Peter_C
Contributor
So the story begins with me asking one of my buddies if he wants to do a little boat diving Saturday, since the swell is only going to be 2-4'. Lake Pacific is where we dive...most any other day it is a powerful ocean to be respected. Well any way my friend says no can do I am working 7 days a week right now. So I fiddle around getting my dive gear ready Friday night and after watching a movie try to get to sleep. Come on fall asleep Peter...oh why can't I fall asleep? So I watch the clock roll past 1:00 am, then 2:00am. At this point I turned off the 7:00 am alarm and said screw it, I get up when I get up. 8:30 am I get up and slowly pack my car, slowly cook breakfast, and slowly head off towards the coast an hour and a half away. With a stop for fuel, I make it to Salt Point State Park (Gerstle Cove as we call it) in pretty good time, which is now around noon.
Now I rarely solo dive, as I much prefer to dive with a buddy for the fun aspect. It has probably been a year since I went out solo and that was in Monterey at a mostly benign beach called the Breakwater. I decided this next dive I wanted to do solo, just to do it. I had actually passed some friends at another beach but didn't stop, since I was on a mission.
My Freedom Plate is one of the originals that Eric made long before the Mach V wing ever was invented. (You can pry my single tank Freedom Plate from my cold dead hand.) Since my 30lb Signature wing just wouldn't float my HP130 full, with can light, H valve with double regs, and a wedge lead weight of about 5 extra pounds. The solution was an upgrade to a Mach V 40 lb wing that this website helped me locate a used one in the classifieds. Still not sure it was used as it looked perfect. Smokin' deal. The cam band slots were in the wrong places because Oxycheq had completely redesigned the wing. To make it work properly I went to my local salvage yard (Love Bataeff's Salvage) and bought a square tube hunk of stainless for a few dollars. I had spent hours building a custom STA of sorts, but not really an STA. I melted my old lead wedge that wouldn't work any longer and filled the channel in as much as possible. Just filling the channel in with lead took hours. First I had to refill my small propane bottles off the larger one to use on my camp stove. Then get the camping stove out, oxy/acetylene torch to help speed the process up, a stage bottle with nitrox for me to breathe. Then I used the actual tank mount strapped to my grinder stand. Had to make a couple wood blocks to fill the gaps...well you get the point. Fabricating anything, even with the right tools takes time.
Here is my custom tool for pouring the lead into the pseudo STA. It is my grinder stand with the top removed.
Here is the Mach V ready to go onto my tank. Unfortunately I did not get a photo of my complete kit ready to go.
I dropped my gear off at the bottom, then parked my car and suited up. I steadily got into my dive gear, and no sooner than the zipper on my drysuit was closed I was overheating. Finished putting my complete kit on, and with all system checks a GO!, I saunter down to the water grabbing my scooter set near the waters edge. I clipped the scooter off to the crotch strap and took a few steps over the basketball sized slippery boulders and promptly started to loose my balance. Setting my scooter down hard tail first on the rock I cringed but regained my balance. (Turns out later I found I cracked my shroud, repaired it today, and nicked the prop adjustment. Lucky more damage wasn't done.) I carefully walked out into the water and floated for a minute to relax and start to cool down. Then I put my fins on, reg in mouth and started scootering out on the surface. I planned on staying out as long as I had gas since I had only brought one tank.
Wouldn't you be excited to go diving too?
Once at the outer part of the cove I took a heading and set both my compasses. I mostly use the one mounted on my scooter though. Dropping into 30' of water the vis is decent with around 15' horizontal. As I head out the cove further it starts deteriorating quickly. I am cruising along looking down and when I look up again I see fishing line. Oh snap! I get off the trigger, flare my feet, and put my left hand out. At this point the fishing line is going behind me, but it is still in my hand. The fisherman on shore probably yelled, "HOLD MY BEER I GOT A BIG ONE!"
Here they are fishing for ME! Sorry for the bad photo they are a long long way off. You can see the rock outcropping, across the cove, in the photo above.
