Veteran’s Park, Redondo Beach, CA

Dove with Instructor John and his students Jack and General Custer* as part of my Dive Master Class.

In With: 3100 psi
Out With: 2000 psi
Max depth: 50 feet
Waves: 1-3 feet, ankle breakers
Visibility: 5-8 feet
Water Temperature: 58 degrees Fahrenheit – I think
Total Bottom Time: 31 minutes
*Student names have been changed.

The same student that stiffed us last Catalina trip also stiffed us again on this day; at least we didn’t have to do a skin dive.

We entered the water with no problem, swam out and submerged.

Jack took a while getting down.

The majority of the dive was Jack and General Custer demonstrating their basic skills – regulator ditch and recovery, mask clearing, weight belt replacement, emergency swimming ascent, etc.

John then took us to the edge of the shelf and down to 50 feet.

General Custer signaled to me that he was at 1000 psi; I motioned to John and we headed in.

We made it ashore with no problems.

Jack had fun washing around in the surf zone.

My Momentum dive watch sprung a leak; it is now flooded and not working.

Wreck Diving The Ruby E
Off the Lois Anne Boat
San Diego, CA

Dove with fellow DM student Ron T; Instructor John followed.

In With: 3700 psi (Overfill!)
Out With: 2000 psi
Max depth: 70 feet
Waves: Insignificant
Visibility: 20 feet
Water Temperature: 51 degrees Fahrenheit
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes

The Ruby E is a sunken Coast Guard Cutter.

Vis on this dive was a little better than on the Yukon; but, maybe it just looked that way because we could see practically the whole ship – the Yukon is just too big.

I again was the first one off the boat; we followed the mooring line down to the ship.

There was some kind of purple coral of the wreck – later identified as Strawberry Anemones.

Ron and I swam through the wheelhouse…

There are sharp points along the deck where the railing used to be.

It was cold; I was getting an “ice cream” headache.

John went in to the hull.

Ron motioned to me that we should go up.

Ron was diving very conservatively; he may have been narced, but I didn’t think so.

However a 20-minute dive at 70 feet after an hour surface interval seems pretty short to me.

We did our safety stop and surfaced with no problem.

A lot of the other divers were doing decompression diving.

John said, “they put a lot of faith on theory.”

A lot of the other divers were knuckleheads.

I think a lot of it was the typical new diver syndrome – new equipment and big egos.

As part of our Dive Master class, we talked extensively to the hot Dive Master, Anita.

She said she gets frustrated with the divers who don’t listen or don’t respond.

The DM Anita, The Captain and John in the foreground.

I said to Anita, “So if I stop breathing, you would give me mouth to mouth resuscitation?”

The Captain interrupted, “I know CPR, too.”

There was a fishing boat that kept following us; Anita had to “shoe them away.”

After a short and beerless trip back to the harbor, John and I packed up and went to lunch with his nephew Michael Paul and his friend who are training to become Navy Seals.

With gas prices over $3 a gallon, there were not many people on the road.

At 4:30 AM, we made it to San Diego in an hour and a half – the same amount of time it took us to come back at 3 PM.