First time diving Monterey - Cypress on 3/22

[Ben_ca]

Normally the rides out to the dive sites are short so people suit up in the parking lot...

Or at least the bottoms... it's way easier to get dressed there than it is on a pitching boat

 

[Hinalo]

Definitely get your exposure suit on in the parking lot before you board. Then you can stuff the rest of your gear in a mesh bag and make one trip down the dock onto the boat. The crew will like you because you are already mostly put together and taking up very little deck space.

 

[mikemill]

Another thing to add: If you get there early enough you can park on the pier right near the gate. At the "beginning" of the pier there is a parking pass machine. Use that and don't worry about the meter.

 

[emttim]

Bring a warm hat.

Bring your own lead (the local boats don't provide it).

How much cold-water experience do you have? Jumping off the Cypress
Sea is NOT the way to have your first cold-water dive.

This is debatable in my opinion. Cypress Sea is a very well run dive boat, the crew is outstanding and very helpful, and they have a dive charter called Friendly Friday where every Friday they offer a 2-tank dive that goes to beginner-level dive sites at a max depth of 60 ft in calm conditions typically.

I would think something like the aforementioned would be a much better way to do the first dive in cold water, with a Divemaster on the boat just in case, rather than a shore dive where you will be going to a comparable site but now you also have entry/exit considerations to take into account such as surf...less taskloading to do a boat dive at an "easy" site.

Either way it's going to be a shell shock because cold water is a completely different animal and the cold goes straight to the bone regardless of exposure protection if you're down there long enough.

 

[sladerer]

Many thanks to all the great advice so far. Some background on us and a follow-up question
on weighting. We are getting in to town Sat afternoon and will definitely spend some time
talking to the folks at the dive shop where we'll be renting our rubber and weights.

For experience, I have 53 dives (just finished AOW qual. w/SSI), my wife is at 40.
I did 7 dives in the St Lawrence last summer, average temp was 65-68, wearing
farmer john bottom and L/S under armor cold gear top (no jacket) and was comfortable
even on our 3 dive day with air temps in 60's;
also done a few quarry dives with 15-20 mins <60 and one 52 min dive where a
solid 30 mins was <60 wearing the full 7mm farmer john, jacket, hood, gloves etc and
was really only noticeably chilled below 50 (but warmed up in the 85 deg sun afterwards).

My wife's coldest dive profiles are probably 30-40 mins at 74/75. she usually wears a full
3mm suit or a L/S shorty. We just got back from Cabo where several of those dives were
74/75 for most of the dive and she reported being very comfortable in a 1mm skin with
3mm L/S shorty over top. i expect this will be a bigger shock to her than to me, but i don't
think we'll have a chance to try it before the boat trip.

This brings me to my f/up question - weighting. How do we make an educated conversion
from what we're used to? I've given some examples of our setup below. for bouyancy
we both have sherwood BCD's w/integrated weight. she usually takes 2 lbs in each trim
pocket on her back.
For me:
In full gear (7mm FJ w/jacket, hood, gloves) in freshwater and a ST80 i've used 22 lbs. A bit
overweighted but no bouyancy problems. Minus the jacket and hood on AL80 16lbs was OK.
In a 3mm wetsuit + rashguard and an AL 80 in saltwater 16 lbs was ok, maybe a bit heavy.

My wife:
3mm wetsuit + rashguard and an AL 80 in saltwater her record shows 14 and 16 both working,
she took 20 in Cozumel with a 1mm skin, 3mm L/S shorty and AL80. A bit heavy on our boat
dives but it helped her on our shore dives in 15-20' with some surge.

I'm sure the guys/gals in the shop will be able to help us gauge, but if you have any general
rule(s) of thumb I'd love to hear them. We've both just completed our deep diving cert and
I understand that steel tanks give us an extra 8 to 9 lbs compared to AL (given std 80's).

thanks again.

Scott

 

[emttim]

Many thanks to all the great advice so far. Some background on us and a follow-up question
on weighting. We are getting in to town Sat afternoon and will definitely spend some time
talking to the folks at the dive shop where we'll be renting our rubber and weights.

For experience, I have 53 dives (just finished AOW qual. w/SSI), my wife is at 40.
I did 7 dives in the St Lawrence last summer, average temp was 65-68, wearing
farmer john bottom and L/S under armor cold gear top (no jacket) and was comfortable
even on our 3 dive day with air temps in 60's;
also done a few quarry dives with 15-20 mins <60 and one 52 min dive where a
solid 30 mins was <60 wearing the full 7mm farmer john, jacket, hood, gloves etc and
was really only noticeably chilled below 50 (but warmed up in the 85 deg sun afterwards).

My wife's coldest dive profiles are probably 30-40 mins at 74/75. she usually wears a full
3mm suit or a L/S shorty. We just got back from Cabo where several of those dives were
74/75 for most of the dive and she reported being very comfortable in a 1mm skin with
3mm L/S shorty over top. i expect this will be a bigger shock to her than to me, but i don't
think we'll have a chance to try it before the boat trip.

