Dive logs!

After reading Sarah’s blogs, I have figured that I should keep a dive log within the blogs as well. So, to catch up, here are the dives I’ve logged so far. Future blogs will contain logs within the blog itself. (if the blog is about a dive)

Dive #1 - November 6, 2007 - The Crack - Turks and Caicos. Anchored boat dive. First dive in OW certification course.* Max depth 40 feet, bottom time 27 minutes (2200 psi remaining at end of dive) (no residual time). Water temp 83°, visibility good (not sure of feet), slight surge with a fast current. Practiced skills: cramp removal, tired diver tow, snorkel/reg. exchange. Instructor (Adrienne Katz) pointed out various sea creatures. Showed us how to wave water in front of an anemone to get them to close up. Relaxing, easy dive. Safety stop on the drop-line at 15 feet for 3 minutes. Surface interval: 46 minutes. Ate sandwiches and went over the evaluation of the dive with Adrienne.

*Actually did “Scuba Diver” certification course in May 2006, with 2 dives. But those dives were not logged. So beginning dive log with these dives.

Dive #2 - November 6, 2007 - The Ampitheater - Turks and Caicos. Anchored boat dive. Second dive in OW certification course. Max depth 40 feet, bottom time 33 minutes (residual time: 16 minutes, did not look for PSI remaining at end of dive) Water temp 83°, visibility good, slight surge with a fast current. Relaxing dive. Practiced skills: remove water from mask, remove replace mask, buddy breath, recover regulator. Safety stop on the drop-line at 15 feet for 3 minutes. Last dive of the day. Approximately 30 minutes back to the dock. Seas a bit rough.

Dive #3 - November 7, 2007 - The Chimney - Turks and Caicos. Anchored boat dive. Buddy - Alex Rivera. Third dive in OW certification course. Max depth 41 feet, bottom time 42 minutes (no residual time, did not record PSI remaining) Water temp 83°, visibility good. Practiced skills: remove/replace scuba (surface), remove replace weights (surface) CESA. Saw: sea turtle (swam next to him, until he turned and swam in the opposite directions … directly below me!!!), baby nurse shark (approx. 4’), giant crab, angel fish, Nassau grouper, spider fish, etc. Safety stop on the drop-line at 15 feet for 3 minutes. Surface interval: 45 minutes. Ate sandwiches and went over the evaluation of the dive with Adrienne.

Dive #4 - November 7, 2007 - Garden Eel - Turks and Caicos. Anchored boat dive. Buddy - Alex Rivera. Fourth (and final) dive in OW certification course. Max depth 40 feet, bottom time 42 minutes (residual time: 31 minutes). Water temp 83°, visibility fair, fast current, cloudy. Practiced skills: surface swim w/ compass, underwater compass navigation, fin pivot (6 pound weights with the fast current made this difficult to do). Saw: barricuda (I HATE these!!!) that kept acting funny. Jerking around a lot. Made me nervous! Had rented all equipment, and had to use children’s size fins. Made it hard to keep up with buddy and instructor. Need to purchase equipment!

After the final exam and the pool test …. I’M FULLY OPEN WATER CERTIFIED!!!

Dive #5 - January 18, 2008 - Quast Rock - La Jolla, California. Anchored boat dive. Buddy - Todd Moseley. First dive as a certified scuba diver. Max depth 60 feet, bottom time 35 minutes (no residual time). Water temp approx. 57°, visibility poor, very murky. Underweighted - which caused a problem on ascent. Luckily Todd was able to hold me at the safety stop (18’), but did not get to stay full time. Saw California Golden Gorgonian coral, crowned sea urchins, elk kelp, Garibaldi, lobster, red sea urchins, senorita fish, spined stars, warty sea cucumber, and even a lost fishing rod! VERY cold by the end of the dive. Had to surface rather than navigate (well, Todd was the navigator) back towards the boat. So we had a 300 foot surface swim back to the boat. Once on board, I was so cold, I couldn’t control my shaking hands! Surface interval: 50 minutes.

