LA / OC ongoing Freediving meetup

[JohnJDS]

I'm starting an ongoing thread instead of individual threads for each meetup.

@Alasdair Boyd started a meetup group for LA / OC area freediving. Link here if you use meetup:

http://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Free-Diving-Meetup/

This meetup is aimed at Free divers who have done a FII ( Freediving Instructors International) or Equivalent Level 1 course. Primarily we are looking for qualified buddies so we can dive safely. Spearfishermen looking for line dive practice welcome.

The goal is to get a weekly line dive happening at a central location so people can connect, meet buddies, practice, and perhaps also buddy up for boat trips offered in the area.

Redondo Beach is currently suiting our needs. We will be meeting tomorrow (Sunday, August 21) at 9:00 am in the parking lot.

I'll post in this thread when new meetups are scheduled. Comments, suggestions, feedback welcome from experienced divers and spearfishermen in the area.

 

[JohnJDS]

I made a quicky micro-montage video of the meetup today. We had fun. You should come next time. 4 people total today, we all got a bunch of dives in. I accidentally had a personal best. I thought the bottom of the line was 20 meters but it was actually 26 by my watch. Nice surprise. I was just working on being mellow and improving my ear and mask equalization.

Ok, trying to embed the video I posted to Instagram. Nothing special, just something quick to watch. Let's see how this works...


Hey, cool it works! Nice.

 

[BatRay]

Very cool! Looks like you guys had a lot of fun. How was the water temp?

 

[JohnJDS]

My watch says 21C (assuming that's tracking coldest temp?). I was ok in a 5mm suit, one diver was cold in a 2mm. Big temp change around 17-18 meters.

Some frame grabs attached.

 

[JohnJDS]

New meetup posted:

Sunday August 28th - Veterans Park, Redondo Beach, 9AM
https://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Free-Diving-Meetup/events/233621312/
https://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Free-Diving-Meetup/events/233621312/

 

[JohnJDS]

Hmm, sorry for the rapid fire posts. Looks like this forum doesn't support editing previous posts.

I forgot to mention that we've started a facebook group for the LA/OC freediver meetup:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1073777972719331

We'll cross post meetups in that group. Perhaps easier to follow for anyone who doesn't use meetup, but uses facebook.

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Hmm, sorry for the rapid fire posts. Looks like this forum doesn't support editing previous posts.

I forgot to mention that we've started a facebook group for the LA/OC freediver meetup:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1073777972719331

We'll cross post meetups in that group. Perhaps easier to follow for anyone who doesn't use meetup, but uses facebook.

The forum does allow editing but only for members who aren't new (for spammer reasons).

I'd love to encourage people to be on here not just on Facebook. This forum doesn't exist if everyone just disappears to Facebook... so please consider continuing to post in here.

 

[JohnJDS]

Makes sense all around. I agree also. I prefer platforms like this forum over Facebook myself anyway.

 

[JohnJDS]

Good meetup today. We got 6 people out at Redondo Beach. Most people yet. We probably need another dive float and line.

Some people came through the meetup event, others from the Facebook group. The meetup has gotten to the size where it will cost to add more members, so it will probably be getting retired and use the Facebook group and this thread.

No pics or videos from today from me. I donated my camera to the ocean today. It gave me extra motivation to get to the bottom and look around. 26.5 meters today, got there, but no luck spotting it. It was an old cheap cam that got a lot of use already, so it's ok. I've mostly been working on practicing a mellow entry and dropping as casual as possible to conserve oxygen. Nothing very exciting, just trying to get some repetition in.

 

[BatRay]

The ocean claimed my cell phone yesterday. Sad times for electronics near the water.

Do you plan to participate in any freediving competitions?

 

[JohnJDS]

Well, there you go. My camera and your phone can chat while they slowly degrade

Personally, I'm not drawn to freediving competition. It's very interesting, just not my purpose with this.

My goal is strictly recreational: I want to dive without tanks at the places that I scuba when I travel. To do that, I need to increase my accessible depth and bottom time so I can enjoy the reef (and animals, plants, caves, wrecks, etc), longer, more comfortably, and more safely.

