Wreck exploration is progressive in both the techniques you adopt and the extent of your exploration.

There comes a time in a divers career where swimming the outside of a particular wreck isn’t enough and an overpowering urge grows within to explore those stairwells and hatches which lead to the bowels of the ship. Curiosity is what makes us tick, and its this basic instinct that creates this urge to explore, for the untrained and compulsive life expectancy can be short, for the trained and well organized the rewards can be immense and life expectancy normal.

Recreational agencies like PADI offer basic wreck training, these courses are a great way to get you started on wreck exploration, but they are only enough to give you basic skills and knowledge, it takes bottom time and advanced skills to safely penetrate a wreck. Technical diving agencies like TDI do offer generic Advanced Wreck courses, which take the student through the skills and knowledge to required to satisfy ones curiosity. 

MIKHAIL LERMONTOV ADVANCED WRECK DIVER TRAINING GROUND

Having completed many hundreds of hours diving on one of the most penetrable wrecks in the world and experiencing an increasing demand for advanced dives, has prompted me to write my own Advanced Wreck diving outline that focuses on this type of wreck environment. The course  will be specific to wrecks like the Mikhail Lermontov and will focus on skills that not only apply to the Lermontov, but to any other wreck within the 45 metre depth range. Students who successfully complete this course will receive a PADI Distinctive Advanced Wreck Diving Specialty rating, will have completed 4 dives on the Lermontov and have advanced buoyancy skills while kitted out with tools required for advanced wreck diving.

Go Dive will be offering the new Advanced Wreck diving course from August, there are some advanced pre-requisites required as well as equipment requirement’s, so nows the time to start preparing for it. If your interested in finding out more email me on info@godive.co.nz to register your interest. 

safe diving

Brent

Go Dive

www.godive.co.nz

After a few days of relentless rain it was great to see a bit of the sun yesterday, it’s amazing how a few rays can change your mood.

Due to a late start caused by Football world cup fever, I headed down to the shop to get started with some rescue training.  Due to the heavy rain we focused on CPR training and O2 administration, important components of the PADI Rescue course.

Guy and Warren arrived up from Christchurch early Sunday and we all headed out for a local dive. Looking at the color of the water due to run off from the previous few days of rain, we all expected pretty average vis. With a a bit of reassurance that fresh water takes a while to mix with seawater, Warren and Guy headed off for a dive on Koi, and were pleasantly surprised that the bad surface vis gave way to some reasonable vis on the wreck.

LEATHER JACKET ON KOI WRECK

I run through a few Rescue surface skills with Hamish and Tomo, after off which they to headed off for a dive on the Koi, although their navigation wasn’t to good looking at the route they took to get their. At one stage I thought they were going o swim back to Picton underwater, I think the increasing depth may have given them a clue that they were on the wrong bearing.

Second dive we headed over to Kumototo point, vis here was even better with it being close to 8 metres in some areas. Thats the beauty of the Marlborough Sounds, it doesn’t matter what the weather gods chuck at us we can always get a reasonable dive in some where.

It’s not long now until New Zealand hosts the Rugby World cup, soon Go Dive will be posting a schedule of Mikhail Lermontov dive tours from mid Sep 2011 to November 2011 for visitors whom will be visiting New Zealand for the Rugby World cup. With there being games in Christchurch, Nelson and Dunedin, it will be a great opportunity for those traveling between islands to stop off for a few days and enjoy some diving on the Lermontov at a time of year when the visibility on her is at its best. 

Keep an eye out on www.godive.co.nz or email me at info@godive.co.nz if you would like some more info.

Still a few spaces on the July 17/18 Dive Lodge trip, remember this is the first weekend of the scallop season, so we will be heading over to see how our house bed of scollop’s have survived the off-season. 

Enjoy your week.

Brent

Go Dive 

www.godive.co.nz

Go Dive Marlborough has just gained dealer status for the Sheawater Predator the new generation of dive computers. 

 Shearwater Research a Canadian based company have been around for a while now and by no means are a new comer to the market, their Pursuit computer has been around for quite some time. One of my on going quests is to search out and marry up easy use, reliable and intuitive kit based on the "KISS" principle and balance with quality training and exciting and challenging diving opportunities. It’s taken me a year or two to find a computer capable of meeting the expectations of club members, customers and the type of diving we are performing and have planned for the future.

The Shearwater Predator meets these demands, with its OLED color display that automatically adjusts intensity based on available light, and when values are not normal displays them in yellow or red, it  is energy efficient, suitable for OC and CCR use, has 5 open circuit gas pre switches for any mix of air, nitrox or helium and utilizes the Buhlmann ZHL-16C algorithm with gradient factors.

