{"id":2896,"date":"2013-11-18T19:43:40","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T02:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2896"},"modified":"2013-11-18T19:43:40","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T02:43:40","slug":"excellent-conditions-on-the-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2896","title":{"rendered":"Excellent Conditions On The Decline"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 17, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

My sister is in town from Reno and I have some birthday celebrations to attend in Palos Verdes, so there’s nothing like a morning dive to combat the upcoming stress.<\/p>\n

I arrived at 8:20 AM to find everyone almost geared up.<\/p>\n

Apparently, Reverend Al trusted the Pacific Wilderness<\/a> guys who had already checked out the conditions and went straight to gearing up<\/p>\n

“They say it looks great,” Al said.<\/p>\n

I hurried and geared up.<\/p>\n

Reverend Al, Eric and myself walked to The Point, where it was really high tide with some rollers coming in.<\/p>\n

I dawned my fins and waited for a roller to come in so I could ride it out.<\/p>\n

I was sitting on a rock, snorkel in my mouth, when a roller swooshed in – I leaped off into the receding water, to land on my stomach, grounded on a boulder.<\/p>\n

I looked up to see an even bigger wave coming at me.<\/p>\n

“Oh, shit!”<\/p>\n

It picked me up, slammed me against another rock and rolled me around until I could ride the water out.<\/p>\n

“You picked the worst time to get in the water,” Eric said.<\/p>\n

We swam over the pinnacle and dropped. <\/p>\n

Logged SCUBA Dive #457<\/p>\n

Dove With Reverend Al and Eric<\/p>\n

Terranea Resort, Off The Point
\nRancho Palos Verdes, CA, USA<\/p>\n

In With: 3000 psi
\nOut With: 600 psi
\nMax depth: 64 feet
\nWaves: Surface chop, some rollers
\nVisibility: 15 feet at best
\nWater Temperature: 61 degrees
\nAir Temperature: 72 degrees
\nTotal Bottom Time: 59 minutes or so<\/p>\n

\"Conditions<\/p>\n

Visibility has declined since last week, so I’ll keep the underwater photos to a minimum. <\/p>\n

We spotted a few lobsters under the rocks – this is now a marine preserve, and I think a lot of the lobsters have moved here seeking sanctuary.<\/p>\n

\"Layered<\/p>\n

Along certain reefs, there’s an interesting “layered” structure to them.<\/p>\n

We also noticed a lot of fish, including male Sheephead, that had disappeared before the fishing ban.<\/p>\n

I was diving with an Aluminum 80, Reverend Al had a steal 100 – he handed me his auxiliary regulator when I was down to 600 psi, and I continued my dive, holding onto his BCD and breathing off his tank.<\/p>\n

We surfaced just outside the cove; Al had 450 psi left.<\/p>\n

I think a big problem is that I need some maintenance on my gear – Eric noticed I had leaks coming out of my first stage and another leak out of my console – I have to take it in for service.<\/p>\n

There were some rollers in the cove – by far, it wasn’t the scariest exit that I’ve ever made, but it was not as easy as I was hoping. <\/p>\n

\"Group
\nSunday’s Group.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Non-diver
\nMy sister Kate and her friend Tina joined the debriefing.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Me
\nA group shot with my siblings – Me, Professional Debriefer Paul and Non-Diver Kate.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ever wonder why your car doesn’t get shit on by pigeons when you’re at Terranea Resort?<\/p>\n

It’s because the Falcon Man chases then away…<\/p>\n

\"The
\nThe Falcon Guy.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The
\n…and his falcons.<\/em><\/p>\n

Debriefing continued until 1 PM, with diving stories and a Pacific Wilderness rant against my Luxfer Aluminum tanks from the 1980s.<\/p>\n

“Those things could explode and hurt or kill someone,” I was warned.<\/p>\n

Tank replacement is on my list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 17, 2013 My sister is in town from Reno and I have some birthday celebrations to attend in Palos Verdes, so there’s nothing like a morning dive to combat the upcoming stress. I arrived at 8:20 AM to find everyone almost geared up. Apparently, Reverend Al trusted the Pacific Wilderness guys who had already […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2896"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2908,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896\/revisions\/2908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}