Posted by Jason on August 19, 2000 at 20:37:09:
In Reply to: Two novice divers rescued by Lifeguard at Leo Carillo posted by JC on August 19, 2000 at 06:19:04:
First off - We're glad you are back, and in good enough shape
to think about what happened. I've only done a bit of shore diving
in LA (most of mine is at Monterey) but I'm well aware from my surfing
past about the range that can happen, and how quickly a 8' set can
come in on a 4' day.
Find a dive club that is open to new divers, and likes to do shore
diving. My dive club often does a new/warm water/long time no dive
oriented event and goes to the simple sites.
Last, the 3Rs mentioned by others are good. You spend a lot of time
just swimming in the surf, learning to deal with the impact, and the
water pulling you back and forth.
Jason
My club will also pay for a dropped weight belt. I'm going to strongly
disagree with Jusfer here and say that you would have done well to ditch your
weight and your rig. If you have the time, inflate the BC a bit to keep it
floating and you can retrieve it later. You in just fins and wetsuit should be
able to fight the currents too.
A diver in a double 6.5mm wetsuit is in no danger from drowning, regardless
of the surf. I'm going to presume there aren't rocks since you went
in with 4' surf.
A couple summers ago I had a similar experience while out free diving for abalone.
Suddenly the 5-6' waves out there have become 8+, and we were being pushed in the
wrong direction. We could only keep even until a lull came, and then we might make
some progress. Later we realized that we should have kicked out past the surf and
then down current a couple hundred yards, but that area also had more rocks, and we
didn't know how far out the current would take us. Neither of us hesitated to
drop out belts. We couldn't duck under waves, but we didn't need to either. After a
good amount of rest, I went out for the ab float (2 abs inside!)
Other things you might have done - if you could get past the surf line, you could take
a nice breather. After rest, some relaxation, you might be able to make the swim in.
Or at worst, wait for a rescue boat.
You had an air supply in your tank, but felt it wasn't delivering.
What kind was it? A really bad reg is succeptible to overbreathing,
but even then that usually shows up deep with two divers breathing of it.
Look at MHK's DIR postings and in particular the section on regulator hoses. We wear
a long hose on our primary, and keep the secondary on a short hose on a necklace. There's
almost no danger that the octo will be knock away, as it easily is from the common
octo holders out there.