Cyprian
Contributor
If you will forgive me for the title....I was looking for something catchy. 
Although there is a lost GoPro head cam setup in this story, it's not very dramatic...but still a good, short story.
That said:
Bryan and I go to CSSP on Sat 3/10 despite the threat of rain. Rain doesn't bother us. We are diving dry. Only t-storms bother us.
We meet, setup Bryan's truck tent....yes, he is going to camp (God bless him) in the rain, cold and stormy weather. So we gear up and prepare for the dive. I've got brand new SP jet fins with Halcyon spring straps that I will be using on this dive. I'm excited, ready to work on various kicks and see what I can do. Ahem.....I bought them sized against my better judgement. I bought the new XXL jets and I wear a size 9 1/2 to 10 shoe. My DUI dry suit has turbo soles. When I put them on at my house I noticed a little "flop" when I moved my foot(feet) in them. No worries....double socks? Yeah, that was a mistake. I giant-strided into the water and the fin on my left foot popped off and spun around on my turbo-sole. Luckily, the spring strap kept it on my ankle. Bryan came over and helped me snap it back on my foot. I told him I was going to drop down and try to kick. I dropped to about 10' and couldn't even kick up! The fins were moving every way but the right way.
So I took them off, climbed out and went to get my Quattros out of my truck....in full equipment, up the hill. Yeah.
So I get back in and dive one goes smooth. Vis is 15' as we dropped to the plane. We notice the vis dropping as we approach the more "choked" area at CSSP, but nothing to worry about. We ascend, perform a modest 3 min safety stop in open water at 15' and surface to rain falling. Aha, there is the vis culprit.
We surface swim back to the platform and I climb the ladder and turn to Bryan and he says something along the lines of "Uh-oh, I lost my camera." Sure enough, the GoPro that he had mounted as a helmet cam is no longer there! :shocked2:
We get out and discuss that our first mission on the next dive is to find that camera, and then find the sailboat if we can.
After a great conversation, some hot dogs, chips and coffee that Bryan provided, (thanks again, although you should have let me kick in some $), we geared up for the dive.
We surface swim to the area we think Bryan last had the camera. We drop and I'm not kidding, he found it within 5 mins....I know, I was watching the time. Whew, a nice save for Bryan and a joke later about us being search and recovery divers (no offense intended to those who have to recover bodies...I'm just talking about recovering simple things).
Camera in hand, or on head as it where, we start our search for the sailboat. I semi-navigate back and forth between points....nothing. The rain has really started to mess up the vis. We are around 8' vis at best. I turn and point to Bryan asking him to lead.....once again, within 5 mins, he finds the sailboat. Dumb luck, he later says. Well maybe as he had not seen it before, but our grid was pretty good!
We dive around the boat, then cruise over it. I centered on the mast and signaled ascent to Bryan. I had gas left, but wanted to ascend and shoot a bearing. We came up for another safety stop at 15' and surfaced. I shot a reference to the entry point and now "should" be able to find it easily in the future.
There was another short dive in there were I was playing with my weighting (I'm still too heavy in a dry suit with steel tank), but all in all, a fun Saturday dive with plenty of stories, banter, food, drink, rain, mud, cool water, truck tent installation, incorrectly sized fins, a lost GoPro camera, a happy owner when it was found, and some crazy dude that stayed alone all night in that cold, windy environment.
Cyp
Although there is a lost GoPro head cam setup in this story, it's not very dramatic...but still a good, short story.
That said:
Bryan and I go to CSSP on Sat 3/10 despite the threat of rain. Rain doesn't bother us. We are diving dry. Only t-storms bother us.
We meet, setup Bryan's truck tent....yes, he is going to camp (God bless him) in the rain, cold and stormy weather. So we gear up and prepare for the dive. I've got brand new SP jet fins with Halcyon spring straps that I will be using on this dive. I'm excited, ready to work on various kicks and see what I can do. Ahem.....I bought them sized against my better judgement. I bought the new XXL jets and I wear a size 9 1/2 to 10 shoe. My DUI dry suit has turbo soles. When I put them on at my house I noticed a little "flop" when I moved my foot(feet) in them. No worries....double socks? Yeah, that was a mistake. I giant-strided into the water and the fin on my left foot popped off and spun around on my turbo-sole. Luckily, the spring strap kept it on my ankle. Bryan came over and helped me snap it back on my foot. I told him I was going to drop down and try to kick. I dropped to about 10' and couldn't even kick up! The fins were moving every way but the right way.
So I took them off, climbed out and went to get my Quattros out of my truck....in full equipment, up the hill. Yeah.
So I get back in and dive one goes smooth. Vis is 15' as we dropped to the plane. We notice the vis dropping as we approach the more "choked" area at CSSP, but nothing to worry about. We ascend, perform a modest 3 min safety stop in open water at 15' and surface to rain falling. Aha, there is the vis culprit.
We surface swim back to the platform and I climb the ladder and turn to Bryan and he says something along the lines of "Uh-oh, I lost my camera." Sure enough, the GoPro that he had mounted as a helmet cam is no longer there! :shocked2:
We get out and discuss that our first mission on the next dive is to find that camera, and then find the sailboat if we can.
After a great conversation, some hot dogs, chips and coffee that Bryan provided, (thanks again, although you should have let me kick in some $), we geared up for the dive.
We surface swim to the area we think Bryan last had the camera. We drop and I'm not kidding, he found it within 5 mins....I know, I was watching the time. Whew, a nice save for Bryan and a joke later about us being search and recovery divers (no offense intended to those who have to recover bodies...I'm just talking about recovering simple things).
Camera in hand, or on head as it where, we start our search for the sailboat. I semi-navigate back and forth between points....nothing. The rain has really started to mess up the vis. We are around 8' vis at best. I turn and point to Bryan asking him to lead.....once again, within 5 mins, he finds the sailboat. Dumb luck, he later says. Well maybe as he had not seen it before, but our grid was pretty good!
We dive around the boat, then cruise over it. I centered on the mast and signaled ascent to Bryan. I had gas left, but wanted to ascend and shoot a bearing. We came up for another safety stop at 15' and surfaced. I shot a reference to the entry point and now "should" be able to find it easily in the future.
There was another short dive in there were I was playing with my weighting (I'm still too heavy in a dry suit with steel tank), but all in all, a fun Saturday dive with plenty of stories, banter, food, drink, rain, mud, cool water, truck tent installation, incorrectly sized fins, a lost GoPro camera, a happy owner when it was found, and some crazy dude that stayed alone all night in that cold, windy environment.
Cyp
