Daily Dive/Vis Reports

[Goody1986]

Alright my 2012 family shakedown dive was hilarious. Went to Westport MA 5/5 to dive on the barge. 4 guys, 3 kayaks. Combo freedive/tank dives. Managed to squeeze 2 guys on a 1-man OK Scrambler. The other one gets a OK Venus kayak ( approx 8 ft long ) attempts to put full dive/spearfishing gear onboard and instantly swamps the thing 10 ft off the beach. The guys managed to flip their Scrambler and lose/ recover all their gear as well.

Luckily my OK prowler is a USS Nimitz class kayak and holds all his gear along with mine for 2 mile paddle out. No signs of lobsters there, plenty of blackfish. Only 5ft viz however and cccccold water temps.

All in all great way to start the year.

 

[petrieps]

Very cool. How long did it take you to paddle 2 miles with a loaded kayak?

Yesterday was my first time diving from a kayak. I only paddled about a half mile, and it paddled like a barge. I had 2 tanks onboard and paddling in a drysuit was not fun. I was just happy to get the dives in and keep it upright. It was awesome but I think I'll wait and use a wetsuit when the water warms up some more.

 

[Goody1986]

It took approx 40 mins? I was really impressed with the weight capacity of this thing. There must have been approx 500lbs of gear + myself ( 6ft 220) and it handled just fine, tracked well - just heavy.

What kind of kayak are you using?

Paddling in a drysuit? yikes that must have been really warm. I got alot of my ideas for easy transport from this thread on spearboard:

Yak Rigging for Solo Tank Dives - Spearboard.com - The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Social Media Forum

 

[petrieps]

I'm using a Cobra Explorer. It's 11'4" and has a capacity of 450lbs. I decided on this because it has the large A hatch in the bow and I can fit a 2nd tank in it keeping the COG nice and low. It did track well, just a lot heavier than I was expecting.

Yea paddling in a drysuit was a mistake. I worked up a sweat which consequently made me too cold on the dives. I kinda thought this would be the case but I just can't bring myself to dive wet yet.

That's a good link. I don't know about using bungee though. I doubt it would hold the heavy gear in a violent roll over. I'm using 1.5" webbing with buckles. Works well and I know the gear isn't going anywhere.

One thing I haven't figured out yet is how I'm gonna mount a tall dive flag to it.

 

[porgyhunter]

Oh you two young pups....rowed an inflatable in shorts a cut off shirt in a "lake" a mile...... dove and rowed back to a "dock" and I was "bushed"