46 years later

[FormerAbDiver]

Howdy all. I got my SCUBA certification back in 1973 with NASDS. Went on to get my SCUBA Instructor, Commercial Shallow Water, Commercial Deep Sea with Divers Training Academy in Fort Pierce Florida. From there I went back home (at the time) to Santa Barbara California where I worked as a Commercial Abalone Diver.

It's been something like 46 years now since I last dove. And with nearly all of it commercial I never had a buddy with me. And BCD's were something new back then and very few divers used them, and working commercially with a tender topside I never had one.

So I decided the smart play was to go through the PADI course to refresh my knowledge as well as learn about BCD's, Nitrox (already completed that), and diving with a buddy. Oh, and yea dive computers, we certainly didn't have those either so I'm learning about those.

Happy to be learning and excited to get underwater again. So howdy all.

 

[rhwestfall]

Welcome "home".

I'm really curious of your observations on diving then and now...

 

[FormerAbDiver]

Welcome "home".

I'm really curious of your observations on diving then and now...

Well as soon as I hit the pool and then the open water I'll let you know. Haha. It's gonna be fun at class in the pool because I was certified on air Commercially to 190 feet. As a SCUBA Instructor 130 feet of course. But I'm not saying anything to the other students about that. Of course when it comes to the BCD I'm a total novice- I just hope I don't embarrass myself too much. Suspend myself with neutral buoyancy? What the heck is that? I'm used to sinking like a rock and then dropping a weight to get back up.

The owner of the dive shop, a guy about my age, called me a "bucket diver". I had never heard that term so asked for an explanation. He said that back when he began diving (not quite as early as me but close) he said he'd see divers show up carrying a 5 gallon bucket. In it was a weight belt, mask, fin, snorkel and regulator, and that was it. Yep I said, that was me cause that was all we had or needed in those days.

Spare air? Nope, but I have one today, a Nitrox version. We did sometimes use bail out bottles when on an airhose but usually only when deep, and that was in case a crane operator ran over the air hose and severed it or the compressor quit. It was a scuba cylinder on our back, I'm wearing one in my Avatar picture.

Funny story. One of the guys I worked for only went after black abalone, which live in shallow water. Mounted on the back corner of his boat was a little gold mining compressor, with no bottle to store air. We hooked this up directly to our second stage. Two or three times a day it would just quit running. As a diver you'd immediately be out of air and have to surface. Meanwhile the tender was pulling on the rope start like a mad man for the Briggs & Straton lawn mower engine. It helped a tiny bit. Eventually after 30 or 40 pulls it would just start running again and if you were the diver back down you'd go. We never did find out why it behaved like that.

Dive signals? Nope, who would I signal, the fish? So yep I'm learning those.

A second regulator for buddy breathing? Nope. Now my BCD has one built in. I think that is an excellent safety feature.

Nitrox? Nope, never heard of it till now. A very cool discovery.

And again a dive computer. Nope. Just tables. As an abalone diver you just tried to stay shallower than 35 feet if possible so you didn't have to think about it. But red abalone are sometimes deeper then that so when I dove for those I was in a dry suit (inflated with air via the helmet) and what we called a "Jap Hat" which was very similar to the Desco Abalone helmet, but presumably manufactured in Japan, hence its name. On the boat we had perhaps a half dozen bottles that were taller and wider than me ensuring you had enough air to decompress even if the enormous compressor failed- which it never did.

I'm excited to take advantage of all the new technology.

 

[8mb]

Well as soon as I hit the pool and then the open water I'll let you know. Haha. It's gonna be fun at class in the pool because I was certified on air Commercially to 190 feet. As a SCUBA Instructor 130 feet of course. But I'm not saying anything to the other students about that. Of course when it comes to the BCD I'm a total novice- I just hope I don't embarrass myself too much. Suspend myself with neutral buoyancy? What the heck is that? I'm used to sinking like a rock and then dropping a weight to get back up.

