After diving in Waldo Lake with Octo a couple of weeks ago, I was dying to take my family up there. It is a large mountain lake that is very clear and empty of motor boats. The day Octo I were there was a beautiful July day, hot and bright with only a whisper of a breeze. The air was rich with butterscotch-vanilla scents from the sap of the Douglas Fir trees that mixed with warm dry dusty odor of forest floor and the ozone freshness of the lake.
Unfortunately, the forecast for the day my family planned to go to Waldo kept indicating cold weather and possible showers even though it had been a week of hot sunny weather. But we were going today, Sunday, because we are moving to Utah for a year and our oldest child is off to college this fall and this was our last chance to get up there as a family.
First thing this morning I went over my gear; I got out a stiff toothbrush and some Crest toothpaste and scrubbed by mask for ten minutes, I checked my wetsuit and booties and gloves, I balanced my weight belt, and then carefully packed everything into my diving duffle. After loading the car and getting the canoe safely strapped to the roof we were off. My son was crouchy and not much help but I was working hard to ignore him because we were going to have a NICE DAY. Fortunately, Sean frequently comes around on his own from these moments of late adolescent pique so I have found ignoring him is ofter better than getting all male parent irked. He also usually falls asleep shortly after the car doors close and the engine starts.
Two hours later we pulled up to the boat ramp and looked out at the windswept lake and gray low clouds. My wife is very tough and little deters her so we loaded up the canoe, put lifejackets on, got the dog and my six year old daugther set, woke Sean up long enough for him to get in the canoe, and took off for a small island out in the lake. Twenty minutes of paddling into a stiff cold breeze, getting bounced around by three foot steep swells, with the sky getting grayer while down the lake we could see the rain leaving the clouds, I began to wonder about the wisdom of this venture. The island was just a few minutes away but I asked Sharon how wet she was willing to get. Sharon was paddlingly strongly towards the island from the front of the canoe as she said, "Don't worry, if it rains hard we'll just put the canoe over the picnic table and get underneath it." Once again I wondered why this wonderful person chose me to spend her life with. So onward we went.
Fortunately, the rain was a mere spattering of drops that was over quickly and the excitement of landfall on our very own island iimproved our mood - and woke Sean up. Once I was sure everyone was secure and the weather would hold I started to get my gear out. Everything was in good shape because, as usual I packed carefully. My mask was clean and dry inside a large, ziplock freezer bag, my suit was laid out flat on my towels and warm clothes - no sharp edges to gouge or tear it, each fin was laid flat as well over my weights which are placed on the bottom of my duffle for the obvious reasons. I carefully laid out my booties and gloves along with the rest of my gear and then it hit me; I could see it clearly, my bathroom counter, and there off to one side on the counter is my little green spray bottle that is a third full of half water half hair conditioner - my lubricant for getting into my very expensive Picasso 7mm dry wetsuit. :head
But if my wife was not put off by bad weather I could certainly overcome this little hardship. So I put my suit on, first my longjohns and then the top. At this point, much to my good fortune Sharon came back to see how I was doing. I had both arms in and my head was through the hood but after several minutes of shimming, writhing, grunting, tugging, jumping, and various combinations of these advanced techniques I had been unable to move the body of the suit down my torso. I kept thinking of my little green spray bottle of lubricant over a 100 miles away which added some vigor to my gyrations. With Sharon's help (after she got tired of watching my heartfelt efforts - I think her stomach hurt from laughing so hard) I finally got the top pulled down.
But there was no way we could get the left sleeve to untwist so that I could lower my left arm or bend my elbow. I didn' t think diving would go to well with one arm sticking straight out from the shoulder so I bowed to the inevitable - like when one wakes in the middle of a cold night with the unmistakable need to urinate - and just took the top off again.
This time with my trusty partner at my side we very carefully aligned every seam before I committed to pulling the top over my head. (For those of you who have never put a Picasso dry wetsuit on this may sound like I am a drooling incompetent - trust me - without lubricant we are all drooling incompetents when it comes to putting a Picasso 7mm dry wetsuit.) (Sharon has just encouraged me to be forthright and honest and admit that I am a drooling incompetent when comes to most things in the terrestrial world that requires tools, grace, agility, or average coordination. Fortunately, I don't feel that this is an important part of the story so I will leave all of this out.)
After an epic struggle that involved the usual in an epic struggle like love, cooperation, and dogged determinism we won out. I had my wetsuit on my body. After putting my booties on I carefully stepped down to a flat rock at the water's edge with my mask and snorkle, weight belt, and fins. With a brief shrug my weights were hoisted around my waist and buckled with just the right tension. I sat down and slid my hood up most of the way over my head, leaving it back just a little so I could get my mask on easier. My mask slid on and sealed better than it as ever done before. Now I was starting to get excited as I thought about the different areas I was going to explore. With the help of my loving family this was turning out to be a great day after all.
