KLJ
Registered
Hi all,
Hope you all had lovely Easter weekends... Neil and I spent ours in Monterey and I am so glad we did.
On Saturday, we got down to BW at 7:30AM and were the only car in the lot. I was diving my new SP Ladyhawk and had newly installed spring straps so I felt less OW class and more real diver from the get go. Entry went well with biggest waves at 1-1.5 feet and long intervals. The vis was 3-5 feet with lots of stuff stirred up from the storms last week and the surge was pretty big at 10ish feet. We ended up hanging around the middle Kelp forest for about 40 minutes. I needed to reconfigure my gear a bit, but I had a nice time in the water even with the conditions.
On our SI, we met SB's KathyDee and buddy Erik kitting up. Great people and awesome BP/W set-up. Looking forward to hanging out with them again soon!
We were debating a 2nd dive, but conditions were deteriorating quickly with 3 foot waves. Actually saw a trio of new divers whose surf exit technique frightened us. While the two guys were looking for their 2nd set of lost rental fins, the girl was trying to exit fins-faced-forward with her reg dangling at her feet and her BC deflated. She fell forward and couldn't get back up. Neil literally ran in, got her up and out onto the beach, and carried her gear up to the steps. Apparently, Saturday was their first shore dive in Monterey.
In the end, I actually felt very Monterey diver since we a) called a dive and went to the aquarium and b) saw Fred and his red truck!
After the aquarium and a drive down to Big Sur, we ended up staying at Lone Oak Saturday night since I was (as Neil put it) "persistent" about the potential for diving Sunday (despite what was predicted on the forecasts).
It was the right choice. We got in two fantastic 60+ minute dives.
On the first, the entry was flat calm and the vis was around 7-10 feet. After watching SB's Gombessa's videos about dives in and around Monterey - I desperately wanted to shoot some of my own. So armed with my FLIP video camera and its underwater accessory I kept the camera going for our whole dive. Saw some very playful seals who were a bit camera-shy, but loved tugging on our fins. Headed out past the middle kelp forest and along the big pipe for a bit. Reviewed the video last night and it was more Blair Witch Project than Tour de Force. Maybe with some major editing I'll post it. Maybe.
Had a bit of an Easter miracle (or at least thats what I'm calling it - Neil calls it Excalibur). Neil lost one of his new Slipstream fins on Sunday. After ~20 minutes of looking in the surf, we were about to call the dive and "enjoy" a dejected drive home when the fin plants itself on Neil's foot. Hooray!
On the second dive, the waves had picked up a bit but still had an easy, fin-intact entry. Mostly hung out along the wall but on the swim over, we saw an amazing sand dollar patch and a foot long halibut buried in the sand.
So thus concludes my first 10 dives and I am absolutely hooked. I won't be out the next two weekends (headed home to Georgia to visit my parents), but you can be sure I'll be out and about April 24th. Hope to see you.
-Katie
Hope you all had lovely Easter weekends... Neil and I spent ours in Monterey and I am so glad we did.
On Saturday, we got down to BW at 7:30AM and were the only car in the lot. I was diving my new SP Ladyhawk and had newly installed spring straps so I felt less OW class and more real diver from the get go. Entry went well with biggest waves at 1-1.5 feet and long intervals. The vis was 3-5 feet with lots of stuff stirred up from the storms last week and the surge was pretty big at 10ish feet. We ended up hanging around the middle Kelp forest for about 40 minutes. I needed to reconfigure my gear a bit, but I had a nice time in the water even with the conditions.
On our SI, we met SB's KathyDee and buddy Erik kitting up. Great people and awesome BP/W set-up. Looking forward to hanging out with them again soon!
We were debating a 2nd dive, but conditions were deteriorating quickly with 3 foot waves. Actually saw a trio of new divers whose surf exit technique frightened us. While the two guys were looking for their 2nd set of lost rental fins, the girl was trying to exit fins-faced-forward with her reg dangling at her feet and her BC deflated. She fell forward and couldn't get back up. Neil literally ran in, got her up and out onto the beach, and carried her gear up to the steps. Apparently, Saturday was their first shore dive in Monterey.
In the end, I actually felt very Monterey diver since we a) called a dive and went to the aquarium and b) saw Fred and his red truck!
After the aquarium and a drive down to Big Sur, we ended up staying at Lone Oak Saturday night since I was (as Neil put it) "persistent" about the potential for diving Sunday (despite what was predicted on the forecasts).
It was the right choice. We got in two fantastic 60+ minute dives.
On the first, the entry was flat calm and the vis was around 7-10 feet. After watching SB's Gombessa's videos about dives in and around Monterey - I desperately wanted to shoot some of my own. So armed with my FLIP video camera and its underwater accessory I kept the camera going for our whole dive. Saw some very playful seals who were a bit camera-shy, but loved tugging on our fins. Headed out past the middle kelp forest and along the big pipe for a bit. Reviewed the video last night and it was more Blair Witch Project than Tour de Force. Maybe with some major editing I'll post it. Maybe.
Had a bit of an Easter miracle (or at least thats what I'm calling it - Neil calls it Excalibur). Neil lost one of his new Slipstream fins on Sunday. After ~20 minutes of looking in the surf, we were about to call the dive and "enjoy" a dejected drive home when the fin plants itself on Neil's foot. Hooray!
On the second dive, the waves had picked up a bit but still had an easy, fin-intact entry. Mostly hung out along the wall but on the swim over, we saw an amazing sand dollar patch and a foot long halibut buried in the sand.
So thus concludes my first 10 dives and I am absolutely hooked. I won't be out the next two weekends (headed home to Georgia to visit my parents), but you can be sure I'll be out and about April 24th. Hope to see you.
-Katie
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