{"id":2531,"date":"2013-03-28T18:01:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T01:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2531"},"modified":"2013-03-29T13:16:42","modified_gmt":"2013-03-29T20:16:42","slug":"mental-health-dive-at-vets-park-and-personal-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2531","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health Dive At Vets Park and Personal Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 27, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apologies to my three readers, for not getting wet, or posting anything for over a month.<\/p>\n

The conditions have been sort of crappy, but I haven’t been doing well myself.<\/p>\n

So, before I get to the dive, allow me to fill you in on what’s been happening with me for the last month or so.<\/p>\n

Two years ago in May, the Evil and Wicked Bitch that was ruining my life left the country to torture the men in her homeland; I have been ecstatic over her absence and thought it would be easy to move on with my life.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, even going out to lunch with my old female friends who would throw me a mercy date every once in a while, has been impossible.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure what the deal is; I thought women would be flocking to me once I became “single” again, but that’s just not the case, and being alone sometimes really sucks.<\/p>\n

I’ve been corresponding with a 27 year old women who lives in Chowchilla, and we seem to have hit it off fairly well.<\/p>\n

The problem is, if she gets paroled next year, she’s going to need a place to live; and the closer her parole date gets, the more she tells me that she is in love with me.<\/p>\n

There is no way I’m ever going to let someone “temporarily” stay with me again.<\/p>\n

So with this depression, I have had the bad habit of cutting out the diving and going straight to the debriefing.<\/p>\n

Bike riding to stay in shape.<\/p>\n

I’ve been riding my bicycle to get some exercise, but I would usually ride to a local watering hole – burning 500 calories bike riding and consuming 1000 calories in beer, is no way to get back in shape.<\/p>\n

As a matter of fact, in my pursuit for the perfect beer, I found myself in the background of the Spike TV Show Bar Rescue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bar Rescue Season 3, episode 7<\/p>\n

That’s me in the Dive N Surf T-Shirt and Albania hat – the blonde chick is obviously paid to be there; women tend not to come into the dank holes that I frequent.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I’ve been tired of being tired, and now, it’s time for SCUBA diving to save my life once again, as it did ten years ago.<\/p>\n

I’m gonna start diving Vets again and Terranea Resort on a much more regular basis, and take all the boat trips that I can afford.<\/p>\n

It’s better, healthier and cheaper than sitting in a dive bar, and the people I meet diving tend to, for lack of better words, have their shit together.<\/p>\n

So, onto my dive…<\/p>\n

I arrived at Veterans Park around 5:30 PM, with plenty of sunlight still out.<\/p>\n

Night dive, day dive, I needed to get wet.<\/p>\n

I geared up, and made an extremely easy entrance into the water – the water was flat, and I never lost view of the ocean floor – visibility was that good.<\/p>\n

All of a sudden, I felt some chest pains – like indigestion.<\/p>\n

I was hoping it was either the chile I had for lunch, or maybe it’s just me getting used to humping gear after a month.<\/p>\n

But the bright side was, I didn’t have a buddy to freak out if I went into cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n

Logged SCUBA Dive #433<\/p>\n

Solo Diving
\nVeterans Park, Redondo Beach, California, USA<\/p>\n

In With: 3000 psi
\nOut With: 500 psi
\nMax depth: 92 feet
\nWaves: Ankle biters, flat
\nVisibility: 10-20 feet
\nWater Temperature: 55 degrees
\nAir Temperature: 62 degrees
\nTotal Bottom Time: 36 minutes<\/p>\n

I submerged in 20 feet of water and made my way slowly to the edge of the canyon.<\/p>\n

My auxiliary seconds stage started to free flow – it was dragging in the sand, so a few hard hits to remove the sand freed it up.<\/p>\n

I slowly went West and deeper.<\/p>\n

This is the first dive I’ve taken here since the “Beach re-nourishment” project that pumped tons of sand and trash from Marina Del Rey to Redondo Beach – it took a long time to get to 92 feet.<\/p>\n

At 80 feet, there was a huge lobster, just walking along the sand in broad daylight – yep, he knows I can’t touch him.<\/p>\n

Lobster poses for pictures
\nHe posed for photos and video as I cussed him out.<\/p>\n

I turned around at 92 feet, and all of a sudden, the visibility went from good to zero – was I in the silt that I had kicked up coming here?<\/p>\n

Something really big passed by the side and over me.<\/p>\n

Fuck!<\/p>\n

I grabbed my knife, stowed my camera, and prepared to fight off a shark… I continued to swim.<\/p>\n

The sunlight was again blocked, I looked up, and it was a seal dive bombing me!<\/p>\n

I put my knife back and resumed videoing.<\/p>\n

The seal was playing around, and probably just as bored as I was.<\/p>\n

Dive bombing seal
\nThe seal looked like someone sowed his head back onto his body.<\/p>\n

Getting down to 1000 psi, I headed slowly back up the canyon and made an uneventful swim and safety stop back to a perfect exit.<\/p>\n

Sunset at Vets Park<\/p>\n