Dive #6 - January 18, 2008 - Chuck Rock - La Jolla, California. Anchored boat dive. Buddy - Todd Moseley. Max depth 60 feet, bottom time 35 minutes (residual time: 19 minutes). Water temp approx. 57°, visibility poor, very murky. Weighted fine this dive - added 5 more pounds. No problems completing full safety stop of 5 minutes at 18’. Saw all the same things as the last dive, but also nudibranch eggs AND a seal!! He was hanging out next to the boat when we got in the water. He even kissed the boat (told the boat’s owner that it had been blessed). Then when we called the seal, he looked up at us, and disappeared. We immediately looked into the water, and there he was, at our fins!! Unfortunately, he didn’t hang around. Lost buddy for a few seconds, because I stopped to take a picture and it was so murky, when I looked up, he was out of sight. But was able to find him, but noticing area that was more murky than the rest, caused by his moving through it. Again, very cold once on board again, but it was the last dive of the day, so I changed into warmer dry clothes!! Good dive experience, but I prefer warm water dives!

My first dives as a certified scuba diver!!!

Well, I have my certification, and I'm allowed to dive to a depth of 60 ft. But being from New York, and having gotten certified on a Caribbean vacation in November, it's hard to have to wait to be able to dive again. I guess eventually I can get dry suit certified and go diving in NY in the winters ... that is, IF I feel crazy enough!!

So, what's a gal to do? Well, I guess go diving on any vacation or mini-vacation that you can! And that's exactly what I did.

Last week my sister had a conference to go to out in San Diego. I join her every year for this conference, because I only have to pay for the airfare, and the rest (hotel, food, even an excursion) are paid for by the sponser of the conference. The first day of the conference is taken up with workshops and presentations. I usually get together with one of my friends that live in San Diego, or go sight-seeing myself. But this year, I decided to see about going diving!

Now, remember, I was certified in the Caribbean. Cold water diving is NOT something that is second nature to me. And being a somewhat ... um .... tiny person, I already get cold so easily! But, I am game! I mean, it's a dive experience, right?! And I want to get as many of those as I can!!! So I found a dive boat (Dive Connections), and signed up for a morning of 2 kelp bed dives. I was all psyched to possibly see seals!!!

So early Friday morning, I get up, get some breakfast and go out to the hotel lobby. The owner of the dive boat, Barry, was so nice, and even offered to pick me up at my hotel and bring me to the boat! Talk about service!!! We chatted a bit on the way over, and I felt really at ease!

I filled out all my forms, paid and got all my rental equipment (remember from my previous blogs that I only had some of my dive equipment. Then I went onboard the boat we were taking that morning and set up my BC/Regulator/Tank. My first regulator was doing a free flow so I had to exchange it.

The rest of the people started to file on, and get themselves set up. During this time, I sat with an advanced diver named Roger who had a REALLY good looking dive camera with the strobes and all that professional looking stuff. Yet, he was really nice and talked to me about the little starter camera I had, and what I could possibly do to increase the likelihood that my photos would come out better.

There were 3 women on the boat who were also newly certified like me. We all talked and figured we would try to dive together. We went over our plan. I even worked out a hand signal with one of them, who was going to be "my" buddy that would mean we were scared (the hands on the face like the kid from "Home Alone")

One of the women had actually talked with another guy, named Todd, who was an advanced diver. He was nice enough to agree to "babysit" us newbies!! I learned later that I was VERY glad that she had talked him into this! You'll understand why in a minute. Another advanced diver, Mary joined our little group as well.

So, we get to our first dive site (Quast Rock, depth of approx. 60', near La Jolla, CA) and into the water, make our way to the front of the boat and start down the anchor line. The 3 women were taking some extra time, so Todd signaled to me to go ahead down. It was REALLY murky on the way down. But once I passed about 40 feet, it opened up .... a bit. Visibility was nowhere near what I had in the Caribbean!! But I was there, breathing under water, looking around, enjoying the whole experience! Mary got down next. We just hung out for another few seconds, and then Todd was with us. He gave both of us the "OK" sign, which we returned, and then signaled for us to start out.

Confused, I quickly wrote on my slate "Where others?", to which Todd somehow signaled to me that they were not coming afterall. I found out when I got back on the boat that they had started down the anchor line, didn't like that they couldn't see too far, and decided to just hand onto the anchor line, and then go back up on the boat. Had I been with only them, I would not have gotten to dive at all on that dive. Now do you see why I said I was really glad that Todd had agreed to "babysit"? (side note, Todd told me that I had done really well, and that I didn't seem like a newbie! Yup, I'm proud!!)