This brings me to my f/up question - weighting. How do we make an educated conversion
from what we're used to? I've given some examples of our setup below. for bouyancy
we both have sherwood BCD's w/integrated weight. she usually takes 2 lbs in each trim
pocket on her back.
For me:
In full gear (7mm FJ w/jacket, hood, gloves) in freshwater and a ST80 i've used 22 lbs. A bit
overweighted but no bouyancy problems. Minus the jacket and hood on AL80 16lbs was OK.
In a 3mm wetsuit + rashguard and an AL 80 in saltwater 16 lbs was ok, maybe a bit heavy.

My wife:
3mm wetsuit + rashguard and an AL 80 in saltwater her record shows 14 and 16 both working,
she took 20 in Cozumel with a 1mm skin, 3mm L/S shorty and AL80. A bit heavy on our boat
dives but it helped her on our shore dives in 15-20' with some surge.

I'm sure the guys/gals in the shop will be able to help us gauge, but if you have any general
rule(s) of thumb I'd love to hear them. We've both just completed our deep diving cert and
I understand that steel tanks give us an extra 8 to 9 lbs compared to AL (given std 80's).

thanks again.

Scott

Well, it depends on the tank you're using...weighting will be far different if you use say a HP steel 80 (even greater difference with a bigger tank) versus an aluminum 80. However, Cypress Sea only uses LP 80s (some HP 80s I think) and AL 80s, so here's my educated guess.

If you've used a steel 80 in your full 7mm setup that you'll probably use in Monterey, in freshwater, with 22 lbs and being slightly overweighted, I would say add 5 pounds for saltwater and maybe subtract 1-2 pounds as needed. Start with 26 pounds, and if you need to, take a few pounds off for the next dive.

The general rule of thumb is an extra 5 pounds for saltwater, an extra 5 pounds for an aluminum tank, and its 10% of your bodyweight if you're using a 7mm setup. Remember, better to be a little overweighted than underweighted.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

For experience, I have 53 dives (just finished AOW qual. w/SSI), my wife is at 40.
I did 7 dives in the St Lawrence last summer, average temp was 65-68, wearing
farmer john bottom and L/S under armor cold gear top (no jacket) and was comfortable
even on our 3 dive day with air temps in 60's;
also done a few quarry dives with 15-20 mins <60 and one 52 min dive where a
solid 30 mins was <60 wearing the full 7mm farmer john, jacket, hood, gloves etc and
was really only noticeably chilled below 50 (but warmed up in the 85 deg sun afterwards).

You are a warm-water diver. I saw 46F on the first dive Sunday.

Don't plan on getting your weighting right on the first boat dive.

Get it right on a beach dive. You want to be about five pounds
heavy with a full tank.

 

[emttim]

You are a warm-water diver. I saw 46F on the first dive Sunday.

Don't plan on getting your weighting right on the first boat dive.

Get it right on a beach dive. You want to be about five pounds
heavy with a full tank.

I have yet to see an explanation as to why a beach dive would be better than a boat dive at a comparable dive site. I'm interested to know why you would think surf on top of everything else without a DM around just in case is a better alternative?

Also, five pounds heavy with a full tank is completely inaccurate unless its an aluminum tank. The distinction is important, as five pounds heavy with a steel tank is going to make a very, very overweighted diver if they're already overweighted to begin with. Positive buoyancy at the end of the dive will not happen with a steel tank; you'll be lucky if the tank is even neutrally buoyant at the end of the dive.

 

[Gombessa]

Positive buoyancy at the end of the dive will not happen with a steel tank; you'll be lucky if the tank is even neutrally buoyant at the end of the dive.

Chuck is taking into account the buoyancy afforded by the exposure protection.

 

[mikeguerrero]

When Chuck mentioned that he saw 46 degrees on Sunday that is cold, especially if you are diving a wetsuit.

I dove the Escapade last Saturday and we were at Inner Pinnacles and second dive was at Still Water cove.

We had 8 wetsuit divers that tapped out of the second dive, some divers registered 48 degrees on their consoles, I read 50 degrees on mine.

I could see mist comming out of all the divers including me when we spoke up on deck. I however, was really comfortable and not cold at all in my drysuit. I was using Argon gas for inlfation and that helped out a lot.

Remember that on a boat dive if you are diving in deep water 80+ feet you will get the compression and if diving wet you are going to get cold.

I got really cold a few months back when I dove Ballbuster in my 7mm suit, we went down to 103 feet and did our drills, as I ascended down to that depth I felt the cold starting to creep on me at 65+ feet. By the time I got down to 100 I was cold.

I also was using elastiprene neoprene which is more comfortable than regular neoprene but I feel it compresses easier than the other.

Hopefully you have a thicker neoprene for your boat dive.

MG