Date: 1/16/05
Dive Location: Marineland
Time:
Bottom Time:72 Min.
Max Depth: 47 ft.
Vis: 10 - 15 ft.
Wave height:
Temp at depth: 60°
Surface Temp: 66°
Tide information:
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
So, cakayakdiver, stoddu and I decided to enter at the cobblestone beach and surface swim to the point due to rogue wave activity. We didn't want to get caught out on those rocks if a big wave came in.
We dropped down and began heading in the direction of the cobblestone beach. We meandered our way around the reef structure, while basically heading in that direction. It looked like a nudibranch convention was in town. It was a fantastic dive even though there was quite a bit of large particulate matter in the water column.
On the way across the sand we ran across the line that Phil laid to the floating dock (aka headhunter reef
), so we followed it out there. We had enough air to circle it once and then surfaced. It was nice to take a look at where it was from the surface. We had a bit of a surface swim to get to our exit, since we were about 700 ft out.
Which brings me to the juicy part. As we approached the shore at the cobblestone beach, it was nice to see that it was fairly calm. For the exit, cakayakdiver was in the lead by about 30 seconds and we watched while he "strolled" up onto the beach very gracefully. I believe stoddu and I were coming out at the same time about 20 - 30 feet apart. I took my fins off, glanced over my shoulder, saw that it was calm and started to "stroll" out just like cakayakdiver had done.
About 30 seconds later, I was in water just over my knees, negotiating over and around the large rocks and boulders when, suddenly, shark.byte.usa was jumping up and down frantically on shore yelling at me to look out and pointing behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see what looked like a fairly large wave starting to form. I turned to face it and soon I found myself in ankle deep water staring up the face of a very large wave.
I decided to take a chance that this wave would reach me before I did a belly flop onto the rocks in front of me and in full gear with fins in hand and mask still in place, I jumped as hard as I could up into the air and toward the wave doing what must have looked like a vertical swan dive with one hand on my mask and the other holding my fins down to my side at the last moment. Later, I was told that with my arms outstretched during my leap of faith that this wave was still about 2 feet beyond my fingertips. I have 8 ft. ceilings here at home and come within about 2 inches of touching it (I just tried). So, now I'm realizing that this was about a 10-foot wave if this was an accurate description.
My timing was good and I did a verticle belly flop onto the face of the wave and successfully through it. As I started to emerge on the other side of the wave floating in water not deep enough to touch the bottom with fins still in hand and mask still on, I was thinking that I had been pretty lucky.
...and then...I saw it... another wave just as big forming right behind it. The water was rapidly dropping and since I was off balance when the rocky beach came up to meet me. I was dropped laying sideways parallel to the shore in what was again ankle deep water. I laid there half on my back staring at this new monster in front of me knowing that this was going to hurt... a lot.
I tucked my chin to my chest, held on to my fins (I thought I might need them for a shot at a swimming recovery in the event of a third monster) and prayed to come out of this one alive. There were also a few expletives in all this, but I'm sure you can all use your imagination on this one.
This thing hit me full force and rolled me across some very uncomfortable rocks. My face was fairly well protected by my hand, but I can't say that for the rest of me. I think the tank took some of the ugliest part of the ride, but my head was spared, except for a minor scratch on my face. My elbows, my knees, my shoulder, my leg and mostly the hand that was protecting my face got pretty well smashed on these rocks. When it passed, I was glad that a third wave did not appear and I was able to then "stroll" out (albeit with a limp) as originally planned.
In all this excitement, which really only lasted about 30 seconds, we began wondering where stoddu was and realized that he had been washed around the corner and into the area in front of the cave. I'll let him tell his own story, since we lost sight of him as he was swept away. We could hear him yelling that he was OK, but could not see him. He also emerged limping and bleeding.
I'm glad to have made it out with only minor cuts and bruises, although diving was definitely over for this day. I plan on making it to Leo Carrillo tomorrow morning to do it again with slightly less adventure on the exit.
In all this, when I got back up the hill to the parking lot, I realized that I had lost my weight belt in the process. Everyone there was kind enough to help me look for it and Phil (maxbottomtime) saw it about two feet in front of me in the surf. It was wedged under a rock and looked like it was waving at us to come rescue it.
Those of you who know me know that I love to tell a story! So, I'll let those who were watching from the beach point out where this tale may have gotten a little "tall".
That said, these bruises feel pretty real. :11:
Christian
