This is a little long...
The day after completing our last open water checkout dives me, and two others from class, decide to do our first real, unsupervized dive, the next day. We decided to dive the Western World, an old wooden wreck off Point Pleasant NJ... A beach dive.
We get to the parking lot at the beach near where the wreck is supposed to be and check out the conditions. It's horrible. The breakers rolling onto the beach are in the 6 to 8 foot range... huge waves. We were young and over confidant so we decide to go for it. Plus, we had driven an hour and a half so we didn't want to waste the trip (stupid, stupid, stupid). We start putting our heavy farmer john wetsuits on at the car and once we all have the bottoms on a woman approaches us and asks if we are diving the Western World... we say 'yes' and she inform us that we have to go to the police station and sign liability waivers first. We get back in the car, in wetsuits (bottoms only) and sweat our butts off driving to the police station, go in, fill out proper forms and return. It took about 20 minutes and we must have each sweated out about a gallon by the time we got back to the dive site. We gear up and start heading to the water in all our gear... Including 28 LB weight belts on each of us.
By the time we get to the water we are hot, tired, and more than a little nervous at swimming through the huge breakers rolling in. The beach was crowded and everyone was staring at us. We were quite the novelty. Anyway, the plan is to stick together as we swim under the waves out past the breakers, then surface to regroup and figure out where the wreck is. We crawl into the water and get to where the water is about 2 feet deep and the first wave hits. It was like the surge from a hurricane. Masks flooded and filled with sand and sea weed, regs freeflowing, complete disorientation. We keep going... It felt like forever to get past the breakers, and after two or three waves we were all on our own. Had no idea where my buddies were... Well, we made it and managed to regroup on the surface beyond the beach break. We were all exhausted.
Now we are floating on the surface in 4 to 6 foot swells trying to figure out where the wreck is and trying not to get sea sick. We are in about 15' of water with about 10' vis. You could not see bottom snorkeling. Luckily a boat pulled up about 50 yards away and anchored on the wreck. We could see the water was all stirred up with sand where he anchored, and figured it was the surge around the wreck kicking up sand. We were right. We surface swam to the wreck and the boat, confirmed with the 2 divers on the boat that we were on the wreck, and did our dive.
It was an interesting dive... lots of fish on two chunks of the wreck about 20 feet apart surrounded by sand. The surge underwater was pushing us back and forth about 10 feet per wave... that was a surprise after only doing pool and quary dives. Well, we finished the dive, saving about 1000 lbs air each for the return to the beach. We surface swam together to just offshore of where the waves were breaking (we never even though to ask the guys on the boat for a lift). Now what???
Well, we all shook hands, said good luck, and made our way in, knowing there was no way to stay together in that mess of waves. We were correct. Basically, the first wave hit us and we all tumbled feet over head and then had that first wave slam us into the bottom where we all lost contact with eachother. This went on for what felt like forever, but it was probably 3 or 4 minutes of getting slammed and tossed around by these massive waves. All you could see was the sand, water, and sea weed inside the mask, you could only hear crashing waves. Somehow I made it to the beach, without my buddies (they were waaaay down the beach). I crawl to where the water is only about a foot deep and just stay there catching my breath. I was totally lost. Dizzy, exhausted... Some little kid immediately runs up and starts saying, "Wow, are you a scuba diver, what did you see?" "did you see any sharks, what kind of fish..." I couldn't even answer him I was so wiped out. A small crowd has gathered around me now. I am tired, upset, confused, and more than a little embarrased at our stupidity at making the dive. Someone asks if I need any help... I say no (I needed it bad though). I try to crawl forward and stand up, but as I was kneeling, the water from the waved going up and down the beach had burried my legs in the sand. I was stuck. I ask the guy for help, and he drags me up out of the water where I colapse (I still had all my gear on). My two buddies show up around that time, one with no mask, and one with only one fin. I check myself out and I didn't lose anything, but I had sea weed wrapped around everything, and sand and sea weed filling my wetsuit... literally pounds of the stuff. So did my buddies. We sat on the beach for about 1/2 an hour before we had the energy to pack our gear up to the car.
We survived the waves, saw the wreck, and only lost 2 pieces of equipment... We were very lucky to say the least. We drove home in virtual silence, in awe over what we had just been through. We all learned a huge lesson that day...
That was in August 1993 when I lived in PA. By October 1993 I was living in Florida
Almost 10 years later Ive had nothing but the rare, stupid mistake, which I've always caught before entering the water... Nothing broken, and nothing that has ever cost me a dive or even shortened one for that matter. I will always remember the Western World, that's for sure.
Not the best first impression.
