Orca Bait "Big Buddy" dive ???

[DoubleDip]

I want to thank all the Scubaboard members who showed up to dive today, I had a lot of fun! Thanks Rachel for buddying up with me, I think we seen some cool stuff today, and it was nice just to cool off. My thanks also go out to the new members; nice to meet each one of you. Hats off too, to the old hands; especially NW Grateful diver, Bob a splendid idea who's timing was spot on. Regards, Kirk Hamblen

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It was a really good turnout ... we had at least a dozen divers for the first dive, and four of us stuck around for dive two (well ... it was actually my fourth dive of the day) ...

Glad everyone could make it ... I guess this was our impromptu "August Orca Bait" dive ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[rachelscott51]

Thanks to everyone as well! I had a blast. Getting wet on a day like today was a definite must. Thanks for being a great buddy Kirk, I had a great time. Can't wait to see the pics of that nudibranch! Nice meeting everyone else! Let's do it again soon.

 

[Cold_H2O]

I had a great time today even tho I only stayed around for 1 dive. Thanks Bob for getting us all together. We really should do this more often. I promise to do 2 dives next time. Really

 

[JaMurphy]

I had a nice dive today. Looking forward to the next Orcabait dive. Thanks Bob for organizing the dive.

Jay

 

[TSandM]

Boy, I can't say enough good things about today's dives.

Bob (NW Grateful Diver) is a wonderful mentor and a gifted teacher, and helped me enormously with my descent problems (which I demonstrated for him in spades on the first dive . . . oops). Plus he is incredible at spotting wildlife (we saw something like six different species of nudibranch) and has absolutely the most fantastic light. My husband is the one with the toy lust problems, but I came home plotting how to get my hands on a light like Bob's!

I want to say a big public "thank you" for a professional instructor who will volunteer his time to help a clumsy new diver improve her skills.

And I hope that some of the pictures taken by the fourth member of our party on the second dive come out. We saw a lot of really interesting things, including two war bonnets, a Red Irish Lord, a sculpin (can't remember which kind), many nudibranchs, and a HUGE ling cod I almost kicked in the head. For dives with pretty limited visibility, we had an awfully good time.

The bad news is that all that "competence" I thought I got from diving Molokini vanished as soon as I and my drysuit attempted to go down in the cold pea soup of Elliott Bay . . . More work to do!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Boy, I can't say enough good things about today's dives.

Bob (NW Grateful Diver) is a wonderful mentor and a gifted teacher, and helped me enormously with my descent problems (which I demonstrated for him in spades on the first dive . . . oops). Plus he is incredible at spotting wildlife (we saw something like six different species of nudibranch) and has absolutely the most fantastic light. My husband is the one with the toy lust problems, but I came home plotting how to get my hands on a light like Bob's!

I want to say a big public "thank you" for a professional instructor who will volunteer his time to help a clumsy new diver improve her skills.

And I hope that some of the pictures taken by the fourth member of our party on the second dive come out. We saw a lot of really interesting things, including two war bonnets, a Red Irish Lord, a sculpin (can't remember which kind), many nudibranchs, and a HUGE ling cod I almost kicked in the head. For dives with pretty limited visibility, we had an awfully good time.

The bad news is that all that "competence" I thought I got from diving Molokini vanished as soon as I and my drysuit attempted to go down in the cold pea soup of Elliott Bay . . . More work to do!

Thanks!

The light I was using today was a Terkel light. They're made locally, but I'm not sure if he's still making them (hope so, it's a great light).

Sculpins we saw today ... the tiny guy on the first dive with the pointy nose and orange tail is a grunt sculpin ... the ones parked on pilings that blended in so well are buffalo sculpins ... and the red one sitting in the kelp on our safety stop (dive 2) was a red irish lord.

Nothing wrong with your competence ... like any new skill, it gets better with practice. Looking forward to our next dive ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Jeff=Dive]

I want to thank Bob, first for getting me involved with scubaboard, and also for setting up this dive. Every time I go diving I see something different, it was really cool. And thanks to Jay for buddying up for a good dive. Lookin foward to the next gettogether dive.

Jp

 

[lamont]

Plus he is incredible at spotting wildlife

yup, you'll see twice as much stuff diving with bob. bob will usually see even more stuff that you miss even when you're diving with him...

i did spot one of the warbonnets and found one of the GPOs under the honey bear. i was looking for nudis but they were all hiding from me...

viz was pretty spectacularly good on the pilings just downhill of the honey bear, spent a lot of time swimming around there just going "wow, the viz is really good..."

 

[kalvyn]

yup, you'll see twice as much stuff diving with bob. bob will usually see even more stuff that you miss even when you're diving with him...

Ain't that the truth?

I had a great time, and it was nice meeting the new folks! I also only did one dive; I probably made the right call going home when I did as I didn't get home until almost 8 anyway.

TB, it was nice meeting and diving with you. We'll have to hit Three Tree some evening, since you live in Burien anyway. What with Redondo closed and all, Three Tree is the next closest fun dive site North of where I live.

JaMurphy, how did the pictures turn out? I look forward to seeing them.

Was it just me, or as it freakin' HOT yesterday? Like Lamont said, I was honestly surprised how good the vis was, considering how sunny it's been of late.

Jimmie