Ship Rock, Catalina, CA

Boat Diving!

Diving off the “Bottom Scratcher.”

Dove with Nick

Okay, finally this is my fist boat dive!

We left Pier C in Long Beach around 6:45 AM.

We were all given a number to reconcile who was still underwater; I was lucky number 13.

We stopped at Ship Rock around 10:30 AM; that is NOT snow on those rocks.

I asked the Dive Master Sean what “the trick” was to Ship Rock.

He said, “Watch the current and you can go deep very quickly.”

Nick and I entered shortly thereafter.

We went down to the bottom just off the back end of the boat.

We touched bottom at about 80 feet; the anchor was at 110 feet.

I wrote to Nick on the clip board that I wanted to touch 100 feet.

He waited while I swam toward the bottom.

I touched 103 feet and swam back up to 80.

We made our way slowly up the embankment, observing and taking pictures.

Once on the surface, I signaled to the boat that we were okay.

“Bubba” the chase boat pulled us back to the boat.

I was cool, but the captain explained that he picked us up because of the women on board.

In with: 3000 psi
Out with: 600 psi
Maximum depth: 103 feet
Waves: Insignificant, 0 feet
Visibility: 50 feet
Water temperature: Cold at 103 feet, warm above 40 feet.
Total Bottom Time: About 30 minutes

Veteran’s Park
Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving

I got to Veteran’s Park around 9:30 AM.

Other divers were there.

This was going to purely be an exercise, deep water dive.

I used my tank — leaning up against it — to put my fins on.

I entered the water around 10 AM and did my typical — go down to 30 feet, head West over the shelf and down to 80 feet.

Once at 80 feet I went up to 50 feet — I just wanted to see if I could go up — we had problems with our night dive.

Visibility was pretty good at 15 feet.

I started heading (back) at 1500 psi.

I was up the shelf and very close to shore (I surfaced at 10 feet) with 900 psi.

I took my fins off in the water and walked ashore.

I was under water a little over 30 minutes.

In with: 2800 psi
Out with: 900 psi
Max depth: 82 depth
Waves: 2 feet
Visibility: Average 15+ feet and clear
Water Temperature: I guess about 55 degrees F