Breakwater Grand Circuit 2/19/11

[Anti-Hero]

Ted, Ben, Brian and myself met up Sat. at the breakwater for a scooter dive. The conditions topside left much to be desired. It was cold, raining, and the surf was up enough to hit the stairs at times.

The morning started out pretty average, with everyone just chit chatting casually as we assembled our gear. Out of nowhere an observer along the breakwater wall comes to our group and says there is a diver that appears to be in trouble on the rocks along the wall. We see an older gentleman sitting precariously on top/between two large breakwater boulders and being pounded by the heavy surf. He was out of air, with his mask off, and separated from his buddy. He seems alright other than a little nervous and not quite sure what to do. Ben and Ted quickly geared up and headed for the water while Brian donned a mask and waded into the water. We asked him to replace his mask and to orally inflate his BCD then to swim towards Brian who was about 1/4 of the way too him between sets. To make a long story short, everything turned out fine and the gentleman came away with hopefully a better appreciation for buddy separation and gas management.

Next we all geared up and went over the dive plan and buddy teams. Team 1 was Ted and myself, Team 2 was Ben and Brian. The plan was to follow the wall until we hit the markers for the barge, spend some time at the barge, then go from the barge to the metridium fields, then back to the wall. The viz was pretty darn good. I'd estimate it was ~20-25 ft. with some suspended particulate, but otherwise very clear with little to no surge.

I'll let the others chime in on additional dive details. All in all it was a great day of diving and we hit all our intended marks! I couldn't have asked for a better dive or team after being out of the water for 5-ish months.

 

[Anti-Hero]

Oops, I forgot: Max depth 68 ft, 76 min runtime.

 

[Hepcat62]

Yep - tons of fun as always... This is rapidly becoming one of my favorite dives to do.

Conditions were quite nice at the barge - very little water movement to really be felt, and decent vis. No molas, but plenty of fish. One fish in particular looked decidedly dead (I thought the eyes looked a bit milky), but after a few too many moments of Ben and I ogling it I guess it had enough, and swam away. ZOMBIES!!!

On the way to the metridium fields I had a brief moment of concern when we scootered over/past a few rocks covered in what looked like the remains of some very-destroyed metridiums - damn you, Poseidon! Fortunately, we made it over to the better part of the fields in short order, where many fully intact metridiums were looking quite nice.

In the future, I would prefer not to start our pre-dive briefing with a rescue effort. Not only was the diver we helped completely out of air and clearly quite stressed, he had no idea where his buddy was. His buddy apparently continued the dive, and was supposedly "much more experienced", and "would be fine". I guess they found each other eventually, but still...

The diver noted in a later conversation with us that next time he'll come up sooner, having been perplexed as to why he ran out of air when his gauge still read 400psi. We sent him on his way with the knowledge that many gauges don't read accurately under 500psi, and that he should try to be significantly more conservative when evaluating his air usage. Hopefully it sticks in his head, and there are no repeat incidents.

 

[Ben_ca]

The drive down wasn't nice... rain and cold with more than the usual sightings of cars in ditches... black ice maybe? The hills were pretty with a topping of snow and the sun tried to peak out from behind the clouds every now and then.

The surface conditions were not the greatest as Casey said... the waves pushed students around and into each other while they held hands and waltzed in the surf. The rescue was still fresh in our minds as we finished up the briefing and walked in...

We regrouped out beyond the waves and then hit the trigger...
It took 10 minutes to get to the line Another 4 and change to get to the Barge. i think we spend 12 minutes at the barge... then a long 14 minute leg to the Metridium Fields. The water felt cold but the vis kept improving as we went out. On the way back Brian and I slalomed the instructor floats on the surface checking out the students doing their check outs... We could clearly see the bottom while scootering in... 25-30 ... It's nice to have good vis at the BW every now and then.

PS. Aquaregia sorry we weren't able to come by and say hi... looked like you guys were busy.

 

[Ben_ca]

In the future, I would prefer not to start our pre-dive briefing with a rescue effort. Not only was the diver we helped completely out of air and clearly quite stressed, he had no idea where his buddy was. His buddy apparently continued the dive, and was supposedly "much more experienced", and "would be fine". I guess they found each other eventually, but still...

The diver noted in a later conversation with us that next time he'll come up sooner, having been perplexed as to why he ran out of air when his gauge still read 400psi. We sent him on his way with the knowledge that many gauges don't read accurately under 500psi, and that he should try to be significantly more conservative when evaluating his air usage. Hopefully it sticks in his head, and there are no repeat incidents.

That was the shocking part... His buddy was no where to be found...either not knowing or not caring about him. He was left to fend for himself... getting pounded into the rocks by the surf. I hope he learns a lesson and doesn't just shrug it off as a "successful" dive because he survived.

 

[Peter_C]

Other than a minor rescue operation, it sounds like a perfect dive. Someday, I would like to do the grand tour I should have buzzed out to the coast this morning as the conditions are favorable.

 

[Adobo]

I don't have much to add except that the conditions (under water) were as good as I have seen in a couple years. Granted, I don't dive the breakwater as much as I used to. Vis was 20 feet+ in most places and 30 feet+ in some places. And other than the return leg of the dive, there weren't any sea nettles to dodge.

Thanks for the dive you guys. I had a ton of fun.