Shore dive in heavy surf

[orange_diver]

I'm definitely sure it was hilarious for anyone on the beach watching my exit.:eyes:

do u do the "fins on shuffle during entry/exit"?

if so i recommend waiting til you're in chest-high water to don and doff the fins. makes life much easier.

here's a nice beach entry from sunday...

 

[ligersandtions]

here's a nice beach entry from sunday...

Where was that picture taken? All of PV and Redondo were lake-like all weekend....thought the entire socal coastal region was the same (based on swell models and surf reports I checked before heading out).

 

[MaxBottomtime]

The most important lesson we divers sometimes never learn is when not to dive. I've been tumbled too many times to attempt an entry through big surf. It seems to always get worse during the dive, and big surf exits are a lot scarier than entries.
Some places can be dived in high surf, such as La Jolla Shores. The surf can be overhead, but it feels like soft serve ice cream skimming by you. Three foot surf at a rocky beach is almost a guarantee of lost gear.

 

[Teamcasa]

Here is a cool youtube from another thread.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/norcal/238755-surviving-monastery-beach-diving-video-snippet.html

 

[nilsdiver]

About the cambands slipping. I don't know if you did this or not, but it helps to wet the band first. The bands stretch a bit when they get wet, so a band that was tight while dry might be slack when it's wet.

I find what works best is a BCD with two cam straps. With one cam band you need to get is very tight and it has to be tight while wet too. The bands stretch a little more when you get them wet. With two cam straps snug on both and your fine. Much easier to secure the tank when you don't have to crimp it down that tight.

 

[Teamcasa]

I find what works best is a BCD with two cam straps. With one cam band you need to get is very tight and it has to be tight while wet too. The bands stretch a little more when you get them wet. With two cam straps snug on both and your fine. Much easier to secure the tank when you don't have to crimp it down that tight.

My Apeks WTX Harness has two cam straps but I also use one of these on each strap. My tanks have never come loose.
https://www.deepseasupply.com/index.php?product=43

 

[almitywife]

all my diving in sydney is shore diving (100ft walk in gear is nothing for us) but ive often spoke about the US beach entrys with surf and wonder how its done (and why for that matter) as it looks like hard work

i guess you can take away from your dive a number of things that you learnt from... most importantly is that even with the handful of challanges you handled them all reasonably well so well done on that!

cheers and happy diving

 

[orange_diver]

Where was that picture taken? All of PV and Redondo were lake-like all weekend....thought the entire socal coastal region was the same (based on swell models and surf reports I checked before heading out).

vet's park 10am...the conditions were mostly good, guess we just got lucky...

we've been thru much worse there and about 4 weeks ago called the dive from the parking lot. i had not seen waves at redondo like that in 2 years. at times they were crashing above the pier.

 

[spectrum]

Many of our entries are in sheltered coves and that helps a lot. For the most part if the entry is going to be challenging the visibility will be lousy so we go to a site with a different exposure. With Maine's irregular coastline we have 270 degrees to choose from.

Pete

 

[orange_diver]

My Apeks WTX Harness has two cam straps but I also use one of these on each strap. My tanks have never come loose.
https://www.deepseasupply.com/index.php?product=43

these are great for single tank diving. you'll never have a slip again.