Where did I go with my force fins?

[Soakedlontra]

August is already over. Days with air temperatures in the 80s F are becoming rare. Last Wednesday when I saw on the NOAA National Weather Service website that in the Baker Lake area the temperature would have risen to the low 80s F I rushed to pack my camping gear, tossed whatever food I could find in the kitchen in a cooler, the Force Fins and other snorkeling gear in a waterproof ‘boat’ bag and with a friend of mine, Melissa, an ethno-botanist from California, I headed to Baker Lake.

When we reached the lake the weather did not match NOAA’s forecast. It was cloudy instead of being sunny…Bummer!:depressed: While we were driving an owl flew above us crossing our path and rested on a branch of a red alder on our side of the road…Uuummm!

I wondered whether that sudden encounter would have been a bad or a good omen… I decided to share my friend’s enthusiasm for sighting this nocturnal raptor in broad daylight and I convinced myself that it was going to bring us good luck!

We stopped at a couple of campgrounds looking for our ideal campsite but we did not find any. We decided to keep driving along the shore of the lake to check the free campsites but they were all already taken. Then Melissa remembered that there was a third campground near the north end of the lake. And..voila’ we were really lucky to find our ideal campsite right there without a reservation (first time since the two of us have been car camping in WA!). The campsite did not have any neighbors, had a view of the lake and a short trail that took us directly to its shore.

By the time we had dinner and sat in front of our first campfire (I still don’t understand…in towns there is a burn ban but campfires are allowed in campgrounds…) the sky cleared up a bit and stars began to flicker above our heads. The following morning was gorgeously sunny and already quite warm at 9 am that I went for a swim to wake up!

We spent all day at the lake shore near the campsite. My friend hadn’t been snorkeling in 20 years so I suggested her to try the Force Fins, the snorkel and the mask and have some fun snorkeling in the shallow water of the lake.

This time the water did its job. It made us relax and forget about our daily life struggles and uncertainties. While immersed in the lake we felt like two queens even if it was just one day and a half!

Baker Lake was originally a natural lake. In 1959 the Upper Baker Dam was built which turned the lake into a reservoir. Snorkeling at Baker Lake is like snorkeling in an underwater graveyard whose tombstones are huge old growth forest stumps that still bare the typical ‘logging-scars’ on their sides and stumps of younger trees.

There are no water lilies or any other aquatic plants here. The only live fish I was able to see underwater were small sculpins

and the evidence of bigger fish…

Thank god boaters did not approach the side of the lake shore where we were snorkeling and swimming! One in particular must have driven his/her motor boat in circles at full speed while dragging a swimmer on special ski with a rope and yelling like he/she was trying to lasso a frightened calf in a rodeo corral for at least one hour! Eventually at sunset

the sound of the boat engines and games on radios disappeared. Nature regained control of Baker Lake and while watching Mt. Shuksan turning orange I was able to listen to a couple of loons conversing to each other at the north end of the lake. I had no idea of what they were talking about but it sounded as soothing as a lullaby.

While the sun was wasting away behind the foothills of Koma Kulshan (Mt. Baker), invisible from our campsite, a squint moon took over the darkening sky and made the water of the lake sparkling for about 30 minutes. I was tempted to jump into the water again but my stomach was growling and couldn’t settle down so I began to fix some dinner instead. At the same time Melissa, exasperated by the stubbornness of the mosquitoes that now had come out in force, started the second campfire. From time to time I would turn my head over the lake and let my eyes get lost in those golden watery sparks.

After dinner the moon sat behind a mountain ridge and was gone for good. Darkness grew thicker. We sat in front of the campfire and we drowned our brains in a heavy conversation about existentialism…(it must have been the lack of booze…).

After a while our eyelids became incredibly heavy and Melissa went to bed while I, like one of those of mosquitoes, stubbornly wanted to stay up longer to stare at the stars and milky way, which were brighter than the night before, until I would see a shooting star!

By the time the last piece of wood became ashes and red hot charcoal I still hadn’t a glimpse of one single shooting star. I could barely keep my eyes open and with disappointment I gave up, poured some water on what was left of the campfire and went to bed.

