Date: July 31, 2004
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: first dive 1:10pm, second dive 4:55 pm
Bottom Time: first dive 38 min, second dive 32 min
Max Depth: first dive 53 ft, second dive
Vis: 15-20 ft at canyon edge, 6 ft inside white buoy
Wave height: 2 ft, with occasional 4-6 ft rogue waves (my term)
Temp at depth: first dive 63 Suunto deg F, second dive 66 Suunto deg F
Surface Temp: 70 Suunto deg F
Tide information: high tide at about 10:45 am
Comments: (Why do we put Suunto degrees? Is it a commentary about the accuracy of Suunto computers?)
So, as I posted in New2Scuba, my wife and I met two strangers from France and Japan, Thomas and Ryuji, at La Jolla Shores yesterday. We were going for our first dives since being certified, and it was with a little bit of anxiety. As it turned out, Thomas and Ryuji made us feel exteremly comfortable. Thomas is a PADI instructor, and that helped u s to relax. He also provided some great feedback along the way.
First Dive: I told the group that I would like to get to about 50 ft to see what the difference was at in buoyance control at that depth. They agreed that it was a good idea. After bending the ears of several divers who just came out of the water, and after checking out the underwater map at the main lifeguard station, we decided to walk to the south end of the park and then make our entry into the water. This would bring us to what appears to be the closest part of the canyon with respect to the beach. We swam 3/4 the way to the white buoy, and dropped down to about 15 ft. We had agreed on a course of about 270 degrees to take us out to the canyon. Unfortunately, one of our party (to remain nameless) became confused and was leading us toward 90 degrees, back to the beach. After several minutes, we decided that Thomas would lead the group to the canyon. After maybe 20 minutes of sight-seeing / swimming, we reached the edge of the canyon. It was considerably steeper than I had expected. And it really showed our lack of buoyancy control. The scary part was when I noticed that I was watching it happen (slowly sinking into the canyon) like I was watching TV! lol It was happening to my wife too! So, we woke up and inflated the BC a bit more, and everything was hunky dory. I DON'T want you to read about us in Accidents and Incidents! After checking out the canyon edge for a few minutes I reached our turn-around air pressure. We headed back in. Another thing we leqarned about ourselves, sometimes when we check our gauges we stop swimming. With Thomas and Ryuji in lead, sometimes my wife and I would fall behind when checking the spg or dive computer. In fact, the two pairs became separated during the return toward the beach. Both pairs stayed together (a good thing, staying with the buddy, esp when buddy=spouse). We searched around for Thomas and Ryuji for 2-3 minutes, and then surfaced. We weren't far from the white buoy when we hit the surface, and the other two were maybe 2 minutes behind us, 20 feet away. One of the contributing factors was the decreasing vis on the way in. We decided to go back down and swim in submerged for part of the way, and I lost buoyancy control, like a cork, when the bottom depth was about 10-12 ft. Then we swam on the surfacwe from then on. We didn't see very much wildlife, a few sea slugs, sand dabs, and bottle brushes (?). Of course the usual plethora of sand dollars. But, overall, it was a good shakedown cruise after not diving for 4 weeks after cert.
Surface Interval: We discussed the events of the dive, and did a very good debrief of the things that could be improved.
Second Dive: This time we swam all the way to the white buoy, and then dropped down to 24ft of water.We headed out at 270 for about 100ft (maybe) and then headed south to see if there was anything new to see. Mostly the same things: sand dabs, bottle brushes (I will call them that anyway), sand dollars, sea slugs. We did encounter two new fishies though. We saw an adult flounder, who was completey unaffected by our close observation. And we saw a terrifying horn shark (I swear it must have been all of about 9 inches! It was terrifying I tell ya!). Well, this dive was somewhat shorter than the first. Ryuji was very jetlagged, and my wife and I are not yet in tiptop diving condition. So we called it after about half an hour.
Surface Interval: We made it back to shore uneventfully. After packing up our stuff, we headed over to Joses' Court Room for some excellent, authentic Mexican dinners. After an interminable 10 minute (toungue firmly planted in cheek here) wait we got a table, and enjoyed some great post-diving camaraderie. We signed each others' dive logs, and ate til we could burst, and said our goodbyes to our new friends.
Thank you very much Thomas for reaching out to fresh newbies and making us feel extremely welcome.
