Diving

Friday, July 26, 2013

The forcast for Sunday...

... our eqipment is getting wet and hopesully we will stay dry...

Maria and Tero agreed that on sunday we will go to Pulkkilanharju, Asikkala and test the new battery on Teros underwater jet. Naturally we'll take pictures and I'll post them asap.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

DAN

The Divers Alert Network or DAN is one of the most important pages a diver must know.
Found a good page that everybody can enjoy...

http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/quiz/

Have fun! :)

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Dive locations

It occur to me that I haven't written, were all the dive sites are located.

Kaatiala

The latest place we visited was Kaatiala quarry in Kuortane, Etelä-Pohjanmaa. The quarry is located between Kuortane and Alavuus. The approximate address is Louhostie 320, 63230 Lentilä. The cabin, were we usually stay is in Sarvikas. Kuortane is located about 350 km from the capital area where we all live, so the cabin is a perfect extra, and we get to enjoy Tero's cooking. :)

For the finnish speaking, there is some information on Wikipedia, just type "Kaatialan louhos". For pictures, other the mine, search on google for "Kaatialan louhos"or "Kaatialan kaivos"

Kisko

Kisko is located here in the southern part of Finland. The approximate address is Viiarintie, 25460 Kisko. This is also a old quarry that isn't in use anymore. The local volunteer fire brigade takes their water from here.

Iso-Melkutin

Iso-Melkutin is a small lake near the town of Loppi, Finland. The dive site has been upgraded with a bench, a terrace and stairs down to the water by the local dive associations. If you visit/dive here, please keep it clean, this is one of my favorite places. The approximate address is Melkuttimentie, 12950 Loppi. It starts with a shallow standing from where it's easy to go diving or swimming.

Pulkkilanharju

This is not one of my favorites, don't really know why... One reason is probarly that the water has a lot of humus (I thinks it's the corect word for it, at least according to the dictionary). On the plus side with this site is tha entry, it's 2 meters and you're in the water. Did my deep dive here when I was on my AOWD course. On the bottom you can find remainder from the time the logs where transported by rivers, lakes and streams. The approximate address according to Google is Pulkkilansalmensilta 539, 17320 Asikkala. But on the map it shows Pulkkilantie Asikkala. I guess both are correct. It's located about a 160 km north from Espoo.

Emäsalo

This is were we have our last dive for the season. Or at least for the last two years now... It's around the last weekends in October. It get very dark very soon here so it's a good place because there is a small cabin that we use after the dive to make food and eat. Tero has made a chandelier that we hang from the roof. It's a nice tradition. I've heared that this has been where the ferry has to dock. Nowadays it's for putting your boat in and taking it out from the ocean. This means it a very easy entry point for divers. :)

Vessö/Wessö

Hmm... When approaching Wessö you see sign where it's spelled with a "W" and on maps it's spelled with "V". I like to write it with a "W", because it's more a Swedish way to write it. I belong to a 6% minority here in Finland. I'm a Swedish speaking Finn with Swedish as my mother tongue. I speak both languages fluently, but my English is a bit rusty, as you probably have noticed.

I think the address is Skarvbölevägen, but can't be sure, you turn from the Skarvbölevägen. The last couple of turns don't have any signs.

There are a couple of other places where we also go to dive but not that much. For example;

Hanko, but the dive site is now a construction site. They are building housing or a Hotel (nobody really knows, the plans has change a lot...)

Porkkala, it's not that far from Espoo, but the entry is not fun. First you have to walk up hill about 50 meters then a steep downhill with trees and big rocks for about 200 meters. To get to the water you still have to climb big rocks. It's not that bad, but when coming out from the water it's the same but in reversed. But there is a nice BBQ. :)

Tiilinjärvi, a good place to learn to dive, very shallow but clear water. The down side is that you have to care your equipment also for a 200 meter walk. It actually looks quite funny, people out for a jog and then people carrying their diving equipment.

If You want to join us, you can find information on upcoming dives on Facebook pages - Black Belt Divers. It should be a open group, so you shouldn't have to have a Facebook account to see it.

Forgotten picture from Kaatiala

I totally forgot to post this pic yesterday. This is my favorite picture that Maria took on our trip to Kaatiala.

This is just... Wau...

Monday, July 8, 2013

Kaatiala, by request :)

After I had posted last post, I called Elise like I had promised to let her know that the pictures are online. Elise was worried that her and John's pictures hadn't made my blog. So by request, here Elise... :)

Kaatila quarry, 5-7/7 2013

Hi!
During the weekend we went to Kaatiala quarry in Kuortane, Finland. Now the pictures aren´t in a chronological order, but divided to shallow and deep end. We didn't manage to get our normal cabin in Sarvikas, so we had to take a hotel, with wasn't that expensive. The positive thing with the hotel was that everybody could go to sleep when they wanted, but, really a BIG BUT, we missed out on Teros magnificent foods... One reason we participate with Maria on these Kaatiala trips, is the food.

On Friday morning we set of from home @ 07:30 and went to pick up John. When we had everything packed, we set of to Ylöjärvi (just north of Tampere) where we had agreed to meet up with the rest and have coffee. We filled up with water and so on, and set of towards Kuhranta Hotel, Kuortane. We left somethings in the hotel rooms, and went to the quarry.

Friday, the weather was a bit unstable, but the rain didn't stop us from going in the water.
I did two dives on Friday, the first one was 28 minutes and to 25,4 meters. The second was 45 minutes to 29 meters (Starting pressure 214 bar and ending with 49 bar, with a steel 12 liter bottle)

On Saturday morning the weather was unstable, but cleared up quickly. I did 3 dives, the first was with Patrik, who was on his AOWD course. John and I assisted Tero by doing Patrik's navigation dives. Tero is hoping that after we complete our DM (DiveMaster course) we would continue to become AI (Assistant Instructor) . In between these dives I went with Tommi to the deep end and did two dives, 24,2 meters - 15 minutes and 28,5 meters - 32 minutes.

Sunday, John and I assisted again Tero with Patrik's search and recovery and underwater photographer course. I took some pictures from these dives but these are on Tero's camera (hopefully I can get them too, thou the water wasn't that clear so to pictures aren't that good).
After that Patrik had completed his AOWD course, Tero paired Patrik with me and then we set of to 26,8 meters and we stayed for 26 minutes.

These pictures are taken by Maria (my wife).

Tero is meditating or just waiting for the rain to stop

John thinks he´s an otter...

To the left Tommi, me and to the right Elise

Curious perch

Setting and getting ready for Patrik's navigation dive.

Roach (Wikipedia)

Roach

Tero and his dog, our mascot Kamu

Tero and Kamu

Roach

Me and Tommi @ the deep end.

Our air source, Coltri Compressors

The next pictures are taken inside the dive bell, with is in the deep end @ about 22-25 meters.

Spektrum

Elise

John

Leaving the dive bell

The dive bell's platform

About 10 meters from the dive bell there is a old plane, withs was still, the last time we where here "floting", now it had "crashed" to the bottom. The bright shine in this photo is from my WiseDive light with 3300 lumen.