I was so tired that I couldn’t be bothered to lock my food bag in the car or store the snorkeling gear inside the waterproof ‘boat’ bag. I had left the Force Fins, socks, boots, etc… on stumps to dry near the tent. With the help of ear plugs I was able to slide into a pre-sleep. However when I heard my friend moving about inside her tent and saw her flashlight rotating in various directions I began to think about the Force Fins and the other snorkeling gear that were laying exposed to unknown animal forces in the dark campsite...

Old articles that I had read ages ago about rats being able to chew into almost anything surfaced into my drowsy memory…I began to wonder whether a mouse or a raccoon (“Rats don’t live in forests!” I reassured myself) had a taste for plastic…especially the ultra snappy high-performance polyurethane mixture that my Force Fins were made of…

I totally exhausted myself with those thoughts that I became ultra-lazy and decided to take the risk and go back to sleep instead of getting up, opening the door-zip of my tent, dragging myself out of it and putting the Force Fins and all the other plastic stuff away.

The following morning I was relieved to see that not even a moth had a bite at my Force Fins and the snorkeling gear!

 

[Blair Mott]

Thanks again for posting. Summer is indeed gone and the Fall is upon us. I got out of the water last night at 7pm and it was almost dark. Gone are the days of swimming until 8. Reading your posts gives all of us at Force Fin more energy to get out have more Force Fin Experiences! Thanks again Soakedlontra You ROCK!
Have a great week,
Blair

 

[Soakedlontra]

Thanks again for posting. Summer is indeed gone and the Fall is upon us. I got out of the water last night at 7pm and it was almost dark. Gone are the days of swimming until 8. Reading your posts gives all of us at Force Fin more energy to get out have more Force Fin Experiences! Thanks again Soakedlontra You ROCK!
Have a great week,
Blair

Thanks Blair!

Let's take the bull by the horns!​

 

[sambolino44]

Spent last weekend in Vancouver, British Columbia. We did four dives in three days at Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver. What a beautiful site! Easy access, restrooms with changing rooms, a snack bar, and just a lovely location, topside and below. It was a bit windy and rainy while we were there, but the sun did come out eventually.

There's a sheltered bay with rocky sides and a flat bottom that's not too deep, and a wall that goes as deep as you want to go. We wanted to see the cloud sponges, and you have to go pretty deep to see them.

There's so much more that we saw, but here's one of my favorites: an Orange Sea Pen.

Then, when we surfaced on the last day, we ran into some nice local folks who also use Force Fins. This guy got his fins a long time ago, and had been looking for them in local shops to buy another pair, but couldn't find them. I told him to go to your website; that you encourage us to use the dealer network, but if there aren't any close by, you'll sell them direct. I had never seen any Force Fins like these; they have a different logo. He was very happy with them.

All in all it was a great trip; great diving, great to meet new people who are so pleasant, and great to get away from the usual.

 

[uncleavi]

I did my Instructor course at this Park and in Kitsilano.

 

[Bob Evans]

Sambolino, Those nice folks you ran into have a Force Fin with matching neon yellow straps made in 1983-1985. We were making many colored Force Fins at that time. Body Glove had a license from me to cast Force fins in a production plant I set up in their old wetsuit factory. My parents' home was just down the street from the Body GloveBody Glove | Home and I grew up with the Meistrell Family. I was managing a Poly-Urethane production machine, making all the molds, and making 400 parts per day. Force Fin had just come out in the Sharper Image Catalog. Within a year we had sales of $900.000. That Force fin logo is another story, hand sculpted and put on the mold with super glue, did I ever screw up? The logo was crooked.. Yes... I had to carefully sand it off to start all over with another potato thin hand sanded logo. Well I enjoyed the story here in Foggy Santa Barbara. Today I will look for some old photo's from the Body Glove days.

 

[meesier42]

talk about durability.... jez Bob, I knew you made quality, but those are 25+ years old and look well used. Original strap and all, I don't know any fin ever produced with that kind of longevity.

 

[Soakedlontra]

Spent last weekend in Vancouver, British Columbia. We did four dives in three days at Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver...

...Ah! I was diving at Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver the very same weekend too...what a strange coincidence!

Force Fins into the wonderful wonders of Whytecliff Park.

Part One: Cephalopods don’t snore! ​

What is the best way to fight the blues caused by the unwelcoming realization that summer is slowly but inexorably fading away and pretty soon I have to trick time by adjusting my watch and alarm clock again? Taking the bull by the horns and go diving at Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver, British Columbia when the weather forecast is not so good (but not atrociously bad either)!

