this past week I was out in the Seattle area, and made it out to the Wednesday TWEAK dive with NWUE. What a fantastic time I had!
I met up with Ross and Dylan at Alki Cove 2 around 4:00 and had to do some last minute gear reconfiguration (brought my doubles wing and regs but was diving singles). It seems that everyone in the parking lot came to my rescue donating equipment for me to use. So not only are they a great group, they are very well prepared as well.
Dylan, Ross and I headed out for our dive, did our predive safety checks and briefing in the water. I really appreciated going through the GUE predive checks since I am heading out to take GUE Fundamentals in a month, so this was a great introduction. With the new gear configuration, I was fairly bottom heaving and had to struggle to maintain trim, and in doing so burned through my air rather quickly. On the second dive, I had a larger tank, and that helped a lot by moving some weight up higher.
The dives were fantastic. Someone visiting from Cozumel might complain about the visibility, but I thought the visibility was just fine. Our dive objective, was to find a giant pacific octopus since I had never seen one before, and Dylan and Ross managed to achieve the goal rather quickly into the dive. When I was planning my trip out there, someone commented that if I don't see a GPO, it would give me a reason to return, and I think my experience was the best of both worlds since I saw a GPO, but didn't get a good look (it was trying to hide from us), so I still have a reason to return...and oh yeah, there are always six gills
On the second dive, it was just Dylan and me, and we took another look at the GPO before heading out to the i-beams. Saw some fantastic displays of anemones out at the i-beams among other things. I wished that I had taken my camera, although I decided not to task load given my trim problems on the first dive.
Anyway, just wanted to thank everyone (I wish I could remember everyone's name) out at Cove 2 last Wednesday for being so accommodating, and especially to my dive team (Dylan and Ross). I will be sure to be out next summer for another few dives, and if anyone wants to come to Minnesota for some ice diving this winter, let me know so I can reciprocate the hospitality.
I met up with Ross and Dylan at Alki Cove 2 around 4:00 and had to do some last minute gear reconfiguration (brought my doubles wing and regs but was diving singles). It seems that everyone in the parking lot came to my rescue donating equipment for me to use. So not only are they a great group, they are very well prepared as well.
Dylan, Ross and I headed out for our dive, did our predive safety checks and briefing in the water. I really appreciated going through the GUE predive checks since I am heading out to take GUE Fundamentals in a month, so this was a great introduction. With the new gear configuration, I was fairly bottom heaving and had to struggle to maintain trim, and in doing so burned through my air rather quickly. On the second dive, I had a larger tank, and that helped a lot by moving some weight up higher.
The dives were fantastic. Someone visiting from Cozumel might complain about the visibility, but I thought the visibility was just fine. Our dive objective, was to find a giant pacific octopus since I had never seen one before, and Dylan and Ross managed to achieve the goal rather quickly into the dive. When I was planning my trip out there, someone commented that if I don't see a GPO, it would give me a reason to return, and I think my experience was the best of both worlds since I saw a GPO, but didn't get a good look (it was trying to hide from us), so I still have a reason to return...and oh yeah, there are always six gills
On the second dive, it was just Dylan and me, and we took another look at the GPO before heading out to the i-beams. Saw some fantastic displays of anemones out at the i-beams among other things. I wished that I had taken my camera, although I decided not to task load given my trim problems on the first dive.
Anyway, just wanted to thank everyone (I wish I could remember everyone's name) out at Cove 2 last Wednesday for being so accommodating, and especially to my dive team (Dylan and Ross). I will be sure to be out next summer for another few dives, and if anyone wants to come to Minnesota for some ice diving this winter, let me know so I can reciprocate the hospitality.
