Secret Location: 4f 66 66 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 53 70 61 6e 69 73 68 20 52 6f 75 6e 64 20 42 65 61 63 68 2c 20 31 30 20 6d 69 6e 75 74 65 73 20 6f 75 74 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 62 72 65 61 6b 20 77 61 74 65 72 20 6c 69 65 73 20 61 20 66 61 72 6d 20 6f 66 20 70 69 70 65 73 2e

Night Diving, Solo Diving – So Cal Buddy Diving with the Divevets off of the Island Diver boat

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 400 psi
Max depth: 90 feet plus, maybe even more
Waves: Pretty damn flat
Visibility: 20 feet plus
Water Temperature: Cool
Total Bottom Time: 30 minutes
Notable Event: Came close to running out of air, skipped safety stop, not good
Lobsters caught: 3

This boat was billed as the “last chance for lobster before Thanksgiving.”

I think the lobsters might be going deeper now, so I bought my ticket early.

Six divers, two DMs, Captain Dick and a Captain in training left around 7:30 PM to try our first deep lobster dive of the season.

I was one of the first ones off the boat.

There was a current going towards the North, but the ocean was pretty flat.

I made it down the anchor line to 85 feet.

There was another diver that was following me for a while with a huge, brightly lighted video rig.

I swam against the current and spotted a few bugs, all too small.

Then I came across a nice one, pinned it and bagged it!

I caught my second one shortly thereafter.

I was at 90 feet and feeling pretty damn good; I was narced but composed.

I usually feel OK after some time passes and this was the case on this dive, but I always felt sort of dingy.

I then came across a pretty large lobster and pinned it.

It’s tail started to flip in a vain attempt to flee, but I had a firm grip on it.

I picked it up and fumbled with my bag.

The damn thing was trying to hold my bag closed as I was trying to open it!

The struggle ensued for a few minutes, but I successfully put the critter into the “lobster liberation bag.”

I looked at my gauge, I was at 90 feet with 700 psi of air left… and looking at my watch – I had run out of bottom time!

Fuck!

I headed for the surface.

I kicked and kicked and kicked….

My depth gauge still read “90 feet.”

Did I have that much lobster weighing me down?

I banged on my gauge a few times and the needle fell to 60 feet.

Up and up… crap, I don’t know what it was, but I spent an awful long time getting to the surface.

My air was rapidly running out.

I broke surface maybe three minutes after starting; I had skipped the safety stop, which I don’t like to do.

The boat was down current, but over some, about 80 yards away.

I started the surface swim.

The boat crew spotted me and shinned the brightest light at me – brighter than a Police searchlight.

For a minute I wasn’t sure if I was heading to the boat or was in the process of dieing.

All I saw was a bright light… go towards the light…

I was the first back.

I only remeasured one; the rest were way legal.

Jimmy The Bagman brought up a huge lobster and compares it with a legal one.

Jimmy dumped the lobster back in the water to spawn more tasty bugs.

Divers unload their lobster bags… Whoa! Man! I’m seeing trails, maybe I’m still narced?