Sharon surprised me with a pair of Picasso 3mm gloves for my birthday and this was my first time diving with them. Like my suit, they are biometic. I slid them on and immediately felt the reflected heat start to build up. I was ready, I was Picasso from head to toe, I was invincible! I was waterman! I was a FREEDIVER! I grabbed my BT fins and started to put one on. For some reason it wouldn't go on. I paused and tried again. I was a FREEDIVER! Still no go. It seemed to small...I was a Fre.....oh no! ARG!!!!
There comes a moment when we all have an important, life affirming choice to make. We could rail at the gods, or become self-righteously enraged, or really let go and POUT. Or we could take a moment and reflect on the beauty of our surroundings, or take pleasure in the love of an intelligent, strong, and beautiful life partner, or feel really cool because I have a neat dog. Then simply laugh and move on. This was one of those moments in life as I realized that Octo, had taken my fins when he was packing to return to Santa Cruz after his visit and left his. Octo is 5'5', I am 6'2''. His fins are a size 40-42 mine are 44-46. I was a holding a fin that had 40-42 printed on the bottom of it.
I am proud to say that I took the later path, the one of laughter and appreciation of all the good things in my life. I really do have a totally neat dog. He didn't laugh nearly as long as my wife and kids just did. If I had gotten all angry and upset I wouldn't have had a clear head, which would only have made it much harder to come with a plan for a really painful revenge for Octo. The two hours driving home with everyone asleep was real quality time.
I called Octo shortly after getting home. He had recently bought a pair of carbon blades for his BT fins. I asked him if he had put them in yet and then went on to tell him that I read that he needed to be careful as they might loosen up the foot pocket and make it feel uncomfortably large. He went and got a fin and slid his foot in and sure enough it was very large. He was worried about this as he was going diving this weekend for the first time since his visit. (His young son had major reconstructive surgery and had just left the hospital after almost three weeks - all is well with my nephew fortunately.) So diving this weekend, hmmmm... well goodbye for now and let me know how diving goes this weekend.
But I couldn't do it. Family is family and Octo is truly one of the sweetest people on the planet. He is generous, competent, kind, and thoughtful as long as he has his medications appropriately adjusted. Instead I told him that not only would his fins feel large but the carbon blades would cause my fins to feel small. Octo was confused; how could that happen. I suggested that the answer might be on the bottom of the fin. So Octo turns it over and says it's only got all the company stuff and the size on the bottom. Octo is nothing if not quick. I suggested he read the size ..."44-4....OH NO!
It is a beautiful thing to witness someone having a transcendental moment of insight. I was moved to tears. Octo was moved to FEDEX my fins to me so I could put his in the box and FEDEX them back in time for him to go diving this weekend. Knowing how he hates to mail anything brought me a moment of real pleasure until I remembered that I hate to mail things more than he does.
Freedivers - a breed apart.
Angus :head
Unfortunately, the forecast for the day my family planned to go to Waldo kept indicating cold weather and possible showers even though it had been a week of hot sunny weather. But we were going today, Sunday, because we are moving to Utah for a year and our oldest child is off to college this fall and this was our last chance to get up there as a family.
First thing this morning I went over my gear; I got out a stiff toothbrush and some Crest toothpaste and scrubbed by mask for ten minutes, I checked my wetsuit and booties and gloves, I balanced my weight belt, and then carefully packed everything into my diving duffle. After loading the car and getting the canoe safely strapped to the roof we were off. My son was crouchy and not much help but I was working hard to ignore him because we were going to have a NICE DAY. Fortunately, Sean frequently comes around on his own from these moments of late adolescent pique so I have found ignoring him is ofter better than getting all male parent irked. He also usually falls asleep shortly after the car doors close and the engine starts.
Two hours later we pulled up to the boat ramp and looked out at the windswept lake and gray low clouds. My wife is very tough and little deters her so we loaded up the canoe, put lifejackets on, got the dog and my six year old daugther set, woke Sean up long enough for him to get in the canoe, and took off for a small island out in the lake. Twenty minutes of paddling into a stiff cold breeze, getting bounced around by three foot steep swells, with the sky getting grayer while down the lake we could see the rain leaving the clouds, I began to wonder about the wisdom of this venture. The island was just a few minutes away but I asked Sharon how wet she was willing to get. Sharon was paddlingly strongly towards the island from the front of the canoe as she said, "Don't worry, if it rains hard we'll just put the canoe over the picnic table and get underneath it." Once again I wondered why this wonderful person chose me to spend her life with. So onward we went.
