First Scooter Dive... Success?

[Hepcat62]

More or less. I had some minor weighting issues with the scooter, which were particularly noticeable anytime I had it clipped off and stowed. Fortunately, the overweighting was relatively manageable, so the worst thing that happened was me looking more or less like an under-performing OW student some of the time (probably a lot more of the time than I think!). Don was carrying his camera, and I'm pretty sure he was surreptitiously shooting video. I'm assuming he'll be nice, and send me the horrors privately.

I can safely say at this point that my Sierra now holds a very dear place in my heart. Vis was quite good, and any swell/surge was effectively non-existant. You'd be hard-pressed to pick a better day for a first scooter dive. We did the Grand Tour at San Carlos Beach - out along the wall, hit the barge, scooter to the metridiums, in along the pipe a bit, back the to wall and out. Getting out to the barge that easily (I'll never do that surface swim again) and covering that much ground was truly a very different diving experience than any I've had before - I'm now thoroughly spoiled. One interesting highlight (from our perspective) was buzzing over the top of an OW class on the return leg of the trip. I tried to describe it to my girlfriend using a WW2 bomber-squadron metaphor... She was far less amused than I was.

Post-Dive Highlight: When I dropped off my tanks at the shop, they asked me where I dove today. I said, "Breakwater". They said, "What part?". I said, "ALL OF IT", with a giant grin on my face.


Big thanks to Don, Mike M., Erik, Steve, and Cynthia for allowing me to come out and wobble all over the place with them. They - of course - looked very graceful. I was more like a dyslexic baboon with an inner-ear infection. I'm working on it...

Bottom Time: 88min
Max. Depth: 63fsw
Happiness: HIGH

 

[andrewy]

Brian teach me we go places..

 

[mikemill]

Heh, 6 person scooter group in vis where you can't see half the people while we are going was a lot of fun.

 

[Ben_ca]

Brian
I'm congratulations on your first ride. At least your first ride was on your own scoot not like us who were given a quick taste of heaven just to have the crack pipe snatched away. The grand tour is fun... It's like cruising the town on a Friday night.. Your old tired site becomes a big playground that's yours to explore like never before... Oh and did Don ask you to do OOA drill while on the trigger? now those are fun also

Mike. How did you like that run? So much easier going that way isn't it

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mikemill]

Brian
I'm congratulations on your first ride. At least your first ride was on your own scoot not like us who were given a quick taste of heaven just to have the crack pipe snatched away. The grand tour is fun... It's like cruising the town on a Friday night.. Your old tired site becomes a big playground that's yours to explore like never before... Oh and did Don ask you to do OOA drill while on the trigger? now those are fun also

Mike. How did you like that run? So much easier going that way isn't it

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had never been to the Barge before so can't really say. But I will say that I'm never kicking to the barge nor the Met fields on the surface.

 

[Hepcat62]

I had never been to the Barge before so can't really say. But I will say that I'm never kicking to the barge nor the Met fields on the surface.

I HAVE kicked out to the barge before. I'm never doing it again.

 

[Ben_ca]

One of the "rules" the me and my buddies took on early into our scooter ownership was not to scoot out to somewhere we havent kicked to before... Its amazing how fast those things can bring you to a place thats over your head so to speak.

So where's the pics/vid?

 

[mikemill]

One of the "rules" the me and my buddies took on early into our scooter ownership was not to scoot out to somewhere we havent kicked to before... Its amazing how fast those things can bring you to a place thats over your head so to speak.

With 5 other scooters we were well covered in that regard. There will be places I'm not willing to kick to that I'll scooter to. That is one of the points of using a scooter. Just need to have coverage if one scooter dies.

So where's the pics/vid?

Don was the only one with a camera and he is back logged on video editing.

 

[alwaingold]

One of the "rules" the me and my buddies took on early into our scooter ownership was not to scoot out to somewhere we havent kicked to before... Its amazing how fast those things can bring you to a place thats over your head so to speak.

There will be places I'm not willing to kick to that I'll scooter to. That is one of the points of using a scooter.

If you only scooter to sites you have kicked to before, then you can't actually use the scooter to extend your range. I suspect Ben meant that his rule is a good one to follow when you are "new" to scootering, though it's not clear to me when one is suddenly no longer new. I think a better rule is to take small steps in terms of going to new places. E.g. don't scooter to Twin Peaks if you have never been past Hole in the Wall.

Mike, the issue that I think Ben is trying to point out isn't just a matter of having another scooter to tow you back. It's also a matter of knowing where the hell you are at any given point on a dive. If your buddy takes you out 20 minutes on the trigger to a site you've never been to before, are you going to be able to lead the team back if you have to? Depends on how complex the navigation is, obviously (the navigation to the barge, for instance, isn't exactly complex). I do a lot of my navigation by landmark, and it's hard for me absorb a lot of that on the trigger. So I like to scooter out to a spot I know, kick around for a while, and then next time I will know all of the area I knew before, plus the part I kicked around in.

I think it is also nice to have an idea of what kind of kick you may be in for if your scooter dies, especially when you have someone newer to scootering on the team, who may not be comfortable with a long tow if there is a failure.

As far as bringing you to places that are over your head, people need to exercise good judgment about their ability to do a dive whether they are scootering or not

Allison

 

[Ben_ca]

If you only scooter to sites you have kicked to before, then you can't actually use the scooter to extend your range. I suspect Ben meant that his rule is a good one to follow when you are "new" to scootering, though it's not clear to me when one is suddenly no longer new. I think a better rule is to take small steps in terms of going to new places. E.g. don't scooter to Twin Peaks if you have never been past Hole in the Wall.

Mike, the issue that I think Ben is trying to point out isn't just a matter of having another scooter to tow you back. It's also a matter of knowing where the hell you are at any given point on a dive. If your buddy takes you out 20 minutes on the trigger to a site you've never been to before, are you going to be able to lead the team back if you have to? Depends on how complex the navigation is, obviously (the navigation to the barge, for instance, isn't exactly complex). I do a lot of my navigation by landmark, and it's hard for me absorb a lot of that on the trigger. So I like to scooter out to a spot I know, kick around for a while, and then next time I will know all of the area I knew before, plus the part I kicked around in.

I think it is also nice to have an idea of what kind of kick you may be in for if your scooter dies, especially when you have someone newer to scootering on the team, who may not be comfortable with a long tow if there is a failure.

As far as bringing you to places that are over your head, people need to exercise good judgment about their ability to do a dive whether they are scootering or not

Allison

^^^What she said. Thanks Allison

The leg from the Barge to the Met fields is the one I usually dislike.. It's very long and devoid of landmarks. It's also one of my most memorable... I can vividly remember a night scooter with Jonathan and Nils... 3 scooters wing on wing over the sand with brittle star arms reaching out of the sand... pitch black with just the sound of bubbles, beams of lights sweeping back and forth and the comforting whir or the scooters...