paulthenurse
Contributor
So JohnL and I meet up at the BK Monday morning. Slightly cloudy, soft breeze and the first real hint of warmth in the air all spring. "I'm here, you're here, anyone else coming? No, Ok, let's go."
We motor up the road and after only one wrong turn end up at Norman's Woe. "This is it? Hell, I've driven past this place a dozen times. Let's go take a look." So we hike down the trail to the shore. And it IS a hike. We bust out of the woods onto the rocks and it's lovely. A prominant bluff poking out with a nice little cove on the right shore. There is minimal wave activity but there is a moderate surge coming in sets. We decide that it's nothing we can't handle and beat back to the cars to gear up. We decide to make two trips with our gear. Smart move.
I decide that I'll get dressed down at the water, John strips out at the street. I probably should have opted for his method and entered the water a touch overheated, cause I was diving wet (and was putting on a wetsuit still wet from Sundays dive) and could have used a little residual warmth. We talked a bit about our respective diving and styles. I'm leaning towards DIR but am leary of drinking the full cup of Cool-Aide. John is DIR tricked-out. "So you stuff it in your belt and then up and around your head, eh? And it doesn't bother you having wrapped around your neck? Hummm."
Ok, enough talking, lets get wet. I'm first in and my entry was--- lets call it awkward. It was an outgoing tide and we couldn't tell exactly where to step off for a giant stride, so I tried to time my flop with the surge. Unfortunately, my right fin slipped on the slimy stone and I did a basic belly flop. I kick out a ways, roll over and John is right behind me. "That was my Mark Spitz entry, I hope you enjoyed it, I don't show that off for just anyone." "Ya, that was smooth. Where did you learn that?"
I'm still working out my weight requirements with my new BP/W. I think I've got the weight right at 17 lbs on the belt, but it still is a work in progress. I want to put 5-6 lbs as a v weight and get it off the belt. I also put 2 four pounders on my harness that night, one on each side behind the d-rings (I'm using a Dive Rite SS Transplate with Rec Wing.) If everything goes as I hope, I'll have next to no weight on my belt when diving wet with a single AL80 and should need just a few pounds when the DS arrives next week.
We decide that we're out far enough and drop down. My suit hadn't quite filled yet so it was a struggle for me to get down at first, I was thinking that I needed to head back in and get a few more lbs of lead, but on my second try to duck under I felt a large rush of ice water down my back and managed to stay under. Yikes! Chilly!
The vis was pretty crappy at first but as we finned over to divers right and got out into the cove there was less surge and it improved. My octo had pulled out of the snorkle keeper during my grand entrance and John didn't have the dexterity to get it back in wearign three fingered gloves, so I stuffed it under my right shoulder strap and we moved on. I realised that it certainly wasn't an ideal place to have my octo but since John and I had spent a considerable amount of time talking DIR stuff before we got wet I figured that if there was a problem we would be using DIR procedures and I would give him my primary and I could then futz around getting my octo out.
I was going thru air at a pretty good clip and too soon I was at 15. We made a leisurely turn in and surfaced pretty close to where we had planned to get out. I had an exit to match my entrance, getting smacked in the *** with a surge just as I was crawling out, and took a dixie right onto my face. I got my arms in front of me so the only damage was a small cut on the bridge of my nose from my mask. I was really chilled by the time we were done. 37 minutes at 34 feet with a surface temp of 41. I had around 750 psi left compared to John having around 1200!! Pretty sad air consumption but what can I say, I was cold. I can't wait till my DS arrives. Oh, to be warm.
We decided to head over to Magnolia Rock but by the time we got there and geared up the surge had increased to the point that we decided to call it a day instead of chance getting the crap kicked out of us. Mr Magnolia wasn't anywhere to be seen so we had no issues parking.
FWIW, I stopped at a LDS the next day and picked up some surgical tubing for my octo. Before you know it I'll be calling it a backup instead of an octo... The whole 7 foot hose thing though, I just don't know. "Maybe I'll just take a sip of the Cool-Aide"
Stopped at my parents house on the way home and showed them all my pictures from my ski trip to Italy. That alone was worth the drive up to the North Shore.
