Diving is still fun!

The last few weeks I discovered diving in Holland can still be fun, even if it is just our local pond. This season started late and slow with my first dive somewhere in May. (I normally start in March or April) I think it was mostly due to the weather over here, with nothing more than rain and low temperatures, well below the 20's.

Over the last few weeks I gathered some momentum, got my tank and reg serviced again and I am diving on a regular basis. First returning to Veenmeer in Tynaarlo, a small practice pond. My first dive was with Gerrit and Maaike, a good dive of just about one hour time. Visibility was poor, though.

Next was an evening dive, with Wim and his team. Wim is a CMAS instructor, mainly doing his courses from the training location in Ruinerwold. I tagged along together with Dennis in one of his training dives. Much MUCH better visibility in Ruinerwold and a lot more life to see. This was great for morale! thanks Wim for letting me join your bunch.

I noticed my underwater photo's were kind of bad, I have not practiced this art for a while, setup my camera incorrect etc. My new goal for next dives would be to get better pictures.

Next dives were with Maaike again. Dives were getting better, visibility in Tynaarlo was great with lots of fish in schools, a great Pike and some more things. We went to check out the small Juweeltje, a boat they sank on purpose in this small lake.

Classic King of the world...

My last dives, this weekend were with Maaike again, we started out quite early at Engelgaarden in Ruinerwold. Great weather (forecast for 30+ Celcius) and this good location made for a near perfect first dive, started from the West side, to the platforms and then right, towards the South at a maximum depth of about 6 meters. When we nearly arrived at the Southside we spotted a great Carp.

The beast stayed in front of us for a while, trying to get some rest from us. We went on to inspect the reets, usually a great spot for finding pike and small fish... this time we found our carp again...

We went on to find all kinds of small fry and had a good time. Not that we spotted anything out of the ordinary .. but still a good dive! we returned with 130 and 120 bar in our tanks. enough to do another dive, if we stayed shallow.

Our second dive this day started by checking for pike... and we found it:

Being a bit small at 15 cm or so, but still very good to see. This was close to where we got in, 2 minutes after going down. Our dive could only get better. We now went to check if we could spot the old Morris Mini they dropped here. AGAIN, we missed it. Can someone PLEASE point me to it again? OR does anyone have a decent map of the lake?

After this we went on, checking the North shore to the East for life; we found: countless legs and assorted limbs of swimmers, the pike, again, still at the same location I found it last time with Wim's team.

We saw lots of crayfish, hiding under some concrete slabs. Great for photo practice... good fun! We returned and ended our second dive after 70 minutes.