Boeing 707 at -30 feet

Last week I purchased my own scuba gear. After finetuning my trim in the pool last night, my first open water dive with my own gear was today. Normally we’d have our class at our regular site (SDMP), but as the site was closed due to maintenance, we went to the ‘De Beldert‘ divecenter near Tiel. There are various things to be seen at the bottom, but the interesting parts were at bit too deep for the n00b divers that we still are. Also, after a (minor) incident with one of my classmates last week, the instructor wanted to take it easy.

Imagine my surprise when I found myself at 45 feet, at the wreck of a small boat. As we swam on, ascending slightly to about 30 feet, some time later the main attraction became visible: the cockpit of an Air France 707. (picture not mine, and not my dive)

The rest of the dive went fine as well. After we surfaced and climbed out, my instructor told me he went for the sites because I was so at ease in the water. I think I can at least partially blame my new gear for that. It fits so much better than the rental stuff I used. Not that the rentals were bad, it’s just that I seem to fit Sea Quest better than I fit Mares. My new regulator was a dream, too. I suffered a lot less from a dry mouth than with the rental reg. All in all a great dive :D.

Another nice gadget I finally got to play around with is my Suunto Vyper2 dive computer. Aside from telling me all kinds of useful information while underwater, it also allows you to upload that data to your computer: