Posted by kelphead on October 27, 2000 at 13:13:01:
In Reply to: Yes, do tell! I'm there on the 4th. (nt) posted by brianc on October 27, 2000 at 08:29:34:
i plan to write something up this weekend, but
the skinny of it is:
1) i was diving w/my brand new drysuit and learned
that i need to fine tune the wt i need to wear; had
to abort my 1st dive on sat b/c i was a little
underwted.
2) swells were ~4ft at the end of the aborted 1st
dive. sure made coming back in easier--it looked
almost like we were surfing our way in.
3) the vis was HORRIBLE!!! green water and very
surgy conditions. right at the launch ramp of pt
lobos, at the end of the aborted 1st dive, my buddy
wanted me to do a wt check in the very shallow (ie, 10ft)
water. as soon as we both submerged (1-2ft away from
each other), we lost sight of each other due to the
0 vis green water conditions. all i can say is i
now know what "muck diving" means--brown water that
looked like i was entering a cave or something...pretty
weird experience. my fins hit the ground and i was
in 10ft of water according to my computer, but it was
brown brown brown water that made me feel like i was
going into the belly of the earth. surfaced, chatted
w/my buddy, and swam to the launch ramp.
4) the 2nd dive much later in the afternoon was
better. the swells were down all the way and
the surface swim out was much nicer. but the
vis and surge at depth were still pretty bad. this time,
though, i had loaded more lead in my pouches to
help keep me down and my two other dive buddies
and i were able to make it to the reef. saw
a few things and even had a white harbor seal
molest and harrass us. but one of my buddies on
this dive just kept swimming on and we didn't
really spend much time on a reef sightseeing.
5) learned from my first buddy that if you just
surface swim on your back, no matter how much kelp
accumulates at the base of your neck, it will ALL
just slide off as you continue to swim out. thanx!!
for that excellent tip, patty!!! it really does work,
it made life so much easier for me, and i never had
to turn around to deal w/the kelp at all (i did
turn around occasionally to see where the heck i was going).
so, i wish you better conditions than we had (the
sea was definitely 'active' that day), i wish you
less horny encounters w/seals, and i provide you
w/a great tip on how to deal w/the kelp on your
surface swims, if you didn't already know it.
HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!
= : D
kelphead.