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Went down on Thursday for a quick dive. Conditions were excellent topside, perfect weather, slight breeze, sunny, Just perfect. seas were calm inside the bay, with just a slight swell. Dove Lovers point first dive, worked on bouyancy issues. vis was about 15 Ft. temp 54. didn't really see much that dive. The hike back up to the car with all the gear on, was a work out though, and the sand wasn't any help.
2nd dive was at Breakwater, as it had showers, for cleaning the gear after. Tide was way out, Vis was about 15 again, and temps were down just a bit. One other group of 2 divers just leaving, so we had the place to ourselves, except for a guard seal that looked menacing, just as we were going in. We decided to dive along the pier, just for the ease of it. Great dive, I got to add one of the life moments to my book when I got an upclose visit from a couple of seals. MAN, can they move, when they are under water! One second their in your face, next they are gone. We saw lots of fish, and some wierd looking white string stuff all balled up, hanging on lots of different places and plants.. Looked like eggs of some sort. Dive buddy did a great job of watching out for me, as I am a newbie at this drysuit stuff. These dives were first dives at those places for me, so it helped to have a buddy who has dove there before.
Things were going great until my tank started to get empty, (I had AL80's) then I had trouble staying down. Ended up doing a surface swim back, during the last part, due to being too light. I had 34 Lbs on, and still can't stay down! I will try steel next time, and see if that helps. I have no more room on my belt for additional weights, plus they want to fall off while walking back to the car due to all the weight. I may have to go to a integrated BC, or a BP. Take out was a bit harder then when we went in, due to the surf coming up a bit while we were out, but not that big of a deal. Had a great time, just wish I could do it more often.
Work on your buoyancy -- 34 pounds is a lot with a dry
suit -- I use 19 + six pound back plate + 1 pound camera,
and I'm a big guy (6'5", 200). The suit should be snug
pushing shrinkwrapped.
What kind of suit? (Shell, Crushed Neoprene, soft Neoprene)?
trilam Andy's, a tad big, but livable. I also only have a jacket BC which imparts just about ZERO in ballast. I am starting to think that a BP might be in order or a heavier BC I have tried over and over, and the lowest I have ever been able to go is 28, but that was really marginal, not to mention I never got to the bottom of the tank to find out what happens at that weight. The boots (wader type) felt like they still had air in them, but nothing else was coming out the valve, when I depressed it, and yes it is working fine from what I can tell. the suit certainly is "shrink wrapped" when I get out.
It also depends on your undergarments. Some undergarments are more buoyant and trap a lot more air than others. A steel tank will more than likely shed around 4 lbs while a steel backplate will shed another 6+ pounds depending on BP weight. If you add a channel weight to your BP you can shed another 6-9 pounds easily. So you could easily get down to around a 15lb weight belt or less. Much more comfy than carrying 34lbs which sounds kind of excessive. Your jacket BC could also be trapping air making it necessary to wear more weight than necessary.
I was there that day myself with Diverrick. I have been to Breakwater many times on weekends but because of the silt-making OW classes I never realized what a great dive it can be on a quiet day. Easy dive with lots to see.
Diverrick: Let me know if you want to borrow a steel tank to try. As far as I am concerned there is no other tank for cold water diving.
Monday the 21st its on to Pt Lobos. Sometimes I wonder why I spend so much on airline tickets when there is so much great diving right here in California. Just gotta be equipped right.
Stunning weekend in Monterey. The mrs and I dove pt lobos friday and enjoyed vis of about 30 feet at the pinnacles with a few harbor seals. Went on the monterey express saturday & dove pescadero pinnacles with similar visability and then a dive outside carmel beach. Almost every dive had 50 degree surface and 48 degree depth temps. This morning got in 2 GREAT dives on the north end of monestary and happened upon a monkey face eel. I'm begining to live for this.
If you can't eliminate some weight, then there are ways to distribute the weight.
I dive wet, as does my extremely bouyant buddy. With 2-piece 7 mm suit plus big boots, hood gloves etc with AL80's we are pretty bouyant. I use about 30 lbs im Monterey and Dennis uses about 40 lbs. (before anyone preaches that it is too much weight, I would agree but it doesn't matter how good my "bouyancy" is, if I can't maintain depth at the safety stop, then I need more weight. 14mm of neoprene is pretty darn bouyant, and nothing I do will change that until it breaks down.) Besides my amount of weight is not my point here.
I use a simple weight belt with about 12 lbs of coated weights on it, and the rest in the integrated pouches in my BC. That distributes the weight easily and the BC is much easier to manage than when all the weight is in the BC.
The "hard weights" on the belt are not a "comfort" problem since I have so much neoprene around the middle. Actually for me, a 12 lb weight belt is quite acceptable. It might be more of an issue in a drysuit, but the undergarments should provide the necessary padding.
My buddy uses a DUI Trim System to get some of his weight out of his BC. He has no hips so a weightbelt just slipped down. He loves the DUI and how well it secures the weight. It is comfortable and easy to use. With less weight in his Ranger BC it is easier to get the weight pouches in. With 40 lbs in it the Ranger was within "specifications" but it was really hard to manage and hard to load.
Just a couple of weight re-distribution options.
Of course a steel tank will allow you to remove a chunk 'o lead.
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monterey dive report 10 Jun 04
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