February 1, 2015*

Once again, it’s time for my yearly Super Bowl Dive on the Oil Rigs – the boat leaves at 7 AM and returns a little after noon, so you can catch the game.

It was an extremely light boat, with only 11 divers on board; participants included Mike C. and his hot Polish girlfriend Kasia, Donna The Hot Biker Chick, Dan of Divevets and Carl.

I had two goals to accomplish – collect 10 scallops to bring to a Super Bowl Party and dial in on my new GoPro camera.

The guy I bought my GoPro from had lost the English instructions, so I still need to figure out how to work the camera.

I asked a few GoPro users for advice, but they are used to the newer ones.

Dan asked me, “Where did you find the very first GoPro to ever be made?”

EBay, or course!

There is a labor dispute at the docks, so lines of ships anchor outside the harbor.

The rip in my wetsuit has gotten so terrifying, I was scared that I might get arrested for indecent exposure.

I need to come up with some money to buy a new wetsuit and some boots that fit; I have to shove socks in the heels so my fins won’t slip off.

I was the second diver over.

I swam to underneath the oil rig and turned my camera on.

The LED display said “FUL.”

I came to find out later that “FUL” means the card is full – so, no pictures from this dive.

I decided to just concentrate on getting scallops.

I submerged.

Logged SCUBA Dive #485

SoCal Buddy Diving/Solo Diving

Eureka Oil Rig, California, USA

In With: 2750 psi
Out With: 700 psi
Max depth: 124 feet
Waves: Some vertical chop
Visibility: 20-30 feet
Water Temperature: 58 degrees
Air Temperature: 72 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes, or so

The Oil Rigs are sort of tricky to dive – Eureka is in 600 feet of water, so there is no bottom as a reference point.

You need to be very careful of how deep you go, because it is very easy to get very deep, very quick.

Also on this dive, there was a strange vertical swell – if you got too close above or below a beam, you could get thrown into it.

They had scraped the columns recently, so all the scallops were below 85 feet.

I quickly collected eight scallops to the delight of the surrounding fish.

Visibility was pretty good; I slowly made may way to the surface and made an uneventful journey back to the boat.

Our next dive was at the Elli and Ellen Oil Rigs… stay tuned!

*Post delayed due to the Super Bowl.

January 24, 2015

The swells had been pounding the coast, so nobody wanted to dive the breakwater, and there was little enthusiasm to dive anywhere else.

We had an hour and a half of off gassing to figure out where our second dive would be.

I had to take the neck seal on my dry suit off – my red face was scaring the Dive Master.

We decided on a place that was not as deep as the first dive, but nobody had any realistic hopes.

I put my dry suit back on, geared up and went over.

Suddenly, I started feeling wet.

Fuck, I was leaking!

I checked my zipper, all was good.

Hmmm… well, I needed lobsters, and a little water was not going to stop me.

I descended down the anchor line.

Logged SCUBA Dive #484

SoCal Buddy Diving/Solo Diving

Secret Location: 54 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 20 61 20 66 61 72 6d 20 6f 66 66 20 74 68 65 20 72 65 64 20 62 65 61 63 68 20 74 68 61 74 20 67 72 6f 77 73 20 6e 6f 74 68 69 6e 67 20 62 75 74 20 70 69 70 65 73 2e, Redondo Beach, CA, USA

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 800 psi
Max depth: 85 feet
Waves: Pretty flat
Visibility: 10 feet
Water Temperature: 57 degrees
Air Temperature: 69 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes, or so

As I felt the squeeze of my dry suit, I gave it some air – and it leaked right out of my neck seal.

OK, I must have not put my neck seal on right.

The water leaking into my dry suit soon relieved the squeeze.

I saw a few shorts and one legal one that was wedged into a crevice, out of reach.

Basically, there just was not an abundance of lobsters down there.

I came across the anchor line, and decided to head back up – very slowly this time; I was only 15 minutes into the dive, and I at least wanted to do 20 minutes.

I came up the the anchor slowly and made it back on board the boat.

My dry suit was completely flooded.

I pried open my left arm seal and about a gallon of water emptied onto the deck.

Kathy the Divemaster asked, “Oh, my! What happened?”

I said, “I forgot I was wearing a dry suit and accidentally peed in it.”

Well, nobody believed me, especially when I took the rest of my “dry” suit off and flooded the deck.

I think everyone got skunked on this dive.

However, once back at the dock, Mirek was nice enough to spread the wealth…

Thank you Mirek, for not letting me come back empty handed!

Maybe it was his communist upbringing in Poland, or the fact he was going immediately to another boat for morning dives on the oil rigs, but he did spread the lobster wealth around.

Thank you again, Mirek!

Super bowl Sunday, I am diving the oil rigs for scallops.

Unfortunately, I heard the pillars have been scraped down to 85 feet.

More to come, stay tuned!