I enjoy scuba, but traveling requires owning gear and lugging it around, or renting (sometimes questionable) gear, and dealing with charters and guides, etc. I always prefer the total freedom of snorkeling from shore or a boat (I hike and camp, I'm not a resort/hotel traveler), so I just want to extend the possibilities of that. I had an "aha moment" this winter while snorkeling/freediving. I was hanging motionless, fairly deep (~15 meters) next to a turtle on a reef wall as it was snacking. We were very close, it didn't mind my presence, and time slowed making the moment was last forever. I wasn't even thinking about air. Suddenly we were interrupted by a large train of scuba divers following a guide and it cemented my growing notion that there's an applicable use for learning freediving that will directly benefit my interests.

So ya, here I am. I took a course to learn the how's/why's/do's/don'ts and now I'm practicing where I can, which is the beach. Not much to see, poor vis, just going up and down a rope, but this will greatly enhance my next travel experience. (that's my theory, we'll see)

 

[BatRay]

Very cool. Where did you take your FII course? I need to take one someday.

 

[JohnJDS]

Very cool. Where did you take your FII course? I need to take one someday.

I ended up driving all the way to Irvine for a class because it was the best price by far. Jeremy Caulkins was the instructor. He teaches through the Spear America shop. He's got his own boat at Dana Point so there's no additional boat fee, and the shop offers full rental gear so I didn't need to invest in something I wasn't sure of yet. The shop also applies rental cost to purchase discount if you do buy (and they have great selection and prices).

Overall, it worked out great.

 

[Stephan Whelan]

@BatRay - we have a solution to finding a local instructor www.freedivingcourses.com

 

[JohnJDS]

We're going to go dive at Redondo Beach by Veterans park again on this coming Monday (September 5th) at 8am. Post up if you'd like to join.

We meet in the parking lot, make a plan, then go down to the beach. The line we've been using is around 25 meters. We've had a variety of people join in so far with different skills and goals. Mostly everyone is looking for an opportunity to practice and connect with others looking to do the same.

Alasdair got a shot of one of my dives from Sunday. I posted a portion of it on Instagram so I can track my progress. I can feel that my entry is still a mess, so it's nice to see it and spot what I can improve. Sharing here because pictures and video make threads more interesting.

 

[JohnJDS]

This week's meetup was great this morning. We had 6 people total. Getting to become regulars now. Hope we can maintain the momentum. Would be nice to meet some other groups doing similar things. I know there is a group of people who line dive off La Jolla regularly, and some people in Long Beach also.

A few of us are looking into options for openings on upcoming dive boats, now that we can buddy up for the trip.

I had a couple very comfortable dives today. One in particular where I didn't have a specific goal, I was just paying attention equalizing my mask in a less wasteful way, and trying to slip into freefall quicker. Before I knew it, the last tape marker passed. The visibility was very poor today so I wasn't watching anything but the rope. I glanced up (down) and saw the bottom was quite near so I gave a couple extra kicks, tapped my watch side wrist to the ground and turned around. 26.5 meters, nothing huge, but I remember feeling strained trying for 20 on purpose a few weeks ago, so breaking 25 (again) without trying feels like good progress. That's what I'm most excited/grateful for about this meetup. Having somewhere to dive regularly with people.

I picked up a cheap gopro knockoff to replace my camera and played around with it a bit today also. Compiled a quick collection of clips here:

 

[JohnJDS]

2 upcoming meetups:

Sunday, September 11 at 8am Veterans park, Redondo Beach. RSVP here or on the group, or event if you'd like to join.
(Facebook event link won't work for this one for some reason)

Saturday, October 15 at 7am dive boat Spectre out of Oxnard, going to Anacampa island. Book yourself and RSVP here or on the group, or event if you'd like to join.

 

[R1kee]

2 upcoming meetups:

Sunday, September 11 at 8am Veterans park, Redondo Beach. RSVP here or on the group, or event if you'd like to join.
(Facebook event link won't work for this one for some reason)

Saturday, October 15 at 7am dive boat Spectre out of Oxnard, going to Anacampa island. Book yourself and RSVP here or on the group, or event if you'd like to join.

Count me in, John!

Rick +0

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

 

[JohnJDS]

Nice! Be good to get some more Deeper Blue representation out there.

 

[JohnJDS]

We will be line diving again this Sunday at Redondo Beach at 8am.


https://www.facebook.com/events/1744097409172782/