January 24, 2015

The swells had been pounding the coast, so nobody wanted to dive the breakwater, and there was little enthusiasm to dive anywhere else.

We had an hour and a half of off gassing to figure out where our second dive would be.

I had to take the neck seal on my dry suit off – my red face was scaring the Dive Master.

We decided on a place that was not as deep as the first dive, but nobody had any realistic hopes.

I put my dry suit back on, geared up and went over.

Suddenly, I started feeling wet.

Fuck, I was leaking!

I checked my zipper, all was good.

Hmmm… well, I needed lobsters, and a little water was not going to stop me.

I descended down the anchor line.

Logged SCUBA Dive #484

SoCal Buddy Diving/Solo Diving

Secret Location: 54 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 20 61 20 66 61 72 6d 20 6f 66 66 20 74 68 65 20 72 65 64 20 62 65 61 63 68 20 74 68 61 74 20 67 72 6f 77 73 20 6e 6f 74 68 69 6e 67 20 62 75 74 20 70 69 70 65 73 2e, Redondo Beach, CA, USA

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 800 psi
Max depth: 85 feet
Waves: Pretty flat
Visibility: 10 feet
Water Temperature: 57 degrees
Air Temperature: 69 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes, or so

As I felt the squeeze of my dry suit, I gave it some air – and it leaked right out of my neck seal.

OK, I must have not put my neck seal on right.

The water leaking into my dry suit soon relieved the squeeze.

I saw a few shorts and one legal one that was wedged into a crevice, out of reach.

Basically, there just was not an abundance of lobsters down there.

I came across the anchor line, and decided to head back up – very slowly this time; I was only 15 minutes into the dive, and I at least wanted to do 20 minutes.

I came up the the anchor slowly and made it back on board the boat.

My dry suit was completely flooded.

I pried open my left arm seal and about a gallon of water emptied onto the deck.

Kathy the Divemaster asked, “Oh, my! What happened?”

I said, “I forgot I was wearing a dry suit and accidentally peed in it.”

Well, nobody believed me, especially when I took the rest of my “dry” suit off and flooded the deck.

I think everyone got skunked on this dive.

However, once back at the dock, Mirek was nice enough to spread the wealth…

Thank you Mirek, for not letting me come back empty handed!

Maybe it was his communist upbringing in Poland, or the fact he was going immediately to another boat for morning dives on the oil rigs, but he did spread the lobster wealth around.

Thank you again, Mirek!

Super bowl Sunday, I am diving the oil rigs for scallops.

Unfortunately, I heard the pillars have been scraped down to 85 feet.

More to come, stay tuned!

January 24, 2015

Two weeks ago at this secret spot, the lobsters were so plentiful, divers were limiting on their first dive within ten minutes.

I grabbed a spot on the Island Diver for a scheduled Saturday night deep lobster dive.

Kathy M. was the Dive Master; Donna The Hot Biker Chick, Famous Polish Diver Mirek, Mean Bob, Roger and Chris G. were the other divers.

I was planning on doing one dive, limiting quickly during the brief bottom time and returning with my first limit of the year.

We made a quick dart out to the secret spot.

I was diving dry.

I was debating whether I should go dry or wet; I really didn’t want the distraction of a dry suit while lobster hunting.

However, my wet suit has such a large hole in the ass, and we were going deep, so dry it was.

Mirek was going to do one long technical dive, everyone else was sticking to recreational limits.

Mirek’s rebreather.

I was the first diver over board; I swam to the anchor and descended.

Logged SCUBA Dive #483

SoCal Buddy Diving/Solo Diving

Secret Location: 54 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 20 61 20 66 69 65 6c 64 20 6f 66 20 64 65 62 72 69 73 20 4e 6f 72 74 68 20 57 65 73 74 20 6f 66 20 61 20 61 20 77 6f 6d 61 6e 20 6e 61 6d 65 64 20 50 61 6c 61 77 61 6e 2e, Redondo Beach, CA, USA

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 112 feet
Waves: Pretty flat
Visibility: 10 feet
Water Temperature: 57 degrees
Air Temperature: 69 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes, or so

Visibility sucked; I couldn’t see further than ten feet, and it was silty.

There was some cool structure and a few bugs.

I grabbed a couple, but they were all short; I missed a few legal bugs.

At 110 feet, I didn’t have that much time before going into deco.

I had no idea where the anchor chain was, and didn’t want to get swept away by a potential current.

I slowly went to the surface without a safety stop.

I surfaced close to the boat and started to swim to the anchor chain.

“Where are you going?” the Captain yelled.

“I’m going back down for the safety stop I missed,” I said.

“Are you OK?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

I went back down the chain and hung out for a few minutes at 20 feet.

I made it back onto the boat.

I was sure someone was going to come back with their limit; I must have just went to the wrong spot.

As divers returned, their bags were empty.

Roger was lucky enough to catch one bug.

Donna and Chis just went to the wreck, Roger caught one, Mean Bob and I got skunked.

Now, we were waiting for Mirek, who was on a rebreather, in a dry suit and being propelled by an electric scooter.

We were certain Mirek was going to limit; we waited.

After an hour and twenty minutes, we spotted a lighted bag in the far distance – we assumed it was Mirek.

The boat pulled anchor and we picked him up.

Forget checking if Mirek is OK, the first thing we checked was his game bag – and he had five lobsters.

All the technical gear Mirek wore radiated machismo.

I said to Mirek, “You got five lobsters, and we only have one lobster between all the rest of us.”

“That’s because you guys suck at lobster hunting,” Mirek said.

The neck seal on my dry suit was making my face turn red – Kathy the DM asked if I was OK and offered to give me Oxygen.

I appreciated the offer, but it was not necessary.

We debated on our second dive.