Had to get wet. Many of you can relate.
So we (Arnaud and I) are looking for a boat this weekend. No can do. Looking to join many of the SoCal crew in Avalon on Sat - no can do. So it looks like its gonna be a local shore dive.
We get 4 of us together, and they decide on Leo Carillo. As probably the only SoCal that's never dived Leo, I'm all "sure." This isn't a thread to bash Leo. I mean, its much further than I thought (like, 40 miles from my place) but it's easy to get to, you can essentially park on the beach, the entry and exit is cake, its all good. The water was clear, except for all the stuff in it (viz 0 feet to maybe 9-ish), and true to each of my zillion Malibu area dives, all of the Porpoise show up AFTER I'm out of the water...
Bear in mind my diving the last couple of weeks were in Belize. I was so not ready for Leo - it was like Comedy Diving. A partial list:
What I remembered
1) Harness way too tight. I did remember that it would probably be a little snug. So in the parking lot I loosened it up a bit. Not nearly enough, so I was diving in a straight jacket.
2) Drysuit Hose - as I was about to walk out at 7:45 this morning, I remembered to yank out the reg, and find and re-attach the drysuit hose to my first stage!
I forgot :11: (not in any real order...)
1) Gauges way too tight. Johnny blue finger here. I cinched them down for Belize, and diving in my Lycra skin. Every few minutes, I had to lift off the gauges to get blood to my blue fingertips. Clownboy.
2) Light handles way too small - Of course, on day 2 of Belize (where glove diving is a no no) I tightened down the handle of my Lights (mine and the buddy light Jaye was using) so they weren't flopping all over the place. On today's Leo dive, Arnaud and I were almost able to insert our finger tips into the Goodman handles... Maybe up to the first joint. Klutz.
3) Drysuit hose - Of course, I forgot to attach it to the Drysuit. I'm at 25 feet, and I'm all "why the heck is this thing so tigggghhhhhtttt....." Dolt.
4) Forgot the Hood - got the suit on, slide into the tightazz BP, grab the fins and mask off the bumper of the truck... hmmm. What's this thing? Oh crap - its my hood. OK. Decision time - shimmy out of the rig and properly put on the hood so I can tuck it in, or dive like a goober with my hood flapping in the breeze all Sir Walter Reliagh. uh, call me goober.
5) Zip up the underware - so we kick out to the far edge of the kelp (after a flawless surf entry, thank you very much...) and we drop. I'm thinking, "damn - its cold out here... what up?" We dive for a bit, its 55 degrees - cool but not prohibitively cold. And it hits me... DUH - I never zipped up my undies. So my entire chest and tummy are pressed against my Drysuit shell with nothing but a Nike tank top. Idiot.
6) Mask too tight - sometime the second day in Belize (about the time I realized my BP was too big, my gauges we're spinning on my wrists and my light handle was at about my forearm) I remembered to tighten up my mask a couple of notches - as I was diving sans hood. About 5 minutes into this dive, after I realize my eyelashes are scraping the glass, it occurs to me to loosen my mask a bit. Ahhhh.... Moron.
7) Batts for the Photon Torpedo - I had to remove the batts from the back up light to get through TSA when traveling. So I grabbed a couple of "C" batts and tossed them into the big tub in the back of the Cruiser before I left. Got to the parking lot, grabbed the batts and went to the BP/W to assemble the light. The PT takes THREE "C" batts, not two. So I was diving with by back up light firmly affixed in place - it just had no batteries in it. What a Goof ball.
8) Essentials in the BPD - Since I got this new drysuit a few weeks ago, I've been diving with the X-Shorts because there are no pockets on it. So in Belize, where I knew I'd be diving my skin, I took the BPD so I'd have all the essentials (spare mask, wetnotes, dive alert, shears, etc.) Also while in Belize, I sent this drysuit off to Superior to have some proper pockets and Kevlar knee pads attached. It got back yesterday (more on that in another thread... Superior rules.) Of course, I forgot to transfer everything from the pockets of the BPD to the new pockets on this drysuit. So I was diving nekked out there with no wetnotes, no emergency gear, etc. What a putz.
And this was my dive. Oh, there are many more gaffs, but these are the major ones. I would have considered this dive a total waste under most circumstances (bad to zero viz, surge the entire dive, very few fish, etc.) but I was having such a good laugh at myself it will be one of the more memorable dives I've had.
Under better conditions (like, being able to see maybe 10 feet) this would have been an excellent dive. I like the topography. Its very rocky and shallow, so on my Waterheater at 32% I'd get way over 100 minutes here. Lots of Nudis, a big sleeping Sheep Crab (totally asleep...) lots of urchins (blue, black and red), limpets, sponges, snails, bivalves and dozens of the biggest sea hares I've ever seen this side of the Channel Islands. Schools of Wrasses (I think that's what they were) and a couple of nice big rock fish. Not a bad site, just bad viz, a bad memory and bad dive prep on my part.
Its good to be home.
