motoxmann
Registered
We just got back from our check out dives in Monterey this weekend... So we're official!!
Conditions were pretty bad all weekend. We got there around seven on Saturday and watched the waves crash onto shore for a bit. They subsided a little a few hours later. We finally got into the water around 9:30 and got our first taste of surf entry. Not crazy surf, but from what we were told it was pretty bad by Breakwater standards. Once we got in and descended, visibility was about 3-4 feet. I'm about 6'3" and i couldnt see my fins when I stretched out off my knees. It was pretty surgy all day so we pretty much just stayed at the bottom of the anchor line and waited for our instructor to come to us individually to do skills. He had to pretty much get right in our faces so he could signal what skills he wanted us to do. We did three dives the first day and got a lot of skills done. We tried to do small "tours" at the end of each dive, but by the third there was no point because we couldn't see anything.
Today was a lot better... We had about 5-7 feet of visibility!! We only had three skills left so they were quick and we went on a short tour before surfacing. We waited about an hour and went back in for a "fun dive". This was a lot of fun. No kneeling at the bottom waiting for instruction or anything, we just went for a tour around the area. Our first real dive!! We just made a big circle, swimming through a little kelp, checking out some crazy crabs and such, and ended coming back along the wall. In some parts we hit about 35-40 feet and at that depth the visibility opened up to about 10-12 feet. Definitely more fun we you can actually (almost) see where you're going. If nothing else we got in some good compass practice.
All in all we were able to get in 5 dives and got through all of skills with no problems. We talked to several people (other instructors and Dm's), and they all told us that this was pretty much as bad as it gets for Breakwater. Not having anything to compare it to, this was good to hear that things could really only get better for future trips. We had a great time and we cant wait to get back in the water!!
Conditions were pretty bad all weekend. We got there around seven on Saturday and watched the waves crash onto shore for a bit. They subsided a little a few hours later. We finally got into the water around 9:30 and got our first taste of surf entry. Not crazy surf, but from what we were told it was pretty bad by Breakwater standards. Once we got in and descended, visibility was about 3-4 feet. I'm about 6'3" and i couldnt see my fins when I stretched out off my knees. It was pretty surgy all day so we pretty much just stayed at the bottom of the anchor line and waited for our instructor to come to us individually to do skills. He had to pretty much get right in our faces so he could signal what skills he wanted us to do. We did three dives the first day and got a lot of skills done. We tried to do small "tours" at the end of each dive, but by the third there was no point because we couldn't see anything.
Today was a lot better... We had about 5-7 feet of visibility!! We only had three skills left so they were quick and we went on a short tour before surfacing. We waited about an hour and went back in for a "fun dive". This was a lot of fun. No kneeling at the bottom waiting for instruction or anything, we just went for a tour around the area. Our first real dive!! We just made a big circle, swimming through a little kelp, checking out some crazy crabs and such, and ended coming back along the wall. In some parts we hit about 35-40 feet and at that depth the visibility opened up to about 10-12 feet. Definitely more fun we you can actually (almost) see where you're going. If nothing else we got in some good compass practice.
All in all we were able to get in 5 dives and got through all of skills with no problems. We talked to several people (other instructors and Dm's), and they all told us that this was pretty much as bad as it gets for Breakwater. Not having anything to compare it to, this was good to hear that things could really only get better for future trips. We had a great time and we cant wait to get back in the water!!
