Well no one showed for the dive. Just as well weather was bad. 4 ft waves crashing on Venice beach. Me and my dive buddy dicided to go in anyway. Startede to suit up and the rain started to come down. (and I mean down) Got all our gear out and I asked my buddy if he wanted to wear his wet suit and he said no.( Did I mention the 4 ft waves) Now my buddy is newly certified with only 8 dives under his belt and this was the first shore dive with rough seas. Well we walked to the waters edge and went in up to our knees so we could put our fins on. We did it buddy style, you know were one guy acts as a balancing post for the other guy. Well that went OK so I figured we may as well give it a shot. We had our mast on backwards so if a wave hits you in the face you don't have your mask on your forehead and the wave will knock it off. We went out to about waste deep now working backwards . I told him to put his mast on at this point we were going to swim out under the waves that it would be easier that way. I let out a little line on the dive float so the float wouldn't get tangled around us. Well needless to say my buddy lagged behind me (did I mention this was only his 9 DIVE) guess what he did next. He drifted over to the flag and managed to get tangled in the line. We hadn't even got below the water yet. So I told him lets go back to shore and get untangled. WE DID. Except he decided to sit down in the waves right on the edge of the shore to untagle the rope. Now the smart thing to do is to remove your fin and untangle the rope but that would have been to easy. Now picture this!!! My friend is a little plump he's sitting in the waves which are now a little stonger than before, bending farward to try an untangle to rope from his fin. Can't see to good he has his mask still on so he lifts his mask up to his forhead so he can see better. Because hes sitting in the water and leaning farward to untangle the rope. His regulator is in the waves. Sand has now got into the regulator and it started to free flow. (Such an attention getter.) Well now never mind the rope the air is going bye bye, He grabs the reg. and starts shaking it to make it stop. Now keep in mind that we are on a public beach the rain has now stopped and the sun has come out and so have the people. He's sitting in the water rolling around like a beached whale fighting the regulator and the rope. I'm about 15 ft away laughing my ass off. The reulator won't stop so I yell at the top of my lungs " Put it in your mouth and blow" Not once but several times. Now the people are starting to look. He finaly gets the regulator to stop free flowing and gets the rope off his fins but he has this look on his face that would stop a clock. He's still sitting in the water being pushed around by the waves but free at last. I'm still laughing, he's not. He crawls to the edge of the water looks up and says to me "did you take my mask" To make things worse because he put his mask on his forhead the wave knocked it off and now it's gone. He stands up and because he didn't listen to me and wear his wetsuit his knees are all scrapped up and bleeding. He stands up and he got about 10 LBS of sand and shells in his pockets. I figured we may as well call it a day. The shortest dive I've ever done and the funniest. The most exspensive on for him so far. $50 mask donated to the sea Gods.
