The Dock Of The Los Angeles Harbor Police Headquarters
Inside Los Angeles Harbor

WARNING: You are not normally allowed to dive in a harbor unless you obtain permission first.

It is a great way to get arrested and interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security.

Having the Police with you is also a good idea.

But, by not diving in a harbor, you are not missing anything at all.

Dove with Instructor John, his friend Jim and John’s Harbor Police Open Water students as part of my Dive Master training.

In With: 2000 psi
Out With: 1700 psi
Max depth: 15 feet
Waves: 0
Visibility: 0-2 feet, really shitty
Water Temperature: 60 degrees Fahrenheit, I think
Total Bottom Time: 12 minutes

I don’t know if I should consider this a dive, but under the circumstances (students, visibility) I obviously will.

The Police boat pulled back in to the dock and we dove off the pier – I did a giant stride off the end.

The woman followed, but lost her weight belt; I retrieved it.

Three students were in the water plus John, Jim and myself. John paired us up for a tour.

My “buddy” was the young officer that I brought in yesterday due to low air.

He asked if he could hold my arm as vis really sucked – about zero to two feet.

I said, “sure.”

We submerged and bumped around under the pier for several minutes.

I gave him the “OK” signal; he responded with the “having trouble clearing” signal; we surfaced.

I pointed to a ladder off the pier and suggested that we swim there and try submerging again, as slow as possible.

We swam over and he said, “I’m done.”

“OK, great!” I thought.

We swam over to the ladder that was not completely rusted and climbed up.

These two dives were the nastiest, most disgusting dives I’ve ever been on.

I tasted diesel fuel in my mouth for hours – I hope it was only diesel fuel!

Jim and his buddy dive off the smelly, stinky, crappy (literally) harbor.

The LA Harbor Police Dock.

I thought to myself, Police cars are more comfortable than Police boats.

Veteran’s Park, Redondo Beach, CA

Dove with Instructor John, his friend Jim and John’s Harbor Police Open Water students as part of my Dive Master training.

In With: 1800 psi
Out With: 1100 psi
Max depth: 20 feet
Waves: 4-6 feet
Visibility: 3-10 feet
Water Temperature: 65 degrees Fahrenheit
Total Bottom Time: 10-15 minutes

I really don’t know if I should count this as a dive, but obviously I am.

John gave the students the option to cancel this dive.

One of the Police students had a tooth problem and called it quits; John turned back another student.

When we were ready to continue from our meeting spot once submerged, John gave me one of his students to take in – he was running out of air – he was breathing hard and his backup second stage started free flowing upon entry.

The student kept floating up – probably because of apprehension.

We all made it back in with no problem.