I made a quick decision to try to break the line as quickly as possible. Tossing my scooter aside, I grabbed the line with my right hand and pulled my hands apart quickly breaking the line as I can feel the fisherman pulling me towards them. Now I have line running across my back that I can't see. I stop and gently helicopter around but the line follows. Oh no...the hook is set? I roll gently with the line in my hand and find I am not hooked, but there is a spark plug moving in the sand as I tug on the line. Big relief
I never panicked but reacted when the line was moving quickly past me and the thought of the hook set me in motion quickly. Once that was out of the way I slowly worked myself free. There isn't much I could do with the fishing line, but I wasn't about to leave a baited hook on the bottom. I removed the bait and then took the hook and ground the tip on a rock, eventually removing the spark plug with my cut off steak knife and sticking it in my pocket. During this time I notice the cold water getting into my left glove.
When I get myself squared away I start inspecting my glove. Sure enough on the pinky finger there is a nice slice from the fishing line. The water is warm at 50 degrees, but not something I want in my dry glove. Every time I bend my finger more cold water rushes in. Since I use my under garment thumb loop as a "straw" under the latex seal, for equalization, I decide to try to pull it out so only my glove will flood. I have done this before when I punctured a glove wearing my CF200. Now I am in a Fusion though so I have to go through two layers of drysuit. Like any Padi trained diver the first thing I have to do when performing this drill is kneel on the bottom. Well in this case it was sand, and I needed my arm up high to fill it with air. Dumping the wing set me on the bottom, then I closed the drysuit exhaust valve and pumped a little more air into my suit. Having the arm blown up like Popeye's arm, I was able with a little fiddling to think I had the thumb loop clear, but time would tell. After resetting the exhaust valve and adding air back into my wing, I set off again, this time with a cold wet hand.
At around 45' I decided it was time to turn my can light on, and spent some time poking around under rocks. Scooter a few hundred feet and stopping at anything that looked interesting. This is one of the nice things about solo diving is it is my pace, and I get to go where I want. No need to constantly look for a buddy either. Although I will admit this time of year when the Landlord is around, I sometimes tend to look for a large one stalking me. The scooter worries me some, since Marco Flagg one of the few scuba divers to ever be bitten by a Great White shark was scootering at the time. Enough about petty fears as they are not big enough to keep me out of the water. I hit 62' max as that was my plan. I was searching for anchors but 8-10' of vis wasn't much good for it. I found two this round. My gas supply was still over 2,800 psi, but I decided to turn back to the cove for more life, and better vis. Although I did spot two nice sized Cabazon's.
A short time on the trigger and I was back in 20 feet of water. Minimal surge on this calm day. I poked around hitting the trigger sometimes chasing Greenlings. Eventually I clipped off my scooter, stowed my light, and just kicked around. Bamboo Reef's owner Tom was out there teaching a class, and his students roto-tilled the area like most newbies do. I moved sideways and continued my dive in the steller 15' vis. Gerstle Cove is a Marine Protected area and has tons of life in it. I need to spend more time on a calm day just simply exploring the cove. Heck I could probably get 2.5 hours out of my tank. This dive ended at 81 minutes with 1,600 psi in my tank. My hand was wet and cold, but the rest of me was still dry.
Coming straight out of the water, I slowly picked my way through the rocks stopping once in a while to set my scooter down and take a breather. The stair case up from the beach got hammered in last years storms and it is pretty much gone. The steps are big even if you are not wearing full dive gear. I cleared them, hiked up to the drop off zone, and after setting my scoot down, I removed my tank. Often since I use 32% I will keep my reg in mouth and did so this hike too. So there I sit with my long hose in my mouth breathing away as my heart rate slows, with these students looking at me like I am crazy. Once my heart is slowed way down I proceed up the hill to my car to change. As I am loading my car at the bottom with gear, I watch a diver come out in drysuit, dry gloves, can light, BP/W and I go "I gotta find out who this is??" Well after he is out of his gear I ask if the tank up above is his. There is the pickup line boys "Is that your tank?" It worked! Maybe only on married men though? Turns out it is my friend Jeff and he couldn't find anyone on short notice and got there right about the time I was getting in the water.
After chatting and packing up his gear I ask him if he wants to go grab a beer. With no hesitation he says sure. We head town the road to Timber Cove Inn, grab a couple of beers and head out to the back patio. There is no wind, it is sunny, I got 20 oz of cold Great White beer in my hand, wearing a tee shirt in the middle of winter, on the coast..."Life is Good". After chatting with Jeff and lots of Valentine weekend love birds staying at the Inn, (My gal is in France until Wednesday, boo hoo) it was soon enough time to depart. Jeff and I said our good byes and headed down the coastal highway.
