31st August - 2nd September 2002 - Willow Springs, PA, USA
I had been talking to Jim during 2001 and 2002, and he invited me to the United States for their Labor Day diving weekend - a three day diving event held at Willow Springs Quarry in Pennsylvania. I jumped at the chance to try diving in commercial and heavy dive gear, something I had always wanted to do. I decided the best thing to do was to arrive a couple of days early as I did not want to be too tired after travelling to participate. Jim kindly allowed me to stay with him. We packed the car early in the morning to drive down to Willow Springs. The car was very full and I wondered if we would get everything in, as I had all my dive gear too. The drive down to Willow Springs was a couple of hours and it was a lovely day - couldn’t have asked for better. When we got to the site there were a few people already there. I ended up being a dive tender for the first few dives - a great way of getting used to the equipment and how it is put on. It was surprising just how much you rely on the tender when using commercial equipment. It was a very enjoyable experience. I finally got the chance to go diving myself. Click on the images above for full details of the 10 dives I did over the 3 day period. I ended up having the best time I have ever had diving, and met some wonderful people, and I would like to thank them all for the use of the equipment and the experience.
Big thanks to :-
And of course everyone else involved and I met during the 3 day period. I hope to see you all again soon. Thanks again.