80-85% of all new divers quit diving shortly after their Open Water Certification (according to dive shops I frequent), and the number one complaint is, that they can’t find a diving buddy.

Nine years ago today, May 8, 2004, Dan, Roland, Terry A. and others were debriefing in the Veterans Park parking lot and came up with the idea of forming a free local diving organization that would take any diver, regardless of experience, and keep them diving – thus continually making them better divers.

Thus, The Divevets were born.

Over the last nine years, many divers have come and gone – some have moved, some have died, some got pissed off and left.

To this day, their motto still holds true – “You might get hurt, but we won’t let you drown.”

I was to bring the ghetto grill and Budweiser, the King of Beers; others were to bring meat or some kind of side dish or beverage.

I found out today, not only that Sea D Sea Dive Shop will not fill my tanks, but that they are also closing July 1, 2013.

Wow, another era in diving is coming to an end.

As far as my tank being refused a fill?

Dive N Surf sent one old Aluminum tank out for a hydro test; it passed the electro-static test and then blew up under the hydro test.

Now, pretty much all the local dive shops won’t fill any Aluminum tank that was made before 1989, when they changed the metal formulation – with Sea D Sea recently jumping on the band wagon.

So, one tank – out of the millions that were made – blows up, and now all of them are bad?!

I arrived around 6:30 PM, after buying a discount light at Sea D Sea.

The wind was blowing, the sea was choppy, but there weren’t very many big waves.

Some called the dive, some just showed up to debrief.

A diver emerged and gave a good dive report – 10 feet in the shallows, opening to 20 feet at depth.

I decided diving was the best thing to do, instead of immediate debriefing.

Chipper, Me and George geared up for another macho dive.

Carl and Chris from Detroit joined us.

The sun was setting; we all had lights.

Logged SCUBA Dive #435

Dove with Chipper, George, Chris from Detroit and Carl
Veterans Park, Redondo Beach, California, USA

In With: 2500 psi
Out With: 600 psi
Max depth: 60 feet
Waves: Manageable chop
Visibility: 10-20 feet
Water Temperature: 52 degrees
Air Temperature: 63 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 30 minutes or so

We all made it out, and descended in 25 feet of water, as we were tired of fighting the chop.

I believe Carl lead the dive – we went to the new “Monument” which is a collection of stacked cinder blocks.

I did not bring my camera, but trust me, I didn’t miss anything.

We saw crabs, small octopi, sardines, baby electric rays and lots of sand.

We all stayed together, and stopped in 20 feet of water for several minutes.

I thought, “Is this some test to see who floats to the surface first?”

With my tank getting buoyant, I had a hard time staying down at that depth; I found out later that that was our safety stop.

Chipper later said to the leader, “You know, you can still move on a safety stop?”

It was dark when we surfaced; we all made an easy exit – well, of course, we are all macho.

Making it back to my truck, I found that its bed had been converted into a barbecue and buffet table.

Many people joined in the debriefing activities – beverages of their choice, hamburgers, hotdogs, macaroni and potato salad; I ate quite well.

George was brave enough to admit that he reads this blog – I now officially have four readers!

The debriefing and celebration started to wind down around 9:30 PM.

Nobody wanted the last two hotdogs.

Someone said, “I don’t like black weenies.”

Happy anniversary Divevets!

I’m not sure why the stealth bomber is in the logo.

This is a great day; I won’t have to listen and watch the stupid election crap after today.

This election is so stupid, there is a ballot measure to make porn actors wear condoms in LA County; how the fuck did such a itiotic proposition even get on the ballot?

To clear my mind, I took the mighty zodiac out with Instructor John and Crazy Ivan to a new secret dive spot.

“Where should we go?” Instructor John asked.

I stayed silent.

“Take us to the monster bugs,” Crazy Ivan answered.

Based probably on nothing more than instinct, Instructor John anchored off a place in Palos Verdes that we’ve not dove before.

Logged SCUBA Dive #427

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

Secret Location: 43 6f 6d 69 6e 67 20 66 72 6f 6d 20 74 68 65 20 4b 69 6e 67 20 6f 66 20 48 61 72 62 6f 72 73 20 74 6f 77 61 72 64 73 20 74 68 65 20 44 6f 6d 69 6e 61 74 6f 72 20 70 6f 69 6e 74 2c 20 77 68 65 72 65 20 74 68 65 20 6c 69 6e 65 20 6f 66 20 50 61 6c 6d 73 20 62 65 67 69 6e 73 2e, Palos Verdes, CA

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 400 psi
Max depth: 40 feet
Waves: Pretty damn smooth
Visibility: Up to 15 feet and clear
Water Temperature: 62 degrees
Air Temperature: 68 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 35 minutes

We anchored in 40 feet of water.

I checked the anchor line – no bugs.

For some reason I didn’t care if I got skunked; the reef structure was incredibly interesting – I want to go back during the day for photos.

Around 35 feet, I spotted a short.

I waved my light on him, back and forth; he will hopefully grow to legal size and not be afraid of the light.

Just a short distance away, I pinned my first one with no problems; he was a quarter inch over legal.

Now, realizing that I wouldn’t get skunked, short of an escape, I relaxed even more.

Passing some short bugs, I came across two pretty good sized bugs and went to pin the biggest one.

I turned the light slightly away to not spook the lobster.

Bam! All I grabbed was a rock and then felt an impact on my groin area.

To add insult to injury, the lobster decided to tail me in the nuts while fleeing.

Shortly thereafter I missed another pin of a good sized bug; what the hell is wrong with me?

I should have three lobsters by now, but only have one.

I must have gone parallel to the shore, I was still in 35 feet of water when wedged under a reef was a monster – the damn thing looked scary.

I put my light down, and by the twilight from the beam, lunged both hands under the reef and pinned him.

It was like grabbing a football, except with a very strong flapping tail; I think I’m going to work out with those shake weight things to train for bug encounters like this one.

So, how am I gonna get this monster in the bag?

Using my white belt Jiu Jitsu skills, I pinned him against my chest while giving him several punches to the head to hopefully stun him.

I shook the bag so the other lobster would be at the bottom, opened it and tried to put the monster in, but it was holding onto my BCD.

No fucking way was this thing going to get free!

After a struggle of five more minutes, the monster bug gave up and crawled into my bag.

Having lost track of air consumption and the boat, I surfaced to take a break and get my bearings.

That zodiac is so small, even when you do spot it, it looks like it is a mile away.

I took a compass heading and went for the return swim; I had 800 psi of air left.

After surfacing and a short, but frustrating, bitch crawl over kelp, I made it back to the mighty zodiac.

Me with my bugs – notice the strain on my face trying to hold that big one up.

Crazy Ivan brought up two.

Instructor John had two monsters, four altogether.

For some reason, everyone had a great time!

We found out that someone in our lobster diving group has a growth that needs to be surgically removed.

The guy said, “If I can’t dive afterwards, it will have to wait until after lobster season.”

Now that is Macho!