My old friend and original SCUBA diving instructor, Instructor Ed, called me a few days ago wanting to dive.

Ed in 2002.

He is now pretty much retired, but doesn’t want to sit around and let his arteries harden.

He brought a potential future student with him by the name of Jo.

Sunday is usually my dive at Terranea Resort, however, Ed wanted an easier dive just to practice and make sure he still knew how to dive.

We decided on Veterans Park in Redondo Beach.

When I first began to dive, Redondo Beach was part of my training – diving Veterans Park and then heavy debriefing at the pier.

There’s nothing like trying to relive the past – when I remember life as being better.

Instructor Ed and I get ready for our first dive together in many years.

I also needed to test my underwater housing that leaked a few weeks ago and ruined my camera.

I am now down to my reserve camera that I bought for a backup on dive trips.

I got a lot of compliments and comments on my custom wetsuit…

I have a rip in my wetsuit to allow pee to escape.

I don’t normally have people take pictures of my butt, but I just wanted to see how bad the rip really is.

At least my swim trunks sort of match my wet suit.

The waves were sort of annoying, but manageable; we were off.

I made it out, but Ed apparently dropped his snorkel upon entry.

I swam back into the surf zone in a futile attempt to find it.

Ed waved me on; I swam back out and waited for him.

Ed entered and immediately went under.

I waited, and waited… 10 minutes later I realized that the reason I learned to solo dive was because of Ed.

I didn’t see any bodies floating around and nobody was yelling for help, so I continued the dive on my own.

Logged SCUBA Dive #477

SoCal Buddy Diving With Instructor Ed; a.k.a. Solo Diving

Veterans Park, Redondo Beach, CA, USA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 1000 psi
Max depth: 100 feet
Waves: Some annoying waves, but good once out
Visibility: 15-18 feet
Water Temperature: 68 degrees
Air Temperature: 72 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 30 minutes

I swam West and down the canyon; I pressed the buttons on my camera housing – all was fine.

I got as deep as 100 feet and then turned around.

I had thoroughly washed and resealed my camera housing prior to this dive – it was obvious to me that my camera got flooded due to my lack of housing maintenance.

I made a perfect exit and once ashore I saw Instructor Ed.

He was not comfortable surface swimming without a snorkel, so he just went under and continued on his own.

I wish he would have told me first.

He also forgot Vaseline to oil down his mustache, so his mask was constantly leaking.

The waves started to pick up.

I saw a rouge wave toss an exiting class.

I saw a lot of people who I have gotten to know over the years, but haven’t seen in a while because I don’t dive here regularly.

Joe R. and his diving crew – Penni and Sam.

I offered Joe and his group a beer, but Sam is on the wagon, so they all declined in a token of solidarity.

Here is a shout out – Hi Joe, Penni and Sam!

I now officially have seven readers of this blog!

Now, it was on to debrief at Quality Seafood on the pier.

Quality Sea Food at the Redondo Beach Pier.

Local lobster is $33.90 a pound!

We debriefed with local crab, sea snails, mussels and oysters… oh, and beer.

We haven’t been here for a long time and things have certainly changed.

You now have to pay in advance to park, and the beer prices at Quality Seafood are now outrageous.

Back in the day, a large bottle of Pacifico went for $2.50; since the founder Pete retired, the price is now $10 a bottle.

Instructor Ed, Jo and me.

When we used to hang out there years ago, it was predominantly a Mexican crowd, complete with a mariachi band that would travel from table to table.

Now, it seems like a younger crowd of European and Asian descent.

Another perfect day of trying to relive the past!

For the last several weeks, huge waves have been battering the coast from two hurricanes in Mexico.

I had checked on conditions two weeks ago, and the dive at Terranea Resort was quickly cancelled.

The only diving around was at Veterans Park – so, I went home.

Today is another day, and the swell maps gave promise to some good diving.

Nice Bob and Mike had checked out the conditions and reported, “The Point is do-able as long as you time it right.”

As long as I time it right?

Dennis G. asked if I would join him for a dive at the cove.

I accepted.

Huge waves rearranged the rocky beach, pushing many rocks further up, and taking out the staircase.

I also heard that the path to the Point was washed out.

There is now a great sandy beach for entry and exit.

We made an easy entrance and swam out.

The new face of the Cove.

We swam to the rocky finger off of Pigeon Shit Cave and submerged.

Logged SCUBA Dive #473

Dove with Dennis G.

The Cove off of Terranea Resort

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 750 psi
Max depth: 42 feet
Waves: Pretty flat
Visibility: 10 to 15 feet
Water Temperature: 64 degrees
Air Temperature: 85 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 44 minutes

Visibility sort of sucked – like five feet initially, until we got to 120 reef where it opened up to 10 to 15 feet.

I looked at my camera and noticed a few drops of water inside may case.

Hmm, it is a little warm for condensation… fuck, my camera housing was flooding!

The camera was already wet, so turning back would have been useless.

We surfaced, I opened my camera case, emptied the water and resealed it; that didn’t help any.

We circled around 120 reef; Dennis broke open several sea urchins to feed the fish.

It’s nice to see the fish coming back – it was getting real barren a couple of years ago.

After 35 minutes, we started heading back.

The water was pretty warm except for a strange cold blast that hit us as we were coming in; it only lasted a few moments.

There was a group of people at the Cove cheering a swimmer that was approaching the beach.

“You can do it! Go! Go! You can do it!,” they were cheering.

A large boat followed; there was a kayaker beside the swimmer.

We came to find out that the guy had swam all the way from Catalina and had been swimming for the last 11 hours.

Well, if he started from Catalina and made it this far, I think he’s going to make it.

He crawled up on the beach and made it to the dry rocks.

And to top that off, he was 47 years old and fat – I have hope for myself now.

Thank you Chipper for the following photograph:

Today’s diving group – Randy is kneeling, from the left is Chipper, yours truly, Mike, Eric and Dennis G.

I dried my camera on the dashboard of my truck during debriefing.

A couple of people almost got into a fight over parking – I still prefer watching M.M.A. though.

At home, I washed my camera in 90% alcohol to wash the salt residue out before putting it in instant rice to leach all the moister out.

The battery and memory card is still good; if my camera works again, it will be a miracle.

This is the 3D camera that I have used to document my diving for the last three years – I’m sad to see the probable end to it.