Veterans Park
Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 1000 psi
Max depth: 60 feet
Waves: Some large sets of swells up to five feet.
Visibility: 10 feet or so at best
Water Temperature: 55 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 35 minutes or so

Well this was a really stupid dive!

I arrived and geared up around 5 PM; Mirek was coming back from diving and didn’t say anything to me about the sucky conditions.

The rest of the Divevets were slowly showing up.

I asked Shanon, “What does it look like?”

“It looks like the ocean,” she said.

I geared up and started walking towards the stairs; out of the corner of my eye, this skinny homeless looking guy was approaching me.

I looked over and it’s one of my coworkers!

Yes, I have a “real” job to keep from being homeless.

My coworker’s mouth dropped open and he said, “I always thought of you as a cubicle jockey, fat, beer swirling non-macho kind of a guy.

“I never would have imagined that you went SCUBA diving.”

I swore him to secrecy and continued down to the beach.

The swells were fairly large; I would have canceled any classes – if I was an instructor and if I was teaching.

I made it through the surf zone, swam out and submerged in 20 feet of water.

Mirek had reported seeing two lobsters at the end of the line that went North; I followed the line to some sort of anchor.

Some crabs were sleeping…

…others were ready to attack…

Continuing West, it suddenly became really dark; I looked up and was under a huge school of mackerel.

I continued on, but noticed that it wasn’t getting any lighter.

I then realized that the sun was probably close to setting and I did not bring a light!

I went South along the bottom of the shelf at 60 feet trying to find the “Monument,” but couldn’t.

I went back up the shelf; it was getting darker…

Crap, I should have brought my light!

I swam along the bottom slowly making my way back and surfaced in 15 feet of water in pretty large swells.

I took my time getting ashore, breathing off my regulator as I let the swells push me back to the sand.

I couldn’t figure out if it was just dark because of the evening sunset, or if the visibility really sucked.

Mirek told me, “The vis is only 5 feet in the canyon.”

Well, as I said, I should have brought a light.

I gave Dennis G. a report that the conditions were OK; I didn’t realize that vis sucked that bad.

We did our traditional debriefing in the parking lot.

Some new divers showed up and introduced themselves.