February 1, 2015*

We slowly motored from the Eureka to the Elli and Ellen oil rigs; we all needed at least an hour to off gas from the previous dive.

Elli and Ellen are connected by a bridge.

No, I don’t know which one is Elli and which one is Ellen, but we only dove one of them.

I freed up some space on the memory card in my GoPro.

Before the dive, I noticed the camera had taken 123 pictures all by itself.

Later, I discovered that I have 123 identical pictures of the below…

WTF is this, a condom?

I was the second one over board; I swam underneath the rig and submerged.

Logged SCUBA Dive #486

SoCal Buddy Diving/Solo Diving

Elli and Ellen Oil Rigs, California, USA

In With: 3200 psi
Out With: 800 psi
Max depth: 110 feet
Waves: Some vertical chop
Visibility: 20-30 feet
Water Temperature: 58 degrees
Air Temperature: 72 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes, or so

I turned my camera back on and it just started taking pictures.

I ended up with almost 400 pictures, and they were all upside down!

Luckily, my graphics abilities are good enough to where I can rotate pictures 180 degrees.

I headed down to about 100 feet and collected two more scallops; fish followed me around, like I was going to feed them.

It was an interesting and colorful dive.

I love Sheephead – they are beautiful fish and very tasty, but I stopped shooting them a long time ago.

Why did I stop shooting Sheephead?

Because there is no sport in it!

You could literally swim up to a Sheephead, measure it, swim back and shoot it.

Shooting a Sheephead is like shooting your own dog.

Everyone made it back to the boat with no issues… well, someone lost an $80 lens to the sea gods, but nobody was injured.

I was asked, “How were your dives.”

I responded, “Excellent, but my ass was cold.”

(See the previous post, if you are not aware of the condition of my wetsuit.)

Me with my bag of scallops and the King of Beers.

Some of us enjoyed the crisp and refreshing taste of Budweiser on the way home; Dan broke out a bottle of Jameson.

As Donna The Hot Biker Chick told me several years ago on a rafting trip, “No more Jameson for you!”

Another great day of diving followed by probably the best Super Bowl that I have ever seen.

*Post delayed due to the Super Bowl.

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.