Fun Day, Fun Dive, Good Company! Lets do it again soon.
PTN
We motor up the road and after only one wrong turn end up at Norman's Woe. "This is it? Hell, I've driven past this place a dozen times. Let's go take a look." So we hike down the trail to the shore. And it IS a hike. We bust out of the woods onto the rocks and it's lovely. A prominant bluff poking out with a nice little cove on the right shore. There is minimal wave activity but there is a moderate surge coming in sets. We decide that it's nothing we can't handle and beat back to the cars to gear up. We decide to make two trips with our gear. Smart move.
I decide that I'll get dressed down at the water, John strips out at the street. I probably should have opted for his method and entered the water a touch overheated, cause I was diving wet (and was putting on a wetsuit still wet from Sundays dive) and could have used a little residual warmth. We talked a bit about our respective diving and styles. I'm leaning towards DIR but am leary of drinking the full cup of Cool-Aide. John is DIR tricked-out. "So you stuff it in your belt and then up and around your head, eh? And it doesn't bother you having wrapped around your neck? Hummm."
Ok, enough talking, lets get wet. I'm first in and my entry was--- lets call it awkward. It was an outgoing tide and we couldn't tell exactly where to step off for a giant stride, so I tried to time my flop with the surge. Unfortunately, my right fin slipped on the slimy stone and I did a basic belly flop. I kick out a ways, roll over and John is right behind me. "That was my Mark Spitz entry, I hope you enjoyed it, I don't show that off for just anyone." "Ya, that was smooth. Where did you learn that?"
I'm still working out my weight requirements with my new BP/W. I think I've got the weight right at 17 lbs on the belt, but it still is a work in progress. I want to put 5-6 lbs as a v weight and get it off the belt. I also put 2 four pounders on my harness that night, one on each side behind the d-rings (I'm using a Dive Rite SS Transplate with Rec Wing.) If everything goes as I hope, I'll have next to no weight on my belt when diving wet with a single AL80 and should need just a few pounds when the DS arrives next week.
We decide that we're out far enough and drop down. My suit hadn't quite filled yet so it was a struggle for me to get down at first, I was thinking that I needed to head back in and get a few more lbs of lead, but on my second try to duck under I felt a large rush of ice water down my back and managed to stay under. Yikes! Chilly!
The vis was pretty crappy at first but as we finned over to divers right and got out into the cove there was less surge and it improved. My octo had pulled out of the snorkle keeper during my grand entrance and John didn't have the dexterity to get it back in wearign three fingered gloves, so I stuffed it under my right shoulder strap and we moved on. I realised that it certainly wasn't an ideal place to have my octo but since John and I had spent a considerable amount of time talking DIR stuff before we got wet I figured that if there was a problem we would be using DIR procedures and I would give him my primary and I could then futz around getting my octo out.
I was going thru air at a pretty good clip and too soon I was at 15. We made a leisurely turn in and surfaced pretty close to where we had planned to get out. I had an exit to match my entrance, getting smacked in the *** with a surge just as I was crawling out, and took a dixie right onto my face. I got my arms in front of me so the only damage was a small cut on the bridge of my nose from my mask. I was really chilled by the time we were done. 37 minutes at 34 feet with a surface temp of 41. I had around 750 psi left compared to John having around 1200!! Pretty sad air consumption but what can I say, I was cold. I can't wait till my DS arrives. Oh, to be warm.
We decided to head over to Magnolia Rock but by the time we got there and geared up the surge had increased to the point that we decided to call it a day instead of chance getting the crap kicked out of us. Mr Magnolia wasn't anywhere to be seen so we had no issues parking.
FWIW, I stopped at a LDS the next day and picked up some surgical tubing for my octo. Before you know it I'll be calling it a backup instead of an octo... The whole 7 foot hose thing though, I just don't know. "Maybe I'll just take a sip of the Cool-Aide"
Stopped at my parents house on the way home and showed them all my pictures from my ski trip to Italy. That alone was worth the drive up to the North Shore.
Fun Day, Fun Dive, Good Company! Lets do it again soon.
PTN
