Yesterday I discovered that I was not on the list for training - Oops!  Just before heading to bed, I paid a visit to the organizer to try and squeeze myself into the line-up.  I consider myself lucky, I get the opportunity to test out the counter ballast system.  This means I get to do a dive (to a depth of my choice) and then await the activation of the counter ballast after I give them a signal pull.  What a great way to work on equalization knowing you have a free ride back to the surface!

After careful discussion as to depth and time and the appropriate time to activate should there not be a signal...I depart on what turns out to be a very nice and deep dive - 122m.  I pull the line to signal and wait...then I can feel that the lanyard is tangled in the bottom plate set up.  I spend some time trying to untangle and I realize that we are not moving...I had pulled already 3 times but still no counter ballast. Sitting at a 122m already for 15 seconds is not a really wise thing to do.  I made the decision to start pulling up just in case there were some problems with the counter ballast...approx 25 seconds after touching down, the entire line starts to move to the surface...YES!  

I enjoyed the ride back very much, moving at around 1.5m per second...I released my safety lanyard and let go the line around 20m to move more slowly towards the surface as a precautionary move to avoid DCS a Gas-embolism.