I have to say, my favorite dive was thursday, a dive that Eric didn't mention above. I got there right as Eric was finishing his first dive. My little tacoma had everything I needed in it. I just moved some of my gear around and laid out my sleeping bag for later that evening. After meeting Eric and John (from socal) we decided to go for a dive. As we start to gear up I notice that they are both in drysuits and decked out with BP/W combos, long hoses, canister lights and spring straps. I look at my setup of a SP knighthawk, wetsuit, AIR2 and short hoses, SL4 and stock fin straps and wonder how this dive will go. I keep my mind very open and hope for the best. My main concern is my air consumption. It becomes very clear to me that they have way more dive experience than I do. So as we go out, I am trying to remember the entry and exit methods from my last boat dive a year previous, as all of my dives are from shore. We suit up and backroll off of Eric's fine handmade boat. Alas, I did forget something upon entry!! I held my gauges, made sure I was inflated and checked everything else out to make sure I was dialed in, but I didn't hold my mask. Woosh its gone into some low vis murky water. No problem, I'm diving with two guys who always come prepared. Everybody stays totally calm as Eric whips out a spare make, and we are on with the dive with hardly a pause. I equalize as we drop, i first look at my depth gauge at 41 feet and continue to descend. It was really nice to dive with two other good divers that always kept an eye on each other. We were met with terrain on a huge scale, hundreds of huge metridiums, boulders the size of large cars and small houses, nice sized sheep crabs, tempting scallops in holes carved horizontally into the rock as if placed there by some huge drill. We tooled around for quite a while, me carefully watching my air consumption and hoping that I won't be the one to call the dive on account of heavy breathing or my wetsuit. Both Eric and John are excellent divers, exhibiting good bouyancy control and good form with an ever present focus on safety and fun. As we came to the end of the dive we ascended into a good school of blue rockfish and poked around looking at the numerous abalone, including one 10 incher that was never taken, but all people on the trip were let in on where it is located. We will take that one ourselves, or take the GPS coodinates with us. Just one of the perks of RSVPing early. We did our safety stop and made our final ascent. I think I had more fun on that dive than any other in Monterey or abroad. The North Coast really does whoop the heck out of Monterey when it comes to life and terrain. I am glad that Eric made it all possible for us, I know he sacrificed a lot to put it all together.
