Where did you solo dive today?

[CT-Rich]

Not much happening today for my dives. 3 minutes of a straight video from the GP Hero4 head camera. Palm Beach, under a barge in 80 ft of water.

I was kinda crunching the ceiling and decided to turn around.

https://youtu.be/EjpS-OOwhTU

[video=youtube_share;EjpS-OOwhTU]http://youtu.be/EjpS-OOwhTU[/video]

Oh my GAWD!!! You went into an overhead environment!!!! Were were your redundant light? light? You know what this means?
YOU'RE GONNA DIE!!!

Anyway, nice video. Usually head mounted video usually makes me want to puke the movement, but yours was pretty stable.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Yeah, you have to move your head like a zombie, if you want any decent clips. Usually I am lucky to get 10-12 seconds of stability.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I got in two very nice wreck dives last Friday (Sept 4) in Lake Superior off of Munising MI. There were only three of us on a nice 6-pack. The two others were a buddy group and I dove solo. The captain was initially a bit reticent to let me solo, but did finally agree as long as the other 2-person team let me know when they headed back up. We dove the Steven M Selvick and the Bermuda. I had two very enjoyable (and perfect safe) solo dives.

This local operator runs glass bottom wreck trips that are quite popular in Munising. Those charters are their main money maker and are what allow them to stay in business as a dive charter as well. It also gives non-divers a chance to experience a few of the shallower wrecks in the Munising Harbor, connecting them to the maritime heritage of the area.

 

[tennjay]

Center Hill Lake in Tennessee. Maybe 10 ft vis. on occasion. Saw lots of bass and brim.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[TMHeimer]

Spry Harbour, NS. Bottom temp. still 60F.

 

[tmorg]

Haigh quarry , Illinois. Took the day off work

 

[scubadada]

Just finished a visit to Boynton Beach, FL. Twenty six of my 30 dives were solo. This included 12 on the Castor during Goliath Grouper aggregation and many great drifts on the reef. Life is good

 

[jodylynn007]

I don't post in here very often... as I am much more of a Facebook lurker, however I figured I'd share my story (since it got such great comments on FB) of my dives from this past Saturday afternoon at Keystone Jetty, Whidby Island, Washington, USA. Here's the copy/paste from Facebook. Also, if you'd like to add me as a friend on Facebook, you are more than welcome. You can find me by searching Jody Lynn Clark from New Westminster, BC Canada.

EPIC 1st TIME TRULY SOLO AT KEYSTONE aka my little mini Port Hardy. I made the 2.5 hour drive to do two 1.5 hour dives with only a little over ½ hour surface interval - 50 ft. max depth, just needed a bathroom break, tank swap, and some Gatorade inbetween. Anyhow, here’s my story…

BTW High resolution images of my favourites from this album can be found at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jodylynn007/albums/72157658477271898

Heading solo to Keystone for the first time (although I have same ocean dove at Keystone, I have never headed with the sole intention of being solo there), so I needed to do a little research. In past, if I had dive buddies meeting me there, if the wind was blowing and we couldn’t dive, we could always grab some lunch or do something else. Since I was going by myself, figuring out that it wasn’t howling in the one direction that counts at Keystone was going to be important if I was going to make the long drive. From what I could determine W is the direction you don’t want strong winds to be blowing. Predictions were SSE and not too strong for the day, so off I went.

In the border lineup I passed by a guy riding the same motorcycle as me believe it or not. For all you dive friends, this wouldn’t mean much, might even surprise you that I ride, but anyway, I have a limited production motorcycle, an early 2000’s BMW R1100s so that was pretty cool! We chatted in the lineup, he was from NY and was on a cross country trek on his bike. I gave him my email address and he said he’ll write. I hope to hear from him and more about his travels.

Once arriving at Keystone, there was a really cool kite festival going on next door on the Ft. Casey grounds. Something beautiful in the clear blue sky to start off my arrival. Yeah, that’s right, I said CLEAR BLUE SKY. The rain stopped somewhere near Bellingham and then it never started again for the rest of the day. The weather was perfect!! At the divesite, I pulled into the best spot in the lot for diving the jetty (farthest from the pilings) and landed in my rockstar parking. Upon arrival there was only a class of about 6 divers and myself at the site.

