Monastery dive report-3/20

[pacificgal]

Well, there you have it!
I went to Monastery this morning about 9 am to dive with Don and Mike Mills.
I sat and watched the waves coming in, broke out my cell phone and started following the waves and marking their height in my iphone. This is in inches:
3,4,4,3,4,2,2,5,1,1,6,2,1,4,1,2,4,3,3,4,5,1,1,1,5,1,3,2. I stopped counting after that.
Looks like the perfect day to face my biggest fear and overcome Monastery.
Don showed up a bit later with his wife, Elisa. Kathydee and BenV stopped by on their wa to Lobos to say hi and give some encouragement. MikeM forgot his drysuit at home so chose not to dive today and to come back tomorrow.
Don, Elisa and I did the dive together, entry was easy as it gets. We did a 51 minute dive, max depth of 54 feet, 50 degrees. We turned when I got to my turnaround pressure, but high tailed it back in because I was getting cold. The viz wasn't that great, 15-20 maybe? You know it's all subjective.
The exit was a bit more challenging because of the steepness of the beach and that darn sand. Gosh it is a workout to just get up that berm! I think I stopped about every 3 steps to catch my breath (careful when you do this, you may start slipping back down). I was relieved to be back at that car! What an extraordinary experience, not the greatest dive, but the fact I did it without coming close to killing myself this time is my greatest success story of the past 5.5 years. I can't thank Don enough for being kind enough to get me back out there, now I know what it looks like, now I've done it, and I never have to do it again
Afterwards we went to Breakwater to check out the Whites Fusion demo. What a great idea to bring all that stuff out there for divers to try out.
I ran into a bunch of buddies/friends, ran into John and Bogie (James) and they chose to do the demo with Don, Elisa and I. The 5 of us set out in our fusion drysuits for a short dive (I only paid for parking till 4:56, meter mail came by at 4:58 right after we finished and looked at me, looked at her watch, and I told her I was just leaving and asked if I should go pay for more time. She told me not to worry about it, I was fine. Nicest meter maid I've ever met!
We did a short dive, 22 minutes. The drysuit was OK, I keep saying when my wetsuit wears out I'll buy a drysuit. Well, I lost my left knee pad today diving and I've been getting really cold. I'd have to agree that means my wetsuit is wearing out. I'm not sure I would go with a fusion. The experience wasn't so great in that the hood was ill fitting, I wore my wetsuit gloves so my hands were cold, and I wore my wetsuit boots which don't go over the drysuit foot very well, there was a lot of extra fabric at the feet that was quite uncomfortable in the boot.
I think I want to try out another couple drysuits before I choose one to buy. The fusion's outer skin was stretchy and nice, but the inside, although durable, seemed kinda stiff.
The dive staff that were there helping people were really nice, knowledgeable and cool. I got some sun today, had an awesome mexican dinner at Jose's with James and John, made it safely back to my room and got a nice hot shower.
What an extraordinary day!

 

[mobeeno]

Congrats! And thanks for the vis report

 

[ScubaBumps]

Thanks for the report! I'll be at Monastery with friends tomorrow morning and hope the conditions hold.

 

[Ben_ca]

Hey Kristina it was nice to finally meet you. This was definitely a day to do Monastery. I'm sorry we couldn't hang around maybe next time I'll actually be able to get to dive with you. Thanks for the report.

 

[kathydee]

Looks like the perfect day to face my biggest fear and overcome Monastery.

What an extraordinary experience, not the greatest dive, but the fact I did it without coming close to killing myself this time is my greatest success story of the past 5.5 years. Now I know what it looks like, now I've done it, and I never have to do it again

Kristina,

I'm so happy you had a good experience today and Don and Elisa were there to guide & support you through a revisitation of those haunting memories. Congratulations for putting that one to rest . So glad you are through the other side and on to creating many happy scuba memories !

 

[Guy Alcala]

Well, there you have it!

