- How many types of wing vests did you say?
Motivation for apparatus diving
The focus area for Frivannsliv in 2021 and 2022 was the diving department. Frivannsliv already had a buyer and resource person at scuba: Kim Wøien at the Oslo office, where purchases and sales towards the professional market were made. But the store at Frekhaug lacked the resource persons, and skydiving was not yet an integrated part of the store premises.
Within a short time, the scuba expertise was in place in the form of Vegard Sandvik and Rene Petterson. These boys have about 50 years of diving and instructor experience together, and are at the forefront of Norway in their field.
The scuba workshop was built at record speed and a large filling system for air was built in our shop at Frekhaug.
I had thousands of questions for Rene and Vegard.
- What is this?
- Where will this be mounted?
- How many types of wing vests did you say?
– 2 steps?
There was a lot of new information here for a simple fellow from Eidsvåg, especially now that I was rapidly approaching 40 years of age.
What if I took the PADI open water certificate? Could it be a fantastically great way to learn?
"Learning by doing", as they say at Radøy.
This started a flood of new questions.
- How much scuba equipment do I need?
- How much of my freediving equipment can I use, and how little scuba equipment is the minimum?
- How cold will it be with a 7 mm wet suit, 5 mm gloves and 5 mm wet socks in September?
These were questions that I would like answers to.
- What is it like to be on the seabed for over an hour?
- Do you get the same peace of mind as freediving or is it more a speed boat vs a wooden snail?
- E-learning course from Padi Open Water at the age of 39.9 years, is there enough capacity to handle this?
We're getting started!!!
08/08-2022: I managed to persuade Rene to take me on as a diving apprentice.
09/08-2022 at 18:00: I logged into Padi Open Water Diver e-learning for the first time.
100%?! I haven't gotten 100% on anything since primary school and then it was also long in between each time. Can I believe this?
Things went smoothly that night, and three hours later I left with increased knowledge and confidence. The next day I was even more motivated.
Three hours into day two it was a fact.
12 August at 18-21.
13 August at 18-21.
In the course of two afternoons and six hours, I was ready to begin the practical part, i.e. physical diving. Am I looking forward to it??? Yes!!!
At the Freediving Festival came a fantastic opportunity to freedive and at the same time try your hand at scuba diving.
The first dives should actually take place in a pool, but since I had after all a few years of freediving experience, instructor René gave me permission to start the training in the sea.
The weekend was dished up with fantastic weather. On Friday, the plan was free diving.
The placement of the boat in the background was not on purpose :-)
Saturday was the day I had been really looking forward to.
Inspection and installation of the diving rig before we drove a few hundred meters to the nearest marina out in Bøvågen.
This was my freediving gear plus a backpack with air. Simple and little control.
DIVE 1
Saturday 24/09-2022 at 1.30 p.m
Place: Bøvågen (Freediving Festival 2022)
Air temperature: 22°C
Water surface temperature: 19°C
Temperature 10 m: 15°C
Dive time: 65 min
Reason for premature ascent: Cold
Equipment used:
• Free water life Evo 3 7mm
• Native 5mm wet socks
• Frivannsliv Vidsyn with Frivannsliv Flexi snorkel
• Cressi high stretch 5mm gloves
• Shearwater Peregrine dive computer
• Cressi carbon fins
• Hollis ST system with 15l tank
• 8 kg lead belt around the waist
Hindsight with future thoughts
I started with a minimum of scuba gear. A Hollis vest with 1 and 2 stages, Octopus, Shearwater computer, as well as the pressure gauge Cressi Digi 2. Cressi carbon finner, 7mm Evo3 wetsuit, 5mm Cressi high stretch, Native 5mm socks and 8kg in the lead belt.
After a buddy check of equipment, it was off to the jetty, fill the wing with air and jump. I haven't had this feeling in my stomach since Slingshot in Magaluf in the early 2000s.
I jumped off a high jetty edge with 35kg on my back, and no way to know if this floats, apart from instructor Rene's word that this is going well! The mask was varnished like a sieve with a smile that went from ear to ear, but it was very worth it.
After some adjustment of the lead and a new check on the equipment, which took about half an hour, we moved down into the bodies of water to a depth of 10 metres. This was a completely surreal feeling. I have been at a depth of 10-12 meters before, but only for seconds. Now we were here for minutes. Yes, actually a full 25 minutes.
