Last weekend I finished my PADI scuba diving certification course at Catalina Island with LA Scuba Diving instructors Stephen Mendel and Steve Millington after doing four ocean Open Water dives. We also did a 5th for fun dive where I got to use my camera and take a bunch of underwater pictures. I’ve created a slideshow of the set at flickr and will be using my account there to upload pictures and post blog entries from my upcoming trip.
Below are a few notes from my dive log.
Open Water Dive 1:
- date:
- 25/10/08
- depth:
- 40ft
- bottom time:
- 23min
- pressure group:
- D
- visibility:
- ~100ft
- temp:
- 67F
- psi:
- 2800, 700
- weight:
- 22lb, steel tank
comments: lots of blue and orange fish, we entered the water from a staircase that went into the water by getting low into the water and letting a wave wash you out, had a little trouble descending at first because of too much air in the Buoyancy Control Device (BCD), performed a few skills including mask flood/clear, cramp removal, and snorkel/regulator exchange. Saw an underwater monument, but couldn’t read the writing. Mike and Korre got separated at the start and scared Stephen a bit,.. be sure to make more frequent checks on your buddies, also did out of air/alternate air source buddy sharing w/ Korre and Mike.
Open Water Dive 2:
- surface interval:
- 1:06 hrs
- pressure group:
- B
- depth:
- 40ft
- bottom time:
- 27min
- pressure group:
- J
- psi:
- 2500, 800
- weight:
- 25lb, steel tank
comments: tide was a bit lower on entry this time, making it a little harder, had to crouch lower to get fully in the water, immediately after entry, i felt a little strange, after a few seconds I noticed one of my feet was not encountering much resistance when I moved it, and I looked down and my fin was gone! Panic! (hey, those things were expensive)! I stopped Korre but Stephen was a ways ahead and was swimming away with his head in the water and couldn’t hear me. I turned around to swim back to the shore to look for my fin and started looking in the water, knowing that I almost certainly had lost one of my fins and might not be able to finish my certification.. a few panicked breaths later I looked up and saw a black object floating on the surface about 15 ft away. Relief. I recovered the fin and made sure it was strapped on securely and rejoined the group. This dive was my favorite of the day, encountering lots of fish, including several large schools and I was a little more weighted, giving me better buoyancy control. Also saw a couple larger fish. And I think I’ve almost figured out how the ‘frog kick’ works.
Open Water Dive 3:
- surface interval:
- 1:08 hrs
- pressure group:
- C
- depth:
- 40ft
- bottom time:
- 28min
- pressure group:
- L
- psi:
- 2600, 800
- weight:
- 25lb, steel tank
comments: last dive of the day, tide was very low making entry and exit the hardest of the day. Entry was accomplished by getting on gloves and fins and rolling off the last step into an incoming wave. We took a couple of pictures of each other with my underwater camera. Buoyancy control was improved again this dive, had some fun swimming under and around the kelp, although i got a few leaves(?) stuck on me. Stephen was annoyed with me at the because I dropped my regulator on the CESA (twice) before realizing he didn’t want me to do that.. Saw the underwater monument again, still couldn’t read it. Was actually able to touch one of the orange fish.
Open Water Dive 4:
- date:
- 26/10/08
- depth:
- 34ft
- bottom time:
- 26min
- pressure group:
- D
- psi:
- 2500, 1200
- weight:
- 25lb, steel tank
comments: My first dive with the other instructor, Steve Millington, was pretty fun. We did underwater compass navigation. Included how to set a heading, how to maintain a heading, how to reverse a heading, and measuring distance while traveling on a heading. Basically how to swim in a straight line making sure you stay on that line. I think my BCD was too tight because I had a little trouble taking a full breath while in the water.
Open Water Dive 5:
- surface interval:
- 1:15 hrs
- pressure group:
- B
- depth:
- 40ft
- bottom time:
- 24min
- total bottom time to date:
- 2:08 hrs
- pressure group:
- I
- psi:
- 2500, 600
- weight:
- 23lb, steel tank
comments: first post certification ‘for fun’ dive. Korre couldn’t join us though due to an ear not clearing from dive 4 and being a little congested. Dive was a lot more relaxed and felt like the longest so far although it wasn’t. First dive I really got to use the camera, and took a lot of pictures. Also saw a lobster hiding in a cave at the bottom using Steve’s flashlight. The other cool thing on this dive was a little rock tapping trick Steve did which attracted the attention of a ton of fish. I guess it is a noise they aren’t familiar with and a very large group of fish came over to see what it was.
