We went in as 2 buddy pairs, myself and Andrew; Ariel and Clive but stuck together as there were a couple of drills to be done jointly. I didn't know if I would make the full dive because as soon as I descended, I got the classic ice cream headache - something in 12 years of diving I had never experienced. However, Ariel assured me that it would pass after 5 minutes or so - which it did. Andrew led us successfully to the helicopter platform where we started playing around with buoyancy. Ariel had us spinning round, hanging upside down, tumble turning whilst maintaining good buoyancy. Andrew then successfully completed AS both as donor and recipient to 6m. He also had a valuable learning experience regarding kit maintainance. He had very recently swapped over the mouth piece from his main reg as he had bitten through the teeth guard and put it onto his spare. This was the reg that Ariel used which wouldn't stay in!
Andrew and Ariel then braved full mask removal thus completing his drills, the exploratory part of the dive was cut short as we headed back to the shallows and the warmth of a flask of hot chocolate. It was not the end of the dive for Ariel and Clive as Clive also needed to do mask removal, but at a shallower depth with Ariel demonstrating again.
We retired to the cafe for a warmimg cup of coffee. In an empty room, Andrew managed to find the only table which allowed him to double up as a door man! We talked through a rescue scenario as we were to be carrying out one later. This had some interesting ideas as to the morality involved in breaking and entering to make a 999 call!
I wimped out of the second dive as my hands were like blocks of ice, thus the intrepid tag team bravely declared a planned route using compass navigation. So confident they were, they opted not to take an underwater map. All went extremely well, even with the surprise appearence of Shergar (not on the planned route, but hey, it could happen to anyone!)
A very quick cup of coffee was had as we still had one more task to complete, Rescue Managment for Andrew. Clive was to play an injured diver with a missing buddy. All I can say is expect to see him on the Oscar nominations as he is from the school of method acting. In fact we couldn't shut him up at one point! With the safe return of Clive's missing buddy and a Bafta nomination, Andrew's drill was successfully completed and we returned to the warmth of our cars and headed home for pizza and a bottle of wine! A most enjoyable day was had by all.
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