I finally went diving for the first time since last summer. A guy that I had corresponded with last year offered to take me along in his boat for a day of freediving on Monday. I had considered doing a quick solo dive Saturday but that didn't pan out, thought I got all my gear sorted out.
Sunday morning I awoke at 5:00 and knew the family wouldn't be up until later. All my stuff was packed so I decided "Why not?" In the car I went and got to Point Vicente on the Palos Verdes Peninsula here in the Los Angeles area. I made it down to the water at 7:00. Here's the dive location: http://www.geocities.com/sandeaters/sites/losangeles/point_vicente.htm
After doing my normal struggle into the fins a nice wave came in and swept me out, missing the rocks (yay!). The water was ok- about 10 or 15' of vis and 57F temperatures. I started doing some dives and was fairly pleased that my technique seemed to be working (the surface entry has been a big trouble spot for me).
Depth was 15 to 20 feet so I was still quite positive on the bottom. Lots of craggy rocks with urchins, stars, anenomes, and many small fish. I headed out for deeper water and the kelp beds but ran into nasty "red tide" so I kept in closer.
Most of my dives were no more than 30 seconds. Equalizing was pretty simple- no-hands freznel to about 10' then I would pinch my nose for the rest. It was just a quick dip so my D3 only logged a dozen dives- 33 seconds and 23 feet the longest.
Out of the water at 8:00. I tried to meet up with another diver "Vaclav" at a different beach to say hi but missed him. When I got home the family was still in pajamas.
That afternoon we went to Newport Bay for kayaking. It made a double workout with me paddling a wide plastic kayak 4.5 miles with a child in front "helping" by dragging her paddle or hands along.
Monday I got in the water with Frank and John- along with John's two kids. We went in Frank's 21' powerboat. Heading down the coast from King Harbor it was nasty red tide. Finally it cleared up and we jumped in at... Pt. Vicente of all places. This time we were out at a big washrock at the actual point.
Still fairly shallow with a reef at 10'- but dropping off to about 30'. Lots of sea life. I had a small seal dive with me a couple times. Found areas of the reef that were solid sea stars stacked upon each other.
Back in the boat to a different area. Vis a little better in a large kelp bed with sand bottom. Drank a little sea water then hurled after getting back on the boat.
Between the two sessions my D3 listed 41 drops with the longest/deepest 57 seconds and 35 feet.
When I got home the kids wanted to go to the beach. No, not more salt water. Talked them into the community pool instead. So I spent the next 1.5 hours chasing my daughter around the bottom.
Today I'm tired. Really tired. Two days of boot camp is enough for me.
Jim
Sunday morning I awoke at 5:00 and knew the family wouldn't be up until later. All my stuff was packed so I decided "Why not?" In the car I went and got to Point Vicente on the Palos Verdes Peninsula here in the Los Angeles area. I made it down to the water at 7:00. Here's the dive location: http://www.geocities.com/sandeaters/sites/losangeles/point_vicente.htm
After doing my normal struggle into the fins a nice wave came in and swept me out, missing the rocks (yay!). The water was ok- about 10 or 15' of vis and 57F temperatures. I started doing some dives and was fairly pleased that my technique seemed to be working (the surface entry has been a big trouble spot for me).
Depth was 15 to 20 feet so I was still quite positive on the bottom. Lots of craggy rocks with urchins, stars, anenomes, and many small fish. I headed out for deeper water and the kelp beds but ran into nasty "red tide" so I kept in closer.
Most of my dives were no more than 30 seconds. Equalizing was pretty simple- no-hands freznel to about 10' then I would pinch my nose for the rest. It was just a quick dip so my D3 only logged a dozen dives- 33 seconds and 23 feet the longest.
Out of the water at 8:00. I tried to meet up with another diver "Vaclav" at a different beach to say hi but missed him. When I got home the family was still in pajamas.
That afternoon we went to Newport Bay for kayaking. It made a double workout with me paddling a wide plastic kayak 4.5 miles with a child in front "helping" by dragging her paddle or hands along.
Monday I got in the water with Frank and John- along with John's two kids. We went in Frank's 21' powerboat. Heading down the coast from King Harbor it was nasty red tide. Finally it cleared up and we jumped in at... Pt. Vicente of all places. This time we were out at a big washrock at the actual point.
Still fairly shallow with a reef at 10'- but dropping off to about 30'. Lots of sea life. I had a small seal dive with me a couple times. Found areas of the reef that were solid sea stars stacked upon each other.
Back in the boat to a different area. Vis a little better in a large kelp bed with sand bottom. Drank a little sea water then hurled after getting back on the boat.
Between the two sessions my D3 listed 41 drops with the longest/deepest 57 seconds and 35 feet.
When I got home the kids wanted to go to the beach. No, not more salt water. Talked them into the community pool instead. So I spent the next 1.5 hours chasing my daughter around the bottom.
Today I'm tired. Really tired. Two days of boot camp is enough for me.
Jim