Going Alone?

Now that we had our Open Water certification, we decided to head back to Breakwater to try a dive on our own. No herd of students to jostle around with, just a chance to go out and see the fish in the spot we were already comfortable with.

We rented our gear, drove to Monterey, and got ready to get in the water. Looks a little rough out there. Hmmm.

Well, in the end, we learned a lot. Here's the list:

• Make sure your BCD holds air before you get out in the water (scary to say the least)
  
• Don't try to put your fins on before getting in the water (at least at breakwater)... get past the surf zone and then put on your fins.
  
• Here's one - check the dive report before you go. Turns out 5-8 ft wind waves is not the same conditions as when we took the open water class.
  
• Make sure your compass is in the right way. In fact - check ALL YOUR RENTAL GEAR carefully to make sure everything is working right. Don't make assumptions!
  

So it turns out paddling out into the high chop with a BCD that isn't holding air is not a fun way to start your first 'On my own' diving experience. But - we made it back in, and all our experiences together gave us a much better appreciation for what we're dealing with here. The goal is to dive and have fun, but diving in conditions beyond your experience or with unknown equipment can be dangerous.

Happily, conditions were much better on Sunday and we had two successful dives, learned more about working together, and saw lots more crabs and a few fish. The visibility was poor though - only about 5 feet.

One humorous tidbit ... Curtis' wetsuit had a lot of frayed edges, and the turbulant surf had washed in a lot of sea weed. Put the two together, and you have Curtis-monster-of-the-deep!

From diving