The owner of the dive shop, a guy about my age, called me a "bucket diver". I had never heard that term so asked for an explanation. He said that back when he began diving (not quite as early as me but close) he said he'd see divers show up carrying a 5 gallon bucket. In it was a weight belt, mask, fin, snorkel and regulator, and that was it. Yep I said, that was me cause that was all we had or needed in those days.

Spare air? Nope, but I have one today, a Nitrox version. We did sometimes use bail out bottles when on an airhose but usually only when deep, and that was in case a crane operator ran over the air hose and severed it or the compressor quit. It was a scuba cylinder on our back, I'm wearing one in my Avatar picture.

Funny story. One of the guys I worked for only went after black abalone, which live in shallow water. Mounted on the back corner of his boat was a little gold mining compressor, with no bottle to store air. We hooked this up directly to our second stage. Two or three times a day it would just quit running. As a diver you'd immediately be out of air and have to surface. Meanwhile the tender was pulling on the rope start like a mad man for the Briggs & Straton lawn mower engine. It helped a tiny bit. Eventually after 30 or 40 pulls it would just start running again and if you were the diver back down you'd go. We never did find out why it behaved like that.

Dive signals? Nope, who would I signal, the fish? So yep I'm learning those.

A second regulator for buddy breathing? Nope. Now my BCD has one built in. I think that is an excellent safety feature.

Nitrox? Nope, never heard of it till now. A very cool discovery.

And again a dive computer. Nope. Just tables. As an abalone diver you just tried to stay shallower than 35 feet if possible so you didn't have to think about it. But red abalone are sometimes deeper then that so when I dove for those I was in a dry suit (inflated with air via the helmet) and what we called a "Jap Hat" which was very similar to the Desco Abalone helmet, but presumably manufactured in Japan, hence its name. On the boat we had perhaps a half dozen bottles that were taller and wider than me ensuring you had enough air to decompress even if the enormous compressor failed- which it never did.

I'm excited to take advantage of all the new technology.

I like these stories! Thank you for sharing your experiences

How is the abalone population nowadays if you know? When I moved from the Bay Area there were limits on how many you could get, I think it was 2 but it’s been over a decade. People figured out they’re good eating and went to town. Same with all the purple sea urchin in Half Moon Bay I used to see so many in the tide pools, starfish, all sorts of creatures and then they were gone

 

[34109411]

Howdy all. I got my SCUBA certification back in 1973 with NASDS. Went on to get my SCUBA Instructor, Commercial Shallow Water, Commercial Deep Sea with Divers Training Academy in Fort Pierce Florida. From there I went back home (at the time) to Santa Barbara California where I worked as a Commercial Abalone Diver.

It's been something like 46 years now since I last dove. And with nearly all of it commercial I never had a buddy with me. And BCD's were something new back then and very few divers used them, and working commercially with a tender topside I never had one.

So I decided the smart play was to go through the PADI course to refresh my knowledge as well as learn about BCD's, Nitrox (already completed that), and diving with a buddy. Oh, and yea dive computers, we certainly didn't have those either so I'm learning about those.

Happy to be learning and excited to get underwater again. So howdy all.

oh i was born in 75 ! wish you alo the best keep diving. let us know if you have questions!

 

[Edward3c]

You’ve got 5 years on me, I started in 1978. BCDs we’re considered too dangerous for trainees, I had to do a special course after getting my first qualification to use one. No octopus, just Buddy Breathing, and Nitrox was the devil’s gas. All dive planning done on navy tables.

 

[FormerAbDiver]

I like these stories! Thank you for sharing your experiences

How is the abalone population nowadays if you know? When I moved from the Bay Area there were limits on how many you could get, I think it was 2 but it’s been over a decade. People figured out they’re good eating and went to town. Same with all the purple sea urchin in Half Moon Bay I used to see so many in the tide pools, starfish, all sorts of creatures and then they were gone

Great questions, and I don't have any definitive answers. I believe California still has a ban on Abalone that runs till/through 2026. I know the pickings started to get slim when I was diving so a lot of guys changed to Urchins. But a full hold of Urchins weighed so much more than Abalone that it really wore the boats out prematurely. It is my understanding that the Abalone recovered and money was good for a while, but it must have turned again to cause the ban.