Shearwater offer a number of models, that can be upgraded using PIN upgrades and all utilize Bluetooth technology. The unit is also compatible with CCR’s has automatic "set point" switching, external PO2 monitoring, amongst many other features. The units come with dive log software, which is constantly evolving and down-loadable, a new version hitting the market today. 

Prices range from NZ$1795.00 for the PROT-SA OC Trimix unit to NZ$2995.00 for the PROCTE OC/CC Trimix unit with Fisher connector for external O2 monitoring. Given the features and down-loadable features, it allows OC divers to get the full benefit of a state of the art computer and upgrade as they move toward’s CCR diving with out having to purchase a new computer. You might find the old VR3 on the internet at discounted prices at the moment, and as my blog of a last week warns; reason being they are now old technology, absolute and being replaced by the VRX, so why by a Skoda when you can buy a Rolls.

safe diving

Brent

Go Dive

PS: Diving locally this Sunday if your in the area and up for a splash.

It’s 10.30pm on the clock in the 1st officers cabin,  February the 16th 1986 and the Lermontov has just hit bottom at 37 metres in Port Gore.  What was to become one of the countries great maritime mystery’s has now become one of the worlds best wreck dives.

25 years later the Lermontov is largely still intact with most of her fittings still in place, including her huge propellers and anchor. Diving the Lermontov is a fantastic experience not to be missed.

DIVERS SWIM OVER THE PROP OF THE MIKHAIL LERMONTOV

To commemorate the sinking of the Lermontov and to remember those who lost their lives during and since the sinking, Go Dive Marlborough is planning a special week of events from February the 14th to Friday the 18th, events will include an anniversary dinner using dinner ware recovered from the Lermontov and a night dive on February the 16th, exactly 25 years after the sinking.

The Lermontov Lodge in Port Gore will be our base for events and diving, spaces will be limited to 12 guests and the package will include all meals, diving and anniversary t-shirt. Don’t miss this week, already there are divers booked from as far as Aussie and it is guaranteed to be memorable week.

5 Day/10 dive package inclusive of meals, accommodation and 25th anniversary T-shirt

• Non club members: $850.00 
• Dive Club Marlborough Members: $750.00

Contact me at info@godive.co.nz to register your interest.

safe diving

Brent

Go Dive

The internet is a powerful media and opens up the world for news, entertainment, advise and deals. I am the first one to admit that buying from the net can save a hell of a lot of your hard earned cash. But buyer be aware, for sometimes your purchases turn out not to be as good as you would have hoped.

As a diver, business owner and dive trainer, I pride myself on providing the best possible advise to my valued customers and have on many occasions pointed customers to the internet for sales. I have also seen a number of people get burnt from impulsive buying on the net or Trademe and can foresee an ever increasing number of net buyers getting their figures burnt in the future.

Here are a few buyer beware tips:

• Brands are continuously changing and those special deals on the net are generally because the product is out of production or have a high failure rate. Case in point, one well known brand of dive computers has a 60% failure rate.
• There has recently been a number of recalls for a number of high profile brand regulators and BCD’s, if you buy one from the net, forget about getting notified about these recalls or getting a local dive shop to fix the problem.
• As we should all know by now, if its seems to good to be true it generally is. Case in point a customer who brought a cheap Drysuit, it flooded on the first dive and is unrepairable due to very poor seal seaming.
• When it comes to getting that annual regulator service from your local dive shop, don’t expect them to be to sympathetic when charging you for the service if it was brought from the net, service kits can cost upward of $100.00, if you buy locally service parts can cost nothing in some cases. It doesn’t take to many years for your good deal to start costing you much more than expected.
• One well know brand of  BCD’s and Regulators has for some time been available at prices that shops can not compete with. Result, many shops have discontinued selling them and will not service them, and don’t blame the retailer for high margins, as in this case they are cheaper on the net than the retailer can get them from the local importer.

Yeah, this might sound like a bitch session from a  grumpy old dive shop owner with nothing better to do on a cold winters day. But facts are facts, if you buy a a high cost piece of kit off the net or Trademe like a BCD, Cylinder, Reg or Drysuit, expect it to bite you in the arse in the long run, and don’t get all upset if the price for airfills, dive trips or courses at your local dive shop go up, they have to make money somehow. 

As you have seen from my earlier blog on Apeks, Suunto and Scubapro, some of us are being pro active in trying to supply our local market with good quality kit at reasonable prices and then being able to follow it up with the service you need and would expect with life support equipment. Spending a bit more on that item of kit at your local shop, might just mean a hell of a lot bigger saving in the long run, it might even save your life.

