Wrinkles January '06 Dive Planning Thread - La Jolla

[Glycerin]

It was a good time and I'm happy to have met everyone. Panic and I had a couple shallower but good dives. We saw some crab, lobster, an octopus, and even a small angle shark on the south wall.

Those massive swells where rough though. I think I almost had to turn sideways once

 

[neophyte]

And I enjoyed myself tremendously. In addition to diving, I met some great people and made some new friends. Well written dive reports have already been posted, but I just had to chime in with some thanks of my own. First of all, thanks Headhunter for organizing everything.
Secondly though, as my name implies I'm awfully new to this addictive pastime. I can't get enough of it, but I can't seem to get enough air and my consumption rate proves it. "Air hog" doesn't even begin to do me justice, although I intend to just keep plugging away until I get better, which everyone assures me I will. So, on that note, I just want to publicly thank everyone who buddied with me and surfaced when I had to, which must've been horribly frustrating with the long surface swims in each direction. To a man, no one complained AT ALL. I'm talking hours worth of swimming for minutes worth of diving, and not a discouraging word. Hell, all I got were plenty of encouraging ones. No long-suffering sighs, not even a single eyeroll! So thanks a lot Headhunter, DPbishop and Mark99. I'll be a better buddy someday soon, just you watch.

 

[headhunter]

Secondly though, as my name implies I'm awfully new to this addictive pastime. I can't get enough of it, but I can't seem to get enough air and my consumption rate proves it. "Air hog" doesn't even begin to do me justice, although I intend to just keep plugging away until I get better, which everyone assures me I will. So, on that note, I just want to publicly thank everyone who buddied with me and surfaced when I had to, which must've been horribly frustrating with the long surface swims in each direction. To a man, no one complained AT ALL. I'm talking hours worth of swimming for minutes worth of diving, and not a discouraging word. Hell, all I got were plenty of encouraging ones. No long-suffering sighs, not even a single eyeroll! So thanks a lot Headhunter, DPbishop and Mark99. I'll be a better buddy someday soon, just you watch.

Just keep diving and it will all work itself out. The more comfortable and relaxed you get, the better your breathing rate will get. The better your horizontal trim and weighting get, the less work you'll do while finning under water and your breathing rate will continue to improve. If you try to stay in a more shallow range of depth for a while, you'll have more overall time in the water on each dive, which will help.

Laguna Beach will be the next location for our monthly Wrinkles dive and besides Deadman's Reef, you'd have to bring a shovel with you to go much deeper than 40 feet at most of the sites. It will be a great place for you to continue working everything out.

I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that we would be happy to dive with you again anytime. You'll find out something new everytime you dive that will help your air consumption come down. It's all just part of the learning curve.

Christian