Monastary-Sat July 23

[Chuck Tribolet]

That's what I was thinking as I read the post. Gear doesn't come off at that site until you're well up the beach and out of any wet sand. And you get there on your knees.

I learned: Crawl like hell and keep your reg in your mouth until you are TEN FEET into dry
sand. Then and only then stop.

Also, a trick I picked up somewhere: don't crawl on your palms, crawl on your fists. It
keeps your head an inch or two higher, and it's not as rough on your wrists.

 

[Ben_ca]

Truly amazing dives last Saturday... My Buddy and me did North the first then South... I would call vis at 60. Hovering at the lip of the canon at North we watched our bubbles all the way to the surface from 100 ft down... you could cleary see the waves and ripples all the way from the bottom.

South was equally impressive with the water so clear I just stowed my 10W HID. Tons of color and critters big and small.... 2 lions manes jellies hovering out over the deeps at around 70, thick schools of krill (i think) and pipefish coming into the shallows.

Entry/exits were not bad. My buddy walked out of north I crawled, on the south end was totall walk in walk out.

If you look at the beach there's some spots where the waves are smaler, like on the north end move closer to the rocky part (north end). You'll have to kick out further but makes getting in a bit better.

 

[miskatonic]

Sorry to hijack this thread.

This was an informal dive. So no I wasn't paying the DM. And no fair blaming the DM. The DM is top quality. If you get bitten by a snake it is YOUR fault not the snakes. This was all my fault not the DMs.

We had a group of about 15 people diving that day. 10 people went in just fine. Eveything was good until the second I entered the water. I have grown up around the ocean all my life. I know how to enter it properly.

There were a lot of factors that caused my problem. I got tired when I was helping my dive buddy into her gear. My BC malfunctioned due to sand that got kicked up in the surf. I have never been in an area that drops off so suddenly just a few feet from shore.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Sorry to hijack this thread.

No fair blaming the DM. The DM is top quality. If you get bitten by a snake it is YOUR fault not the snakes.

We had a group of about 15 people diving that day. 10 people went in just fine. Eveything was good until the second I entered the water. I have grown up around the ocean all my life. I know how to enter it properly.

There were a lot of factors that caused my problem. I got tired when I was helping my dive buddy into her gear. My BC malfunctioned due to sand that got kicked up in the surf. I have never been in an area that drops off so suddenly just a few feet from shore.

That doesn't answer the question:

Why did you need to hand your fins to your buddy to get out? Why did you need to
get your footing? It's called the Monastary Crawl, and your DM bloody well should have
briefed you on it.

All you had to do was turn and crawl out. No need to hand off
fins, no need to get footing. Just turn and crawl out.

 

[miskatonic]

That doesn't answer the question:

Why did you need to hand your fins to your buddy to get out? Why did you need to
get your footing? It's called the Monastary Crawl, and your DM bloody well should have
briefed you on it.

All you had to do was turn and crawl out. No need to hand off
fins, no need to get footing. Just turn and crawl out.

It all happened very fast. All I remember is asking my buddy to hold the fins for a second. I was getting pushed around and couldn't inflate my BC. She was not as far into the water as I was and didn't know I had a problem.

Having my hands free so I could crawl out was the only option.

Also when it comes down to it my physical endurance is not what it should be for that kind of beach. I would add that as a factor.

 

[miskatonic]

Truly amazing dives last Saturday... My Buddy and me did North the first then South... I would call vis at 60. Hovering at the lip of the canon at North we watched our bubbles all the way to the surface from 100 ft down... you could cleary see the waves and ripples all the way from the bottom.

South was equally impressive with the water so clear I just stowed my 10W HID. Tons of color and critters big and small.... 2 lions manes jellies hovering out over the deeps at around 70, thick schools of krill (i think) and pipefish coming into the shallows.

Entry/exits were not bad. My buddy walked out of north I crawled, on the south end was totall walk in walk out.

If you look at the beach there's some spots where the waves are smaler, like on the north end move closer to the rocky part (north end). You'll have to kick out further but makes getting in a bit better.

I swore never to go back to that beach. Now I think I regret that.

 

[Drewpy]

Swallow your pride and give it another try....get back on the horse so to speak.
Its really an amazing spot!

Probably one of the best dives I've had in Monterey-boat or shore!
I thought Pt Lobos was great....Now Im not sure?

Ben-were you guys in a Toyota 4 runner or P/U-one drysuit one wet?

 

[dsafanda]

Sorry to hijack this thread.
This was an informal dive. So no I wasn't paying the DM. And no fair blaming the DM.

Just for the record, I'm not blaming anyone. I've never dove Monastery and certainly don't consider myself experienced enough to evaluate a DM's performance. I shouldn't have made the comment about paying the DM. I was really just teasing a bit I guess and more importantly trying to gain some insight in to how hard it may be to evaluate surf conditions on this beach. If conditions are right I hope to give it a shot this weekend. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[JustinW]

While I certainly don't blame miskatonic, I can see how the mistakes were made, not that that makes them OK. If one were to spend even 15 minutes at the breakwater watching how 90% of the instructors teach the monastery crawl (textbook roughwater exit) it becomes very clear why so many people loose so much equipment. People don't hang on to their equipment with a death grip, and if they fall in the surfline, they try to get back up and flop again. While I of course cannot attribute this event to training, I'm sure that there are countless others like it that can be.
Miskatonic, I hope this event didn't discourage you from monastary too badly. Everyone should get a refresher on surf entries if they are not used to entering in places like monastary. At the breakwater there is a shop that comes down with a big red trailer and the whole circus act, they take their students in a RIB out to the breakwater, these students never get the chance to practice a proper surf entry or exit, but they sure know how to backroll of the back of a boat. Wooohoo.
Proper training is so important, as is actually paying attention when that training is being conducted.

 

[miskatonic]

While I certainly don't blame miskatonic, I can see how the mistakes were made, not that that makes them OK. If one were to spend even 15 minutes at the breakwater watching how 90% of the instructors teach the monastery crawl (textbook roughwater exit) it becomes very clear why so many people loose so much equipment. People don't hang on to their equipment with a death grip, and if they fall in the surfline, they try to get back up and flop again. While I of course cannot attribute this event to training, I'm sure that there are countless others like it that can be.
Miskatonic, I hope this event didn't discourage you from monastary too badly. Everyone should get a refresher on surf entries if they are not used to entering in places like monastary. At the breakwater there is a shop that comes down with a big red trailer and the whole circus act, they take their students in a RIB out to the breakwater, these students never get the chance to practice a proper surf entry or exit, but they sure know how to backroll of the back of a boat. Wooohoo.
Proper training is so important, as is actually paying attention when that training is being conducted.

Rough surf doesn't bother me. But I have never been in it with 60lbs of scuba gear. It was the harsh drop off that was the main factor. Let me just put it this way. I wasn't ready for that beach and it almost killed me. I learned my lesson. Next time I will do better.

I do feel super guilty about my buddy's mask and fins. ($350!) I am guessing that if I didn't have a problem she might not have lost her gear.