mikeguerrero
Guest
Hi all,
I wanted to share with all my diving friends the return of Mike Guerrero on doubles since my doubles class with Don and Mike M.
Dive profile was to arrive at the BW at 6am get front row tickets and wait for the two Dive Masters to arrive.
I arrived on time with all my gear; doubles regs, wing and then my set of singles with their regs. I was going to be doing a lot of diving today and was excited to bring all my equipment. I felt like Doc Wong's van, has anyone seen all the scuba he keeps in their?
I start donning my equipment and the plan is to surface kick all the way to number 13, that's the last number on those rocks, it was going to be a long kick and I was ready.
With the help of not two Dive Masters but three, the buddy check was great, they were very attentive to my equipment and asked about all my configuration and how it worked.
Here is one DM making sure all my hoses were in place.
Okay, so you know me, my heart starts pumping as I approach the break water because the waves are much larger than normal and I'm wearing doubles.
I remember my training, reg in my mouth, mask on, fins tightly gripped and bc inflated. I notice the waves are coming in strong, I hesitate, don't enter Mike the sets come in three.
I listened to my voice and waited, sure enough the strong waves passed and I glided in and had both fins on super fast.
As I started to kick back with one of the DM's I felt the current literally push us back to the shore like as if I was riding a wave, had never felt that before and it was a little different as I didn't want to land on shore, but to kick out to sea.
With some strong kicks I was on my way and the water got calmer as we got deeper, I started to kick and kick and the numbers on my left started to get larger.
Soon I was finally at number 13 and the DM's were eagerly awaiting for the drop down. They had it all planned down to drop on 13 and then after a buoyancy check we would swim at a 330 degree heading.
We would swim in squadron formation to give us a better chance at intersecting the line that leads out to the barge.
DM gave the signal and we started our descent, the water was calm, dark and eerie. But that didn't phase me as I struck my light on and was beaming down to the surface. I remember looking at my depth gauge and I was at 41 feet just above the bottom.
One of the DM's pulls out his light and so does the other and we are off in formation kicking for a good amount of time, just a lot of barren sand and it's calm and quiet.
All of a sudden as the DM keeps his compass setting to 330 this funny looking bottle floating in the middle of nowhere appears, it's on the string with all these squid eggs collected on the weights below it.
Wow, it's the rope line that I have seen on Gombessa's video to the barge and we have found it, I was excited.
The DM then has us pose for a picture, not the greatest since there was a lot of sand that was stirred as we got situated for a picture, but you guys have the proof that G was there.
We then kick and kick for what seems forever, now I know why Ken did a fast forward on his video.
At the end of the line the DM pulls out his real and then starts to navigate on the heading of the line, but we vear off into the wrong direction when his light affects the compass, we real back to the line and I pull out my wetnotes and ask? Are you searching?
With a quick node of the head the DM sets out again and this time doesn't place the light next to his compass, and then he signals to me to look ahead.
Wow, to me it was the Titanic just the music wasn't playing. I was in ahh and couldn't believe, I got to see my first wreck in Monterey bay.
We swam around the barge from the South side to the North side, and it has all amazing critters all over. On the larger North side there is a hole as the ship lies on it's side, it full of huge rock fish and they came out to greet us.
Soon after the exploration of this barge, one of the DM's signals the turn around pressure sign.
We swim with the DM back to the line using his reel as guidance, and then detach and follow the ground line. Once to the other side with the bottle hanging, we swim at an angle till we hit the wall, and and then we start seeing divers and it's home sweet home.
Being on doubles really pushed my travel time and I literally swam right back on the beach, to the shore with 1800 psi total gas. This was a major accomplishment for me since I started with 3300 gas. Total time was 61 mins at 63 ft with 50 degrees of warm water.
One thing that stands out a lot is the loud sounds of motor boats traveling over you, I would hate to surface in that area, very dangerous.
I also looked very hard to find the big GWS that Kevin West saw at the Metridiums, and am please to say, it was nowhere to be found.
I brought two other tanks and ended up doing one more dive, because my left foot on my drysuit finally gave way and I have a small leak. It was more annoying than anything, the water doesn't travel up, just stays wet on the sole of my foot.
I ran into Casey, Anti hero and his friend, and he saw the excitement in my face about diving the Barge on doubles.
He told me some Aquaseal and the foot will be good as new, thanks Casey.
Here is a pic they got of me on my second dive with the class that my boss was giving, I was photographed doing the Ok signal, as I kept checking with my dive buddies if they were okay.
I did take a couple of pics on the wall on the second dive here is a little of what I saw.
Special thanks goes out to the three Dive Master's that escorted me out to the Barge, Mike T, Todd T and Julian, thanks guys you all rock...
