March 27, 2013

Apologies to my three readers, for not getting wet, or posting anything for over a month.

The conditions have been sort of crappy, but I haven’t been doing well myself.

So, before I get to the dive, allow me to fill you in on what’s been happening with me for the last month or so.

Two years ago in May, the Evil and Wicked Bitch that was ruining my life left the country to torture the men in her homeland; I have been ecstatic over her absence and thought it would be easy to move on with my life.

Unfortunately, even going out to lunch with my old female friends who would throw me a mercy date every once in a while, has been impossible.

I’m not sure what the deal is; I thought women would be flocking to me once I became “single” again, but that’s just not the case, and being alone sometimes really sucks.

I’ve been corresponding with a 27 year old women who lives in Chowchilla, and we seem to have hit it off fairly well.

The problem is, if she gets paroled next year, she’s going to need a place to live; and the closer her parole date gets, the more she tells me that she is in love with me.

There is no way I’m ever going to let someone “temporarily” stay with me again.

So with this depression, I have had the bad habit of cutting out the diving and going straight to the debriefing.

I’ve been riding my bicycle to get some exercise, but I would usually ride to a local watering hole – burning 500 calories bike riding and consuming 1000 calories in beer, is no way to get back in shape.

As a matter of fact, in my pursuit for the perfect beer, I found myself in the background of the Spike TV Show Bar Rescue.

That’s me in the Dive N Surf T-Shirt and Albania hat – the blonde chick is obviously paid to be there; women tend not to come into the dank holes that I frequent.

Anyway, I’ve been tired of being tired, and now, it’s time for SCUBA diving to save my life once again, as it did ten years ago.

I’m gonna start diving Vets again and Terranea Resort on a much more regular basis, and take all the boat trips that I can afford.

It’s better, healthier and cheaper than sitting in a dive bar, and the people I meet diving tend to, for lack of better words, have their shit together.

So, onto my dive…

I arrived at Veterans Park around 5:30 PM, with plenty of sunlight still out.

Night dive, day dive, I needed to get wet.

I geared up, and made an extremely easy entrance into the water – the water was flat, and I never lost view of the ocean floor – visibility was that good.

All of a sudden, I felt some chest pains – like indigestion.

I was hoping it was either the chile I had for lunch, or maybe it’s just me getting used to humping gear after a month.

But the bright side was, I didn’t have a buddy to freak out if I went into cardiac arrest.

Logged SCUBA Dive #433

Solo Diving
Veterans Park, Redondo Beach, California, USA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 92 feet
Waves: Ankle biters, flat
Visibility: 10-20 feet
Water Temperature: 55 degrees
Air Temperature: 62 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 36 minutes

I submerged in 20 feet of water and made my way slowly to the edge of the canyon.

My auxiliary seconds stage started to free flow – it was dragging in the sand, so a few hard hits to remove the sand freed it up.

I slowly went West and deeper.

This is the first dive I’ve taken here since the “Beach re-nourishment” project that pumped tons of sand and trash from Marina Del Rey to Redondo Beach – it took a long time to get to 92 feet.

At 80 feet, there was a huge lobster, just walking along the sand in broad daylight – yep, he knows I can’t touch him.

He posed for photos and video as I cussed him out.

I turned around at 92 feet, and all of a sudden, the visibility went from good to zero – was I in the silt that I had kicked up coming here?

Something really big passed by the side and over me.

Fuck!

I grabbed my knife, stowed my camera, and prepared to fight off a shark… I continued to swim.

The sunlight was again blocked, I looked up, and it was a seal dive bombing me!

I put my knife back and resumed videoing.

The seal was playing around, and probably just as bored as I was.

The seal looked like someone sowed his head back onto his body.

Getting down to 1000 psi, I headed slowly back up the canyon and made an uneventful swim and safety stop back to a perfect exit.

I really didn’t know anyone in the parking lot – in times past, I knew everyone.

Dan from Divevets, eventually pulled up, and so did Mean Bob.

Dan with his lap dog, Chewy.

DiverJeff from San Pedro introduced himself.

We talked and debriefed with a few beers and cigars.

I’ve often been critical about how boring a dive Vets Park can be – but it’s better than rotting in a dive bar or sitting at home watching internet porn.

I need to get back into the swing of things; I’m going to try and dive twice a week and start an exercise plan, including a better diet.

Talk is cheap, so stay tuned for my progress.

February 3, 2013*

I haven’t dove in over a month, but bought a new BCD and boots; I was planning to do a test dive on Saturday at Veterans Park to test my new gear.

I saw a post on the Divevets Facebook Page that said they have a boat going to the oil rigs on Sunday morning, to be back in time for “Super Bowl Sunday.”

I never dove the oil rigs, and I must say, I could not pass this up.

The boat was the “Pacific Star” a.k.a. “The Pac Star.”

The boat was to leave at 7 AM sharp, so I left the Long Beach Ghetto at 6:18 AM.

I was driving South on the 710, ready to cross over the bridges to San Pedro when I ran across the “Detour Freeway” signs.

Don’t fucking tell me, you closed the bridge?

I passed the signs, only to make a turn off to the Queen Mary, a U-turn in Downtown Long Beach, to be brought to another detour that took me along some surface streets by Berth 55 to be put on the bridge.

Shit, I almost didn’t make it, but I did.

Okay, so it’s a Divevets boat, but had no idea who would be on it.

To my surprise it was Donna the Hot Biker Chick, Divevets Dan and seven other, mostly Wednesday, divers.

Six other people who made reservations stiffed the boat owner; they were no-shows.

The boat had ten divers, and for a boat that big, it was almost a private charter.

We were slightly delayed because the boat stopped to watch two whales boinking each other.

After passing a security check and getting permission from the Oil Rig, the transportation company and the Coast Guard, we approached the oil rig.

Having done all this, this assured us that we would not get strafed with 50 mm machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenades on approach.

Logged SCUBA Dive #430

Dove with Donna The Hot Biker Chick, Divevets’ Dan and Carl

Eureka Oil Rigs, California, USA

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 600 psi
Max depth: 121 feet
Waves: Pretty calm
Visibility: Eight to 10 feet, but cleared to 20 feet at 60 feet
Water Temperature: 54 degrees
Air Temperature: 74 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 24 minutes

This was a first in my diving history – this was the first dive on water so deep, that I couldn’t reach the bottom and expect to make it back alive; the ocean floor was said to be 731 feet below.

I borrowed someone’s light after being told that I needed one.

“Crap, it’s during the day, why do I need a light?” I asked.

“Trust me, it’s dark down there,” I was told.

The oil companies scrape the first 20 feet of their supports, but below that is an enormously deep artificial reef full of fish, white and strawberry anemones and scallops – tons of scallops.

After descending through a crap layer of about 40 feet, visibility cleared to 20 feet plus.

I stopped when I thought I had reached 80 feet… I looked at my gauge and confirmed that I was sort of close… only off by 41 feet, at 121 feet deep.

There wasn’t too much horizontal exploration as the vertical ascent through all the beams and supports made the dive interesting.

We slowly ascended to the surface underneath the rig, and just as planned, we waited for the Dive Master to give the OK for us to swim towards the boat where we would be thrown a line and towed away from the rig so we could safely board.

Our second dive awaited us after an hour surface interval.

*Post delayed because of the Super Bowl.