I went into a dive shop in Waikiki a couple of months ago and the girl working there was from Santa Barbara. She told me that Abalone are now farm raised.

Regarding tide pools, I was just in California for a family reunion and one day thought it would be great to drive up to El Capitan State Beach. Back in the '70's there were lots of tide pools and they were filled with all kinds of life. A real Marine Biologist's paradise. I was stunned. Not only were there fewer tide pools, but those that were there were devoid of any noticeable life. No idea what happened but it is so sad.

 

[8mb]

Great questions, and I don't have any definitive answers. I believe California still has a ban on Abalone that runs till/through 2026. I know the pickings started to get slim when I was diving so a lot of guys changed to Urchins. But a full hold of Urchins weighed so much more than Abalone that it really wore the boats out prematurely. It is my understanding that the Abalone recovered and money was good for a while, but it must have turned again to cause the ban.

I went into a dive shop in Waikiki a couple of months ago and the girl working there was from Santa Barbara. She told me that Abalone are now farm raised.

Regarding tide pools, I was just in California for a family reunion and one day thought it would be great to drive up to El Capitan State Beach. Back in the '70's there were lots of tide pools and they were filled with all kinds of life. A real Marine Biologist's paradise. I was stunned. Not only were there fewer tide pools, but those that were there were devoid of any noticeable life. No idea what happened but it is so sad.

I think a part of it boiled down to money, like so many things that go wrong, it’s greed. And I can understand too that there are families immigrating and they are trying to compete opening restaurants etc - one urchin can be 10-15 dollars at a sushi place and it’s straight profit from the beach. Not to say non immigrants didn’t do the same but I can see how people felt like, hey, Mother Nature is gifting us food, we’ve always relied on it to eat but - it’s not sustainable when it’s pillaging. I immigrated to California and I know our family wasn’t well versed in nature conservation to say the least. We didn’t destroy it but coming from Siberia, we had an abundance of resources in nature and thinking of sustainability wasn’t at the forefront for us in a new land.

If Monterey Bay Aquarium isn’t already doing so, they should have a natural habitat to restore them and I would make it morally wrong to put uni on any menu as a hot shot restaurant, for others to follow suit, then instill different purchasing practices that ensure sustainability and if the urchin are declining, then it’s not on menus. Lots of things could go wrong with that plan too. After watching seacpiracy, I don’t even know how much longer we’ll have seafood.

I don’t know…there’s a song on this topic…

I’d love to change the world….but I don’t know what to do…

Who knows anything anymore. I’m going to do all I can and the rest of the time, hide my head in the…sea.

*to be clear: the beach foraging I’m referencing was something I saw and divers discussed when talking about abalone harvesting and when I’m saying that some of it was immigrants trying to compete I’m referring to treatment of immigrants I saw growing up in the CA in the 90s and early 2000s - it wasn’t peachy and there was lots of racism. It was well know then that if you wanted manual labor done that no one else wanted to do, you go to Home Depot early in the morning, get a team of guys in the back of your pick up truck and pay migrant workers a couple of dollars an hour each (or pay one guy an amount and he hands it out as he sees fit to his workers…aka plenty of human trafficking opportunities) and the working conditions for them weren’t great to say the least - so competition for business meant many had to do whatever to feed their families and when you push people to the limit, some will do what they have to. when people are treated poorly, then sustainability and preservation of the land of the people discriminating against them isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Maslow hierarchy of needs teaches us that. When you don’t have survival, that’s all you can think about. ^Just wanted to make that clear - and that’s why…I’d love to change the world - but mean people mess it up.

 

[happy-diver]

Purple urchin collecting: pro tips and techniques.

Greetings purple urchin divers. This thread is the place for people to read up about the tools, techniques, and tips to remove purple urchins. This is a sticky and can be referenced at any time. Some things you will need: 1. Valid California fishing license. 2. One or more large green Trident...

scubaboard.com

 

[happy-diver]