Posted by Jason on January 03, 2005 at 17:08:31:
In Reply to: anyone have a point dume pinnacles story? (strong current) posted by scott gietler on January 03, 2005 at 13:49:58:
Yeah, I have some stories. I think I've dove there about 3 times and always something bad has happened.
The first time I was ever there, I lost my expensive prescription mask in heavy surf as I exited, and to boot, we didn't even find the cool pinnacles or see anything neat.
The third time I was there was on a kayak dive, which was fun, except I lost my buddy, ascended, waited like 15 minutes and he never showed up. I swam back to shore, thinking about what to do, and it turned out he'd swam all the way back without me.
But the worst experience was easily the 2nd dive. I was part of a group of 9 diving, and the waves were pretty strong that morning. I in fact decided it was too much and didn't want to lose another mask, so I sat it out and watched the others. Without my glasses, I couldn't see too well, but there was some obvious trouble. Little black bobbing specks were headed out, except one, who was getting moved towards the rocks. Some people on the beach were running to them, and all of a sudden, some lifeguard trucks tore past and raced to the scene. Then the fire trucks came. I had no idea what was going on, but for the next twenty minutes I sat and wondered what had happened. Eventually the lifeguards walked two divers, one very shaken, back towards the parking lot. She had not been able to escape the push of the surf as she swam out, and it began to smash her around in the sharp rocks of the point. An instructor in the group swam to her assistance as the lifeguard people helped, too. The instructor had to let his gear go in order to help the panicked diver. Luckily, everybody was okay, just a bit shaken up. And the instructor actually found his gear a few days later, washed up miles down the beach.