mikeguerrero
Guest
Dive report 12-22...
After seeing spectacular reports from Pacificgal, Kathy and Gombessa. Devin called me and said, how about a dive at Lobos...
So with a gorgeous day we set out. As I approach Seaside, I see the breakers are unusually large and white caps are breaking everywhere. With a positive move me continue.
As we drive past Monastery, the beach is just unbelievable, waves are crashing in huge sets and I start to get this feeling that Lobos might not be nice.
We pay to enter and the attendant, a young gal, tells us how beautiful it is. As we enter we see that the cove is churning with swells and the only other two divers say, if you think this is nice go up the cliff and let it rain on you.
Mind you, that there is not a cloud in the sky and huge waves are crashing all over the rocks and the wind is spaying water everywhere. The only visible life is from the seals in the cove that stare at us and dare us to come in.
With our better judgement we call the dive, and are very surprised that we are refunded our full amount by another attendant, for not being able to dive.
Off we run to Break Water and meet up with the two divers from Lobos that are taking out there inflatable Zodiak.
Break Water looks really bad but starts to calm down, enough to attempt one dive. There are three instructors conducting very small classes.
Devin plans the dive to enter by the pipe in an attempt to reach the Metridiums to deeper water, might make for a nice dive once we get through the pounding surf.
We fully gear up and I decide to take my 19cf pony for added air, just in case a problem might occur.
With fins clutched in hand we enter the pounding the surf, trying to count the swells and time it right.
As we enter just enough to place fins on, my mask begins to really fog up, I cannot see that well, and as I dodge through two large waves, I suddenly feel a large shadow cast over me.
I look up and it's a wave that has my name written on it. It grabs me with all it's energy and thrust me backwards into it. Let me try to explain what I felt next. As the wave took me backwards, I felt my 100 cf tank pull me down to the bottom of the whipping sand, I could feel the huge tug of my tank pull on my rig, especially the shoulder straps. There was no way to escape that force. As I lay submerged at the bottom of breakers, I could see white wash everywhere and a bright light from the Sun.
I could not get up and realized I didn't have any air in my BC, nor did I have my regulator in my mouth, that wave just came out of nowhere.
I realized wow, I not going to stay down here, I need to get up off my back. I quickly rolled to my side and with all the energy I had, I stood up. As I break the surface and gasp for air, my buddy comforts me and says, are you okay?
I nod to him and grap that neck bungied regulator and slap it into my mouth, I twist into a figure four and place one fin on, twist my head into the water and get the second fin on. I am then thrusting those Jet fins out of the surf zone, those jets are powerful, thank good ness.
I am still shooken up a bit from the massive wave and my buddy is making sure I'm okay. My wing being only 30 lbs is not making a dent with these swells and since I have the 19cf pony it's even more weight. So I add Argon to my drysuit and dial back my exhuast valve, things improve greatly.
Things don't improve at all, the ocean is still mean and we finally get to our drop point. We take headings on the compass and make a descent to the bottom at about 23 feet all while remaining in contact with each other.
Viz is 3 feet to zero as we try to find the pipe. With both HID lights on we are able to barely make out our positions. At times the surge pulls us away from each other only to see the faint lights as beacons to get us back.
After about 20 mins and gas at about 2100 psi, I call the dive and my buddy responds for a return. As we attempt to head back in, we cannot dial in 210 on the compass without being pushed back in the other direction.
We attempt to swim best we can when my buddy and I decide, time to surface. At my safety stop we lose each other and I grab onto some kelp to keep me stable to complete my stop.
It's whipping back and forth like a whip, and I'm literally jumping from one kelp to another, I felt like Tarzan.
Depth gauge is reading 10 feet then jumps me back down to 18 feet and then back to 10 feet. Finally my 3 min deco is over and I surface. My buddy is right there waiting for me. He looks at me and says, it's not over, the waves are worse.
I look and the breakers at the surf zone are just mean as can be, never seen them that way, and I am in the water.
As we attempt to make our way back in, huge rocks on the shore begin to appear and my buddy says, we need to get as close as we can to the break water and avoid those deadly rocks.
At this point I'm too close to the rocks and feel my fins hitting a large one. I tell my buddy, I need to drop and release the air from my BC. This allows me to start kicking forward toward the safety of the beach.
With Mask on, reg clutched in my mouth I strike my legs as hard as I can and the jets start pushing me forward. I cannot see behind me, but know those waves are going to be crashing on my back.
I see my buddy literally hugging one of those huge rocks and I come crashing through him like a surfboard, I next feel a collusion with the rocks and as I feel the waves all over me trying to pull out my regulator, I bite down even harder on my mouth piece.
As my hands and knees finally make contact with the sand I remember Doc Wongs video about escaping the surf at Monastery. I start crawling out as fast as I can and make it up the beach, but I am too exhausted to move anymore.
My buddy then comes, and I ask to have my fins removed, he gets them off and then I notice one of my rubber rings from my drygloves has come off and is floating in the water, I quickly grab it and cannot believe how it came off.
The power of the wave was so strong it pulled it off, and with my gear all scuffed from the rocks I came out without a scratch. I was amazed how my tanks took the damage and I did not.
The other two divers on the Zodiak never made it to their destination. They told me, as one diver got off the boat, he told his buddy to shut off the engine, he replied, I did but the waves/surge were moving his propellar. The boat was taking on so much water, he said, if I didn't come back to port it would've sank.
Breakwater was brutal and mean and didn't want to give any divers a chance to enjoy the beauty below.
I since enrolled in Rescue class and will be taking the course next week at my diveshop.
I hope everyone enjoys much better dives than we did yesterday.