Driving the first time (of a total of six) over the Lions Gate Bridge Vancouver BC to reach Whytecliff Park at Labor Day weekend.

Once my buddy and I did the first dive on Saturday afternoon at Whitecliff Park in West Vancouver we were totally hooked and went back for more until we ran out of time and money.

I am still waiting for my dry suit to come back from the repair shop in Minnesota so I had to dig out from the closet my Scuba Pro Nova Scotia semi-dry suit, Pinnacle torso heater, neoprene socks and wet boots like I used to do in the old days when I began diving a year ago.

During the Labor Day weekend at Whytecliff Park I was reminded of the ‘joy’ of wearing a wet suit when it is wet and cold, the ‘comfort’ of marinating in my own warm pee (did an ancient Indian king use to drink his own urine?...Uuummh! I am wondering if it is any good for the skin&#8230 and most of all controlling my buoyancy hassle and controversy free because I had to deal with just one air bubble!

There is not a semi-dry dry/wet suit without a cooler full of hot water!

Believe me! What a difference it makes to wear neoprene socks, boots, gloves and hood hot-wet rather than cold-wet!

On Sunday at the park parking lot we met a really nice local diver called Mike who drew us a map of the dive site called Day Marker.

I told him that we were looking for a wall covered with plumose anemones as in Betty Pratt-Johnson’s book 151 Dives in the protected waters of British Columbia and Washington State at page #46. According to Betty PJ the wall at the Day Marker plunges to a depth of 700ft (200mt)! The thought of hovering at a planned max. depth of about 90 FSW while the underwater rock face kept going down disappearing into the womb of the earth was exhilarating! I also told him that I wanted to see the beyond-OW-limits of 60FSW cloud sponges (according to some Pacific Northwest marine life ID books).

We finished gearing up as soon as we can and off we went surface swimming to the Day Marker in one of the roughest sea surfaces that I have ever experienced so far!

Are you OK?

I am OK!

The swells must have been 3-4 ft high, the wind was blowing and breaking off the rollers in smaller waves while showers were pounding us on and off (thank god no lightings!). There was some surface current but I was surprised to notice that it was not too bad considering the weather conditions.

In this choppy surface I began to play with the restless water by keeping the regulator out of my mouth thinking how cool it was to have water splashing on my lower face and mask. What a great opportunity to take a weird scuba diving self-portrait!

Soon I realized that it didn’t matter how smart and confident I liked to think I was. Overconfidence can often bring divers more trouble than anything else so I quit messing around with the waves like a child and finished the surface swim by keeping my regulator in my mouth!

We submerged pretty close to the Day Marker but not close enough. Underwater we could feel the swells and current at a shallow depth but when we reached about 40 ft all that watery turmoil dissipated by magic.

We totally missed the section of the wall with the plumose anemones. Once we saw the first cloud sponge on a different wall (or maybe it was the same wall?) we forgot all about those anemones! What it is really remarkable about these sponges is that they are made of silica, but like sculptures made of thin glass are very fragile and sharp like, of course, broken glass so I kept my feet with the Force Fins in it and my entire body including my hands well far away from them!

We found a cloud sponge that was orange. Inside and on top of it other small creatures were crawling around: daisy brittle stars and what looked like at first glance some kind of shrimps (after enlarging the image on the computer screen, despite the pixels, I realized that those critters were not shrimps but more likely squat lobsters!). That’s another remarkable thing about cloud sponges: a lot of different animals find home inside them and you never know what they may be!

Another invertebrate that we encountered for the first time on the wall at the Day Marker were: a delicate-cannot-miss looking Stalked Trumpet Sponge

and the striking Pacific Sea Peach because of its smooth, simple barreled shaped body that reminded me of an elegant porcelain vessel with a wonderful subtle glaze.

Unfortunately with only HP 100 steel tanks we were limited on how much time we could spend at depth. Still those 12-15 minutes seemed like an eternity!

When we began our slow ascent along the wall and ledges we bumped into Mike, the diver whom we met at the parking lot earlier on. He showed us a grunt sculpin and the den of Giant Pacific Octopus! The big cephalopod was at home fast asleep and it did not snore! Unlike that guy at the Youth Hostel who won the contest for the loudest snores in the whole dormitory and kept my buddy awake, while I had astutely sealed off my ear canals with ear plugs!

