Posted by JRM on June 01, 2001 at 14:46:57:
Greetings from Fresno, the fifth ring of Hell for all you Dante fans. This morning a buddy and I decided to try a "drive and dive" idea I've been kicking around for a while. We departed at 5:am, drove to Monterey, did two tanks (sort of, more later), and drove back. We made it into the office at 1:pm (we both mine ore here at the slave pit). As a proof of concept, I consider it a success.
We arrived at the breakwater a bit after 7:, and had the place to ourselves. I haven't dove the breakwater itself in a while, and getting there early makes a *HUGE* difference in what you see. We got geared up, and walked in. This was my first dive in my new drysuit. It's closed cell neoprene, and behaved a touch differently than the trilam suit I dove previously. The word for the day is "gators" ;-). This also was the first "open water" deployment of my BP & wings setup (OMS plate, DR harness, Halcyon Pioneer 36#, if you care about such things). I can't say enough good things about it (more on that later, too).
The first dive was 15 fsw for about 30 seconds. Ack, seriously underweight. I had the SS BP, STA, and a 16# belt (AL 80). Took off my hood and gloves (had my buddy stuff them in his BC pocket. Hmm, pockets... I knew something was missing. Guess it's time to put some on the suit). I could stay down while kicking then. But it wasn't to be, as I was worried about my ascent rate, especially after breathing down the tank. So we called it, swam back to shore, and walked back up to the car. As a side note, neoprene seals, although much more heavy duty, are much more difficult to doff than latex (especially brand new neoprene). After playing "face-hugger" for several tugs, I was free.
Hmm, problem. I only have one more hardpack weight in the box. Nuts, the rest are sitting next to my dive float with my freediving gear. Well, I have a bunch of softpacks. Ah, but the ugly pocketless state rears it's ugly head again. Garbage. Ah, but I'm wearing a pair of shorts under my drysuit. So I stuffed a couple of softpack weights into the pockets of my shorts (next to the car key). Perfect, except now I look like I'm smuggling abalone. At least the one place F&G can't look is my clothing ;-).
So, reweighted with an addition 8#, we switch tanks, kit back up, and head back in. Luckily there isn't another soul around, and no-one asks to share the abalone. We swim out and drop down. Much better. Vis is about 10 ft or so, kinda patchy. Water temp varied from 57 on the surface to 47 at depth. As I leveled out, I really began to notice the trim again. This is what I remember from the demo in the pool. Horizontal, groovy. It's going to take some getting used to. But the whole streamlining thing is gospel. My buddy and I normally have about the same air consumption. He ended the dive with a tad less than 1000psi. I had 1600. And he had a headache from skip breathing (He was trying to match me, since we monitor each other throughout the dive). Man, talk about effortless (of course, I am still using my evil split fins, but they are made for this type of diving). Still trying to get comfortable manipulating bouyancy in the drysuit, but after a few minutes of practicing, I'm good to go. Hmm, a bit of fog in the mask. Well, time for the mask doff and don drill.
After we finished playing, it was time to cruise. I've never seen this much life at the breakwater. There were perch everywhere, the biggest ones I've seen. I like to eat perch, and part of me tried to reach back into the garage for the cannon. Oh well, even if I wanted to, thou shalt not spearfish at the breakwater. There were at least two dozen rockfish, but none larger than about 10 inches. I even spotted what I think was a canary, at least it sure looked like one. And then there was the ling. I've never seen a ling at the breakwater. He was a pale little guy, about a 20 incher, who was rather unimpressed with us.
We passed a bunch of starfish feasting on the remains of a large decorator crab, a couple of live crabs, and lots of assorted inverts. Just after the turning point, a young sea lion discovered us, and decided that he needed a closer look. Several closer looks, actually, at high speed. He must have thought I had a camera, because he gave me about a 15 second pose, nose to nose. Then he was off. Saw a monster sun star on the way back in. We swam underwater all the way to the 12 ft. mark, where I had finally sucked enough air to become positive, and rather than fight it, slowly hand over handed my way up a some kelp to the surface. What a great dive.
My buddy had a pretty ugly cramp on the surface swim back in, but a brief pause for some stretching solved the problem. Not surprising, considering his hockey game ended up in overtime, and didn't end until past midnight last night.
We rinsed off, packed up the gear, and hit the road. Now I'm back at the pit, banging away at these rocks. What a shame. Double that, since it was a brisk 70 degrees or so in Monterey, and triple digits here in the fifth ring.
I'm hoping to make this a weekly, or bi-monthly outing. All are welcome. Next time I think we're going to hit lovers, or maybe monastary (since it's been a while since I swore never from that beach again).
Stay cool and moist...
JRM