Be safe out there....
MG
After seeing spectacular reports from Pacificgal, Kathy and Gombessa. Devin called me and said, how about a dive at Lobos...
So with a gorgeous day we set out. As I approach Seaside, I see the breakers are unusually large and white caps are breaking everywhere. With a positive move me continue.
As we drive past Monastery, the beach is just unbelievable, waves are crashing in huge sets and I start to get this feeling that Lobos might not be nice.
We pay to enter and the attendant, a young gal, tells us how beautiful it is. As we enter we see that the cove is churning with swells and the only other two divers say, if you think this is nice go up the cliff and let it rain on you.
Mind you, that there is not a cloud in the sky and huge waves are crashing all over the rocks and the wind is spaying water everywhere. The only visible life is from the seals in the cove that stare at us and dare us to come in.
With our better judgement we call the dive, and are very surprised that we are refunded our full amount by another attendant, for not being able to dive.
Off we run to Break Water and meet up with the two divers from Lobos that are taking out there inflatable Zodiak.
Break Water looks really bad but starts to calm down, enough to attempt one dive. There are three instructors conducting very small classes.
Devin plans the dive to enter by the pipe in an attempt to reach the Metridiums to deeper water, might make for a nice dive once we get through the pounding surf.
We fully gear up and I decide to take my 19cf pony for added air, just in case a problem might occur.
With fins clutched in hand we enter the pounding the surf, trying to count the swells and time it right.
As we enter just enough to place fins on, my mask begins to really fog up, I cannot see that well, and as I dodge through two large waves, I suddenly feel a large shadow cast over me.
I look up and it's a wave that has my name written on it. It grabs me with all it's energy and thrust me backwards into it. Let me try to explain what I felt next. As the wave took me backwards, I felt my 100 cf tank pull me down to the bottom of the whipping sand, I could feel the huge tug of my tank pull on my rig, especially the shoulder straps. There was no way to escape that force. As I lay submerged at the bottom of breakers, I could see white wash everywhere and a bright light from the Sun.
I could not get up and realized I didn't have any air in my BC, nor did I have my regulator in my mouth, that wave just came out of nowhere.
I realized wow, I not going to stay down here, I need to get up off my back. I quickly rolled to my side and with all the energy I had, I stood up. As I break the surface and gasp for air, my buddy comforts me and says, are you okay?
I nod to him and grap that neck bungied regulator and slap it into my mouth, I twist into a figure four and place one fin on, twist my head into the water and get the second fin on. I am then thrusting those Jet fins out of the surf zone, those jets are powerful, thank good ness.
I am still shooken up a bit from the massive wave and my buddy is making sure I'm okay. My wing being only 30 lbs is not making a dent with these swells and since I have the 19cf pony it's even more weight. So I add Argon to my drysuit and dial back my exhuast valve, things improve greatly.
Things don't improve at all, the ocean is still mean and we finally get to our drop point. We take headings on the compass and make a descent to the bottom at about 23 feet all while remaining in contact with each other.
Viz is 3 feet to zero as we try to find the pipe. With both HID lights on we are able to barely make out our positions. At times the surge pulls us away from each other only to see the faint lights as beacons to get us back.
After about 20 mins and gas at about 2100 psi, I call the dive and my buddy responds for a return. As we attempt to head back in, we cannot dial in 210 on the compass without being pushed back in the other direction.
We attempt to swim best we can when my buddy and I decide, time to surface. At my safety stop we lose each other and I grab onto some kelp to keep me stable to complete my stop.
It's whipping back and forth like a whip, and I'm literally jumping from one kelp to another, I felt like Tarzan.
Depth gauge is reading 10 feet then jumps me back down to 18 feet and then back to 10 feet. Finally my 3 min deco is over and I surface. My buddy is right there waiting for me. He looks at me and says, it's not over, the waves are worse.
I look and the breakers at the surf zone are just mean as can be, never seen them that way, and I am in the water.
As we attempt to make our way back in, huge rocks on the shore begin to appear and my buddy says, we need to get as close as we can to the break water and avoid those deadly rocks.
At this point I'm too close to the rocks and feel my fins hitting a large one. I tell my buddy, I need to drop and release the air from my BC. This allows me to start kicking forward toward the safety of the beach.
With Mask on, reg clutched in my mouth I strike my legs as hard as I can and the jets start pushing me forward. I cannot see behind me, but know those waves are going to be crashing on my back.
I see my buddy literally hugging one of those huge rocks and I come crashing through him like a surfboard, I next feel a collusion with the rocks and as I feel the waves all over me trying to pull out my regulator, I bite down even harder on my mouth piece.
As my hands and knees finally make contact with the sand I remember Doc Wongs video about escaping the surf at Monastery. I start crawling out as fast as I can and make it up the beach, but I am too exhausted to move anymore.
My buddy then comes, and I ask to have my fins removed, he gets them off and then I notice one of my rubber rings from my drygloves has come off and is floating in the water, I quickly grab it and cannot believe how it came off.
The power of the wave was so strong it pulled it off, and with my gear all scuffed from the rocks I came out without a scratch. I was amazed how my tanks took the damage and I did not.
The other two divers on the Zodiak never made it to their destination. They told me, as one diver got off the boat, he told his buddy to shut off the engine, he replied, I did but the waves/surge were moving his propellar. The boat was taking on so much water, he said, if I didn't come back to port it would've sank.
Breakwater was brutal and mean and didn't want to give any divers a chance to enjoy the beauty below.
I since enrolled in Rescue class and will be taking the course next week at my diveshop.
I hope everyone enjoys much better dives than we did yesterday.
Be safe out there....
MG
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