 

[Soakedlontra]

I did my Instructor course at this Park and in Kitsilano.

Lucky you!

One problem that could arise while taking scuba classes in such wonderful locations is that the student may end up getting too distracted by the amazing surroundings and forget to pay attention to the instructor...

 

[Soakedlontra]

Force Fins into the wonderful wonders of Whytecliff Park.
Part Two: Feather Stars Rock!
​

After a surface interval of more than two hours we began to mess with the scuba equipment again. We were the only divers left in the parking lot and it was only 3pm! I wondered if that meant that something such as current or the weather was going to change for the worse in the afternoon so that was why nobody else was planning to dive…

That slightly nagging thought dissipated when my buddy eagerly told me that it was time to gear up! We decided to go back to the Day Marker and enter the water again from the beach because it was safer than trying to dodge big rocks with waves possibly tossing us around against walls colonized by mussels at the Cut. Even if the sky still had a pretty serious look on its ‘face’ the sea surface was somewhat calmer than during the first dive.

I had just put my second Force Fin on when I realized that there was a quite important piece of equipment that was missing: my mask! Off I went and hiked back up to the car to pick it up. When I walked back down again to the beach I took the picture of my buddy floating like a duck belly-up who proudly showed off his green ‘ webbed feet’ (that’s the way ducks relax don’t they?) and the ‘famous’ Day Marker in the distance.

When I was finally ready to do the bubble check in the shallow messy grey-green murky water I suddenly saw a pair of large dark wings attached to a dark body, tail and small head soaring in circles below gloomy clouds and high above my buddy’s head. I had not doubts: it must have been a Turkey Vulture!

I feel something even if I cannot see it…

I consider myself somebody who is not generally superstitious and with a strong inclination to rational thinking. However I couldn’t help myself for creating inside my head a subtle irrational connection between the fact that the dive site was devoid of other divers and the sudden presence of the vulture, which made me feel uneasy for a short while…

My buddy brought me back to the rational world by impatiently reminding me that we needed to get going! For the third time we surface swam to the Day Marker.

While we were cruising the surface of the water like two swift alligators on a mission (to me those guys are always after something when they are in the water&#8230 I forgot all about the vulture and I substituted one fixed thought for another one. I could not stop visualizing the picture of the wall covered with plumose anemones in Betty JP’s book! Finding that bloody cluster of anemones that were supposed to be hanging from a 700 FSW high wall became a stubborn obsession as if I was on the quest for an underwater Holy Grail!

When we were close enough to the imposing fixed marker we descended convinced that this time we couldn’t possibly miss those anemones! But the first thing that I noticed underwater was not the fact that there were hardly any plumose anemones attached to the surrounding rocks but that I had forgotten to wear my watch (I still don’t have a dive computer, and my watch is the only way I track time).

I signaled my buddy about it. He partially understood me and somewhat we decided to keep diving amidst some confusion. We swam around looking for those plumose anemones. We found a few and saw a couple of lonely quillback rock fish hanging around them

I cannot believe that there are so few rock fish around here!

but most of all we kept bumping into ‘first-glance’ bare rocks! Eventually a sense of failure began to creep in. However the sight of the first Feather Star replaced my disappointment with a new delightful wonder.

It’s pretty amazing that Feather Stars are not land fern like plants adapted to live underwater but animals that have been around the oceans for millions of years. These crinoids are related to sea urchins and like ferns are prehistoric organisms. Their ancient ancestors had stalks 80feet (25m) long! Unfortunately now they reach a length of 10 inches (25 cm) only. (It’s too bad that we did not evolve earlier&#8230.

The description ‘bare rock’ doesn’t usually sound very appealing. Underwater rock bareness gazing is a scuba diving activity on its own, though. You really need to get rid of the ‘big- fish-encounter- mentality’ and approach it with a meditative mood while sharpening the eyes and hovering in a state of relaxation without hurry, but don’t forget to watch your gas and no decompression limits, though!

So that’s how we ended our third dive at Whytecliff Park: admiring the colors of rocks and look at small and unglamorous marine animals that lived on those same rocky surfaces that we thought were empty and boring.

Grey Brittle Star

Swimming Anemone. It’s exactly like the ones at the Seattle Aquarium!