Montana Reef Dive

[Guy Alcala]

Thanks, James (and Mike). I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who wants to see the numbers. I normally surface swim out to the north end of the sand channel before dropping, which puts Crossroads within my personal 1/4-1/3rd mile offshore range. I normally prefer to use Kenn's version of the Lobos map, as I don't have to convert back and forth between true and magnetic north. I can do it, but it's an extra step that invites errors.

[Mike]
<Montana Reef is accessible by boat or by DPV and is definately not a kick dive. Q-Tip has been accessed on a doubles kick dive by Team Bunny:>

I'm a bit leery of stating definitely that any particular dive is "not a kick dive", unless it's miles offshore. Lots of people seem to think the Grand Tour at Breakwater is a scooter-only dive, and I've swum that with a single several times. With the right combination of SAC/speed in the water/physical endurance and conditions, I believe Montana is kickable. There and back is certainly within my endurance given sufficient gas, but probably without the safety margin I want for emergencies. Doesn't mean someone else, with more endurance or who accepts a lower safety margin, couldn't do it. Or for that matter, me if I start doing serious swim workouts again to boost my endurance, instead of an occasional mile in the pool. Of course, I need a buddy with similar conditioning and interests, but I have one of those

Thanks again,

Guy

 

[Adobo]

Thanks, James (and Mike). I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who wants to see the numbers. I normally surface swim out to the north end of the sand channel before dropping, which puts Crossroads within my personal 1/4-1/3rd mile offshore range. I normally prefer to use Kenn's version of the Lobos map, as I don't have to convert back and forth between true and magnetic north. I can do it, but it's an extra step that invites errors.

[Mike]
<Montana Reef is accessible by boat or by DPV and is definately not a kick dive. Q-Tip has been accessed on a doubles kick dive by Team Bunny:>

I'm a bit leery of stating definitely that any particular dive is "not a kick dive", unless it's miles offshore. Lots of people seem to think the Grand Tour at Breakwater is a scooter-only dive, and I've swum that with a single several times. With the right combination of SAC/speed in the water/physical endurance and conditions, I believe Montana is kickable. There and back is certainly within my endurance given sufficient gas, but probably without the safety margin I want for emergencies. Doesn't mean someone else, with more endurance or who accepts a lower safety margin, couldn't do it. Or for that matter, me if I start doing serious swim workouts again to boost my endurance, instead of an occasional mile in the pool. Of course, I need a buddy with similar conditioning and interests, but I have one of those

Thanks again,

Guy

I can't speak for the person who claimed that Montana is not a kick dive. I can only imagine when that claim was made, it was in the context of what "makes sense" to the poster (and probably most of the rest of us) rather than what is physically possible.

On a boat before and after a dive to Montana, I could barely make out where whaler's cove was. So in the case of a dive that has to be aborted for whatever reason while you are at Montana, even if you had the plenty of gas to get to the surface, you still have a bear of a swim before you could get to shore. Imagine that same surface swim with less than friendly swells or surface chop. Or with a flooded drysuit. Or with current that is not cooperating with you. Or all of the above.

And even on a dive where you swim to, touch and swim back from Montana, I imagine you will have to bring a buttload of backgas and a buttload deco gas. You could also do this dive with air or some form of nitrox. But Montana, if memory serves, tops out at 105ft. So swimming all the way there, a diver will likely be all kinds of CO2 loaded and will likely be narced by the time they get to the top of Montana. The other option is to do the dive using some form of trimix. The bulk of which will be consumed swimming to and from Montana at recreational depths.

But I guess you are right. With enough gas, enough risk tolerance and IMHO enough disregard of common sense, the dive is doable as a kick dive.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Thank you for sharing this video from our dive, Mike!


Scootering to Montana Reef is an unforgettable experience, made so much more fun by sharing with great friends.

I've been fortunate to do this twice in teams of 4 with James and Merlin.
Strong teammates, a logical well-discussed plan, abundant correct gasses and 4 extended range scooters (DiveXtra Cudas with big batteries) is the mix that makes this a great dive in my opinion.