Mike Guerrero
I wanted to share with all my diving friends the return of Mike Guerrero on doubles since my doubles class with Don and Mike M.
Dive profile was to arrive at the BW at 6am get front row tickets and wait for the two Dive Masters to arrive.
I arrived on time with all my gear; doubles regs, wing and then my set of singles with their regs. I was going to be doing a lot of diving today and was excited to bring all my equipment. I felt like Doc Wong's van, has anyone seen all the scuba he keeps in their?
I start donning my equipment and the plan is to surface kick all the way to number 13, that's the last number on those rocks, it was going to be a long kick and I was ready.
With the help of not two Dive Masters but three, the buddy check was great, they were very attentive to my equipment and asked about all my configuration and how it worked.
Here is one DM making sure all my hoses were in place.
Okay, so you know me, my heart starts pumping as I approach the break water because the waves are much larger than normal and I'm wearing doubles.
I remember my training, reg in my mouth, mask on, fins tightly gripped and bc inflated. I notice the waves are coming in strong, I hesitate, don't enter Mike the sets come in three.
I listened to my voice and waited, sure enough the strong waves passed and I glided in and had both fins on super fast.
As I started to kick back with one of the DM's I felt the current literally push us back to the shore like as if I was riding a wave, had never felt that before and it was a little different as I didn't want to land on shore, but to kick out to sea.
With some strong kicks I was on my way and the water got calmer as we got deeper, I started to kick and kick and the numbers on my left started to get larger.
Soon I was finally at number 13 and the DM's were eagerly awaiting for the drop down. They had it all planned down to drop on 13 and then after a buoyancy check we would swim at a 330 degree heading.
We would swim in squadron formation to give us a better chance at intersecting the line that leads out to the barge.
DM gave the signal and we started our descent, the water was calm, dark and eerie. But that didn't phase me as I struck my light on and was beaming down to the surface. I remember looking at my depth gauge and I was at 41 feet just above the bottom.
One of the DM's pulls out his light and so does the other and we are off in formation kicking for a good amount of time, just a lot of barren sand and it's calm and quiet.
All of a sudden as the DM keeps his compass setting to 330 this funny looking bottle floating in the middle of nowhere appears, it's on the string with all these squid eggs collected on the weights below it.
Wow, it's the rope line that I have seen on Gombessa's video to the barge and we have found it, I was excited.
The DM then has us pose for a picture, not the greatest since there was a lot of sand that was stirred as we got situated for a picture, but you guys have the proof that G was there.
We then kick and kick for what seems forever, now I know why Ken did a fast forward on his video.
At the end of the line the DM pulls out his real and then starts to navigate on the heading of the line, but we vear off into the wrong direction when his light affects the compass, we real back to the line and I pull out my wetnotes and ask? Are you searching?
With a quick node of the head the DM sets out again and this time doesn't place the light next to his compass, and then he signals to me to look ahead.
Wow, to me it was the Titanic just the music wasn't playing. I was in ahh and couldn't believe, I got to see my first wreck in Monterey bay.
We swam around the barge from the South side to the North side, and it has all amazing critters all over. On the larger North side there is a hole as the ship lies on it's side, it full of huge rock fish and they came out to greet us.
Soon after the exploration of this barge, one of the DM's signals the turn around pressure sign.
We swim with the DM back to the line using his reel as guidance, and then detach and follow the ground line. Once to the other side with the bottle hanging, we swim at an angle till we hit the wall, and and then we start seeing divers and it's home sweet home.
Being on doubles really pushed my travel time and I literally swam right back on the beach, to the shore with 1800 psi total gas. This was a major accomplishment for me since I started with 3300 gas. Total time was 61 mins at 63 ft with 50 degrees of warm water.
One thing that stands out a lot is the loud sounds of motor boats traveling over you, I would hate to surface in that area, very dangerous.
I also looked very hard to find the big GWS that Kevin West saw at the Metridiums, and am please to say, it was nowhere to be found.
I brought two other tanks and ended up doing one more dive, because my left foot on my drysuit finally gave way and I have a small leak. It was more annoying than anything, the water doesn't travel up, just stays wet on the sole of my foot.
I ran into Casey, Anti hero and his friend, and he saw the excitement in my face about diving the Barge on doubles.
He told me some Aquaseal and the foot will be good as new, thanks Casey.
Here is a pic they got of me on my second dive with the class that my boss was giving, I was photographed doing the Ok signal, as I kept checking with my dive buddies if they were okay.
I did take a couple of pics on the wall on the second dive here is a little of what I saw.
Special thanks goes out to the three Dive Master's that escorted me out to the Barge, Mike T, Todd T and Julian, thanks guys you all rock...
Mike Guerrero
