Mikey....I had an unusual dive Friday. Tom and I went out for some lobster diving.
The plan was to go for some freediving on Saturday so I brought gear for both. Because
it wouldn't all fit in my bag I kept my wetsuit separate and put it on the back seat of
my car. When we got to the dive site and I started to suit up I realized that I had left
it in the car. For a second I thought my dive trip was over but then my addiction kicked
in and I figured I could tough it out without a wetsuit for at least one dive if I had
to.Tom had no spare wetsuit but he did have a small vest and a neoprene swimming cap.
Neither really fit me well but they did stretch on. I had my own booties and gloves so
into the water I went looking like a tropical diver.




When I first hit the water I completely lost my breath for a couple of minutes but then I
settled down and off to bug diving I went. Soon I grabbed a nice one and missed several
others. I felt fine and began to wonder why we go through all the trouble to dawn the
cumbersome wetsuits anyway. I was thinking of doing at least a couple of dives. I grabbed
a nice bug and chased a few more that got away. On one rock I tried to reach a bug
sides of a crack and each time felt a stinging on my arm like fire coral in the tropics.
Apparently we have something like fire coral here too but we never notice in our wetsuits.
Check out the end results on my arms. My arms are still itching.




The water temperature on the surface was about 65 but on the bottom it was more like 60.
After about 25 minutes underwater I started to realize why we bother with those pesky
wetsuits....I was freezing. I knew I was done for the day. I headed to the surface with
my one bug and quickly took a hot shower and got dressed. But even after that I could not
get warm....My body began to shiver. It took awhile before it stopped. Tom went on to do
a night dive. We spent the night on the boat and went back home the next day. I felt bad
about putting a damper on Tom's dive trip. You can bet I'll make sure I don't forget my
wetsuit again. Mel

• Re: Letter from an Ocean popcicle halibug 09:18:22 11/08/10 (1)
  • Re: Re: Letter from an Ocean popcicle John W 09:31:51 11/10/10 (0)