Veteran’s Park, Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 900 psi
Max depth: 80 feet
Waves: One foot, no big deal
Visibility: 15 feet, over the shelf 0-5 feet
Water Temperature: Cold
Total Bottom Time: 40 minutes

I wanted a nice and relaxing deep dive.

Students were all over the place, as usual.

The water was 15 feet and crystal clear, until I got over the shelf.

There’s a bunch of bricks at 70 feet arranged in a circle with an empty SCUBA tank in the middle.

Someone had strung a line from here, so I followed it.

Vis really started to suck, so I turned back at 80 feet.

Crabs, sand dollars were all around, but still, OK, it is still a pretty barren environment, but at least the vis was good above the shelf.

It was so calm, I swam all the way to shore and had to turn back in three feet of water to take my fins off!

When I got back to the parking lot, there was an event by the local Divevets group.

It was a toy drive and “decorate the underwater Christmas tree” dive.

Dennis and Al were present, so were Sean and Julia from Pacific Wilderness.

Casino Point, Catalina, CA

Dove with Instructor John and his two advanced students.

In With: 3100 psi
Out With: 900 psi
Max depth: 95 feet
Waves: 1 to 2 feet, insignificant
Visibility: 25 feet
Water Temperature: Cool, cold at depth
Total Bottom Time: 50 minutes

This was our after lunch deep dive.

The beginning students were excluded from this dive.

We swam to the edge of the park, to the right of the stair case and submerged to 95 feet.

We followed John to the Sujac.

John started digging around in the crevices at the bottom of the boat – for what, I don’t know.

The advanced students were suppose to take a compass heading before submerging and bring us back to the stairs.

We followed them until it was apparent they had missed the stairs.

John checked everyone’s air, then lead us to the barge.

John went through the opening in the barge, the students followed and then me.

The student ahead of me got caught on kelp or couldn’t find the exit; I backed up.

I found out later he had to cut himself free.

We ended up covering the entire park – the Sujac to the barge.

We exited with no problems.