Sorry for lagging on the posts for the last few months.

The weather has been pretty stormy and the conditions have sort of sucked, so I have been out of the water.

I have other things going on, which I will make public at a later date, which has kept me from cage fight training; yes, I am getting fat.

I may need to diet so I can fit back into my wet-suit.

Anyway, I know six people heavily rely on this site to keep them informed on the latest SCUBA diving news, so on with the main story…

A Belgium entrepreneur has come up with the gimmick of all restaurant gimmicks – a restaurant that you SCUBA dive to.

It’s only 16 feet deep, so a macho person like me could just free dive to it, and it’s in the middle of a swimming pool, so there’s not much to see, but … why?

From the article:

Lowering themselves to the floor of the pool, an especially deep one built to train scuba divers, they swim to one end where their restaurant awaits, five meters (16 feet) below the surface.

“The Pearl” is a two-meter wide white sphere tethered close to the pool’s floor. The diners jettison their weighted belts before swimming underneath and up into the pod that looks like a cross between a lunar landing craft and a giant spaceman’s helmet.

Photo by: REUTERS/Yves Herman

Food is served by expert scuba divers who deliver foie gras, lobster salad and champagne in waterproof cases before leaving the diners peering out of the portholes, enjoying the strange tranquility of eating in an air pocket, completely submerged.

The entire article, with additional photos, can be found here:

Belgian entrepreneur invites you to scuba dive to dinner

I hope they take wet money!

November 18, 2016

Once everyone was back on board, Nice Bob decided to move to a better spot a few minutes down the coast.

The visibility looked good on the surface; I was the first one over board.

Logged SCUBA Dive #504

Solo Diving

SECRET LOCATION: 41 73 20 74 68 65 20 43 61 70 61 74 61 69 6e 20 74 6f 6c 64 20 75 73 20 6f 66 66 20 74 68 65 20 49 6e 64 69 63 61 74 6f 72 2e , Palos Verdes, CA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 2100 psi
Max depth: 41 feet
Waves: Surface was flat, some surge at the bottom
Visibility: 0-3 feet, very silty
Water Temperature: 62 degrees
Air Temperature: 66 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 12 minutes

Visibility was really good, until I got down to the ocean floor, where it turned to three feet at best.

I swam towards the shore, but I really couldn’t see.

I surfaced and yelled back to the people on the boat, “Hey, you know the vis is only three feet!”

Someone gave me the finger, so a submerged and went the other way, away from the shore.

It got worse – I mean three feet was the best visibility, sometimes I had zero feet.

After a few more minutes, I really didn’t think I was going to be so lucky as to just stumble upon a lobster already within grabbing distance.

I called the dive and surfaced.

Back at the boat, I told the Captain about the conditions.

He said, “I bet there will be three more lobsters before the night ends.”

I said, “There won’t be any lobsters coming back, unless someone is very lucky.”

Waiting for the other divers.

Divers made their way back in early.

Nice Bob was very lucky and stumbled on two lobsters with the crappy visibility.

Everyone else got skunked on this dive.

Debriefing started as divers came back.

Thanks to a donation by Nice Bob to someone who got skunked and was unable to make the second dive, everyone went home with at least one lobster.

Debriefing continued in the parking lot of Rocky Point.

A $100 boat trip and I only caught one lobster on my first dive.

However, local lobsters are going for $42 a pound at the fish market – so I don’t feel so bad.

I paid $100 for a $65 lobster, but had fun doing it.

Until next time, dive safe and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!