Tell me about surf entries and exits

[Celt]

I'm down on the Oregon coast for another week and am hoping to not come home with the air in my tanks I arrived with. Unfortunately diving doesn't seem to be a thing here and so finding a site has proven difficult. Odds are if I can get in the water it will be a beach entry into surf and then go explore some rocks looking for critters.

So tell me about surf entries and exits. What works, what doesn't, and what should I look out for?

Take a little time to see what the waves are doing, On flat beaches the waves will start far out but won’t get very big, the tops will spill and are not very powerful. On steep entries the waves will form close in and build fast. The tops will plunge and can be powerful. You need to get under these but the water will deepen quickly.

 

[NothingClever]

I don’t have anything to add to the great advice above except for continue taking steady, deep breaths walking up a sandy beach in a twinset and a DPV.

People will come up and stand in your way to ask brilliant questions such as, “Are you a diver?” or “Did you see anything out there?” and my favorite, “Are those SCUBA tanks?”

Remember all those cartoons we used to watch growing up and one of the characters would face a difficult choice represented by a little devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other? Well, it’s not a cartoon. The devil on my left shoulder has a voice like Don Rickles and sometimes Jim Carrey.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

If the water is so rough that it's going to rip the mask off my face when it's in place when entering then I'm going home.
Mask on and reg in mouth.
On a flat day do whatever you want, but we're still talking about sporty right?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

 

[TMHeimer]

Don't know if it's been mentioned but I do this with my fins when entering. I have the spring straps which may help with this.. I put my wrist/arm through the strap so one fin is hanging on my arm. Then I carry the other one in that hand. When in deep enough water (hopefully past waves breaking) I first put on the one in my hand. While I'm doing that I make sure the one on my wrist doesn't have any "opening" to escape. I use both hands to put the first fin on, keeping the one on the wrist secure. Once the first one is on I can now put the other one on, again with both hands, so that one also is secure. I had lost a fin 3 times over the year and was very fortunate to have recovered them diving down with one fin only. This method seems fool proof to me. I do it even in glassy calm water to keep in the habit. Anyone else use this method?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Don't know if it's been mentioned but I do this with my fins when entering. I have the spring straps which may help with this.. I put my wrist/arm through the strap so one fin is hanging on my arm. Then I carry the other one in that hand. When in deep enough water (hopefully past waves breaking) I first put on the one in my hand. While I'm doing that I make sure the one on my wrist doesn't have any "opening" to escape. I use both hands to put the first fin on, keeping the one on the wrist secure. Once the first one is on I can now put the other one on, again with both hands, so that one also is secure. I had lost a fin 3 times over the year and was very fortunate to have recovered them diving down with one fin only. This method seems fool proof to me. I do it even in glassy calm water to keep in the habit. Anyone else use this method?

How do you think that method would work in the conditions of the above video that @MaxBottomtime posted?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

A classic!
I never get tired of watching that

 

[Still Kicking]

If i stuggle to not get my ass kicked on the way out, I am constantly worried that it's gong to get worse bt the time I get out. Not fun. I have had days when I can hear the shore break pounding throughout the dive. Should have gone for breakfast instead.....

 

[MaxBottomtime]

A classic!
I never get tired of watching that

When I saw those guys gearing up in the parking lot, I told them it was not a day to dive Marineland. They insisted they wanted to dive anyway, so I grabbed my video camera.

 

[happy-diver]

Dude next time you're in town

When I lived on top of this dive site, still a kilometre walk down, and the right hand side was a bit, sticky

I would be laying on my back, wedged into the bottom, watching the surfers zipping over the top of me
I consider surfers to be the coolest, in touch with mother earth, water people, on this magnificent planet

Divers I liken to first day of the season off to the beach white people, before they become pink, then red