Phase 2: Monastery Beach Video Shoot Sunday April 27, 2008

[sarita75]

It DID go well. We just got home, cleaned the gear and realized that we have Michelle's dive light ..... Sweet new acquisition - just kidding!

It was a great day - I was really pleased to see how successful it turned out. I am sunburnt (mildly), Mark and Michelle had a great dive (YEAH!!!) and we had a nice lunch together. It was awesome to see friendly faces, meet some new ones, and learn how to safely dive Monastery while helping out on this hugely important project.

I will post my surface photos a bit later this evening after dinner, etc.

 

[sarita75]

Here are a few photos from the day. There are some more in my album. If you want a link to the album with all of the photos in it, please send me a PM and I will get you into it. Thanks!!

Doc crawling out after his tumble:

Guy and Dennis - perhaps their reaction to Doc's roll?! Just kidding!!

I just love this photo of Michelle:

And this photo of Doc:

 

[sarita75]

Looking south towards South Monastery/ Carmel River Beach:

North Monastery / Carmel River Beach:

You can just make out Doc's blue tank at the base of the wave, trying to get tumbled:

Doc in his wetsuit (evidentiary proof):

 

[Gombessa]

Congrats on a successful shoot, despite having fantastic dive conditions When can we expect to see the final result?

 

[DocWong]

Congrats on a successful shoot, despite having fantastic dive conditions When can we expect to see the final result?

Probably within 6 months. It's quite a production. I'll post some of the footage as soon as I get the clips from Jim. He just finished viewing the video footage and was quite pleased at what we got.

 

[DocWong]

Wow,

Doc in a wetsuit, had I known that I would have been there to see it myself... I can hardly wait to see the video, as the details in your log are intense; the part about being disorientated in the surf zone makes me aware of how dangerous this cite can be....

So doc, what mil was your suit? What was the lowest temp reading?

I had a 1 mil under a 7 mil wetsuit. Doing the beach video, I was if anything overheated. Being on the beach in the sun was hot. Being tumbled in the surf and fighting to get back on land was quite a workout.

After the video shoot, I swam out to Chuck's boat and we dove a site just outside of Point Lobos and it was spectacular! The viz was pretty good at around 40 feet and the reef was the most colorful with the most variety of invertebrates I've seen so far!

I did get cold in my wetsuit, the lowest temp was 45 degrees at around 90 or so feet. At the beginning of the dive I welcomed the coldness, but it was a bit too much of a good thing.

The weird thing was that I was super feet heavy and found it work to keep a horizontal position in the water. I just resigned to being upright and relaxed. If I were to dive more wetsuit, I'll have to figure out a way to put weight up high to balance out. Actually, no worries, I don't plan on diving in a wetsuit out here in the near future anyway!

 

[mikeguerrero]

Doc,

Thanks for sharing all the details about the dive while wet. I didn't know you dive 1 mil under the full 7 mil. So that would be 8 mil all over correct? It's also amazing you dove with chuck at those temps, 45 degrees, I've only done 48 and that was cold.

I dive full 7, hooded vest 7 and a torso heater 3mil; thats 13 mil in the chest, 10 at the groin and 7 in extremes. The only areas I feel the cold are my hands and my arms; can't wait to retire the suit and go dry in the future.

Doc, is that your original wetsuit before you went dry? Doing the wet dive with Chuck did you feel more streamlined than the bulk of dry? Granted you always use that scooter you probably don't even feel drag.

It's kinda of cool seeing Guy in a wet suit as well, I know he dives dry so was it a NO/NO to have tumbled in the sand with a dry? Or was it because you guys would have gotten too hot?

 

[DocWong]

>>>Thanks for sharing all the details about the dive while wet. I didn't know you dive 1 mil under the full 7 mil. So that would be 8 mil all over correct? It's also amazing you dove with chuck at those temps, 45 degrees, I've only done 48 and that was cold>>>>

Yes, I'd count that as 8 mil total. Yea it was cold but my metabolism was still in high gear from all morning hot and working out on the beach. Only after 30 minutes did I get cold, but when we did our ascent at 30 feet, the temps raised and I was comfortable doing our safety stops.

I don't plan on doing much more wet suit diving in Monterey. I like being toasty warm after 90 minutes in the water!

<<<I dive full 7, hooded vest 7 and a torso heater 3mil; thats 13 mil in the chest, 10 at the groin and 7 in extremes. The only areas I feel the cold are my hands and my arms; can't wait to retire the suit and go dry in the future.>>>

Yea, once you get that dialed in, you'll love it.

<<<Doc, is that your original wetsuit before you went dry? Doing the wet dive with Chuck did you feel more streamlined than the bulk of dry? Granted you always use that scooter you probably don't even feel drag.>>>

No that was given to me by Frank at Anywater Sports in San Jose to use for today's dive. I don't own a cold water wet suit. I re-started diving in Monterey again after a 10 year break with only dives in warm water. I did one dive in a wet suit when I returned 3 years ago, it was dry after that!

I probably would have, but the way the weights were set up, my feet were way too heavy so it was work to frog kick and stay horizontal. I'm sure if my wet suit rig was balanced or dialed in, it would be a lot more streamlined than a dry suit.

<<<It's kinda of cool seeing Guy in a wet suit as well, I know he dives dry so was it a NO/NO to have tumbled in the sand with a dry? Or was it because you guys would have gotten too hot?[/QUOTE]

Yes it would have been way too hot to be on the beach all morning in the sun. Also the wetsuit is more flexible and less constricting and would be an advantage in doing rescues. That and I didn't want to tear up my drysuit when I was getting tumbled in the surf.