---
Ken
So we (Arnaud and I) are looking for a boat this weekend. No can do. Looking to join many of the SoCal crew in Avalon on Sat - no can do. So it looks like its gonna be a local shore dive.
We get 4 of us together, and they decide on Leo Carillo. As probably the only SoCal that's never dived Leo, I'm all "sure." This isn't a thread to bash Leo. I mean, its much further than I thought (like, 40 miles from my place) but it's easy to get to, you can essentially park on the beach, the entry and exit is cake, its all good. The water was clear, except for all the stuff in it (viz 0 feet to maybe 9-ish), and true to each of my zillion Malibu area dives, all of the Porpoise show up AFTER I'm out of the water...
Bear in mind my diving the last couple of weeks were in Belize. I was so not ready for Leo - it was like Comedy Diving. A partial list:
What I remembered
1) Harness way too tight. I did remember that it would probably be a little snug. So in the parking lot I loosened it up a bit. Not nearly enough, so I was diving in a straight jacket.
2) Drysuit Hose - as I was about to walk out at 7:45 this morning, I remembered to yank out the reg, and find and re-attach the drysuit hose to my first stage!
I forgot :11: (not in any real order...)
1) Gauges way too tight. Johnny blue finger here. I cinched them down for Belize, and diving in my Lycra skin. Every few minutes, I had to lift off the gauges to get blood to my blue fingertips. Clownboy.
2) Light handles way too small - Of course, on day 2 of Belize (where glove diving is a no no) I tightened down the handle of my Lights (mine and the buddy light Jaye was using) so they weren't flopping all over the place. On today's Leo dive, Arnaud and I were almost able to insert our finger tips into the Goodman handles... Maybe up to the first joint. Klutz.
3) Drysuit hose - Of course, I forgot to attach it to the Drysuit. I'm at 25 feet, and I'm all "why the heck is this thing so tigggghhhhhtttt....." Dolt.
4) Forgot the Hood - got the suit on, slide into the tightazz BP, grab the fins and mask off the bumper of the truck... hmmm. What's this thing? Oh crap - its my hood. OK. Decision time - shimmy out of the rig and properly put on the hood so I can tuck it in, or dive like a goober with my hood flapping in the breeze all Sir Walter Reliagh. uh, call me goober.
5) Zip up the underware - so we kick out to the far edge of the kelp (after a flawless surf entry, thank you very much...) and we drop. I'm thinking, "damn - its cold out here... what up?" We dive for a bit, its 55 degrees - cool but not prohibitively cold. And it hits me... DUH - I never zipped up my undies. So my entire chest and tummy are pressed against my Drysuit shell with nothing but a Nike tank top. Idiot.
6) Mask too tight - sometime the second day in Belize (about the time I realized my BP was too big, my gauges we're spinning on my wrists and my light handle was at about my forearm) I remembered to tighten up my mask a couple of notches - as I was diving sans hood. About 5 minutes into this dive, after I realize my eyelashes are scraping the glass, it occurs to me to loosen my mask a bit. Ahhhh.... Moron.
7) Batts for the Photon Torpedo - I had to remove the batts from the back up light to get through TSA when traveling. So I grabbed a couple of "C" batts and tossed them into the big tub in the back of the Cruiser before I left. Got to the parking lot, grabbed the batts and went to the BP/W to assemble the light. The PT takes THREE "C" batts, not two. So I was diving with by back up light firmly affixed in place - it just had no batteries in it. What a Goof ball.
8) Essentials in the BPD - Since I got this new drysuit a few weeks ago, I've been diving with the X-Shorts because there are no pockets on it. So in Belize, where I knew I'd be diving my skin, I took the BPD so I'd have all the essentials (spare mask, wetnotes, dive alert, shears, etc.) Also while in Belize, I sent this drysuit off to Superior to have some proper pockets and Kevlar knee pads attached. It got back yesterday (more on that in another thread... Superior rules.) Of course, I forgot to transfer everything from the pockets of the BPD to the new pockets on this drysuit. So I was diving nekked out there with no wetnotes, no emergency gear, etc. What a putz.
And this was my dive. Oh, there are many more gaffs, but these are the major ones. I would have considered this dive a total waste under most circumstances (bad to zero viz, surge the entire dive, very few fish, etc.) but I was having such a good laugh at myself it will be one of the more memorable dives I've had.
Under better conditions (like, being able to see maybe 10 feet) this would have been an excellent dive. I like the topography. Its very rocky and shallow, so on my Waterheater at 32% I'd get way over 100 minutes here. Lots of Nudis, a big sleeping Sheep Crab (totally asleep...) lots of urchins (blue, black and red), limpets, sponges, snails, bivalves and dozens of the biggest sea hares I've ever seen this side of the Channel Islands. Schools of Wrasses (I think that's what they were) and a couple of nice big rock fish. Not a bad site, just bad viz, a bad memory and bad dive prep on my part.
Its good to be home.
---
Ken