Fortunately, the rain was a mere spattering of drops that was over quickly and the excitement of landfall on our very own island iimproved our mood - and woke Sean up. Once I was sure everyone was secure and the weather would hold I started to get my gear out. Everything was in good shape because, as usual I packed carefully. My mask was clean and dry inside a large, ziplock freezer bag, my suit was laid out flat on my towels and warm clothes - no sharp edges to gouge or tear it, each fin was laid flat as well over my weights which are placed on the bottom of my duffle for the obvious reasons. I carefully laid out my booties and gloves along with the rest of my gear and then it hit me; I could see it clearly, my bathroom counter, and there off to one side on the counter is my little green spray bottle that is a third full of half water half hair conditioner - my lubricant for getting into my very expensive Picasso 7mm dry wetsuit. :head
But if my wife was not put off by bad weather I could certainly overcome this little hardship. So I put my suit on, first my longjohns and then the top. At this point, much to my good fortune Sharon came back to see how I was doing. I had both arms in and my head was through the hood but after several minutes of shimming, writhing, grunting, tugging, jumping, and various combinations of these advanced techniques I had been unable to move the body of the suit down my torso. I kept thinking of my little green spray bottle of lubricant over a 100 miles away which added some vigor to my gyrations. With Sharon's help (after she got tired of watching my heartfelt efforts - I think her stomach hurt from laughing so hard) I finally got the top pulled down.
But there was no way we could get the left sleeve to untwist so that I could lower my left arm or bend my elbow. I didn' t think diving would go to well with one arm sticking straight out from the shoulder so I bowed to the inevitable - like when one wakes in the middle of a cold night with the unmistakable need to urinate - and just took the top off again.
This time with my trusty partner at my side we very carefully aligned every seam before I committed to pulling the top over my head. (For those of you who have never put a Picasso dry wetsuit on this may sound like I am a drooling incompetent - trust me - without lubricant we are all drooling incompetents when it comes to putting a Picasso 7mm dry wetsuit.) (Sharon has just encouraged me to be forthright and honest and admit that I am a drooling incompetent when comes to most things in the terrestrial world that requires tools, grace, agility, or average coordination. Fortunately, I don't feel that this is an important part of the story so I will leave all of this out.)
After an epic struggle that involved the usual in an epic struggle like love, cooperation, and dogged determinism we won out. I had my wetsuit on my body. After putting my booties on I carefully stepped down to a flat rock at the water's edge with my mask and snorkle, weight belt, and fins. With a brief shrug my weights were hoisted around my waist and buckled with just the right tension. I sat down and slid my hood up most of the way over my head, leaving it back just a little so I could get my mask on easier. My mask slid on and sealed better than it as ever done before. Now I was starting to get excited as I thought about the different areas I was going to explore. With the help of my loving family this was turning out to be a great day after all.
Sharon surprised me with a pair of Picasso 3mm gloves for my birthday and this was my first time diving with them. Like my suit, they are biometic. I slid them on and immediately felt the reflected heat start to build up. I was ready, I was Picasso from head to toe, I was invincible! I was waterman! I was a FREEDIVER! I grabbed my BT fins and started to put one on. For some reason it wouldn't go on. I paused and tried again. I was a FREEDIVER! Still no go. It seemed to small...I was a Fre.....oh no! ARG!!!!
There comes a moment when we all have an important, life affirming choice to make. We could rail at the gods, or become self-righteously enraged, or really let go and POUT. Or we could take a moment and reflect on the beauty of our surroundings, or take pleasure in the love of an intelligent, strong, and beautiful life partner, or feel really cool because I have a neat dog. Then simply laugh and move on. This was one of those moments in life as I realized that Octo, had taken my fins when he was packing to return to Santa Cruz after his visit and left his. Octo is 5'5', I am 6'2''. His fins are a size 40-42 mine are 44-46. I was a holding a fin that had 40-42 printed on the bottom of it.
I am proud to say that I took the later path, the one of laughter and appreciation of all the good things in my life. I really do have a totally neat dog. He didn't laugh nearly as long as my wife and kids just did. If I had gotten all angry and upset I wouldn't have had a clear head, which would only have made it much harder to come with a plan for a really painful revenge for Octo. The two hours driving home with everyone asleep was real quality time.
I called Octo shortly after getting home. He had recently bought a pair of carbon blades for his BT fins. I asked him if he had put them in yet and then went on to tell him that I read that he needed to be careful as they might loosen up the foot pocket and make it feel uncomfortably large. He went and got a fin and slid his foot in and sure enough it was very large. He was worried about this as he was going diving this weekend for the first time since his visit. (His young son had major reconstructive surgery and had just left the hospital after almost three weeks - all is well with my nephew fortunately.) So diving this weekend, hmmmm... well goodbye for now and let me know how diving goes this weekend.
But I couldn't do it. Family is family and Octo is truly one of the sweetest people on the planet. He is generous, competent, kind, and thoughtful as long as he has his medications appropriately adjusted. Instead I told him that not only would his fins feel large but the carbon blades would cause my fins to feel small. Octo was confused; how could that happen. I suggested that the answer might be on the bottom of the fin. So Octo turns it over and says it's only got all the company stuff and the size on the bottom. Octo is nothing if not quick. I suggested he read the size ..."44-4....OH NO!
It is a beautiful thing to witness someone having a transcendental moment of insight. I was moved to tears. Octo was moved to FEDEX my fins to me so I could put his in the box and FEDEX them back in time for him to go diving this weekend. Knowing how he hates to mail anything brought me a moment of real pleasure until I remembered that I hate to mail things more than he does.
Freedivers - a breed apart.
Angus :head
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