddle to the beach I did 🙂

DCIM100MEDIA

Btw just a one picture I took of a school of fish hanging around ….

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