Ok, so we went off and did our dive. It was murky, but I saw lots of different things, and really enjoyed myself. Check out what I saw on my photo profile on Scuba Board. http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/member.php?uid=90301&protype=1

But then I started to get cold. I was having such a great time that I didn't want to go up. But with hypothermia setting in (just kidding, it wasn't THAT bad) I signaled to Todd that I was cold. He signaled back to see if I wanted to go to the boat. I said yes, but he could see how cold I was, and decided we should just ascend and then swim back to the boat. We hadn't gone too far, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

That was, until we started to ascend, and I realized that I was underweighted!!! Going up slow, I was able to keep myself at an "ok" pace, but I needed to use my arms to push myself downward. But when we got to the 15 ft. safety stop, I had a LOT of trouble staying there!!! So much so, that Todd actually had to grab hold of me, and keep me at the 15 ft. level. It was scary, but once again I was so happy that Todd was there for me!! When we were up on the boat, he said that although you'd want to do the safety stop on all dives, at the depth we had been to, it wasn't such a big deal if we didn't get to do that. Then I remembered reading about that (how a safety stop from a depth of 60 ft. was recommended, but that it was "required" at deeper depths)

Back on board the boat, I was sooooooo cold!!! I could hardly hold onto the cup of soup that I had!! After about an hour rest, we went back in for dive #2! This second dive was also in La Jolla, at a spot called Chuck Rock, with a depth of approx. 60'.

This time a seal did come by!!!!!! Yup, soooooo incredibly psyched! Unfortunately, my camera had not been handed down to me yet, as we had just gotten in the water! So no photos! But the cutie was swimming around the boat, and actually kissed it. I told Barry later, that the seal had blessed his boat! Mary and I called to him ... yes, we did the "kissy" sound you do to a dog. He looked over at us, and then disappeared underwater. So immediately, Mary and I stick our heads in the water. And within a few seconds, there he was, swimming around our fins!! I wish he had stayed, but off he went! But I felt so honored that he had come by at all!

This time I had the proper amount of weight! The problem I had on this dive ... getting too distracted! I was taking a photo, and so concentrated on that, and I didn't notice that Todd and Mary had kept moving. The visability was really bad, and within seconds they were out of sight! I looked up from my camera and realized I was alone!!!

Slight freak out!!! But I stopped myself, and looked at everything logically. I was not in any emergency situation. I had enough air in my tank. I was breathing fine. Worse case scenario, if I had to ascend by myself, I knew how to do that. I had the proper weight, so I should be able to do the full safety stop. But before I ascended, I figured I should at least try to find Todd and Mary. Or they'd end up spending their whole dive looking for me! I didn't want to ruin their dive because I was inexperienced!! So I looked all around. Yeah, it was murky (maybe 10 feet of visability), but wasn't that one area a little more murky than the rest of the ways I could go? Could that extra murkiness be caused by Todd and Mary stirring up some silt or knocking into some kelp? I tried it, and guess what?! Lo and behold, there they were. And it looked like Todd was just starting to freak out and notice I wasn't there. He gave me the "OK" and I gave it back to him. Later on the boat, I told him about what happened. Not that I want to lose my dive buddy, but I was happy that I didn't freak out and that I was able to figure it out for myself!

The ascent on that second dive was MUCH better! And Todd made us stay there for a full 5 minutes! :-) Back on the boat I changed into all my warm clothes! I came prepared, thankfully!!

After we got back, returned our gear and washed off our own gear, I hung out for a few minutes while they closed up shop (no afternoon dives that day) and Barry and I headed to Pacific Beach for a bite to eat! We chatted some more, and now I have yet another friend in San Diego!! I will surely dive with the people from Dive Connections again!!

Ok, on to the next dive experience!! (by the way, that's in 12 days from now, when I go to Florida to visit my Mom. I'm signed up for 4 dives, including one wreck dive!!!)

I’m going diving next week!!!

Next week is my annual trip to San Diego!! Same fantastic hotel, same great conference, where we get fantastic meals, fun excursions, a banquet, etc. The first day of the conference has workshops, which I have no interest in sitting through. So instead ….

I’M GOING DIVING!!!

I did my research and found a company that runs various dives in the San Diego area. They are actually located near the hotel, so the guy who runs the dives is going to pick me up in the morning, and we’ll go out for a cup of coffee before going to the boat.

I will be diving in the La Jolla/Point Loma area in the kelp beds!

So, to better enjoy this dive, and to hopefully capture some great memories to share, I went back to the dive shop today and purchased some more things!

I bought a digital underwater camera, that is waterproof to 130 feet, and shockproof. I’ve seen photos taken with it, both under water and above, and they look really good! It’s 6 megapixels, and you can attach an external strobe and wide angle lens, although the camera comes with internal strobe and wide angle feature. They had a special, and threw in a 1G memory card too, but I already have memory cards from my regular digital. AND, the guy took an extra $25 off the price.

