Squares, tasters and Spooky times

What better time to post a blog entry than while I am waiting for the scuba-truck to have it's annual check-up so that it can carry your gear for another year?

A fun time was had at Club Night last night. My spanky new swim-through squares were inaugurated through the pool, we had a low-light session and Peter initiated a couple of fun and challenging games for those members who wanted to push themselves a little.

Let's start with the squares, because they were, well, really cool. Why? Because I made them. Ok, ok, they weren't so cool, but they were beautifully crafted and they did provide our newer divers with a good chance to work on their buoyancy skills to successfully float through the squares without getting entangled. And to make it a little more fun for our newer divers, we started with a fairly large square, which was then replaced twice with two smaller squares. Our divers still did great and made it through all of the squares easily.

To mix it up a little more, we even had everyone trying it backwards. Yes, predictably that was a little tougher.

One of our intrepid members also brought their u/w camera with them, so hopefully there were one or two shots that we can post when she shares them with us. Thanks, Christina, for bringing the funk!

Peter's games were a lot of fun for the participants, effectively a derivation of the stress tests used to push the skills of divemasters-in-training. For instance, our divers removed their gear, which was then strewn around the pool on the bottom. Without mask, fins, or weights, our divers then had to race to recover their gear and determine in which order that could best be accomplished. Mask first? Or fins? I think everyone went with mask first. Congratulations, Danielle on winning that race, I hope your half-pint of victory tasted sweet!

Peter and I raised the possibility of changing our Club Night venue to the Etobicoke Olypium swimming pool in the future. The pool there is 17 feet deep (instead of 10 feet deep) and would, accordingly, offer a better environment for our newer divers to really work on their buoyancy skills without popping to the surface. I'll ask on Facebook too, but similarly put the question to you here: would you travel to the Etobicoke Olypium for the Club Night once a month? It is approximately at Rutherford and the 427. Please let me know your thoughts by popping me an email on our website. Admittedly, it is a little more hassle to get to than downtown Toronto, but on the plus-side, the pool is deeper, the parking is free and ample and for those members who don't live on the transit system, it is more highway accessible. I look forward to your comments.

We are also now planning at least two Brockville trips next summer. Space will be limited (especially because our recent Open Water students will be taking advantage of their free Advanced Open Water diver instruction), so if you want to pop up to the 1000 Islands with us in July and August and toodle around some awesome wrecks, let us know as soon as possible.

Another topic that Peter and I have been mulling over is that of travel. We're keen to set-up the Papua New Guinea trip for 2011 (and we've taken preliminary steps in that regard), but we have a few more questions for our intrepid members....

1) would you want an exclusively dive-focused trip, or would you like a little culture and/or relaxation period at the end of the trip as well?

2) As 2011 is a way away, would any of you be interested in a Caribbean trip for a week in the earlier part of next year....

Oh......gotta run, the scuba-truck is coming out of the doctor's office....

and remember, although spiny black sea urchin spines hurt like bugger when they are in your skin, if you remove them very carefully, they probably make great writing quills.....