NCD Weekend in Monterey March 17-20th

We had a great weekend down in Monterey. Dara, Jim, Peter, Shawn-Paul, Brian and I all rented one of the cottages at the Lone Oak Lodge for the weekend. A great deal, but seriously on the cramped side.

We all arrived on Friday night and enjoyed a great social gathering at the cottage. Note to self, less Gin and Cranberries with Dara before a dive day! The Johnson clan showed up and joined in the festivities and we all had a great time.

On Saturday morning we all headed to the Breakwater to meet up with other NCDers. We were joined there by Ryan and a quick cameo by Bruce. I was teaching an Advanced Open Water Course that included Kevin, Shawn-Paul and Denise. It was a bit hectic that day with all of the other divers down there, but the conditions were good and everyone got at least a couple of dives in.

In the afternoon, Denise, Peter, Ryan and I headed out for 2 dives aboard the Monterey Express, where we were met by Roy. The crew seemed to have some difficulties finding a good spot to anchor, but eventually we got situated and started our first dive. Poor Denise got really cold, but was kind enough to feed some fish that were passing by. I am sure they appreciated that kindness. Note to Kevin, how long will it be before Denise gets her drysuit? We sat out the second dive, but had some great chats with the crew. Meanwhile, Peter and Ryan, who had his doubles, were have a liesurely 1hr+ dive. Since the rest of us were all on board and the crew were in a hurry, they sounded the recall to get them back. It was St. Patricks Day and they wanted to go to the bar.

In the evening we split up into two groups for dinner before our night dive. One group decided on Vietnamese food. My group headed for an Irish pub with the intention of just having cornbeef and cabbage. After some consultation with the other group, it was decided to put off the night dive until Sunday, so we could have some beers. The festivities did end early, since we had to get up early the next day.

On Sunday morning, Kevin, Shawn-Paul and I headed out of two dives on the Monterey Express as part of the AOW class. The boat seemed to have the same difficulties anchoring as they did last time, but finally brought us to a decent spot. We got our dives in and Kevin showed that he was just as kind as his wife and fed another group of fish.

After the boat dives, we hooked up with the rest of the group at lover's cove for some afternoon dives. There is a great report of that day already posted. One bummer thing though is that I tore my neck seal and had to dive with my wet suit. Yes, I dove wet and whined about it the whole time, much to the amusement of my fellow divers. That night we did a night dive at the Breakwater, which turned out really nice.

The next day, brian, Jim, Dara, Peter, Shawn-Paul, a new diver named Andrew, and I met at pt. lobos. It was a great way to finish off the weekend.

Pictures?

I didn't get to use my camera on this one, but I know several other people did. Several pictures are posted over on www.northcoastdivers.org. So Ben, when are you going to come join us for another dive? Well, actually that would be a first dive

Diving with Mark or Ericson doesn't count? I'll show my face sometime this summer

That was a fun weekend, and thanks to all that attended. I made it so far without getting sick and just went through three days of hell with meetings every night, getting home at midnight last night. Even made it to my Monday meeting on time.



I learned a lot this weekend, and feel like I made some major improvements in my diving. Bottom times have drastically improved, and I am convinced much of that is due to diving Nitrox. Diving with Ryan, I was able to observe a very good diver, and picked up a few things there too. I want Jet fins now, so I can back up...dang splits just won't do it, but when traveling long distances, I will take my splits, thank you. My open water deco stops definetely need work. Without a reference point, I have a hard time holding 15'. Not way out of control, but not stationary either. With something in front of me it is no problem at all. So I have work to be done.

Boat diving is great...with Brian! Thanks for bringing your boat. As to commercial boat diving, I have not had a good experience yet. So far most everything could have been done by a shore dive, or by kayak. (Gonna pick my kayak up today )


Saturday, Ryan and I did a dive along the Break wall, that lasted 80 minutes, which is my longest dive ever! We were sitting back during our SI eating lunch, and I went to start loading my car, and when I was gone a damn Seagull has eaten my sandwich. So with only half a sandwich into me, we headed out to the Monterey Express for our boat dive.

