{"id":4990,"date":"2019-06-29T10:48:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-29T17:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=4990"},"modified":"2019-09-24T05:29:29","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T12:29:29","slug":"im-back-in-the-water-refresher-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=4990","title":{"rendered":"I’m Back In The Water – Refresher Course"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After spending over a year liquidating my father’s estate and dealing with some bad business decisions, I said, “Fuck it.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m going back to my old life of diving, that I have missed, but never intended to leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you just have to call your losses and go on with your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, if I ever find that Prince from Nigeria in person, he’s a dead man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I miss not only the diving, but the people and the scene; I never realized how much the people you hang around with influence how you feel and your mental state of mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is probably why I don’t have many friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, regardless, I’ll get to more later about the missing section of my life later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as this blog, I will warn you in advance, that I had a spam attack that was not caught through my spam filter, which worked quite well until they wanted money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have 10,000 spam comments to manually delete; that will take me some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The server itself was also attacked by some Turkish hackers who managed to take over another website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to update WordPress to the latest and greatest, so there may be technical difficulties with the comments and counters or anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put it in technical jargon, shit on this site might be jacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, I HATE the new WordPress interface – it’s geared for retards that don’t know any HTML.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I finally decided to get back in the water, but I have not dove in over a year, so you are suppose to give yourself a “refresher course” to make sure that you can still dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember when I first started diving and how heavy all the equipment was and how difficult the walk to the water was during beach dives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I showed up at Veteran’s Park in Redondo Beach around 7 am to give myself a refresher course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Veterans
The waves were manageable, if you timed it right.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bought a new underwater camera, since I can’t find my old one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made the mistake of not bringing any new batteries, so I was not able to take pictures under water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photos here are taken by my cell phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always thought it was dumb to have a camera in a phone, but not anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least I was not distracted by having a camera underwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dive N Surf was teaching a rescue class.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I ran in to Airborne, who was helping to teach a rescue course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said, “If you need help, just act like you have a cramp in your prostate, and one of the students will rescue you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I geared up and made an easy entry off the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logged SCUBA Dive #509<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solo Diving<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 1200 psi
Max depth: 80 feet
Waves: Surgy at the shoreline, but managable
Visibility: 15-20 feet depending on where you were.
Water Temperature: 62 degrees at depth
Air Temperature: 74 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 28 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I descended to the ocean floor at 20 feet and headed West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being underwater was a feeling I have missed for over a year, but I had to make sure I was still able to dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I slowly made my way to the shelf and went down at an easy pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My regulator had been serviced, I still fit into my wetsuit, I was not scared or anxious… it was just like I never left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went down to 80 feet, observing the crabs, sparse plant life and garbage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After heading back up the shelf to 40 feet, I decided to take my weight belt off and replace it, take my mask off, put it back on and clear and ditch and recover my regulator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took my weight belt off and held it in my hand – my ass started to float up and I thought, “Maybe this was not a good idea?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using my cage fighting skills, I balled up and threw my weight belt over my back, and tightened it, upside down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took my mask off… air bubbled up my nose, couldn’t see… I sort of know what water boarding must be like, maybe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I put my mask back on, and cleared it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulator ditch and recovery went without issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I slowly made my way back to shore and an easy exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"SCUBA
My wheels have changed since my father died.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
One of the problems that I had getting back in the water, is that my car key can no longer get wet – a waterproof case solved that.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Back
Back to debriefing.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Fuck, I really wish I was younger, I would have done a second dive.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Donna the Hot Biker Chick.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Donna the Hot Biker Chick showed up to help teach her new boyfriend, Steve, how to dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had no idea she had been single again, but I never even got a call for an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next weekend, I must sign off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m planning to dive either Laguna Beach or Terranea next weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After spending over a year liquidating my father’s estate and dealing with some bad business decisions, I said, “Fuck it.” I’m going back to my old life of diving, that I have missed, but never intended to leave. Sometimes you just have to call your losses and go on with your life. But, if I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,19,23,9,3,6,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4990"}],"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=4990"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5011,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4990\/revisions\/5011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}