I was by this time starting to get cold. It was noticeable that a 7mm wetsuit is compressed at a depth of 10 meters, and that together with my 5mm wet socks and 5mm gloves, it was not ideal for longer dives in this sea temperature. Here, small adjustments were needed before dive number two.
DIVE 2
Saturday 01/10-2022 at 3.30 p.m
Place: Dalstø kai (Frekhaug)
Air temperature: 17°C
Water surface temperature: 15°C
Temperature 10 m: 12°C
Dive time: 32 min
Reason for ascent: 50 bar on the tank (empty)
Equipment used on this dive:
• Free water life Evo3 9mm - Change from the first dive!
• 3mm Frivannsliv Twinply neoprene singlet
• Cressi 2.5mm Orata Metallite wet socks - Change from first dive!
• Cressi Isla 7mm wet shoes - Change from first dive!
• Frivannsliv Vidsyn with Frivannsliv Flexi snorkel
• Softgrip 7mm gloves - Change from the first dive!
• Shearwater Peregrine dive computer
• Zeagle Recon flippers - Change from first dive!
• Hollis ST system complete with 15 L tank
• 2 x 2 kg lead pockets around the tank.
• 8kg of lead on the lead belt
Changes from the first dive to the second dive are marked in blue.
Several comfort changes were needed for me to feel comfortable at a depth of 12-18 metres. What surprised me a bit was that my carbon fins had little effect in stabilizing me underwater. With 30kg of gear, which I don't usually carry on my back, I didn't get the usual effect out of my soft, good fins. I switched to Zeagle Recon fins, a negative diving foot, which made the stabilization exercise much easier. This was the biggest gear adjustment other than switching to my freediving gear for winter use (9mm suit, gloves, etc.).
I had to realize that we were in October and that 7 mm was not enough at 10-18 m depth.
DIVE 3
Wednesday 12/10-2022 at 3.30 p.m
Place: Dalstø kai (Frekhaug)
Air temperature: 12°C
Water surface temperature: 13°C
Temperature 10m: 12°C
Dive time: 38 min
Reason for ascent: 50 bar on the tank (empty)
DIVE 4-5-6
Wednesdays in October
Place: Holmeknappen (Frekhaug)
Air temperature: 8°C
Water surface temperature: 10°C
Dive time: 43 min Reason for ascent: 50 bar on the tank
DIVE 7
Saturday 16/11-2022 at 3.30 p.m
Place: Beitingen (Frekhaug)
Air temperature: 8°C
Water surface temperature: 12°C
Temperature 18 m: 9°C
Dive time: 43 min
Reason for ascent: 50 bar on the tank (empty)
DIVE 8: EXAM
Wednesday 30/11-2022 at 2.30 p.m
Place: Litlebergen (Frekhaug)
Air temperature: 6°C (brrrr)
Water surface temperature: 11°C
Temperature 18 m: 8°C
Dive time: 58 min
Today was the day…. The exam and last dive before I was a Padi Open Water diver.
We had to go through a controlled ascent without air from 6m, then we were there. The water was crystal clear and we were ready.
20 meters from shore, we went down to the bottom and had the "empty of air" exercise. It couldn't have gone better and everything worked as it should. In theory I had passed, but I had to complete another 55 min without any more challenges.
Halfway through the dive we see three ghost rocks without a line at a depth of 19-20 metres. I had a choice to make. I knew that 18m was the lower limit for the dive, but the poor fish and starfish trapped in the rock were at a depth of 20.1m. Both fishermen and starfish experienced the freedom after the lines were cut open, but I had to postpone the certificate for a dive. Well, it was worth it, I thought.
DIVE 9: EXAMINATION, attempt no. 2
Wednesday 14-12-2022 at 1.30 p.m
Place: Holmeknappen (Frekhaug)
Air temperature: -5°C (brrrr)
Water surface temperature: 8°C
Temperature 18 m: 11°C
Dive time: 40 min
Now we had reached 14 December, and the snow had settled over Western Norway.
Already when we filled the car, I felt that this was going to be a chilling experience. We packed our rucksacks on Holmeknappen and stood ready to jump into the water. This was a special experience as we stood on the quay in a 70 cm high plowing edge, ready to jump into the sea.
The dive went perfectly and without any challenges. I was thereby an approved diver.
Now the journey continues to the Padi Advanced diving certificate, 18 to 30 metres. Stay tuned here on the blog in the future, and there will be more updates.
Thanks for following along so far!
Read part 1: Restaurant dreams, oddities in the fish counter and free diving