May 05 Dive Reports

[pasley]

.

...Had some spg errors, thought I had 300 psi left, when
I sucked the last of my air. ...!

One reason it is common to plan to be on the surface with 300-500 PSI even on shore dives is that SPG may not be bang on accurate, or your eyeball many not be interpreting the fine lines that close to zero right.

In short, to be at 300 PSI and still in 12 feet of water under"...the mess of the surgey wavy waters at the top of the crevice...", was cutting it a tad too close. But then you knew that.

But thanks for sharing and glad it all came out ok. This is what in our older years we tell as amusing antidotes.

 

[Frank O]

Had some spg errors, thought I had 300 psi left, when I sucked the last of my air.

That would be a bummer! Over the past few months I've gotten used to the fact that my brass analog SPG habitually reads ~200 psi low (i.e. it looks like I have less gas than I really do). But that would only get me into trouble if I were, say, on one of those boats that policed whether you returned with 500 psi.

 

[Lexy]

Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Dive Location: Shaw's Cove, Laguna Beach
Time: 6:11 PM
Bottom Time: 63 minutes
Max Depth: 38 feet
Vis: 20 feet
Wave height: 1-2 feet
Temp at depth: 68 Aeris degrees
Surface Temp: 54 Aeris degrees
Tide information: unavailable
Surge: 3 feet
Comments:
Met up with Seth at Shaw's for a dusk dive. As a nice surprise, a fellow Research Diver Candidate (Sandra) was diving with her buddy too. We decided to go into together but Sandra and her buddy Mustafa would bail out early because they had short fills. Anyhow, on my drive down from Newport Beach the sea looked icky with lots of white caps and big swells. Surprising, Shaw's was looking great, not Lake Laguna but certainly an easy entry. We donned our gear, ran through pre-dive safety checks and kicked out. The descent was made over sand and the reef was just a few kicks away. We were all happily surprised with the viz, as Saturday's viz was not so good. As far as life - lots of Spanish shawls, with a large cluster of 6 all socializing with each other. I am finally able to find the Spanish shawls on my own! Seth spotted a large Cabezon and I practically ran into him, as he was so well camouflaged. Lots of male Garibaldi protecting their nests and going on the defense, flaring dorsal and pec. fins! The dive pace was pleasantly slow and we explored every nook and cranny leading to the crevice. Saw a few bugs, wiggling their antennae as we peered at them. We entered the beginning of the crevice and continued the exploration. I spotted a thornback ray cruising the sand. That was my first time seeing a ray actually swimming...amazing and yet beautiful, the skirted edge of the ray’s fins with wave likes motion. Kicked back out to the sand and prepared for the ascent with a nice long hover at 15 feet. Super easy surf exit. If anyone finds a silver car key at Shaw's - it's mine. I forgot to actually zip the pocket on my BC, after putting the key in the pocket... opps. Thanks again Seth for letting me use your cell phone to call AAA and for the nice dive.

 

[SNOBORDJON]

damn lexy, that colorful report makes me want to shut the computer down and put on my wetsuit! Whats up with that seth, no call? You guys want to go saturday morning?

john

 

[dazedone]

Date: Thursday, May 11, 2005
Dive Location: Vet's Park, Redondo
Time: 7:55 PM
Bottom Time: 33 minutes
Max Depth: 100.7 fsw
Vis: 2-5' Opened up to 15' below 75fsw
Wave height: 3-4 feet
Temp at depth: 66 Suunto degrees
Surface Temp: 55 Suunto degrees


Comments:
Did a night dive at Redondo with the divevets crew. Vis was not great until you got deep. Saw lots of little crabs, large shrimp, flatfish, etc. Saw a couple small rays as well. We also spotted a large orange traffic cone at about 80fsw. Hung out in a patch of sand dollars at 15fsw on our safety stop. It was nice to get a night dive in as I had not done one in a while.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Met up with Tom R. Purpose of the dive was to collect
some mussels for a Marine Bio Class (I had permission
from DFG - Thanks Spenser!)Had some spg errors, thought I had 300 psi left, when
I sucked the last of my air. Went to Tom and he
willingly obliged his octo. We did a semi slow ascent
(only in 12 feet of water at the time) into the mess
of the surgey wavey waters at the top of the crevice.
Yikes!
Sorry, Tom. Didn't mean to freak you out.

Laurel, apparantly you freaked him out way too much!
http://diver.net/bbs/messages/53166.shtml

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Lots of love on that thread! Thanks for the amusement Max!

 

[scottfiji]

Lots of love on that thread! Thanks for the amusement Max!

Holy *****, that's totally scubalaurel's dive! how funny. Scubalaurel, was that really his first night dive? You scared the gajeesus out of him! looks like no one on that board is going to dive with you! don't worry, sean, max and I still...

funny, I replied to that thread too...so were you really OOA, or was your reg just breathing harder than normal? and were you in 20ft of water or 12? The public needs to know!

Scott

 

[SoCalAngel]

Holy *****, that's totally scubalaurel's dive! how funny. Scubalaurel, was that really his first night dive? You scared the gajeesus out of him! looks like no one on that board is going to dive with you! don't worry, sean, max and I still...

funny, I replied to that thread too...so were you really OOA, or was your reg just breathing harder than normal? and were you in 20ft of water or 12? The public needs to know!

Scott

Well, my reg was actually breathing pretty hard. I had been keeping an eye on my spg, thanks guys for the love... :bonk:

We were finishing up the dive. Getting ready to head out of the crevice, just above the mussel bump (aka 12 feet deep). I gave him the low on air signal and let's go in...he grabbed his reg out of his mouth. I put it back in signaled to swim out of crevice area. He pulled his reg out of his mouth again. I grabbed his air 2 and put it in his mouth. Then I switched his reg for mine. We ascended and surfaced about 45 seconds later, not out of control, not really slowly either....

At the surface, I did apologize and said my gauge read 300 psi. I did try to downplay it, duh...embarressed. :sorry19z:

While rinsing my gear (totally FULL of sand) I had air aplenty to clean out my reg with, so I don't know what happened. I had my reg serviced after I got bent in October, so I don't know.

It WAS an awesome dive - we saw 7 octopod and several morays. The end was a bit scary, between sharing air and that I got rolled. I guess part of the reason I didn't make a big deal out of the sharing air is that I routinely give my buddies' air to elongate a dive, and we were only in 12 feet of water. Isn't this what training is for?
(ok, ok, go easy on me.... :redface:

please...go easy *batting eyelashes*

 

[scottfiji]

laurel speaks....

ok, this is just getting too good, I'm starting a new thread on this; ScubaLaurel, I hope you don't mind me replying to your post in a new thread!