First West Coast dive

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CuriousMe

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Vacation's over, back on the ship right in time fo
Hi everyone,

I don't live out here...but I'll probably be assigned to this ship till the end of the summer. My wesuits finally arrived and I'm doing my first west coast, cold water, kelp dive tomorrow on Catalina. Any advice for a WWW who's done all her diving in the warm, clear carribean? :)

I am going with a DM...I thought a guided tour would probably be a good idea...to many new things (including far more neoprene than I've ever peeled on before...with a hood no less!). <big grin>

Peace,
Cathie
 
It should be a fantastic day tomorrow with a small chance of rain on Wednesday. Your DM will take good care of ya, guided tour is the way to go.

You will be needed a hood and gloves though, last Thursday i did Santa Cruz Island and it was about 51 F. The wet suit divers didnt even complain about the cold though, vis was nice and there was too much to look at. I got a little chilly though, needed more U/G under my Drysuit.

Andy
 
Or will you be at Casino Point? I'm sure your DM will fill you in on the finer points of kelp diving, but do you have some kind of cutting device just in case? I prefer shears. Some of the boats here have a fairly substantial drop for your giant stride. Of course, you'll watch your air...it tends to get sucked down more quickly when it is cold. The last temperatures I saw around Catalina were in the high 50's two weeks ago.
 
I have a trip scheuled on the "Truth" in October for 4 days. Can you all give me some advice about likely water temps and what to use to stay warm. I have a 5mil jumpsuit with a 7 mil core warmer (all henderson hyperstretch) plus gloves and hood. Will that keep me warm doing 3 or 4 dives a day?

Thanks for the help.
 
I'm so excited, just a few hours. I do have gloves, and I have a vest with hood attached (although it will be the first time I wear either). I also have some sea snips...I'm a little concerned about the cold, but I've decided I'll just think warm thoughts <big grin>

I'm going to Casino Point this go around...but hopefully, I'll be able to do a boat dive next Tuesday. (my ship is here every Tuesday).

Peace,
Cathie
 
i see no mention of booties :confused:

i was just over there over the weekend and had a blast as usual. being from cali, i've done a lot of dives here. one thing you might want to remeber, is that after your first dive to not take down the wetsuit around your waste unless there's a hot shower to refill that cold wetsuit with.

i see people doing this and it just makes them colder for their second or third dive. just take the hood off your head and keep the wetsuit zipped up. but you said you had a vest too, so that wouldn't really matter. i've just dove with a 7mil suit, with 5mil booties and gloves. keeps me mostly toasty, unless you go down to around 70-100 ft. there the temp dips to a warm 50F.

at 80ft on a sunny saturday morning it was a blazing 52F!!!

you'll be totally suprised with the color and life differeces from the carribean diving that you're accostumed to. but that's a good thing!

have a great diving experience and can't wait to hear about your adventures of the great west coast...
 
I had a wonderful time! It was definately a different world from the caribbean.....I really enjoyed it. Saw all sorts of fish that I now need to find out the name of....I was getting pretty good at fish ID in the Caribbean...guess I'm starting all over again :)

It was 57degrees....but I really wasn't cold (thankfully, I was somewhat stressed about that) My fingers got a bit cold, but that was it. My feet were a bit cold as well, not to bad, but I think I want to get more substantial boots...a bit higher (there was a bit of a chilly gap between my suit and my short booties) and a bit thicker....they were 3 mil when I bought them, but that was a while ago <grin>. The other thing was that I was realllly overweighted...we just weren't sure beforehand since I was wearing so much brand new neoprene....I'll take at least 5lbs off next time.

I did get caught once on the kelp (my fin strap), but I was able to get out fairly easy, of course by then I lost sight of my buddy...but we found each other shortly.

The only other adventure was just getting in...I've only done one shore dive before, and that was from a beach in Curacao <sp?> needless to say, these were slightly different conditions <grin>. I did fine, but it wasn't pretty or graceful <big grin>

Thanks for the comments and suggestions!

Peace,
Cathie
 
it was really nasty (to me, anyway) before the stairs were built. I think they are wonderful, but I won't do it at really low tide when the sea palms are visible.


For fish id, you might want to click through this:

http://www.ccd.org/CatalinaSpecies/index.html

Colonel Chuck, if you dive that suit at home, no problem!!! How thick are the arms and legs?
 
Thanks for the link! I recognize a few of them from yesterday :)

The stairs were no problem....I can't imagine it before they were there....my problem was just my usual grace (or lack of it <grin>)showing through. I've been known to trip on painted lines on the floor on land...never mind slippery rocks and a surge <big grin>

I'm sure I'll get better with practice.

Peace,
Cathie
 
kelpmermaid once bubbled...


Colonel Chuck, if you dive that suit at home, no problem!!! How thick are the arms and legs?

Hi Kelpmermaid. I have not tried the combination at home yet. Might give it a try this summer. What I am looking at is a 5 mil jumpsuit with a 7 mil core warmer. That means 5 mil arms and legs and 5+7 mil for the body.

http://www.hendersonusa.com/product_hyperstretch.html#

Seems like October should be fairly warm, but you all down there know what reality is. What is the standard wetsuit combination for the Channel Islands.

Thanks for the help.
 

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