After loading up and heading out, we arrived at Ball Buster, and I was excited as Ryan was telling me all about the dive site. Then got really bummed, when the Captain could not get the anchor to stick So we headed over to another place. We were one of the first ones off the boat, and the last back on, spending much of our dive in the 80 foot range. Ryan shot and SMB to hang off of, and apparently kinda worried the captain. So our next dive was right off the research center, that any of you NCD's would have though and easy surface swim. Most of the dive was in the 40 foot range with the reef sticking out of the sand. There is all kinds of research equipment attached to blue cables on the bottom. At 58 minutes the boat sounded the recall signal until we surfaced. Fortunately we were on our deco stop and would have been at the surface in a minute anyhow. I was not too happy about paying $85 and hearing the boat Captain say "get off the boat, you are cutting into my beer time", then having them sound the siren. Yeah, there were people on board that were cold, but it is not our fault they were diving wetsuits. I hope I do not sound like a jerk, but if the situation was reversed, I would not have said anything. In the future, it will have to be the early morning dive, and it better be to places like Carmel, but for awhile, kayak diving it will be.
Not sure why Ryan looks so cross eyed in the picture. Maybe some nitrogen narcosis going on? :shock:


Sunday we dove Lovers Cove and did a couple of dives.




For our first dive, Ericson, Jim, and myself headed out, finally descending in about 22' of water. We just tooled around, taking pictures. The seal that hung around was pretty cool.

For our second dive, we loaded four people in the Whaler, and headed out a little ways, where Brian was kind enough to drop Ryan, Chris, and me off. We swam back in at a leisurely pace. I found two pair of shorts on the first dive, and a bikini top on the second, but managed to loose it, somewhere on the way back in. The water was flat on top, with a little surge down below, which is interesting as usually they go hand in hand. So this time again on our surface break, we went to go get our lunch and left our Root beer floats on the table. I turned around to see one of those damn flying rats with its beak eating MY ICE CREAM! Yuck! They are just lucky I did not have shotgun in hand.


Since Andy was teaching an AOW class and had to do a night dive, I decided to tag along. What a great dive. Thanks Odie for being my dive buddy and NOT shinning your headlight in my eyes. We did a 40 minute dive with around 40' depths, along the break wall. Saw a couple of eels, and it was fun to see all the fish hovering around. Lots of crab were out too. We are going to have to do a night dive at Gerstle.

Monday was Lobos! Again Brian's boat got some more use, and he took Odie and I out to Bluefish Cove. The three of us dropped into the water around 38' and eventually hit 92'. We dove along a canyon that was spectacular. I would say, this was my best California dive EVER

Andrew saw our posts on Scubaboard and came out for a couple of dives.

This is how Andy feels about diving wet


I was having trouble with my strobe firing at the correct time, so most of my pictures did not come out very well at all. Oh well, will have to get better ones, WHEN WE GO BACK!

Here is Brian saying hello to his little friend.



OK I am HTML challenged these days. Why can't we do more than 15 pics in a row and upload three at a time? Along with having them show up full size on the first shot?

Thanks for sharing the pics

So our next dive was right off the research center, that any of you NCD's would have though and easy surface swim.

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Actually, there is no beach access available around here. I think the closest place to surface swim from would be Mcabe beach, which would be a pretty long swim.

Beach? Who needs a beach? We just need a place to enter the ocean

It looks like where we were anchored is the research center and it may be blocked off although I do not see any fencing. Could you walk to here from the road?

This photo was taken with a point and shoot, so that gives you an idea of how close to shore we were. It would be an easy surface swim, if the shore is accessible.


If Mcabe Beach is the closest then that is why I bought a kayak

nope, can't get there from the shore. The research center does have a fence that blocks this area off and they get testy when people are inside their property.

The beach, however is public property up to the high tide line, but you can only access it from the water. They typically chase people off of there too though.

Peter_C:

Beach? Who needs a beach? We just need a place to enter the ocean

...

If Mcabe Beach is the closest then that is why I bought a kayak

Click to expand...

Hey Peter, which model of Hobie did you get? Did you get the pedal drive?

Hopkins Marine Institute is fenced, but on the inland side of the road. It is private
property. I got to do a
dive or two there a long time ago as part of an Aquarium "Marine Biology for Divers"
class. They have gear lockers, hot showers, and drying racks. For their students (its
a branch of Stanford). So take the GEDs, get admitted, and go diving there. ;-)