There were thunder storms earlier Friday; it seemed that might have driven people away from “Opening Night” as there were not that many people on the water.

I write “Opening Night” because technically, it’s Opening Morning.

There was no moon – which is good.

We took Instructor John’s mighty 14 foot Zodiac – loaded with himself, Jim, Crazy Ivan, me, eight tanks and our gear – to one of our secret lobster locations.

There wasn’t much room.

The boat rode low in the water and riding over the swells made the non-macho sea sick.

We jumped in the water at midnight.

I had a nightmare earlier in the week that I had gotten skunked on opening night; I was about to find out if that dream was a premonition.

Logged SCUBA Dive #390

Southern California Buddy Diving/Solo Diving

Secret Location: 4e 65 61 72 20 74 68 65 20 67 61 74 65 73 20 6f 66 20 4d 61 72 2c 20 74 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 20 61 20 68 6f 75 73 65 20 77 69 74 68 20 66 6f 75 72 20 6f 72 20 6d 6f 72 65 20 63 68 69 6d 6e 65 79 73 2e, Palos Verdes, CA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 800 psi
Max depth: 35 feet
Waves: 3 – 5 foot chop
Visibility: 15 feet plus
Water Temperature: 67 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 48 minutes

The boat was anchored in 30 feet of water; I submerged to check the anchor line – SCORE!

My first bug, with no problems!

I swam shallower, but the visibility started to suck at 15 feet, I turned around, went over a reef and saw more lobsters a few feet apart.

I pinned the bigger one, measured it, bagged it and looked over…

“Holy shit! That other bug is still there,” I thought.

I moved in and missed a secure grip, it wiggled out of my hand and hit me in the face while fleeing.

I surfaced to get a return heading, submerged, and came across my next two fairly easy.

Yeah, there were a lot of short lobsters, but I didn’t even bother going after bugs that “look like they might be legal size.”

I made a short return trip to the boat, swimming under the thick kelp.

I need to start cage fighting again, as I am so out of shape, I had a hard time climbing back in to the boat.

Jim caught three, two were monsters.

And so the season starts – my first four bugs for the 2011 season.

Instructor John limited (7) on this dive and Crazy Ivan caught one.

We moved to a different location for our second dive.

Trying to keep a personal promise of diving at least once a week while psycho bitch packs her stuff – at least I’m waiting for her to start packing – I made it down to the beautiful Terranea Resort for a Sunday Services dive.

Small turnout for such a great day – it was just me, Reverend Al and Nice Bob; a few other divers were there, but we didn’t know them.

Logged SCUBA Dive #375

Off The Point At Terranea Resort
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Dove with Reverend Al and Nice Bob

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 400 psi
Max depth: 60 feet
Waves: Pretty mellow with a few surprises
Visibility: 10-15 feet
Water Temperature: 55 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 50 minutes

My reserve second stage free flowed; I was sure it just needed to get wet, so I kept the air off until I entered the water.

The tide was low, so we entered in a different spot than usual.

The spot had a big rock that kept us sheltered from the big waves – fins on, wait for a wave, and ride it out.

The thought of making an entrance at The Point usually scares the shit out of me, because I have seen divers get hurt here – some divers call The Point “wounded knee.”

It worked great and none of us had issues getting out.

Nice Bob turned my air on and my regulator didn’t leak.

Nice Bob was going to lead the way, Reverend Al and I would follow.

Since all three of us were experienced divers here, it was decided that if we separated, it would be “every man for himself” – meaning, there would be no attempt to find one another.

We looked for lobsters – not even seeing any under the rocks.

I sort of followed blindly, hoping Bob knew where he was going.

Visibility was sort of silty; on a great day like this I would have expected better.

Lots of fish and the colorful reefs always make this an enjoyable dive…

A lingcod pets a starfish.

A starfish practices yoga.

I forgot what these are called, but they look cool.

I dive with a smaller tank than the other two, plus I’m an air hog, so I surfaced about 50 minutes into the dive with 400 psi left in my tank; Reverend Al and Nice Bob continued on.

I made a surface swim of about 100 yards to the rocky cove.

I took my fins off too soon, but was patient enough to get pushed ashore to a perfect exit.

However, I tripped over my game bag and I fell in full gear on the rocky beach; luckily, my shin cushioned the landing by getting smashed against a rock.

It really didn’t hurt – probably because my years of training to become a cage fighter has rendered me immune to pain – but when I got to the parking lot, I noticed it was sort of swelling up.

That is my shin, not my knee cap.

Small scale debriefing took place with the King Of Beers and the Rev’s beverage assortment, all flavored with home grown lemon.

Later on, my shin really started to swell up; I’ll try ice and DMSO to bring it down.