{"id":1484,"date":"2008-12-13T23:50:02","date_gmt":"2008-12-14T06:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2008-12-14T21:01:33","modified_gmt":"2008-12-15T04:01:33","slug":"underwater-christmas-tree-decorating-and-toy-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=1484","title":{"rendered":"Underwater Christmas Tree Decorating and Toy Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Logged SCUBA Dive #324<\/p>\n

Veteran’s Park, Redondo Beach, CA<\/p>\n

Dove With TwinDuct<\/p>\n

In With: 2900 psi
\nOut With: 1500 psi
\nMax depth: 40 feet
\nWaves: Small swells, easy entry and exit
\nVisibility: Five to eight feet, very silty
\nTemperature: Cool (Maybe 55 degrees)
\nTotal Bottom Time: About 25 minutes<\/p>\n

At 6 AM, Terry A. and Tony from Dive N Surf dragged a donated Christmas tree through the surf and anchored it 20 feet below the surface in 40 feet of water.<\/p>\n

Our mission, if we chose to accept it, was to decorate it with biodegradable decorations and photograph Santa Claus with the other divers.<\/p>\n

A toy drive and barbecue was to follow; Dive N Surf was in charge of the diving, Divevets was in charge of the debriefing.<\/p>\n

I was on the Divevets’ commitee along with Hollywood and Montana.<\/p>\n

I arrived early to help set up…<\/p>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

I drilled holes in the fruit…<\/p>\n

\"Dan,<\/p>\n

… while Dan, Montana and a few others strung the fruit on hemp twine.<\/p>\n

\"There's<\/p>\n

There’s nothing like celebrating the over abundance of food in America than by using perfectly edible fruit as Christmas decorations!<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Tony gives the dive briefing.<\/p>\n

“Vis isn’t that great, so swim to the buoy and drop down on the tree, otherwise you’ll never find it…” Tony said.<\/p>\n

Other standard dive event procedures were reviewed.<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

Dan suits up to play the all important role of Santa Claus.<\/p>\n

It started to rain a bit.<\/p>\n

I carried about 15 pounds of fruit through the surf and made an easy entrance alongside Dan.<\/p>\n

\"Santa<\/p>\n

Santa waves to the camera.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The divers met at the marker buoy and descended; I was amazed that even though my 15 pounds of fruit floated, I had no problem sinking.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A close up of the underwater Santa Claus; how he keeps water out of his mask with that beard on is a mystery to me.<\/p>\n

\"Santa<\/p>\n

Santa poses with the tree.<\/p>\n

I took the fruit decorations out of my game bag and realized that the “string of fruit” was now a “tangled ball of fruit.”<\/p>\n

I managed my best to untangle it and hang the blob of fruit on the tree.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The official Dive N Surf cameraman takes pictures of the other divers as they pose with Santa.<\/p>\n

\"Underwater<\/p>\n

I have to say, vis sort of really sucked.<\/p>\n

\"Underwater<\/p>\n

Most of my pictures with the other divers didn’t turn out as I was too far away; I had to allow the “real” photographer to do his job.<\/p>\n

I descended to 40 feet and hung out around the tree; TwinDuct sort of went off on his own midway through the dive, as did most of the other divers.<\/p>\n

Santa and crew headed in after about 20 minutes underwater; I swam back underwater where I consumed about 800 psi of air.<\/p>\n

\"Just<\/p>\n

Just another day in Los Angeles… Santa Claus emerges from the ocean.<\/p>\n

\"Party<\/p>\n

Let the debriefing begin!<\/p>\n

The Dog Police almost arrested Cyber The Attack Dog for a leash violation.<\/p>\n

\"Dive<\/p>\n

Dive Bum Don had to pay an instant cash fine to the Dog Police to keep Cyber out of jail.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The wind bloweth..<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

…the wind bloweth away.<\/p>\n

Someone told a senior member of Divevets that, “We should get to the raffle first because a lot of people want to leave due to the wind and rain.”<\/p>\n

“Screw them, they can leave,” was the reply.<\/p>\n

A little wind and rain and the party whimps want to leave!<\/p>\n

\"Montana<\/p>\n

Montana organized some games… the egg toss, a three legged treasure hunt and a relay race; she did a spectacular job organizing this part of the event!<\/p>\n

The only thing that sucked about the egg toss was that I had to put my beer down to play… my brother and I lost after the defective egg that I was given broke in my hands.<\/p>\n

\"Montana<\/p>\n

Montana raffles away valuable prizes… a gym membership, SCUBA gear, a debriefing chair, a makeup kit, CDs and the grand prize – a six pack of Budweiser, donated by yours truly!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

We had a few more participants and chicks at our event than Divematrix had at theirs.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The valuable collection of toys awaits the Fire Department pickup.<\/p>\n

\"Al<\/p>\n

Al Qaeda birds launched a deadly poop attack on our event!<\/p>\n

They pooped on us, because they hate our freedom.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Fire Department stopped by around noon to pick up the donated toys; my offer of a few beers to the Firemen was politely turned down.<\/p>\n

Some women fainted at the sight of real firemen.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

It took several minutes to load the thousands of dollars worth of toys into the fire truck.<\/p>\n

The party started to wind down after the Firemen drove off; I left around 1 PM or so and headed for Christmas party number two…<\/p>\n

\"Cage<\/p>\n

My cage fighting friends were having their annual Christmas party.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The last time I was around this many drinking and dangerous people was 20 years ago at Walker’s cafe, when two rival biker gangs were about to fight over an order of french fries.<\/p>\n

The guy to the far left is training for the Senior Citizens’ division of the UFC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Logged SCUBA Dive #324 Veteran’s Park, Redondo Beach, CA Dove With TwinDuct In With: 2900 psi Out With: 1500 psi Max depth: 40 feet Waves: Small swells, easy entry and exit Visibility: Five to eight feet, very silty Temperature: Cool (Maybe 55 degrees) Total Bottom Time: About 25 minutes At 6 AM, Terry A. and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9,3,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}