Isthmus Reef, Catalina, CA

Night time/Lobster Hunting

Dove with Nick

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 700 psi
Max depth: 70 feet
Waves: 0
Visibility: 15-20 feet
Water Temperature: Cool
Total Bottom Time: 50 minutes

Opening Night Of Lobster Season!

Nick flew in from Cleveland and barely made the boat.

This was the opening night of Lobster season.

Nick and I signed up in August for this trip and was suppose to be limited to the number of “available bunks” since this was an over night boat.

I got the last bunk after fighting over a bunk.

Nick had to sleep in the galley; the Dive Masters Sean and Julia didn’t seem to care that the boat was apparently over sold – not that they could have done anything about it.

We waited for several hours until midnight.

I waited for Nick; we were not the first off the boat, as I had hoped.

I got my hands on a few lobsters, but they had wiggled free.

Nick was out of shape and we were swimming against a current.

Nick at one point waited on the surface for me.

When I surfaced, he was gone.

Apparently, Nick made it back to the boat after he lost a fin in the kelp – which was found and returned by another diver.

Nick was frustrated and apparently pissed at me because I “wasn’t paying attention” to my buddy.

I forgot to explain that I’m a shitty dive buddy when it comes to lobster hunting.

Safety Worker For The Cabrillo Museum’s Annual Chocolate Lobster Dive

Cabrillo Beach, San Pedro, CA

Steve and Laurie from American Diving, Instructor John and many of the traditional event crew all participated as support staff for this event.

I worked as a safety diver for the “Chocolate Lobster Dive.”

It was a charity event to benefit the Cabrillo Marine Museum.

Early in the morning, John and I took a bag each of numbered cement lobster tails out in kayaks and seeded the lagoon.

Each tail was worth a prize or raffle ticket.

About 150 divers participated.

Pacific Wilderness handled the contest border; American Diving (our group) handled the Kayaks.

Once the contest started, the divers entered the water with their game bags and searched for these cement lobster tails in what was probably 1-2 foot visibility.

The waves breaking on shore made the event even more challenging for all involved.

One of the Dive Masters stopped a buddy team from entering the water tied to each other!

There was a group of bubbles that we watched go way out of the boundary and back.

Two women surfaced near my kayak; they were obviously exhausted.

I offered them a tow; they declined at first until I told them that that was my job.

I really wish another kayak was near my area.

I started towing the both of them, and they were REALLY heavy with drag.

Soon, a lifeguard jet ski came over the assist, towed them the rest of the way to waiting shore support — I bet they never counted on that much attention!

Steve was yelling over at me, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying over the surf.

I paddled over and was pushed by the waves onshore.

Steve said, “We have a lost buddy who answers to the nickname of ‘Sarge.'”

Steve followed with a description and also told the fact that his buddy didn’t know his real name.

I put on a great show trying to get back out through the surf in the kayak.

I must have wiped out almost a dozen times and later found out that a Daily Breeze photographer was taking pictures of my attempts.

At one point I got dumped, stood up and the kayak, riding a shore swell knocked my feet right out from underneath me.

I looked really hard the next day, and thankfully there were no pictures of me!

Steve begged me, “Please make sure we don’t have to rescue one of our safety divers.”

I eventually made it back out to deliver the message to the rest of the crew about the missing diver.

‘Sarge’ was later found already on shore.

At the end of the event, John and I wiped out again coming in on the kayaks.

I hit my head, but thankfully not too hard.

All in all, a hard, but successful, event!

Our group performed four rescues and countless assists.