pacificgal
Rest in Peace...
Saturday, Don was nice enough to get the 4-5 of us reservations at Lobos so we could have some fun dives with him, Doug Chartier, me and fobturbo (matt). Unfortunately, however, Don wasn't able to make it, so, Matt, Doug and I struck out on our own to try to find something. Anything. Ben and Ted were there, as well as Kathy, Erik and their friend Gary. Matt ran our pre-dive planning, I started as captain and we switched to Matt a bit on the way back. Matt brought his camera, I tried to find neat stuff for him to shoot. Not sure how successful I was, there were nudi's, shrimp, usual suspects. We didn't really make it to middle reef, just played around in 27 fsw for 63 minutes.
Dive #2, met up with KathyDee and Gary Banta (BAUE) and they offered to take us somewhere different (the REAL middle reef, lol). We kicked out with them, Gary and Kathy demostrated some kicks and s-drill for us, waved bye-bye and off they went, they dropped us right on top of the reef (thanks!).
We meandered around middle reef for a bit, I was getting pretty cold, not truly being able to warm up on the SI, so as we were cruising around, not sure who saw it first, Doug or I, but I there was a HUGE wolf eel (6-7 feet, it was bigger than me) free swimming (actually, he was kinda resting along the bottom/side of the reef. It got startled by our presence and started swimming away slowly, we followed it to it's next resting place, waved Matt over to come see and photograph. Matt got some amazing pictures of this wolf eel, I expect him to post soon. After photgraphing the wolf eel for a bit, it was time to move on, we had been down maybe 35 minutes and I didn't think we would see anything cooler than that, lol, it's time to head back. Ben and Ted were nice enough to provide lunch for us, that sandwich was awesome, it was 4 pm and I was starving!
Day #2, Sunday, Point Lobos with Andrewy, Nathan, Ted and their friend who's name escapes me, sorry! Team Bunny was there today, Bogie and John, Don and Elissa and Erik.
When Andrew introduced me to Ted he looked familiar, he was the DMC candidate that helped in my son's discover scuba class Friday night. Pretty cool, though strange that he dives with my son before he dives with me...But I digress...
Nathan was my dive buddy, Andrew was with Ted and the female friend, we all 5 went out together, in the hopes of getting to granite point wall. Nathan and I were in wetsuits, everyone else was in drysuits, the girl, this was her first time in a drysuit so we were trying to keep a close eye on her, but she's one of those divers I guess that likes to dive 7-10 feet above everyone else, which made it hard for me because I was behind the group of 3, but of course I want to keep the last person in their group in my sight so I don't lose the whole group. I'm swimming really slow, trying to keep her in front of me, looking up, mask keeps flooding when I look up, andrew grabs her hand and tries to bring her down to us...not real sure what was going on there, but it was uncomfortable for me, I didn't want her to accidently pop up in her new drysuit, she was nowhere near where we could grab her if she did. It was a learning experience for me, pre-dive planning with new buddies you should probably discuss staying at the same depth together, or within arms reach in a kick or two. We made it to granite point wall, made a pass along it (that sucked too, I don't think I like walls that much, I wanted to be perpendicular to it so I could see everything, not have it over my left shoulder where I couldn't really pick anything out. Of note, though, andrew let me borrow his can light today, damn, it was dark through the kelp, almost night dark, but that light picked out everything. Little itty bitty nudis and fish, it was amazing.
OK, swim back was uneventful (this is getting long, sorry).
After 1:15 SI, Ted, Andrew and I went for a shallow skills dive. I've been practicing my frog kick, I think it's getting better. Andrew and I shot an SMB, my first attempt was pathetic (unclip the string BEFORE you blow into it) the second attempt was much better, andrew had me reel it up to 10 feet and do a min deco at 10 feet and then I came back down. I've been having floaty feet so I was trying to work out why it was happening. I think I got it figured out (after being inverted several times in 20 feet). When my head is down, my feel go up over my head, when my head is up (back arched) I stay in trim. I shoulda known that. Oh well, it's sometimes fun to see things from a different perspective (inverted).
I'm on the Escapade for a 3 tank boat dive on Saturday, and Sunday hopefully with Lenaxia. Dry the following weekend (gasp).
Dive #2, met up with KathyDee and Gary Banta (BAUE) and they offered to take us somewhere different (the REAL middle reef, lol). We kicked out with them, Gary and Kathy demostrated some kicks and s-drill for us, waved bye-bye and off they went, they dropped us right on top of the reef (thanks!).
We meandered around middle reef for a bit, I was getting pretty cold, not truly being able to warm up on the SI, so as we were cruising around, not sure who saw it first, Doug or I, but I there was a HUGE wolf eel (6-7 feet, it was bigger than me) free swimming (actually, he was kinda resting along the bottom/side of the reef. It got startled by our presence and started swimming away slowly, we followed it to it's next resting place, waved Matt over to come see and photograph. Matt got some amazing pictures of this wolf eel, I expect him to post soon. After photgraphing the wolf eel for a bit, it was time to move on, we had been down maybe 35 minutes and I didn't think we would see anything cooler than that, lol, it's time to head back. Ben and Ted were nice enough to provide lunch for us, that sandwich was awesome, it was 4 pm and I was starving!
Day #2, Sunday, Point Lobos with Andrewy, Nathan, Ted and their friend who's name escapes me, sorry! Team Bunny was there today, Bogie and John, Don and Elissa and Erik.
When Andrew introduced me to Ted he looked familiar, he was the DMC candidate that helped in my son's discover scuba class Friday night. Pretty cool, though strange that he dives with my son before he dives with me...But I digress...
Nathan was my dive buddy, Andrew was with Ted and the female friend, we all 5 went out together, in the hopes of getting to granite point wall. Nathan and I were in wetsuits, everyone else was in drysuits, the girl, this was her first time in a drysuit so we were trying to keep a close eye on her, but she's one of those divers I guess that likes to dive 7-10 feet above everyone else, which made it hard for me because I was behind the group of 3, but of course I want to keep the last person in their group in my sight so I don't lose the whole group. I'm swimming really slow, trying to keep her in front of me, looking up, mask keeps flooding when I look up, andrew grabs her hand and tries to bring her down to us...not real sure what was going on there, but it was uncomfortable for me, I didn't want her to accidently pop up in her new drysuit, she was nowhere near where we could grab her if she did. It was a learning experience for me, pre-dive planning with new buddies you should probably discuss staying at the same depth together, or within arms reach in a kick or two. We made it to granite point wall, made a pass along it (that sucked too, I don't think I like walls that much, I wanted to be perpendicular to it so I could see everything, not have it over my left shoulder where I couldn't really pick anything out. Of note, though, andrew let me borrow his can light today, damn, it was dark through the kelp, almost night dark, but that light picked out everything. Little itty bitty nudis and fish, it was amazing.
OK, swim back was uneventful (this is getting long, sorry).
After 1:15 SI, Ted, Andrew and I went for a shallow skills dive. I've been practicing my frog kick, I think it's getting better. Andrew and I shot an SMB, my first attempt was pathetic (unclip the string BEFORE you blow into it) the second attempt was much better, andrew had me reel it up to 10 feet and do a min deco at 10 feet and then I came back down. I've been having floaty feet so I was trying to work out why it was happening. I think I got it figured out (after being inverted several times in 20 feet). When my head is down, my feel go up over my head, when my head is up (back arched) I stay in trim. I shoulda known that. Oh well, it's sometimes fun to see things from a different perspective (inverted).
I'm on the Escapade for a 3 tank boat dive on Saturday, and Sunday hopefully with Lenaxia. Dry the following weekend (gasp).
hugs...
