Advanced Scuba Diver!

To get the Advanced certification you have to complete 5 "Adventure dives" including a deep dive and an underwater navigation dive. The weather was beautiful on Saturday, nice and calm with almost 20 feet visibility! It was great being able to see your dive Buddy from 10 feet away. :)

Here's some highlights from our dives...

Underwater Navigation
Once I finally had enough weight to stay down, I was able to use my compass to swim in a square pattern and then in a triangle. Good thing I made it back to the starting point - could have been lost forever out there in that murky water!

Underwater Naturalist
This was an awesome dive. We basically swam around in the kelp looking for as many different kinds of organisms as we could find. We saw a giant sunflower star on the prowl - they move pretty darn fast! I hovered over a bed of kelp and watched it leap to life with crabs scuttling all around. I saw a rock fish hovering amongst the kelp fronds with that sour expression on its face. Schools of senioritas and small orange fish blending right in with the kelp. We could have stayed down all day enjoying the scenery, but alas, air is running out. Time to head back.

Night Dive
How scary is it to go diving in the dark? Actually it wasn't bad at all. We had primary and backup lights plus a marker on the back of our tanks to make it easier to see each other and tell each other apart (we each had different colors). We dropped down in fairly shallow water near the rocks at Breakwater. Our dive instructor was super excited to find three Octopi - each about the size of your hand. I think they must have been terrified - sitting in the middle of 5 spotlights trying to decide where to hide. Another interesting night-only siting ... the olive snails were paired up to mate. I noticed that they always appeared in a duo - the smaller female leading and the larger male following right behind. Cool!

Deep Dive
This is the dive I was most nervous about. Going on a boat and dropping down to 80 feet. It turns out the boat part was more intimidating than the depth part ... it was a pretty rough day out on the water. After jumping in off the back of the boat we had to make our way along the side of the boat holding onto a rope and eventually make it to the anchor line at the bow. With the boat jumping in the waves, this was tiring and more than a little unnerving. The dive itself was fairly short - we dropped down to 80 feet, did some tests to see if we were suffering from nitrogen narcosis, did a short swim around the reef, then back up to 15 feet for a safety stop before surfacing and getting back on the boat. For all the extra work of going to 80 feet ... we saw a few matridiums (giant white anemones), saw a couple crabs and a shrimp ... honestly I was mostly concentrating on buoyancy... I'm not sure what all was down there. Hopefully next time I'll be more comfortable and can enjoy the view.

Search and Recovery
Another dive off the boat. We were supposed to do some search patterns, then find a rock and practice using a lift bag to raise it to the surface. Sadly, though we searched and searched, we never did find a rock to lift. So this turned out to be another fun sight seeing dive. Here's my favorite part. As we were ascending back up the anchor line, I noticed a lot of debris in the water. But it was wiggling. I realized I was seeing a bunch of little animals ... sort of stick like. They were bending and straightening to propel themselves along. And look! There's one attached to the end of Curtis' glove, waiving and dancing in the current. Way cool! Only Curtis wasn't looking. When we got back on the boat, I asked excitedly if anyone else saw them. What were they? But do you know that NO ONE ELSE SAW THEM!!! I felt like a crazy person! All the rest of the day I kept thinking about those little critters. Then I finally remembered where I'd seen them before ... at the Monterey Aquarium! They have an exhibit with those things - and a giant magnifying glass so you can see them closer. Finally I was able to find out what they were. Skeleton Shrimp. Sweet! So I'm not crazy. But I am a certified Advanced Scuba Diver!

Next weekend: Point Lobos!