We talked about getting together and doing a skills dive, hopefully we can do so soon. Then do some more exploring of Gerstle Cove.
Today one of my friends came over and we spent part of the day starting to build a custom wheel setup, using Wheeleez sand tires for launching my 14' Zodiac over beaches. I am hoping the wheels will also help at Point Lobos when the ramp is high and dry. Another beautiful day that should help get us through this next rainy week.
Now I rarely solo dive, as I much prefer to dive with a buddy for the fun aspect. It has probably been a year since I went out solo and that was in Monterey at a mostly benign beach called the Breakwater. I decided this next dive I wanted to do solo, just to do it. I had actually passed some friends at another beach but didn't stop, since I was on a mission.
My Freedom Plate is one of the originals that Eric made long before the Mach V wing ever was invented. (You can pry my single tank Freedom Plate from my cold dead hand.) Since my 30lb Signature wing just wouldn't float my HP130 full, with can light, H valve with double regs, and a wedge lead weight of about 5 extra pounds. The solution was an upgrade to a Mach V 40 lb wing that this website helped me locate a used one in the classifieds. Still not sure it was used as it looked perfect. Smokin' deal. The cam band slots were in the wrong places because Oxycheq had completely redesigned the wing. To make it work properly I went to my local salvage yard (Love Bataeff's Salvage) and bought a square tube hunk of stainless for a few dollars. I had spent hours building a custom STA of sorts, but not really an STA. I melted my old lead wedge that wouldn't work any longer and filled the channel in as much as possible. Just filling the channel in with lead took hours. First I had to refill my small propane bottles off the larger one to use on my camp stove. Then get the camping stove out, oxy/acetylene torch to help speed the process up, a stage bottle with nitrox for me to breathe. Then I used the actual tank mount strapped to my grinder stand. Had to make a couple wood blocks to fill the gaps...well you get the point. Fabricating anything, even with the right tools takes time.
Here is my custom tool for pouring the lead into the pseudo STA. It is my grinder stand with the top removed.
Here is the Mach V ready to go onto my tank. Unfortunately I did not get a photo of my complete kit ready to go.
I dropped my gear off at the bottom, then parked my car and suited up. I steadily got into my dive gear, and no sooner than the zipper on my drysuit was closed I was overheating. Finished putting my complete kit on, and with all system checks a GO!, I saunter down to the water grabbing my scooter set near the waters edge. I clipped the scooter off to the crotch strap and took a few steps over the basketball sized slippery boulders and promptly started to loose my balance. Setting my scooter down hard tail first on the rock I cringed but regained my balance. (Turns out later I found I cracked my shroud, repaired it today, and nicked the prop adjustment. Lucky more damage wasn't done.) I carefully walked out into the water and floated for a minute to relax and start to cool down. Then I put my fins on, reg in mouth and started scootering out on the surface. I planned on staying out as long as I had gas since I had only brought one tank.
Wouldn't you be excited to go diving too?
Once at the outer part of the cove I took a heading and set both my compasses. I mostly use the one mounted on my scooter though. Dropping into 30' of water the vis is decent with around 15' horizontal. As I head out the cove further it starts deteriorating quickly. I am cruising along looking down and when I look up again I see fishing line. Oh snap! I get off the trigger, flare my feet, and put my left hand out. At this point the fishing line is going behind me, but it is still in my hand. The fisherman on shore probably yelled, "HOLD MY BEER I GOT A BIG ONE!"
Here they are fishing for ME! Sorry for the bad photo they are a long long way off. You can see the rock outcropping, across the cove, in the photo above.
