Gidds
Contributor
A Brief Summary of My Day:
Nearly died of heat stroke walking down the stairs and to the car...
Drove to Ft. Wetherill only to find that yesterday's beautiful vis. and calm seas had been replaced by 3-4' swells and zero vis (of COURSE I didn't have my gear yesterday).
Oh well I figured I could find something else to do, at least I was no longer suffering from heat exhaustion due to a nice stiff breeze...
The Beauty of Lurking
:lurk_2:
Most of you are aware of what online lurking is but I have decided to take lurking to the next level, so for the rest of the morning I proceeded to lurk back and forth between the boat ramp and the other cove and ask any divers exiting the water (unless they looked not-nice and/or creepy) if they had encountered anything interesting underwater and how was thier dive? (all the while trying not to be annoying or creepy myself). I'm rather shy so it is good for me to actually speak to people and all the divers I met were very nice. Additionally I learned quite a few things just watching divers getting in and out of the water such as: I'm not the only person who looks silly donning a wetsuit, planning is a good idea, get in shape, what NOT to do when entering the water, and behavior that might indicate you need a new buddy
Plus you get to see what sorts of cool gear and accessories everybody else has. I also learned that some kayakers do not feel that they are a "boat" and therefore think it is ok to go right over a dive flag in shallow water. :11:
Lurking kept be busy for a couple hours and the wind died down and the sea was calmer so I had a snorkel around the rocks and saw some baby cunners (I think) :06: a baby lobster, some small crabs, and silversides. I also found this small (dime-sized) red crab swimming at the surface. I'd never seen a crab swimming pelagicly before and I wasn't aware they came in red. The vis. still wasn't very good but I could see the fish and that's all that really matters to me. The water was nice, probably low 70's or upper 60's but I should have worn a hood. I didn't see any tropicals but some other people there, both diving and snorkelling, collected two juvenile banded butterfly fish.
Nearly died of heat stroke walking down the stairs and to the car...
Drove to Ft. Wetherill only to find that yesterday's beautiful vis. and calm seas had been replaced by 3-4' swells and zero vis (of COURSE I didn't have my gear yesterday).
Oh well I figured I could find something else to do, at least I was no longer suffering from heat exhaustion due to a nice stiff breeze...
The Beauty of Lurking
:lurk_2:
Most of you are aware of what online lurking is but I have decided to take lurking to the next level, so for the rest of the morning I proceeded to lurk back and forth between the boat ramp and the other cove and ask any divers exiting the water (unless they looked not-nice and/or creepy) if they had encountered anything interesting underwater and how was thier dive? (all the while trying not to be annoying or creepy myself). I'm rather shy so it is good for me to actually speak to people and all the divers I met were very nice. Additionally I learned quite a few things just watching divers getting in and out of the water such as: I'm not the only person who looks silly donning a wetsuit, planning is a good idea, get in shape, what NOT to do when entering the water, and behavior that might indicate you need a new buddy
Plus you get to see what sorts of cool gear and accessories everybody else has. I also learned that some kayakers do not feel that they are a "boat" and therefore think it is ok to go right over a dive flag in shallow water. :11: Lurking kept be busy for a couple hours and the wind died down and the sea was calmer so I had a snorkel around the rocks and saw some baby cunners (I think) :06: a baby lobster, some small crabs, and silversides. I also found this small (dime-sized) red crab swimming at the surface. I'd never seen a crab swimming pelagicly before and I wasn't aware they came in red. The vis. still wasn't very good but I could see the fish and that's all that really matters to me. The water was nice, probably low 70's or upper 60's but I should have worn a hood. I didn't see any tropicals but some other people there, both diving and snorkelling, collected two juvenile banded butterfly fish.
