ucladiver
Guest
A bit of learning, a bit of adventure, and some new found comfort...
First dive: (12th lifetime dive)
Woods cove. We left LA around 5:30 AM to get down to Laguna early. Had some breakfast at a local cafe and ventured down to the water. We got all suited up and hiked down the steps to the shore. Checked each other out and started the surf entry to the dive site. There was no surf at all which made this very easy. We got about 50 yds out when my buddy realized her borrowed BC was leaking like mad and she couldn't stay above water. I could tell panick was close, so I went to her, removed her mask, and helped her keep her head above water and told her we would head back. I was ready to ditch her belt if she started to panic. She remained relatively calm and was able to make it back to shore with only a little help from me. We chalked it up as a learning experience (always check the BC along with the rest of the gear), and decided to head to the LDS for a repair/rental.
SI: (sort of)
Got back up from woods cove to discover my car battery was dead. Fortunaly a AAA service was literally only 100 yds down the block. Best place to have a dead battery in the world. Not sure how the battery got drained but I've had it tested and everything checked out. Finally got to the dive shop, where the owner very graciously twisted the dump valve slightly tigher and the problem was gone (DOH!... another learning experience
).
Second Dive:
Shaw's Cove. By now we both a little tired of dealing with problems but we didn't want Murphy to get the best of us today so we decided to try one more dive. After suiting up again and heading down the beach we did very thorough buddy checks (including the BC), planned out the dive and headed out. Visabilty was a poor ~8' around the sandy bottom and ~12' around the reefs. This was a great chance to practice navigation. I got us to eastern reef as planned where we was some Garibaldi the size of a buffet platter, plenty of sea urchines, sand dollars, and sea anenemoa. After exploring the reef for some time and realizing that our air consumption was about HALF that of what we normally do at this depth (we still had >2000 PSI left after about 15-20 mins), I decided to head around the point a little to see what we could see and practice more navigation. Buoancy was far easier to maintain for both of us as well. Things seemed to be coming together and it felt great. We explored the reef around the point. Still having lots of air we decided to head back around to Shaw's cove, and accross to the western reef. On the way we spotted several big flounder hiding in the sand and a small ray. We made it to the reef on the other side with no problem despite poor vis. After exploring a little further we headed back and surfaced 10 yds from the spot we entered and >500 PSI left. Buoancy, Air consumtion, and navigation all seemed to click this time and although the conditions were not great, it was wonderful dive and we both learned a lot.
First dive: (12th lifetime dive)
Woods cove. We left LA around 5:30 AM to get down to Laguna early. Had some breakfast at a local cafe and ventured down to the water. We got all suited up and hiked down the steps to the shore. Checked each other out and started the surf entry to the dive site. There was no surf at all which made this very easy. We got about 50 yds out when my buddy realized her borrowed BC was leaking like mad and she couldn't stay above water. I could tell panick was close, so I went to her, removed her mask, and helped her keep her head above water and told her we would head back. I was ready to ditch her belt if she started to panic. She remained relatively calm and was able to make it back to shore with only a little help from me. We chalked it up as a learning experience (always check the BC along with the rest of the gear), and decided to head to the LDS for a repair/rental.
SI: (sort of)
Got back up from woods cove to discover my car battery was dead. Fortunaly a AAA service was literally only 100 yds down the block. Best place to have a dead battery in the world. Not sure how the battery got drained but I've had it tested and everything checked out. Finally got to the dive shop, where the owner very graciously twisted the dump valve slightly tigher and the problem was gone (DOH!... another learning experience
). Second Dive:
Shaw's Cove. By now we both a little tired of dealing with problems but we didn't want Murphy to get the best of us today so we decided to try one more dive. After suiting up again and heading down the beach we did very thorough buddy checks (including the BC), planned out the dive and headed out. Visabilty was a poor ~8' around the sandy bottom and ~12' around the reefs. This was a great chance to practice navigation. I got us to eastern reef as planned where we was some Garibaldi the size of a buffet platter, plenty of sea urchines, sand dollars, and sea anenemoa. After exploring the reef for some time and realizing that our air consumption was about HALF that of what we normally do at this depth (we still had >2000 PSI left after about 15-20 mins), I decided to head around the point a little to see what we could see and practice more navigation. Buoancy was far easier to maintain for both of us as well. Things seemed to be coming together and it felt great. We explored the reef around the point. Still having lots of air we decided to head back around to Shaw's cove, and accross to the western reef. On the way we spotted several big flounder hiding in the sand and a small ray. We made it to the reef on the other side with no problem despite poor vis. After exploring a little further we headed back and surfaced 10 yds from the spot we entered and >500 PSI left. Buoancy, Air consumtion, and navigation all seemed to click this time and although the conditions were not great, it was wonderful dive and we both learned a lot.
