20 December 2008
Ocean was Lake Laguna with surf raging at a whole 3-5 inches, if that.
We planned to meet at 12:00 at the Montage because it is the only ADA accessible dive site in Laguna Beach complete with ADA ramp and the cove will allow diving with other areas have high surf. Heisler Park is a close second, but the ramp is too steep to meet standards.
The ADA ramp at the Montage is on the first cove and has a nice large cement pad at the bottom to use as a base of operations. We suited up here for the first of two scheduled dives, but we were already running an hour behind schedule. Once ready we utilized a handy sling (piece of canvas with 3 straps and 6 carrying handles to move Ryan who is a T6-7 incomplete quadriplegic to the waters edge we sat him in an umbrella chair to complete suit-up (zip zippers etc) and make final pre-dive checks, get his gear into the water etc. We (Ryan, his friend Joe, myself and his instructor, this being the final dive of certification) then entered the water. We put Ryan's dive gear on in water and started our swim out. Ryan and Brian (his instructor) swam out to the float while I put on my gear and followed. After swimming out about 150 yards, we dropped down into 17 feet of water and headed out to deeper water where we had a nice dive of 40 minutes (the original plan) in 6-10 foot hazy visibility. On the bottom we repositioned the ankle weights used to keep Ryan vertical onto his chest to trim him out in a horizontal position. I led off and Ryan and friends followed and we had a great time. We had planned the dive for 40 minutes and at the end of that time, thinking of my parking expiring at 3:00 and with Ryan's friend running low on air (Ryan has excellent air consumption) we repositioned the ankle weights for surfacing and surfaced near the float we had positioned before the dive. Ryan is an incomplete quad and can swim with his arms. Boy can he swim with his arms! I had to keep telling him to slow down and let me catch up during the surface swim back. Back at the waters edge we stop just beyond the 1 foot wide surf zone and reverse our procedures by removing his dive gear, placing the sling on Ryan and carrying him back to the staging area. Ryan is a great natural diver who I was honored to dive with. Now fully certified by both NAUI and HSA as a level A (diver with no restrictions who has demonstrated he can do rescue including tired buddy tow with rescue breathing) having done two boat dives (plus 2 boat dives in Hawaii), two Casino Point stairs dives and a beach dive for a total of 7 dives. Due to exiting the water about the time we planned to enter for our second dive, we canceled the second dive as it was 3:00 p.m. and we were just getting out of the water with sunset was at 4:15.
Ryan is now a fully certified diver. He did 2 Boat Dives (not counting the 2 he did in Hawaii), 2 dives in Catalina at the point and 1 beach dive for his certification. He is better than I was when I first got certified and I look forward to diving with him again soon. I had a lot of fun and I stuck around for a night dive with his instructor where we saw a 3.5 foot horn shark snoozing in a cave who woke and came out to explore the night.
Ocean was Lake Laguna with surf raging at a whole 3-5 inches, if that.
We planned to meet at 12:00 at the Montage because it is the only ADA accessible dive site in Laguna Beach complete with ADA ramp and the cove will allow diving with other areas have high surf. Heisler Park is a close second, but the ramp is too steep to meet standards.
The ADA ramp at the Montage is on the first cove and has a nice large cement pad at the bottom to use as a base of operations. We suited up here for the first of two scheduled dives, but we were already running an hour behind schedule. Once ready we utilized a handy sling (piece of canvas with 3 straps and 6 carrying handles to move Ryan who is a T6-7 incomplete quadriplegic to the waters edge we sat him in an umbrella chair to complete suit-up (zip zippers etc) and make final pre-dive checks, get his gear into the water etc. We (Ryan, his friend Joe, myself and his instructor, this being the final dive of certification) then entered the water. We put Ryan's dive gear on in water and started our swim out. Ryan and Brian (his instructor) swam out to the float while I put on my gear and followed. After swimming out about 150 yards, we dropped down into 17 feet of water and headed out to deeper water where we had a nice dive of 40 minutes (the original plan) in 6-10 foot hazy visibility. On the bottom we repositioned the ankle weights used to keep Ryan vertical onto his chest to trim him out in a horizontal position. I led off and Ryan and friends followed and we had a great time. We had planned the dive for 40 minutes and at the end of that time, thinking of my parking expiring at 3:00 and with Ryan's friend running low on air (Ryan has excellent air consumption) we repositioned the ankle weights for surfacing and surfaced near the float we had positioned before the dive. Ryan is an incomplete quad and can swim with his arms. Boy can he swim with his arms! I had to keep telling him to slow down and let me catch up during the surface swim back. Back at the waters edge we stop just beyond the 1 foot wide surf zone and reverse our procedures by removing his dive gear, placing the sling on Ryan and carrying him back to the staging area. Ryan is a great natural diver who I was honored to dive with. Now fully certified by both NAUI and HSA as a level A (diver with no restrictions who has demonstrated he can do rescue including tired buddy tow with rescue breathing) having done two boat dives (plus 2 boat dives in Hawaii), two Casino Point stairs dives and a beach dive for a total of 7 dives. Due to exiting the water about the time we planned to enter for our second dive, we canceled the second dive as it was 3:00 p.m. and we were just getting out of the water with sunset was at 4:15.
Ryan is now a fully certified diver. He did 2 Boat Dives (not counting the 2 he did in Hawaii), 2 dives in Catalina at the point and 1 beach dive for his certification. He is better than I was when I first got certified and I look forward to diving with him again soon. I had a lot of fun and I stuck around for a night dive with his instructor where we saw a 3.5 foot horn shark snoozing in a cave who woke and came out to explore the night.