I went to Monastery this morning about 9 am to dive with Don and Mike Mills.
I sat and watched the waves coming in, broke out my cell phone and started following the waves and marking their height in my iphone. This is in inches:
3,4,4,3,4,2,2,5,1,1,6,2,1,4,1,2,4,3,3,4,5,1,1,1,5,1,3,2. I stopped counting after that.
Looks like the perfect day to face my biggest fear and overcome Monastery.

Don showed up a bit later with his wife, Elisa. Kathydee and BenV stopped by on their wa to Lobos to say hi and give some encouragement. MikeM forgot his drysuit at home so chose not to dive today and to come back tomorrow.
Don, Elisa and I did the dive together, entry was easy as it gets. We did a 51 minute dive, max depth of 54 feet, 50 degrees. We turned when I got to my turnaround pressure, but high tailed it back in because I was getting cold. The viz wasn't that great, 15-20 maybe? You know it's all subjective.

The exit was a bit more challenging because of the steepness of the beach and that darn sand. Gosh it is a workout to just get up that berm! I think I stopped about every 3 steps to catch my breath (careful when you do this, you may start slipping back down). I was relieved to be back at that car! What an extraordinary experience, not the greatest dive, but the fact I did it without coming close to killing myself this time is my greatest success story of the past 5.5 years. I can't thank Don enough for being kind enough to get me back out there, now I know what it looks like, now I've done it, and I never have to do it again

Afterwards we went to Breakwater to check out the Whites Fusion demo. What a great idea to bring all that stuff out there for divers to try out.

I ran into a bunch of buddies/friends, ran into John and Bogie (James) and they chose to do the demo with Don, Elisa and I. The 5 of us set out in our fusion drysuits for a short dive (I only paid for parking till 4:56, meter mail came by at 4:58 right after we finished and looked at me, looked at her watch, and I told her I was just leaving and asked if I should go pay for more time. She told me not to worry about it, I was fine. Nicest meter maid I've ever met!

We did a short dive, 22 minutes. The drysuit was OK, I keep saying when my wetsuit wears out I'll buy a drysuit. Well, I lost my left knee pad today diving and I've been getting really cold. I'd have to agree that means my wetsuit is wearing out. I'm not sure I would go with a fusion. The experience wasn't so great in that the hood was ill fitting, I wore my wetsuit gloves so my hands were cold, and I wore my wetsuit boots which don't go over the drysuit foot very well, there was a lot of extra fabric at the feet that was quite uncomfortable in the boot.

I think I want to try out another couple drysuits before I choose one to buy. The fusion's outer skin was stretchy and nice, but the inside, although durable, seemed kinda stiff.

The dive staff that were there helping people were really nice, knowledgeable and cool. I got some sun today, had an awesome mexican dinner at Jose's with James and John, made it safely back to my room and got a nice hot shower.
What an extraordinary day!

Kristina, Fofo and I were also at N. Monastery this morning about 9:30, although I wound up not diving (back bothering me). So Fofo went in with Oliver Edwards, Fred Wade and Alan Throop, two guys from my club (Aqua Tutus). They got in shortly before 11; Alan headed over the reef on his own to do a leak test of his new DSLR housing, while the other three swam out to the wash rock and dropped there (and I sat on the beach gnashing my teeth for missing the easy conditions). After dropping they headed around the corner to the right, crossing the canyon on the far side of the rock at around 60', then descending down a ridge or slope on the far side, stopping at 145'.

As usual, Oliver had tons of NDL time left on his Cochran when Fofo's Suunto had him almost in deco, so he and Fred turned around and headed back up while Oliver looked around some more. Not a lot of fish out there per their report, although Fofo saw a good-sized vermilion and they reported some Lings and Cabezon on the reef as they came back in.

While I won't go in at Monastery with an iffy back I wasn't worried about it at an easy site like BW, and Fofo and I both wanted to try out a Fusion (he's actually bought one but it hasn't arrived yet). Fortuitously we came back into town passing Breakwater on our way to McAbee, and I spotted the White's van. We couldn't figure out why they'd chosen McAbee as the parking there's terrible, and apparently they realized that and re-located to BW.

