{"id":3323,"date":"2014-10-12T23:47:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T06:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=3323"},"modified":"2014-10-13T06:58:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-13T13:58:35","slug":"sunday-diving-with-instructor-ed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=3323","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Diving With Instructor Ed"},"content":{"rendered":"

My old friend and original SCUBA diving instructor, Instructor Ed, called me a few days ago wanting to dive.<\/p>\n

\"Ed
\nEd in 2002.<\/em><\/p>\n

He is now pretty much retired, but doesn’t want to sit around and let his arteries harden.<\/p>\n

He brought a potential future student with him by the name of Jo. <\/p>\n

Sunday is usually my dive at Terranea Resort, however, Ed wanted an easier dive just to practice and make sure he still knew how to dive.<\/p>\n

We decided on Veterans Park in Redondo Beach.<\/p>\n

When I first began to dive, Redondo Beach was part of my training – diving Veterans Park and then heavy debriefing at the pier.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing like trying to relive the past – when I remember life as being better.<\/p>\n

\"Me
\nInstructor Ed and I get ready for our first dive together in many years.<\/em><\/p>\n

I also needed to test my underwater housing that leaked a few weeks ago and ruined my camera.<\/p>\n

I am now down to my reserve camera that I bought for a backup on dive trips.<\/p>\n

I got a lot of compliments and comments on my custom wetsuit…<\/p>\n

\"The
\nI have a rip in my wetsuit to allow pee to escape.<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t normally have people take pictures of my butt, but I just wanted to see how bad the rip really is.<\/p>\n

At least my swim trunks sort of match my wet suit.<\/p>\n

The waves were sort of annoying, but manageable; we were off.<\/p>\n

I made it out, but Ed apparently dropped his snorkel upon entry.<\/p>\n

I swam back into the surf zone in a futile attempt to find it.<\/p>\n

Ed waved me on; I swam back out and waited for him.<\/p>\n

Ed entered and immediately went under.<\/p>\n

I waited, and waited… 10 minutes later I realized that the reason I learned to solo dive was because of Ed.<\/p>\n

I didn’t see any bodies floating around and nobody was yelling for help, so I continued the dive on my own.<\/p>\n

Logged SCUBA Dive #477<\/p>\n

SoCal Buddy Diving With Instructor Ed; a.k.a. Solo Diving<\/p>\n

Veterans Park, Redondo Beach, CA, USA<\/p>\n

In With: 3000 psi
\nOut With: 1000 psi
\nMax depth: 100 feet
\nWaves: Some annoying waves, but good once out
\nVisibility: 15-18 feet
\nWater Temperature: 68 degrees
\nAir Temperature: 72 degrees
\nTotal Bottom Time: 30 minutes<\/p>\n

I swam West and down the canyon; I pressed the buttons on my camera housing – all was fine.<\/p>\n

I got as deep as 100 feet and then turned around.<\/p>\n

I had thoroughly washed and resealed my camera housing prior to this dive – it was obvious to me that my camera got flooded due to my lack of housing maintenance.<\/p>\n

I made a perfect exit and once ashore I saw Instructor Ed.<\/p>\n

He was not comfortable surface swimming without a snorkel, so he just went under and continued on his own.<\/p>\n

I wish he would have told me first.<\/p>\n

He also forgot Vaseline to oil down his mustache, so his mask was constantly leaking. <\/p>\n

The waves started to pick up.<\/p>\n

\"Waves
\nI saw a rouge wave toss an exiting class.<\/em><\/p>\n

I saw a lot of people who I have gotten to know over the years, but haven’t seen in a while because I don’t dive here regularly.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
\nJoe R. and his diving crew – Penni and Sam.<\/em><\/p>\n

I offered Joe and his group a beer, but Sam is on the wagon, so they all declined in a token of solidarity.<\/p>\n

Here is a shout out – Hi Joe, Penni and Sam!<\/p>\n

I now officially have seven readers of this blog!<\/p>\n

Now, it was on to debrief at Quality Seafood on the pier.<\/p>\n

\"Quality
\nQuality Sea Food at the Redondo Beach Pier.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Local
\nLocal lobster is $33.90 a pound!<\/em><\/p>\n

We debriefed with local crab, sea snails, mussels and oysters… oh, and beer.<\/p>\n

We haven’t been here for a long time and things have certainly changed.<\/p>\n

You now have to pay in advance to park, and the beer prices at Quality Seafood are now outrageous.<\/p>\n

Back in the day, a large bottle of Pacifico went for $2.50; since the founder Pete retired, the price is now $10 a bottle.<\/p>\n

\"Group
\nInstructor Ed, Jo and me.<\/em><\/p>\n

When we used to hang out there years ago, it was predominantly a Mexican crowd, complete with a mariachi band that would travel from table to table.<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

Now, it seems like a younger crowd of European and Asian descent. <\/p>\n

Another perfect day of trying to relive the past!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My old friend and original SCUBA diving instructor, Instructor Ed, called me a few days ago wanting to dive. Ed in 2002. He is now pretty much retired, but doesn’t want to sit around and let his arteries harden. He brought a potential future student with him by the name of Jo. Sunday is usually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,9,3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3323"}],"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=3323"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3340,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3323\/revisions\/3340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}