The Divevet’s 4th Annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest
Veteran’s Park
Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving

In With: 2500 psi
Out With: 900 psi
Max depth: 70 feet
Waves: None!
Visibility: 15-25 feet
Water Temperature: Cool, in the 60’s
Total Bottom Time: About 40 minutes with a 25 minute shore break

I’ve been running around all morning long.

I’ve had problems with the Duster, had to buy memory for my new camera, in addition to beer and a pumpkin for the contest.

I arrived at 10:15 AM, 45 minutes early.

Nick was supposed to meet me, but didn’t show up until later, without air and his regulator – he was rushed too.

He helped me last night when I had car troubles.

I signed a Divevets waiver…

…and headed out to the water to do some carving.

The suggestion was made to me to put weight in the pumpkin so it would sink; I filled mine with a few handfuls of sand.

EASY OUT!

There were no waves!

I swam out and submerged to 20 feet and started carving.

I already knew what I was going to do, and my idea was sort of simple – I carved two eyes, a nose, mouth and ears.

I was back on shore within 15 minutes.

I went back to the table, turned my pumpkin sideways, stabbed it with a dive knife that I found a while back and decorated it with pumpkin guts.

I took my new underwater camera and decided to devirginize it.

Again, I made it out with no problems.

There was no surf zone as there was no surf.

I tried finding divers who were busy carving pumpkins, but didn’t see any by the time I made it to the shelf.

I went over the shelf and found the “monument” at 70 feet.

I tested my camera by taking various pictures of the site – and a spectacular looking site at that!

I tried my famous “hold my arm out and take a self portrait” snapshot.

I made it back up to the top of the shelf and slowly swam back to shore.

Almost in, I noticed some divers coming out, pumpkins in hand.

I had done really well on air and followed them to get some shots.

There were about four or five carvers and two others watching and taking pictures…

I took a few snap shots and went ashore – I was getting thirsty.

My brother Paul stopped by Veteran’s Park to see if I was there; I was, so he joined me and Nick for the festivities.

The beer and bratwursts flowed freely…

…as the pumpkins came ashore and collected on the contest table…

The judges chose the winners…

When it was all said and done, I won nothing!

Not first, second or third… not even the prize for the worst.

When I asked one of the judges why I didn’t get anything, she said, “your entry wasn’t scary enough.”

The party continued with the rest of the brats, beer and jello shots.

Another great day of Southern California diving and partying!

Annual Beach Clean Up
Veteran’s Park
Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving

In With: 2500 psi
Out With: 400 psi
Max depth: 70 feet
Waves: 1-3 foot swells
Visibility: 15 feet
Water Temperature: Mid 50’s F
Total Bottom Time: About 45 minutes

This is the annual Beach clean up, where a bunch of community service oriented goodie-goodies do their token bit to clean up beach trash for one morning a year.

I couldn’t resist the chance to dive under the pier, so I went.

Meeting Roland and Dan in the large parking area by Vet’s Park, I was told, “You don’t get a T-Shirt this year for signing in, so we’re just going to enter here and swim to the pier.”

That sounded like a good idea.

I geared up and was walking through the parking lot when my auxiliary second stage started free flowing.

I banged on it, but finally got it to stop when I washed the rig out with fresh water down by the showers.

About 400 psi had leaked out.

Only one diver bagged on me about my malfunctioning equipment.

I entered the water around 8:30 AM with no problems and started to swim towards the pier before going under for the trip.

I surfaced 40 yards South of the pier and noticed that my underwater watch was no longer working and that people were fishing off the pier.

Instead of waiting, I figured there was probably an abundance of trash around the pier and over the shelf.

I submerged and searched at 30 feet for garbage, but couldn’t find any.

I went South and down the shelf to about 60 to 70 feet and found the mother load – plastic bags, bottles, shoes, a pair of sunglasses, a plastic purse, a packet of Catsup, socks, a piece of canvas.

I was careful to make sure I didn’t pick up anything’s home.

Some of the trash I left behind because things were living in them – so I no longer considered the items trash.

I was having so much fun, actually diving Redondo with a purpose, that I started getting concerned about my air.

I headed up the shelf with 1000 psi and started towards shore slowly.

I surfaced with 400 psi in 10 feet of water and noticed that I was missing my snorkel.

Crap! Another piece of lost equipment!

The beach was covered with volunteers picking up even the minutest pieces of trash.

I walked ashore without incident and no fanfare.

While washing off at the showers, I looked down at my bag and saw a couple of small octopi trying to escape through my mess bag.

I was pissed at myself, because I thought that I had checked the trash pretty thoroughly.

I walked back to the shore and threw three baby octopi back in to the water.

I degeared and looked through the trash that I had picked up.

No wallets, no money, no treasure maps.

Dan and Roland soon followed.

I picked some fishing hooks out of Roland’s wetsuit and stabbed myself in the process.

Roland mentioned to me that Dan, “found two snorkels.”

I asked, “Was one blue?”

“Yes,” he responded.

Sure enough, Dan saved and returned my snorkel!

I took our bags of trash to “the trash pile” by the pier.

The ROK Marines performed maneuvers off Redondo today.

Mirek scored a fishing hoop net, Drysuit Greg a chair; other items included a walking cane and other oddities.

As I was emptying Dan’s bag, two octopi crawled out looking for water.

Shanon threw them back in the ocean.

At least I wasn’t the only one who was accidentally harvesting octopus.

The Divevets had a great barbecue afterwards.

A new member named Marty introduced himself to us.

Even though I tend to dive alone, I’m glad I don’t have to drink alone during the debriefing.

I later found out from Marty that due to the clean up effort, parking was free until noon.

I had been pumping quarters in the parking meter all morning long!