March 27, 2013

Apologies to my three readers, for not getting wet, or posting anything for over a month.

The conditions have been sort of crappy, but I haven’t been doing well myself.

So, before I get to the dive, allow me to fill you in on what’s been happening with me for the last month or so.

Two years ago in May, the Evil and Wicked Bitch that was ruining my life left the country to torture the men in her homeland; I have been ecstatic over her absence and thought it would be easy to move on with my life.

Unfortunately, even going out to lunch with my old female friends who would throw me a mercy date every once in a while, has been impossible.

I’m not sure what the deal is; I thought women would be flocking to me once I became “single” again, but that’s just not the case, and being alone sometimes really sucks.

I’ve been corresponding with a 27 year old women who lives in Chowchilla, and we seem to have hit it off fairly well.

The problem is, if she gets paroled next year, she’s going to need a place to live; and the closer her parole date gets, the more she tells me that she is in love with me.

There is no way I’m ever going to let someone “temporarily” stay with me again.

So with this depression, I have had the bad habit of cutting out the diving and going straight to the debriefing.

I’ve been riding my bicycle to get some exercise, but I would usually ride to a local watering hole – burning 500 calories bike riding and consuming 1000 calories in beer, is no way to get back in shape.

As a matter of fact, in my pursuit for the perfect beer, I found myself in the background of the Spike TV Show Bar Rescue.

That’s me in the Dive N Surf T-Shirt and Albania hat – the blonde chick is obviously paid to be there; women tend not to come into the dank holes that I frequent.

Anyway, I’ve been tired of being tired, and now, it’s time for SCUBA diving to save my life once again, as it did ten years ago.

I’m gonna start diving Vets again and Terranea Resort on a much more regular basis, and take all the boat trips that I can afford.

It’s better, healthier and cheaper than sitting in a dive bar, and the people I meet diving tend to, for lack of better words, have their shit together.

So, onto my dive…

I arrived at Veterans Park around 5:30 PM, with plenty of sunlight still out.

Night dive, day dive, I needed to get wet.

I geared up, and made an extremely easy entrance into the water – the water was flat, and I never lost view of the ocean floor – visibility was that good.

All of a sudden, I felt some chest pains – like indigestion.

I was hoping it was either the chile I had for lunch, or maybe it’s just me getting used to humping gear after a month.

But the bright side was, I didn’t have a buddy to freak out if I went into cardiac arrest.

Logged SCUBA Dive #433

Solo Diving
Veterans Park, Redondo Beach, California, USA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 92 feet
Waves: Ankle biters, flat
Visibility: 10-20 feet
Water Temperature: 55 degrees
Air Temperature: 62 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 36 minutes

I submerged in 20 feet of water and made my way slowly to the edge of the canyon.

My auxiliary seconds stage started to free flow – it was dragging in the sand, so a few hard hits to remove the sand freed it up.

I slowly went West and deeper.

This is the first dive I’ve taken here since the “Beach re-nourishment” project that pumped tons of sand and trash from Marina Del Rey to Redondo Beach – it took a long time to get to 92 feet.

At 80 feet, there was a huge lobster, just walking along the sand in broad daylight – yep, he knows I can’t touch him.

He posed for photos and video as I cussed him out.

I turned around at 92 feet, and all of a sudden, the visibility went from good to zero – was I in the silt that I had kicked up coming here?

Something really big passed by the side and over me.

Fuck!

I grabbed my knife, stowed my camera, and prepared to fight off a shark… I continued to swim.

The sunlight was again blocked, I looked up, and it was a seal dive bombing me!

I put my knife back and resumed videoing.

The seal was playing around, and probably just as bored as I was.

The seal looked like someone sowed his head back onto his body.

Getting down to 1000 psi, I headed slowly back up the canyon and made an uneventful swim and safety stop back to a perfect exit.

I really didn’t know anyone in the parking lot – in times past, I knew everyone.

Dan from Divevets, eventually pulled up, and so did Mean Bob.

Dan with his lap dog, Chewy.

DiverJeff from San Pedro introduced himself.

We talked and debriefed with a few beers and cigars.

I’ve often been critical about how boring a dive Vets Park can be – but it’s better than rotting in a dive bar or sitting at home watching internet porn.

I need to get back into the swing of things; I’m going to try and dive twice a week and start an exercise plan, including a better diet.

Talk is cheap, so stay tuned for my progress.

February 3, 2013*

We were eating a light snack of fruit, chips and dip during our surface interval when the question about the second dive was asked.

Where should we go next?

Stay here, or to another oil rig?

When most didn’t care either way, Dan made the comment that, “You guys vote like women.”

The captain suggested that we stay for a second dive since, “Conditions won’t be any better at the other rigs.”

So, we stayed.

Donna apparently found a more suitable, less macho, dive buddy, so I paired up with Dan.

Logged SCUBA Dive #431

Dove with Divevets’ Dan, “SoCal Buddy Style”

Eureka Oil Rig, California, USA

In With: 2250 psi
Out With: 600 psi
Max depth: 52 feet
Waves: Pretty calm
Visibility: Eight to 10 feet, but cleared to 20 feet at depth
Water Temperature: 54 degrees
Air Temperature: 74 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 26 minutes

We descended.

This was my second dive with my new BCD… I grabbed what I thought was a purge value and ended up pulling my weight pouch out.

Luckily it was empty, as I still use a weight belt.

By the time I got down, Dan was gone… well, same ocean, same day, so oh well, we’ll do it “SoCal buddy style.”

There’s a floor of beams around the 60 foot mark.

I spent most of my time at this depth, cruising around the horizontal beams, trying to take some good pictures as my camera was warning that the battery was very low.

If I wasn’t so macho, swimming around underneath all those dark beams may have spooked me out.

I slowly surfaced just as Dan did.

We started the dive and ended the dive together, so that’s good enough in my book.

Some divers brought back some big scallops.

I was also fortunate enough to meet Carl, a friend of one of the hottest celebrity divers in the world – Paris Hilton.

He apparently has even been to her house; meeting him was better than previously meeting someone who did catering for Paris.

Maybe one day I will actually get to meet Paris Hilton, or better yet, even dive with her.

On the way back, it was recommended that I dive in Estonia this year; I am planning to go to Poland and got into a friendly argument when someone told me, “You know Poland is land locked?”

Uhm, no it isn’t.

Now for the tragic part…

With ten divers, how much beer did you think the boat had?

If your guess was one can of Tecate, you would be correct.

Luckily, I brought a few Bud Lights and Donna had a few Tecate bottles, so debriefing was light, but that was probably a good idea on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Pacific Star has a big deck – well, with ten divers it seemed pretty big…

And even though their tasty breakfast burrito sat like a rock in my stomach, and they only had one beer in stock for ten thirsty divers, the Captain and crew are very competent, I will be glad to go on another dive trip on the “Pac Star.”

*Posting of this has been delayed because of the Super Bowl.