Buy wisely.

safe diivng

Brent

Go Dives technical diving training program is gaining quite a bit of  momentum with the completion of another TDI course at the Lermontov Lodge.

Bruce Curlow and John Mc Mulian have Truk lagoon in their sites and decided that to make the most of their dives at Truk they needed decompression diving experience. Over the weekend we completed 5 dives on the Lermontov, one on the Koi and Lastingham and a night dive on the Mussel farm. Bruce caught a really nice Cape Jackson cray, which was returned to the water once we took a few photos. Good job Bruce, its good to have responsible divers on board that see the value of these larger crays as breeding animals.

Bruce with his big male cray prior to returning it back to the water.

Soon I will be posting a "Go Dive Tek" page on our web site which will be set up as a resource for those who are interested in technical diving, the page will have links through to other groups within NZ and overseas. There will also be a calender of planned technical dives ranging in difficulty and location for the next two years. This will give those keen on getting involved with an active group of tech divers a  chance to plan well ahead and make the most of their investment in kit and training.

safe diving

Brent

Congratulations to Arnaud and Hamish who completed the practical modules on their TDI Adv Nitrox and Deco Procedures courses at the Lermontov Lodge over the weekend.

The weather wasn’t to flash for the weekend with 80mm of rain falling in over 24hours on Sunday, this made the track up to the Lodge a bit of a challenge, but the mighty Pajero done the job.

The visibility though on the Mikhail Lermontov was pretty good, Steve, Tomo and Katie visited the Starboard side anchor on one dive and had a good 6 to 8 metres on the bottom which is not to bad. On top of the wreck it got up to 10 plus metres in some areas.

On Sunday after our three dives, Arnaud and I made hasty retreat based on the horrible forecast back to Picton with the boat, with the rest of the group coming out early Monday. We finished the course off with 41 metre deco dive in Torea Bay, it is quite interesting the change in fauna as you get a little deeper, we encountered spiny sea dragons and gurnard, species not regularly seen in shallower depths.

All up, not a bad weekend given the average weather, thanks guys and girl for diving with Go Dive Marlborough.

Check out our events calender for upcoming TDI Tech courses and Lermontov wreck trips. Diving a sling and Nitrox really adds value to your diving, especially if your keen on wreck and deep diving.

Poor Knights trip is now full, but happy to take standby bookings or your name for future trips if your keen.

safe diving

Brent

PS: Steve wore his new TDI Cap and Beanie (not at the same time) with pride all weekend, as well as joining the 40 metre club.  

Well another weekend is nearly on us. Weather this week has been again, very wet, but at least today the sun is shinning and warming things up. We have another team heading over to the Lodge for the long weekend, with a few doing their TDI Adv Nitrox and Deco procedures training.

Big development this week has been the setting up of direct imports of Apeks, Suunto and Scubapro dive kit. These brands are world reknown brands but expensive to buy through local dive shops. Bringing them in direct means Go Dive can now offer these brands at prices similar to what you can get them for on the internet, but without all the importing hassle and we can still offer a warranty and full after sales service. An example would be a local shop selling an Apeks XTX200 1st and 2nd stage for over NZ$2000.00, Go Dive will be selling them with an XTX Oci for around the $1450.00 mark. That’s nearly a $1000.00 saving  not bad a.

We will be building up our stocks soon, ready for summer, so get in touch with us now, if you are after a new regulator, computer or fins. I will be offering a special introductory price on some items if you order early, so watch this space, or contact us so we can put you can keep you up to date with emails etc.

safe diving

Brent

Congratulations to Aaron Harris who has just completed his PADI openwater course with Go Dive in Picton.

Aaron lives locally and plans to make use of his new skills to explore the sounds and collect a bit of Kai-moana.

Well done Aaron.

Well it had to happen, winter has finally caught up with us. I spose all those ski bunnies will be happy though, well they have to have their little bit of fun to.

But don’t disappear it won’t last long, the shortest day is only a week or two away and it will be on the improve again. Our winter calendar is looking pretty good, with many diving right through. We have a PADI EANx course this weekend, as well as a Rescue course starting Sunday, TDI Deco course the following two weekends and a Divemaster course about to get underway.

LONG HOT SUMMER DAYS AT THE LERMONTOV DIVE LODGE, SOMETHING TO LOOK FROWARD TO.

Also on the drawing board for August or September is a live-a-board trip to the Poor Knights. Plan is to make this a Tec trip and include some deeper dives, if your keen let me know numbers will be limited.

The weekends weather is not going to be conducive to good diving in the Outer Sounds due to a strong Southerly. However if your keen on getting wet then we will be heading out locally on Sunday. 

SAFE DIVING

BRENT

GODIVE