Great dive.
Superb teammates.
Thank you all!



~~~~~
Claudette

P.S. As James mentioned, I can't believe how fast you did this, Michael.
Your video was posted before I'd finished cleaning all my gear back in SoCal!!!!
I really appreciate being able to share a little bit of this with my non-diving family and close friends.
Thanks!

 

[Guy Alcala]

I can't speak for the person who claimed that Montana is not a kick dive. I can only imagine when that claim was made, it was in the context of what "makes sense" to the poster (and probably most of the rest of us) rather than what is physically possible.

On a boat before and after a dive to Montana, I could barely make out where whaler's cove was. So in the case of a dive that has to be aborted for whatever reason while you are at Montana, even if you had the plenty of gas to get to the surface, you still have a bear of a swim before you could get to shore. Imagine that same surface swim with less than friendly swells or surface chop. Or with a flooded drysuit. Or with current that is not cooperating with you. Or all of the above.

And even on a dive where you swim to, touch and swim back from Montana, I imagine you will have to bring a buttload of backgas and a buttload deco gas. You could also do this dive with air or some form of nitrox. But Montana, if memory serves, tops out at 105ft. So swimming all the way there, a diver will likely be all kinds of CO2 loaded and will likely be narced by the time they get to the top of Montana. The other option is to do the dive using some form of trimix. The bulk of which will be consumed swimming to and from Montana at recreational depths.

But I guess you are right. With enough gas, enough risk tolerance and IMHO enough disregard of common sense, the dive is doable as a kick dive.

Which is why I stated (back a few posts) that it would have to be ideal conditions before I'd consider it. To wit,

1. a low tide (preferably minus) mid to late morning.

2. 30+ ft. vis, horizontal and vertical.

3. No surge below 50 feet.

4. flat calm or nearly so, with a forecast for more of the same.

5. water temp mid 50s, so that I could do it in my wet suit without being cold (less drag, faster transit, no worries about flooding)

6. clear and warm topside.

7. A weekend, with a spotter on shore with binoculars and a cell phone. A dive boat anchored at one of the sites nearby would be even better.

8. Appropriate emergency signaling equipment, etc.

Actually, that's pretty much my list for trying to kick Crossroads, and that's only after several workup dives to get familiar with the area, especially the western base of GPP. Crossroads and back is actually slightly less swimming than the Grand Tour, albeit at more than twice the average depth. I'd figure to try Crossroads on 28 or 29% Nx, backgas only, and try to keep it within NDL. If the workup dives show that's not possible, then deco as necessary. I'm neither a daredevil with a death wish or a fool, although some might argue the latter.

Guy

 

[bsteg]

I love the shot where fdog sez "and here it is...." with his name on the side of the scooter. Awesome vid.

 

[bsteg]

So Mike, did you shoot that with a hero on a cuda? Did I see lights also? Curious about you video rig.

 

[fdog]

Dang! I just knew that big "you've got the wrong scooter from the bunch hooked up to the float" sticker would buy me my 15 minutes of Andy Warhol fame someday...

I'm not sure what Michael uses for his video camera but it's not a puny little Hero like I use. It's frickin' huge, with bright lights powered by the scooter battery, on big long arms and mounted to the front of the scooter. Like something from the movie The Abyss. I have some video of it somewhere, if I can figure out how to do a screen cap I'll post it.


All the best, James

 

[mikemikethepike]

So the video camera itself is about the same size as a hero. It is a Kodak Playsport, which is an ultra compact video camera (kind of like te flip):

Then it is the all other accessories that make it a monsterous drag inducing kelp catcher.

I use an Ikelite ultra-compact underwater housing with a dual video light tray:

Attached to the housing is a Fisheye FIX M52/67 Fisheye Conversion Lens:

There are a four eight inch ultralight arm segments for the video lights:

with various bouyancy floats attached:

So that I can light up the reef with a pair of 50 Watt HID Light Monkey Video Lights:

Except instead of using a seperate battery for the video lights, I plu the video light into an accessory outlet on my Cuda:

 

[fdog]

Looked through the video - can't find any with the lights deployed, looks like they are stowed for travel in these video captures.

I have to admit there was more than once I shook my head in admiration of how much work Michael was going through to get the camera/scooter through the kelp - the video is awesome though, and shows that the effort was truly worth it!


All the best, James

 

[mikemikethepike]

Yeah, this was one our aborted trip to Twin Peaks, and I was not bringing the lights because of the additional stage that were were taking to Twin Peaks. Thus, no lights.