CuzzA
Wetwork for Hire
My first ocean dive...
I went out with my aquarium live rock aquaculture buddy to his lease site a week or so after getting certified. Nice summer day, calm seas. I hadn't really thought much about if we'd be diving together with just the two of us on the boat. When we arrived to the site, which is only 25 fsw in the Gulf of Mexico, we clipped into a permanent mooring he has rigged to some concrete pilings. He said, "Alright you dive and then I'll dive." I thought to myself, "Well there goes all of the buddy diving that had just been hammered in my OW course...." Ok, "You don't want to buddy dive?", I asked. "Ah, you'll be fine", he said. I thought, "Well I can free dive 25 ft..."
So a little anxious, I rolled off the side of the boat and got to the bottom where I found 1 ft. viz. I sat there for a few moments in the sand thinking to myself, "Well, now what should I do?" I proceeded to swim to look for the millions of pounds of live rock and then a lizard fish swims right up to me, it stops facing right at me and rests on the sand about a foot from my face. They're definitely one of the uglier fish out there. They're also at the top of the dislike list since they have a tendency to foul trolling lines as they slam bait as big as themselves.
Anyway, I sat there for about five minutes having a starring contest with a lizard fish when finally I looked around and decided there wasn't much to see or do down here with the 1 ft. viz and while I appreciated the interest this fish took in me I got that uncomfortable feeling of what else could be taking an interest in me that I cannot see.
After surfacing and back on the boat my buddy says, "Takes a lot of balls to roll into the ocean solo like that for your first dive." As he back rolls in. Meanwhile on the surface I was thinking that was probably pretty dumb. Nevertheless, I was pretty impressed as I watched him fill 16 nets with a few thousand pounds of live rock as the floats were cruising along the surface. I thought to myself, "Jeez, that's pretty damn impressive to do work like that in zero viz." And so that's where I started doing a lot of my practice dives. Zero viz ocean diving. Fun stuff.
*Probably best others don't do what I did. Dive with a buddy.
Random internet pic of a lizard fish for reference.
I went out with my aquarium live rock aquaculture buddy to his lease site a week or so after getting certified. Nice summer day, calm seas. I hadn't really thought much about if we'd be diving together with just the two of us on the boat. When we arrived to the site, which is only 25 fsw in the Gulf of Mexico, we clipped into a permanent mooring he has rigged to some concrete pilings. He said, "Alright you dive and then I'll dive." I thought to myself, "Well there goes all of the buddy diving that had just been hammered in my OW course...." Ok, "You don't want to buddy dive?", I asked. "Ah, you'll be fine", he said. I thought, "Well I can free dive 25 ft..."
So a little anxious, I rolled off the side of the boat and got to the bottom where I found 1 ft. viz. I sat there for a few moments in the sand thinking to myself, "Well, now what should I do?" I proceeded to swim to look for the millions of pounds of live rock and then a lizard fish swims right up to me, it stops facing right at me and rests on the sand about a foot from my face. They're definitely one of the uglier fish out there. They're also at the top of the dislike list since they have a tendency to foul trolling lines as they slam bait as big as themselves.
Anyway, I sat there for about five minutes having a starring contest with a lizard fish when finally I looked around and decided there wasn't much to see or do down here with the 1 ft. viz and while I appreciated the interest this fish took in me I got that uncomfortable feeling of what else could be taking an interest in me that I cannot see.
After surfacing and back on the boat my buddy says, "Takes a lot of balls to roll into the ocean solo like that for your first dive." As he back rolls in. Meanwhile on the surface I was thinking that was probably pretty dumb. Nevertheless, I was pretty impressed as I watched him fill 16 nets with a few thousand pounds of live rock as the floats were cruising along the surface. I thought to myself, "Jeez, that's pretty damn impressive to do work like that in zero viz." And so that's where I started doing a lot of my practice dives. Zero viz ocean diving. Fun stuff.
*Probably best others don't do what I did. Dive with a buddy.
Random internet pic of a lizard fish for reference.