Posted by Jason on October 01, 2001 at 10:09:27:
The Plan: The entire last 2 weeks went into planning what I thought was going to be a GREAT weekend. We (my friend John and I) planned on doing a beach dive friday night (midnight) for bugs.
Then, we were to hit Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands on Saturday and Sunday. Had the whole thing planned out... We were going to do some scenic / photo dives at the islands, as well as some bug hunting.
Furthermore, I was to test out my new GPS that I recently programmed and mounted on my boat, with lots of bookmarks, etc.
A little background on the planned beach dive: About a month ago, my wife and I were killing some time and fishing the Ventura Pier at night. At about 11:00 PM my wife gets snagged on a HUGE kelp patty.... Or that's what we thought... I help 'pull in' the kelp to free her line and.... WOOOOOOOW It's a HUGE LOBSTER (not kelp!). It measured about 23 inches from head to tail (antennae not including).
Of course, being out of season, and inappropriate method of take (can not catch them on hook and line) we released it. That JUST happened to be the night that we did not bring the digital camera! So we measured it and let it go. "I'll see you in a couple of weeks" I said to the lobster. Decided that I would be back in the general area on openning night looking for him (and his relatives).
The Experience:
OK. It's friday night. I call up John..... "Ready?". John: "Well, I'm kind of tired. Let's just plan on the islands tomorrow". O....K... Are you sure you can go tomorrow and Sunday? If not, please let me know so I can plan on going with someone else. John: "Yeah.. I really want to go". Ok John. I'll see you tomorrow. Click.
Saturday: Not having shown up at my house at 8:00 AM as we agreed, I call him again. John: "Oops! I forgot all about it". (is he a wacko or what?). " I have a few errands to run today and my wife.... bla bla bla, bla bla bla. So lets go for the beach dive next to the Ventura Pier tonight, and we'll hit Anacapa tomorrow, OK?". I agreed, and asked him one more time if he was committed, and he said yes.
Saturday night: We went to the sandy beach next to the Ventura Pier (about 100 yards south of the pier) and started our dive. Against my recommendation (and knowing him), he decided to dive with a shorty. 5 minutes into the dive, he decided that he is too cold, and that he is done. FINE. He gets out of the water, and I continue (sorry, don't mean to start a buddy vs. solo war). The visibility was literally less than 1 foot.
My face was only 9 or 10 inches from the bottom for me to see what's down there.... Going deeper and moving east west did not improve the visibility at all, and given that my window of vision at any given time was no more than a 10 inch circle, I decided to call it off after about 35 minutes.
I get out of the water, and John is already gone (some buddy eh?). He calls me at night, and finalizes the plans for the planned Sunday morning Anacapa dive.
He said that he'll be at my house at 9:00 AM (when I asked him why so late? "because I have to...bla bla bla"). I then told him, hey, if you can't go, then you can't go! Let me know, so that I can make plans with someone else, as I REALLY need to dive!
Once more, he said, NO! I'll be there at 9:00. OK. Fine. I'll see you then.
Sunday morning AT 9:00 - The phone rings. "I can't go. I did not get much sleep at all.". OK John, Bye...CLICK.
Sorry to bore you with my ranting, but I had to vent. I waited with great anticipation for 2 weeks for the last weekend, and he kept wrecking it time after time. By the way , THIS WAS THE LAST TIME EVER, I mean EVER that I invite him to go diving with me. I understand that sometimes things happen, and you have to change / cancel your plans, but THIS WAS INSANE!!!