While setting up I didn’t have a second to be lonely, despite my solo quest. I spoke with a friendly couple that had just completed their dives and asked about the conditions as I had arrived much earlier than expected. Was going to determine whether to wait closer to slack or jump in early. They said there wasn’t much current to speak of and so I started gearing up to jump in early (small exchange today anyway, hence the trip and earlier in means earlier home). Also spoke with a fellow that had walked over from the Ft. Casey camp, he used to be a military diver and was thinking of taking up recreational diving again, wanted to know what there was to see on the jetty so I told him all about it as I got ready. He was surprised to learn that the jetty stretched out farther than what you could see above the water and that there was so much life down there.

I wasn’t prepared for what I saw immediately when I dropped down for my 1st dive. My camera wasn’t ready and neither was I. I was only in 5 feet of water and I had just put my fins on practically… but there he was, Mr. Giant Lingcod with a huge fish in his mouth waiting to get his picture taken. I’d seen this before and I knew he was going to bolt before too long and I needed to be quick. I got a few shots off, thankfully some without waterspots (as some had them on my lens as I had just splashed), and then he was gone.

Dove a little farther and was graced with a beautiful sunstar, seeing this brought a glorious smile to my face to know they were coming back and to see one of a little larger size than I had seen lately.

I reached the end of the jetty and was shooting snails on beautifully coloured (pink and white sponges) when a mosshead warbonnet suddenly appeared below me on the rock. How did I spot him?! Crazy!! Anyhow, that was fantastic, one of my favourite little creatures and the treat of the day… well so I thought at the time until later in the dive.

While I was taking pictures of the snails and warbonnet I felt something nudge my side or leg… yeah that’d freak out some people. But if you’ve been to this site, you’ve seen the massive lingcod here and I chalked it up to one of those guys just being territorial.

At the end of the 2nd dive I surfaced with two other divers and we all climbed out pretty much at the same time. Turns out they knew who I was. Never truly alone… I love it. The gal of the two divers says to me, are you friends with Jennifer Jennifer A Titus? Why yes I am! I said… So she said, “Is your name Jody?” Hahaa.. love it! Yep!!! How’d you know I am who I am? That’s crazy! She said, female diver, BC plates, big camera. So cool… so it was Reene, a friend of Jenn’s. Nice to meet you Reene, hope you add me as a FB buddy. I pointed out a rainbow to the other two divers (lovely surface interval) and when I came out of the bathroom, they were heading to the pilings for their 2nd dive and I geared up and headed back to the jetty.

2nd dive spent 20 minutes at 15 feet before I even headed deeper, just photographing nudibranchs in the shallows, really everybody if you do this site, dive slowly and look around. You’d be amazed at what you see!

Since the current was non-existent I headed straight to the end of the jetty after realizing I’d spent 20 minutes already at 15 feet (LOL, a bit much) and went straight back to my favourite octopus to try a few more different camera/strobe settings. This lovely gal is at 50 ft. and sits below a giant yellow anemone (however I did see 5 octos in total today, one even that must be on eggs as she’s graying out under the rock).

Anyhow… headed out back to the snail area at the tip of the jetty. On my way I heard a weird clicking noise… what is that?! Looked around and saw a huge black shadow race by… oh yeah baby!!! I was being buzzed by a sea lion!!! Oh heavens, what a wonderful thing. The vis was about 30 ft and it was like an aquarium there so it was just a glorious sight. Knowing I had the whole entire jetty to myself and the sea lion was dancing around with just me, what a truly wonderful moment. Throughout the rest of the dive, I’d hear that clicking sound and knew he was close by. I’d look up from my camera and see it come in for a sweep or two. So amazing!!

This time for my snail watching I sat for about 20 minutes fascinated as a snail was eating something, it was amazing!!! I had a hard time focusing the camera but did get a few in focus shots off and it was well worth it because I could zoom in and see better. So camera is good for not only taking pictures but seeing things up closer.

So to end the night, I came out of the water just as the sun was setting, waves were picking up a bit more so it was good timing. The entire place was deserted, Reene and her friend were long gone. I ate my Subway sandwich, fired off a few messages to let people know I was safe and sound and caught a fireworks show (don’t ask I have no idea why/how) on the I5 on the route home. In bed by midnight.

 

[Germie]

My last solodives where some trimixdives on ccr in caves last week in France.

 

[markmud]

Hello All,

I solo dived Meeks Bay, Lake Tahoe. This site features a sloping (100% gradient) rocky bottom. I went down to the bow of the speedboat at 100'.

Lake Tahoe was beautiful. Clear sunny weather. Not cold, not hot. 65 degree surface temp. A school of silver side bait fish swarmed me.

It was a grand day!

markm