parabuzzle
Registered
Yestereday I went out on the Silver Prince in the afternoon to tag along with Lisa's open water class and take a few photos (oh and try out my new fusion and custom oceanliners undergarment). We went out to the aquarium and setup there for both dives. These were the first two ocean dives for her class so the max depth for the site was around 40 fsw with the anchor hooked in at about 20 fsw. I forgot what it was like to watch a group of new divers go down the line for the first time. I headed down first to get some shots of them as they descended and the look of amazement in their eyes as they saw the bottom through the murk reminded me of my first dives. It was either amazement or panic, it's hard to tell 
so anyway, viz was ok at the beginning, around 10-15, but got worse as you expect when going with a group of 5 OW students. So I took as many shots as I could towards the beginning, before viz was wrecked. Hopefully I will have those up soon after a bit of cleanup. The first dive was just the tour dive and after about 30 minutes everyone surfaced and got back on the boat. This was Lisa's first time in the ocean and the first time she understood why I get antsy when conditions are nice on my day off Listening to all the students talk about their first dive was interesting too. The excitement in their voices is indescribable. The second dive was a skills dive so I descended down the line, took a few shots of skills before the viz was turned to 2ft with those damned fin pivots and then headed off for a bit of creature photo work in clearer water. On my way back to the anchor I ran in to a DM with 2 students doing their tour and one of the students reached down to grab a piece of kelp, only it turned out to not be kelp at all... It was...., a freaking mermaids purse!!!!!! Holy crap! I saw my first mermaid purse! It looked like a skate was in there towards the end stage and it was AMAZING! I tried to take Lisa back to it but couldn't find it again. Damned elusive things. Photos will be up later this week.
All in all, two good dives and great scenery. I wish my first OW dives were tht pretty.
so anyway, viz was ok at the beginning, around 10-15, but got worse as you expect when going with a group of 5 OW students. So I took as many shots as I could towards the beginning, before viz was wrecked. Hopefully I will have those up soon after a bit of cleanup. The first dive was just the tour dive and after about 30 minutes everyone surfaced and got back on the boat. This was Lisa's first time in the ocean and the first time she understood why I get antsy when conditions are nice on my day off Listening to all the students talk about their first dive was interesting too. The excitement in their voices is indescribable. The second dive was a skills dive so I descended down the line, took a few shots of skills before the viz was turned to 2ft with those damned fin pivots and then headed off for a bit of creature photo work in clearer water. On my way back to the anchor I ran in to a DM with 2 students doing their tour and one of the students reached down to grab a piece of kelp, only it turned out to not be kelp at all... It was...., a freaking mermaids purse!!!!!! Holy crap! I saw my first mermaid purse! It looked like a skate was in there towards the end stage and it was AMAZING! I tried to take Lisa back to it but couldn't find it again. Damned elusive things. Photos will be up later this week. All in all, two good dives and great scenery. I wish my first OW dives were tht pretty.
