Monday – Today Kevin is taking us to g find Doc Wong’s arch. Its going to be James, Kevin, Claudette and I. We gear up, and brief. We establish that James and Kevin are a team, and Claudette and I are a team – and if the four of us get separated we won’t surface, but we’ll just carry on as two teams. We all agree, we splash and we’re off!
Dive 1a + 1b: Northern tip of Middle Reef, Granite Point wall, wrapping around towards Mono-Lobo wall, cross-over to Betos, Sand Channel home
As we’re making the turn from Middle reef towards Granite Point, the surge is really picking up. The viz is dropping, surge is unreal (as in scooter-stopping surge. You're blasting along in 5th, then you're going nowhere - then you're shot out of a cannon!) and its just getting nasty down there. We tighten up and its all good. Kevin knows this area so well, so we’re bobbin’ and weavin’, looking for the arch and some fun stuff. This area has lots of newish kelp – the real stringy stuff. Scootering with a camera is clumsy under the best of circumstances – throw in all the swaying stringy kelp with the surge and the camera turns into a kelp snare grabbing string after string as you go by.
About 26 minutes into Kevin’s wild ride (and its been really neat so far) I turn and Claudette’s not there. I kick back a bit and I don’t see her, and I look ahead and James and Kevin are getting smaller and smaller in the bad viz. I figure she got caught in the kelp (this is her 3rd dive with a camera on a scooter) and in this viz it only takes a moment to get separated. I know I’m completely lost, I figure Claudette is pretty lost, so I decide to leave the area where I last saw Claudette and try to catch up to James and Kevin so we can come back and find her. I should say this: there were probably several ways to handle this situation, but in retrospect, I would have made this same decision again – go get the guy who knows where we are and how to get back home, and bring him back to the situation.
Kevin is on a Sierra using a battery that is not of this earth, James is on a cuda and I’m shlepping a very large wide angle camera rig with 4 foot arms on my #2 battery. I’m not gaining on them, so now I’m kicking as I scoot. I get to them, get their attention and breathlessly make the sign, “there’s three of us here, the 4th is back there…” I’m pretty wide-eyed and completely breathless, and at this time not really sure my sign made sense – so I make it again slower. James looks at Kevin. Kevin makes the sign, “we’re going back” and we do. I am so relieved to have most of the team back together I start to breathe easier.
I was watching my compass as I chased down the rocket twins, so I take us back the same way I came from. We’re looking, looking, and not seeing anything we decide to pop. We do a slow ascent and Claudette comes up maybe 25 yards from us on the other side of a very large kelp patch. We acknowledge, then she drops under the kelp and joins us.
It was a text book separation and re-connect scenario. I was correct, she wasn’t hurt or lost – just caught some kelp in the camera arms, looked down for a moment and we were gone. Conditions weren’t terrible, the pop to the surface was mellow – but leaving Claudette to race down the guys and reunite the team was a pretty tough thing for me to do.
So now we start the second half of the dive (Dive 1b) – Kevin takes us out of the surge and soup towards better viz. We blast past another Pinnacle where another Scrambled Egg Jelly is hanging out. I motion Claudette and James over to the Jelly for a shot. James, now in his second day of modeling for me, is a completely different dude in the water. His light is on the subject, his chin is out, his trim is even more perfect (as if his trim could be any more perfect) and the two of them look great.
I fold up the rig and we begin our trek over acres of sand towards the tip of Beto’s.
This 12 minute journey over the sand, in the clearest water I’ve ever seen in Monterey, were my favorite moments underwater the entire weekend. We’re weaving in and out of large Jellies in the water, the sand is below us, 100 feet above us you can see the surface, Claudette and I are watching James and Kevin blast along in perfect formation – the tranquility and sense of hugeness of the space was amazing to me. You don’t often feel that much space – but it felt like I was diving in the largest aircraft hangar in the world, and it was just the 4 of us. It was wonderful.
We get to the tip of Beto’s, and as Kevin promised, there is the wolf eel. I trade rigs with Claudette, open up the Macro and fire off a shot. I look, adjust the strobes, and take one more. I fold up, we trade back and we’re off.
Kevin points out a large (MoCal large, not Edmond’s large) Ling Cod sitting on some promontory. I start to unfold the wide angle to get a shot. Right now were at about minute 55 of this dive. I see a light in my mask, I look over at Claudette. She flashes me the 700 PSI sigh, and gives the signal for Home. I immediately stop setting up the W/A, fold it back up and we’re off for the cove.
We’re very close to the cove and Claudette stops and tells me she has 400 PSI. We’re really shallow (about 29 feet or so) and she says she wants to share with me. I say sure, give her the hose and about a moment later my scooter dies.
I hike the scooter and clip off, grab the leg of her parachute harness and she takes us the rest of the way in, piloting her scooter breathing my long hose. This was probably about 2 or 3 minutes. We’re now in the cove, and we’re at about 20-ish. She returns the long hose and proceeds to tow me the rest of the way to the ramp.
WHAT A DIVE!!!!!
We get back to the cars, we do the famous MoCal curbside rinse, load up, I get changed into driving clothes and its time to head to lunch with everyone for one last meal together before heading back to L.A.
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This was such an excellent trip. 5 great dives. So many firsts. My first dives in the wacky and uber comfortable Dive Xtras parachute harness. My very first dives with an argon bottle (Argon… I still don’t know.) My first dives with two housings in the water. My first tow with the new harness. My first Tow with donated long hose with the new harness (!) My first drysuit zipper blunder (resetting the count from about 1300 now back to two.) First time I drove a boat onto a trailer. First time diving with Chuck. First time re-assembling a scooter alfresco. First time seeing MoCal in the 70 degree range. First meal at MoCal Chipotle (my fav lunch hang) So many firsts I could fill a page.
To
James and Janet – you two are so special. Janet with your infectious smile and quickness to laugh, savoring every moment. James, you are such a giver – you pour into your family, your friends, the dive community, and your buddy team. You two live life WFO, and I love that so much. A 4 day weekend with you guys isn’t even enough. I want more.
Kevin – thanks for the great lead on Monday. Thanks for the fun stories at dinner, thanks for immediately spinning the three of us around to go find Claudette. Thanks.
Danni and Merlin – so good to meet you both!!! Next time I see you Danni, its drysuit time, right?
Nils – thanks for making the trip with Kevin to the Great Pinnacle. There was something so cool and so one-upish about seeing a couple of rock stars scooter out to a dive spot I just took a boat to. Nicely done.
Ben V – you are the funniest guy north of Los Angeles (I got it covered down here…
Great to see you, and thanks for the Chuck hook up. Seriously – thanks a bunch.
Doc, and
Cynthia, and
Team Bunny, and
Team Kitty, and all the other old and new friends I saw… wow. I love diving Monterey. I can say it again. I love diving Monterey. I can’t wait to get back. December – I am so returning.
Claudette – you are the best. Thank you for being so willing to take a big ol’ camera rig with you on every dive this trip. Without agenda and without grumbling, and not being a photographer there is no reason for you to schlep this around, except I know you do it for the team – so we don’t miss a shot. You are one in a million. Thanks for the great dives and the great trip.
Some more shots below. Here’s the full gallery (
LINK) I have some more I’ll be putting into the gallery over the next several days – so come back and see it!
Here’s a link to a
thread I started Friday when I arrived – I was going to do a MoCal blog… but I ended up coming back to the Lone Oak and doing a face plant every night…
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Ken
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