I also purchased some things that will make my dive experience a bit nicer. (photos below*)

I bought a slate, which attaches to my wrist, and which I can use to write underwater, in case I have anything I need to convey to my dive buddy, and then erase it when I surface to be able to start fresh.

I bought anti-fog gel. Yeah, I can use spit, but the gel works a bit better, and I hate having to spit into my mask!

I bought a “dry pak”, which will keep things like my cell phone or other items dry on the boat. Because anything not in one of these things WILL get wet!

And finally, I bought a quick-release lanyard for the camera. I was going to get a floatation strap, which would have made the camera float to the surface if I accidentally let go of it. But instead I bought the lanyard. It will attach to my BCD, and then when I want to use the camera, I unclip the extension, use the camera (which is still attached to my BCD, but can now move around further away from my body) and then reattach the camera. A benefit of this is that I don’t have to have it strapped to my wrist when not using it, and I can also have my hands free when climbing back up on a boat or onto a dock or whatever.

Then, on top of that …. my friend Sarah … the wonderful friend that she is … is being such a sweetheart and gifting me a dive log book and an extra pair of dive gloves that she has! How sweet is that?!?!?!

THANK YOU SARAH!!! YOU’RE THE BEST!

Plus, she’s been great for information help! I hopefully will be able to take photos half as good as the ones she’s taken and shared with us! But you all will have to be the judge of that, when I post the photos. Heck, I may even download them that afternoon and post them, if my sister brings her laptop again.

Anyway, I’m getting very excited!!! But I think you can tell that!!

* by the way, I didn’t purchase the seal swimming through the kelp. I just included the photo because that’s what I’m hoping to see on my dive!!!!

Essential equipment

This past November, while on vacation, I completed my PADI Open Water SCUBA certification. I plan to go away again this spring, and will be diving on that vacation as well. I am very excited! SCUBA is an amazing experience! It’s both relaxing and exhilarating at the same time! On my last dives I came into close proximity with many wondrous underwater creatures. There were many of the common fish and coral that you see. And of course, there were Barracuda! These are the one fish I do NOT want to see!!! They scare the "ba-geebers" out of me!! And one that we came into close proximity with was actually swimming in a very “jerky” motion, which usually indicates that they are ready to strike out for the kill!! We moved away as quickly as we could, without looking too much like flailing fish! I also saw a shark. These don’t seem to bother me as much as barracuda. This one was a small (approx. 4 ft.) nurse shark. I also saw a giant crab, which probably measured around 3 feet in diameter. But the best thing I saw was the sea turtle!! He was as big as I am. Yes, I know, I am not that big, but in terms of the size of a turtle, I’d have to say that must be rather large! He was swimming along, and we came up next to him, and swam in the same direction as he was for a little bit. Then he turned towards us right in front of me, and ended up swimming in the opposite direction, DIRECTLY BELOW ME!!!! I could have reached out and touched him. But I figured that it would be better to just look and keep all my fingers!! But it was so amazing to experience that!!


Anyway, the only thing I’d have to say that was a bit of a negative about the diving …. my fins! You see, I have a VERY small foot! Yes, I still can fit into children’s shoes! At times this is beneficial, as I will buy children’s sneakers, which are a lot less expensive. But when it comes to diving, this is a huge disadvantage. You see, children’s fins have a much shorter “fin”. So in order to keep up with the rest of the group or my dive buddy, I’d have to work twice as hard as those with adult fins! Diving is supposed to be relaxing, not a strenuous cardio workout!!


So yesterday, after a nice brunch in the village (for those who are not New Yorkers, this means Greenwich Village, an area of NYC located at the lower west side of Manhattan) my brunch date and I went to a nearby dive shop. There I purchased my new fins, boots, a mask and a matching snorkel!! (see photo above for what I purchased) I decided to be a little bit different and went with the baby pink mask and snorkel!! At least it will be a little easier to spot which one is mine on the dive boat! That is all I purchased, because dive gear can get expensive, so for now, I just bought what I thought was going to make my next dive experience better, and I can rent the rest of the items when I get to the dive site. But eventually I will buy everything that I need. And yes, I will be asking Sarah (and my friend Adrienne) for her advice!!





So now I just have to wait another couple of months to use these items! That’s going to be the hardest part!!

[this particular blog entry originally written for another blog site on January 7, 2008]