I made a quick decision to try to break the line as quickly as possible. Tossing my scooter aside, I grabbed the line with my right hand and pulled my hands apart quickly breaking the line as I can feel the fisherman pulling me towards them. Now I have line running across my back that I can't see. I stop and gently helicopter around but the line follows. Oh no...the hook is set? I roll gently with the line in my hand and find I am not hooked, but there is a spark plug moving in the sand as I tug on the line. Big relief
I never panicked but reacted when the line was moving quickly past me and the thought of the hook set me in motion quickly. Once that was out of the way I slowly worked myself free. There isn't much I could do with the fishing line, but I wasn't about to leave a baited hook on the bottom. I removed the bait and then took the hook and ground the tip on a rock, eventually removing the spark plug with my cut off steak knife and sticking it in my pocket. During this time I notice the cold water getting into my left glove. When I get myself squared away I start inspecting my glove. Sure enough on the pinky finger there is a nice slice from the fishing line. The water is warm at 50 degrees, but not something I want in my dry glove. Every time I bend my finger more cold water rushes in. Since I use my under garment thumb loop as a "straw" under the latex seal, for equalization, I decide to try to pull it out so only my glove will flood. I have done this before when I punctured a glove wearing my CF200. Now I am in a Fusion though so I have to go through two layers of drysuit. Like any Padi trained diver the first thing I have to do when performing this drill is kneel on the bottom. Well in this case it was sand, and I needed my arm up high to fill it with air. Dumping the wing set me on the bottom, then I closed the drysuit exhaust valve and pumped a little more air into my suit. Having the arm blown up like Popeye's arm, I was able with a little fiddling to think I had the thumb loop clear, but time would tell. After resetting the exhaust valve and adding air back into my wing, I set off again, this time with a cold wet hand.
At around 45' I decided it was time to turn my can light on, and spent some time poking around under rocks. Scooter a few hundred feet and stopping at anything that looked interesting. This is one of the nice things about solo diving is it is my pace, and I get to go where I want. No need to constantly look for a buddy either. Although I will admit this time of year when the Landlord is around, I sometimes tend to look for a large one stalking me. The scooter worries me some, since Marco Flagg one of the few scuba divers to ever be bitten by a Great White shark was scootering at the time. Enough about petty fears as they are not big enough to keep me out of the water. I hit 62' max as that was my plan. I was searching for anchors but 8-10' of vis wasn't much good for it. I found two this round. My gas supply was still over 2,800 psi, but I decided to turn back to the cove for more life, and better vis. Although I did spot two nice sized Cabazon's.
A short time on the trigger and I was back in 20 feet of water. Minimal surge on this calm day. I poked around hitting the trigger sometimes chasing Greenlings. Eventually I clipped off my scooter, stowed my light, and just kicked around. Bamboo Reef's owner Tom was out there teaching a class, and his students roto-tilled the area like most newbies do. I moved sideways and continued my dive in the steller 15' vis. Gerstle Cove is a Marine Protected area and has tons of life in it. I need to spend more time on a calm day just simply exploring the cove. Heck I could probably get 2.5 hours out of my tank. This dive ended at 81 minutes with 1,600 psi in my tank. My hand was wet and cold, but the rest of me was still dry.
Coming straight out of the water, I slowly picked my way through the rocks stopping once in a while to set my scooter down and take a breather. The stair case up from the beach got hammered in last years storms and it is pretty much gone. The steps are big even if you are not wearing full dive gear. I cleared them, hiked up to the drop off zone, and after setting my scoot down, I removed my tank. Often since I use 32% I will keep my reg in mouth and did so this hike too. So there I sit with my long hose in my mouth breathing away as my heart rate slows, with these students looking at me like I am crazy. Once my heart is slowed way down I proceed up the hill to my car to change. As I am loading my car at the bottom with gear, I watch a diver come out in drysuit, dry gloves, can light, BP/W and I go "I gotta find out who this is??" Well after he is out of his gear I ask if the tank up above is his. There is the pickup line boys "Is that your tank?" It worked! Maybe only on married men though? Turns out it is my friend Jeff and he couldn't find anyone on short notice and got there right about the time I was getting in the water.
After chatting and packing up his gear I ask him if he wants to go grab a beer. With no hesitation he says sure. We head town the road to Timber Cove Inn, grab a couple of beers and head out to the back patio. There is no wind, it is sunny, I got 20 oz of cold Great White beer in my hand, wearing a tee shirt in the middle of winter, on the coast..."Life is Good". After chatting with Jeff and lots of Valentine weekend love birds staying at the Inn, (My gal is in France until Wednesday, boo hoo) it was soon enough time to depart. Jeff and I said our good byes and headed down the coastal highway.
We talked about getting together and doing a skills dive, hopefully we can do so soon. Then do some more exploring of Gerstle Cove.
Today one of my friends came over and we spent part of the day starting to build a custom wheel setup, using Wheeleez sand tires for launching my 14' Zodiac over beaches. I am hoping the wheels will also help at Point Lobos when the ramp is high and dry. Another beautiful day that should help get us through this next rainy week.