I'm glad to report that they switched the direction the zipper closes on the new Fusions; I still had trouble closing it by myself, but at least I could do it now.
We were both just using the Mk2 Johns as that's a bit heavier than the undergarment we normally use, but as soon as we stepped into the water the difference in insulation between our compressed and crushed neo suits and a shell suit was noticeable; we both felt the cold water. Swam out to the anchor and dropped, as I wanted to run a line from the fluke to the cannon and find out the new bearing and distance. Unfortunately there was a bit of surge so our bearings were somewhat loose; instead of the old one of 010 the new one's somewhere between 015 and 020; distance ~ 142'. We'll need to do it again in better conditions to nail it down. We then ran the line from an old waypoint to a new one, but both of us were getting cvold, Fofo especially from holding the line while I ran the reel, we headed in after only 40 minutes or so, and had something like a 54 minute dive with a max. depth of ~35', and a bottom temp of 53 deg. Vis was 15' -20', a surprising amount of surge shallow.

We talked to John as he was coming back to the van as we were getting ready to leave (we'd also talked to him at Monastery) and saw Don (and his wife?) in the parking lot a bit later, so we must have just missed seeing/meeting you.

Anyway, unless my back makes a miraculous recovery or craps out completely tonight while sleeping in my car, I'll be doing easy dives at BW tomorrow (and probably trying a White's Mk3 undergarment with my drysuit), while Fofo does some boat dives. So if you and/or Kathydee want to do some nav., my car, a silver Subaru Forester, will be parked at the first meter spot near the first bench and the shower at the top of the stairs, and I'm likely to be nearby if I'm not in the water.

Guy

 

[ae3753]

Kristina,

It was great diving with you today. I'm really impressed that you dove Monastery again, and it was a privilege to dive with you there. While entries were how I like it, it was unfortunate that the visibility wasn't better. Not what you'd expect from 50 degree water and calm conditions.

The walk up back up the berm is rough, those monster berries are wicked. My calves are still feeling the climb.

It was really good to see so many familiar and new faces too - Mike, Kathy, Ben, Guy, Fofo, James, John, Jason, Dionna, Mark, and Harry. Actually saw Chuck and Linda but we didn't get a chance to say hi.

Have fun tomorrow!

 

[Brewski]

Kristina. Wow great to hear you went back to monastery. Thanks for the report, but a nice meter maid at BW? this statement is questionable, makes me think the whole report is fiction from that one statement. we all know there is no such animal. ;-)

 

[TSandM]

Kristina, as I have read the account of your accident, you awe me. I'm not sure I would ever have had the courage to do what you did yesterday. You are an impressive woman.

As regards the Fusion, I'm interested to hear that you felt the material was stiff. They have changed it since I bought mine, and I haven't dived one of the new ones. My inner bag is flexible and friendly. I will agree that learning to manage the extra fabric in the feet is a process -- I wish they offered an option to have a smaller sized sock.

 

[pacificgal]

Thanks everyone. Seems like everyone was at Monastery Saturday! I was the apprehensive blonde who kept pacing from the car to the ocean to make sure the waves didn't get higher, lol. Ben, it was really nice to meet you too. Don, I will forever be indebted to you for getting me in and out safely, I don't care about the viz. I've decided to leave Monastery for the 20 somethings now. It doesn't own me anymore
Guy, I'm so sorry I missed you! After I posted last night, the high speed internet at the motel I was staying at wasn't working so well, so I didn't try to go back online afterwards. I would have loved to have met you this morning. I found another "round thing" with Matt today, this time there was a camera. Hopefully a picture came out, I kept tapping on it to tell him to photo it and it was sort of like an old pillow, plumes of dust came off as I was patting it. I had to practically get him to lay in front of it to take the picture, I think it's a winch, almost looks like the front of an old car with one wheel.
I did meet Carol Cohn today, saw Elaine (fuggler) in the morning and saw Kathy with a couple other divers.
Matt had never been to the barge so we did that today too. Saw a hermissendra on the line, my favorite!
Matt and I had pizza at Gianni's after and I came home, hoping the tylenol will kick in soon. What an awesome weekend!