In With: 3000 psi The first thing that John said to me was, “I think you’re going to help me teach my last class ever.”<\/p>\n I sensed his utter frustration with this batch of students.<\/p>\n John gives his usual Vet’s park dive briefing.<\/p>\n Gomez and his wife Morticia were the students that couldn’t make it to Catalina last trip because they hadn’t demonstrated their pool basics.<\/p>\n There was a short older woman that John had to tow through the surf zone during the skin dive – I’ll call her Suzuki.<\/p>\n Then there was a short young guy that got winded and “quit” the skin dive — that is until he was told he must complete the skin dive before he got to SCUBA dive.<\/p>\n One of the Officers from the Harbor Patrol was there to make his last dive before graduating.<\/p>\n Jodi, an attractive female ex-student was there for more experience and “just for fun.”<\/p>\n Pancho, who didn’t rent any gear, but borrowed everything from a friend…<\/p>\n …and a few other students…<\/p>\n On the skin dive, I went out first to keep the group together and not have them float back in to the surf zone. <\/p>\n Jim worked the surf zone while John sent the students out.<\/p>\n A young girl – high school age – made it out first followed by a few of the “non-problemed” students.<\/p>\n We floated for 45 minutes as the rest of the students slowly swam out.<\/p>\n I had to manually inflate one of the student’s BC jacket.<\/p>\n Jim and I helped with the two free dives.<\/p>\n Gomez complained that his weight belt was slipping off. <\/p>\n I told him how to tighten it, but he couldn’t do it; I had to tighten it for him.<\/p>\n I think this initial skin dive must have taken two hours total.<\/p>\n We all made it back to shore and dawned our SCUBA gear.<\/p>\n Four students set up their gear wrong and some of the rental equipment didn’t work.<\/p>\n John decided to break the class in to two groups and contunue in Catalina – Oh man! <\/p>\n Catalina is going to be a long day!<\/p>\n The first group was the “strong students and ex-student Jodi. <\/p>\n The cop and Jodi made it through the surf zone. <\/p>\n Pancho made it out, but when I fixed his snorkel I noticed that his tank was falling off. <\/p>\n I believe three students total made it through the surf zone for this dive.<\/p>\n Again I kept the group together; Jim worked the surf zone while John sent them out before swimming through the surf himself.<\/p>\n I called John’s attention to Pancho’s slipping tank; Pancho’s BC jacket is borrowed from a friend who rethreaded the strap buckle. <\/p>\n There was no way his tank was going to be held more securely – I would have to keep pushing it up.<\/p>\n Jim and I finally submerged…and waited…and waited. <\/p>\n About four minutes later the first student came down, followed by the second.<\/p>\n I went up a few times to see what the hold up was.<\/p>\n Pancho couldn’t submerge, so John gave me the responsibility to bring Gustavo back through the surf and in.<\/p>\n Pancho and I swam back to the surf zone. <\/p>\n I instructed Pancho to get on his back – oops! – I meant stomach!<\/p>\n Pancho’s tank came lose and fell off as we were coming through the surf zone. <\/p>\n I grabbed his tank and we managed ashore.<\/p>\n I went back down to the shoreline to help the rest in, but they came in further South and I missed their exit. <\/p>\n One of the students was a little freaked out because he came ashore alone and almost panicked.<\/p>\n By the time the second dive came around, it was almost one o’clock in the afternoon; I told John that I couldn’t stay. <\/p>\n He wanted me to send in the students while he waited outside the surf zone.<\/p>\n I sent Gomez out first. <\/p>\n I yelled, “Kick! Kick! Kick!” as he got thrown around in the surf zone; He made it out.<\/p>\n The short, young guy made it out.<\/p>\n Morticia made it out, but John brought her back in after she complained that she was tired and couldn’t stay afloat.<\/p>\n I helped her to the shore and told her to crawl if she couldn’t stand; she wasn’t even able to crawl. <\/p>\n I tried dragging her and had to yell to Pancho to help me.<\/p>\n Now it was Suzuki’s turn. <\/p>\n Suzuki was accompanied by her non-student husband who will from now on be called “Arrogant Asshole.”<\/p>\n Suzuki could not make it past the surf zone and kept washing back to shore. <\/p>\n Her husband kept telling her to “keep your respirator in your mouth!” <\/p>\n Suzuki was showing signs of panic; she kept asking us to turn her “air up” – The air is either on or off.<\/p>\n John eventually waved her off after she washed back up the fourth time.<\/p>\n Arrogant Asshole got pissed at me because I wouldn’t allow him to throw his hyperventilating and panicky wife back in the surf.<\/p>\n He said, “If she can’t make it out today, she’ll have to come back!”<\/p>\n I told him, “Uh, yeah.”<\/p>\n I left soon after, but apparently John had to bring Gomez back in because he wouldn’t kick to propel himself.<\/p>\n This second dive ended up being John and one student.<\/p>\n Catalina is next Sunday. <\/p>\n John, Jim and myself are not looking forward to this trip!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Veteran’s Park, Redondo Beach, CA Dove with Instructor John, Jim and about a dozen current and former students.* In With: 3000 psi Out With: 2500 psi Max depth: 30 feet Waves: 2-5 foot swells, rough Visibility: 5-10 feet Water Temperature: “Fairly Not Cold” Total Bottom Time: About 10 minutes??? *Note: Student names have been changed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,19,9,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555"}],"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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOut With: 2500 psi
\nMax depth: 30 feet
\nWaves: 2-5 foot swells, rough
\nVisibility: 5-10 feet
\nWater Temperature: “Fairly Not Cold”
\nTotal Bottom Time: About 10 minutes???
\n *Note: Student names have been changed.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"John](\"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/wp-content\/145.jpg\")
<\/p>\n