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  • Dives 22 and 23 at Uraifjan


    Not too impressive a profile. There were four of us on the boat. Instructor with a student and I was to dive with another person. But he didn’t check his gear assuming the dive center would pack his wet suit. Well, no wet suit for him so he didn’t dive.

    So I went diving near the anchor line to just hang out near where they were doing their class. The visibility was very poor. More than a meter from the anchor line and you lose sight of it and there was also a current. So I practiced my frog kick at the bottom near the line, hovering at fixed depth, but lost sight of it at one point and then couldn’t find the line and came up. No problem not far from the boat and then back to the anchor line and down again for a bit.

    One observation is how finning into the current just to stay stationary sucks down the tank of air at least twice as fast as normal!

    Good thing I’ve been going to the gym! All that finning gives the legs a good workout. Lately I’ve been working out on the rowing machine and that seems to be more specific to the muscles used for finning.


    This dive was more interesting. Actually fun! Though many people wouldn’t say it was fun. Three of us went around the reef to the wreck which is an old cement barge on the bottom about 7 meters down. Very strong current and 1 meter visibility but floating around, practicing my improved buoyancy control gained from time in the pool. All in all I enjoyed it and so did the others.

  • Fitness and Exercise Articles Just for SCUBA Divers

    Fitness and Exercise Articles Just for SCUBA Divers

  • Bluegrass in Kuwait


    Nothing stranger than driving around Kuwait listening to bluegrass performed by Alison Kraus and Union Station. Definitely not the native culture. The lyrics are a bit whiney at times and the singing a bit nasal, but gotta love the musicality, fiddle and banjo with dobro and acoustic bass. The car stereo goes loud and clean.

    And on the topic of the bass line of bluegrass here from answers.com which I think they steal from Wikipedia:

    Double bass in bluegrass music

    The string bass is often used in bluegrass music. It is the largest instrument in the violin family, and is made in several sizes. Most usual for bluegrass use is the 3/4 size bass. Less frequently used are the full and 5/8 size bass.

    The upright bass is plucked for most bluegrass music. Some modern bassists have used the bow.

    The bluegrass bass is responsible for keeping time in the polyrhythmic conditions of the bluegrass tune, enhancing the flow of the music with tasteful fills and runs. Most important is the steady beat, whether fast, slow, in 4/4 time, 2/4 or 3/4 time.

    Early pre-bluegrass music was often accompanied by the cello, which was bowed as often as plucked. Some contemporary bluegrass bands favor the electric bass, but it has a different musical quality than the plucked upright bass which gives energy and drive to the music.

    Common rhythms in bluegrass bass playing are, in 4/4 time (plucking on the beats) 1, 3; 1, 4; 1, 3, 4. In 3/4 time (waltz time) 1; 1,2; and 1,3. Bluegrass baselines are usually extremely simple, typcially staying on the Tonic and Dominant chords throughout.

    Cedric Rainwater, bassist for Bill Monroe and later Flatt and Scruggs, helped to define the bluegrass sound with his characteristic walking bass, where each beat in 4/4 time is plucked, going up and down the scale.

    Notable bass players in contemporary bluegrass music:

    • Roy Huskey, Jr.
    • Todd Phillips
    • Mark Schatz
    • Mike Bub
    • Edgar Meyer

    The Wikipedia dobro article is quite interesting also.

  • It is late

    Well, an evening of blogging sure takes time 😉

    Once we move into the villa in January, higher speed Internet will make it faster though!

    Look on the right side, way down. Looking at the weather in Calgary makes it feel much warmer here.

  • Dives 20 and 21 at Uraifjan

    Uraifjan or Qit’at Uraifjan is Kuwait’s largest nearshore platform reef only 10 km southeast (20 minutes by boat) from the port.

    First Dive

    Second Dive


    Well this wasn’t much of a dive in fact. We tooled along a bit for about 15 minutes then decided to surface as the visibility was so poor it wasn’t a lot of fun. And another thing, it was the first time diving with this guy for me so it takes a few dives to get used to each other. Also, I had 2 kg more weights on for this dive. Ten not eight. So, it was a good experiment and probably a kilogram overweight. You have to add weight to dive, the amount depends on the density of the water, if salty it is denser and you need more weight, plus on what you are wearing. The thing when diving is you want to be neutrally buoyant but:

    • the tank buoyancy changes during the dive as it gets more empty. At the start it will sink at the end it will float. You need to compensate for this.
    • a wetsuit as it gets deeper compresses becoming less buoyant

    To compensate for this you have a buoyancy compensator (BCD), which is inflated so you float on the surface and then you deflate it to submerge. And while you descend you might at a bit of air to it. Ideally you don’t add much as too much air is hard to handle as when you change depths in the water the BCD air bladder will also expand and contract with different pressure changing therefore in it’s buoyancy. Confused yet?Here’s an article on it.

  • Yet another post on what I ate

    No way. Too much, is that all I do, is that all I think of. No but it may be the most interesting.

    I went to a little (two tables) Indian restaurant in Ahmadi Shopping center that I found out about when I first arrived as they are next to the place that did the passport photos that I got. You need dozens of them here whenever you get a pass or certificate for anything.

    Well, they are from Kerala and they make the worlds best Lamb Curry, period. It is spicy and ecstatically good. I really shouldn’t enjoy it so much. So I had that with monster big fresh naans and water for KD 0.600 (600 fils). That’s less than $2.50 CAD.

    And then there was some big KOC press conference at the Hubara Center which is the “officers mess” so instead of dinner for about KD 2 I had to go to Unity Center where I was yesterday for the safety workshop. And that dinner was less than KD 1. So today was a record in lunch and dinner costs.