My First Non-Swamp Dive! USS Oriskany!

[zach5150]

My fellow Swampers,
I got certified in early June and have aquired almost 30 dives since in Lake Travis, Blue Lagoon, CSSP, Athens, Comal River and Twin Lakes....now, finally...I've made my first Bluewater dive!!!! Wow.....My girlfriend (also a SB member and diver) and I went to the border of Alabama and Florida last weekend. We made 2 boat dives on Saturday and 2 boat dives on Sunday in the Gulf. Saturday was comprised of 2 wrecks, 1 Navy Tug and another push tug. The Navy Tug was pretty cool...pretty well intact, 50 foot vis, no Rays or sharks, but there were some Cuda's. Very nice first dive in clear blue water with real marine life in 84 degree water. Average depth all 4 dives was 60-90ish feet. Sunday......USS Oriskany. I was in the Navy, and I love ships, so this was HUGE for me! It was beautiful. Amazing. Aweinspiring. The first dive was perfect. 40-50 foot vis (I guess winds and currents killed the 100 ft vis often experienced on Big "O".) Just floated around the superstructure and took pics and pondered the enormity of the situation. The superstructure starts at about 70 feet and we didnt go below 100. The flight deck is at 135....so, basically we had about 30 feet of superstructure to explore. This included the AirBoss tower, the roof of the navigation bridge, I think a gun mount?, various other nooks and cranny's. We saw a baby octopus nestled in a pipe on the 2nd dive. I wish I would have had my camera on the 2nd dive, but I left it on the boat! The 2nd dive though, had some heavy underwater currents and got pretty crowded from other dive boats...but all in all....WOW!!! here's a couple of pics for ya...

 

[webhead]

Sounds like a great time. Thanks for the pics. I think one of those can be your new avatar.

 

[texdiveguy]

Wow,, what a great way to break in ocean diving!!!

 

[Timeliner]

Way Cool ! Thats a great boat ! The Ocean is a hell of a place huh ?

Still ... it does sort of pale to a deep/dark/cold/low Vis. Winter lake dive.

I go to the Ocean a couple of times a year just to regain the perspective of how wonderfull fresh water actually is. ( really :14 Something about the Ocean and being able to see across several degrees of Longitude just doesn't seem right to me.

Even still I say go there as often as you can just remember to wash that stuff off of you or you'll go all Blue Water Snob on us !!
They have they're own BWS Forum but we arn't allowed there :mooner:

Remember your true Swamp roots.

 

[zach5150]

Thanks for the pics. I think one of those can be your new avatar.

Great idea! I'll have to fix that up

 

[zach5150]

Way Cool ! Thats a great boat ! The Ocean is a hell of a place huh ?

Still ... it does sort of pale to a deep/dark/cold/low Vis. Winter lake dive.

I go to the Ocean a couple of times a year just to regain the perspective of how wonderfull fresh water actually is. ( really :14 Something about the Ocean and being able to see across several degrees of Longitude just doesn't seem right to me.

Even still I say go there as often as you can just remember to wash that stuff off of you or you'll go all Blue Water Snob on us !!
They have they're own BWS Forum but we arn't allowed there :mooner:

Remember your true Swamp roots.

I could never forget my roots...and I'll be a Swamper for life, but I gotta admit....I sure do like all the critters and colors of the ocean.....i love diving, i love water. fresh, cold, warm or salty

 

[Mack Diver]

Cool pics. Thanks for a nice report. I may try to book a trip there next summer.

 

[Willie]

Thanks for the report. The Oriskany is definitely a dive I want to do as soon as I can squeeze it in.

Willie

 

[JessH]

I was just talking to someone about shooting some shipwreck footage for a film when I saw this thread. I think it's a sign....

~Jess

 

[pupdiver]

Oh man. I am totally jealous of you. I want to dive Big O soooo bad.

We need to get one of the Navy's ships out here in LA.