Welcome to Thunderdome

Dove again today at Mission Bay. Brought a 100 cm wooden rented speargun, which I immediately realized is infinitely harder to reload than the rubber band pole spear.

I saw a lot of Kelp and Spotted Bass again at 10-20 feet, but I already took one this trip, so was trying for the much more elusive and tastier Halibut. They sit at the bottom like a doormat, super well hidden and push sand on top of themselves. My "halibut eye" sucks, but I don't think I saw any the whole time I spent looking.

Did have an awesome moment. I dove down the bottom, touched the sand, look up to start hunting.... and get buzzed by a grey harbor seal. I didn't see him until he was 1-2 feet away from me. Turns out you can scream underwater. He circled me and blew off. After i realized I hadn't pooped myself, it was a really cool moment.

On that ocean charter, while throwing up, I still chuckled at a funny exchange I heard:

A couple of the boat crew had done the dive too, and they were bantering about it.

Guy 1: Did you see those halibut down there?

Guy 2: Yeah

1: Why didn't you spear one?

2: Oh, I hate seafood.

1: So why didn't you spear it?

2: Because I just said, I hate seafood.

1: YEAH.... so if you hate it, why didn't you spear it?



Maybe they were talking founder. One of those bottom dwellers.

How long can you stay under?

GORDON wrote: 1: YEAH.... so if you hate it, why didn't you spear it?

Maybe they were talking founder. One of those bottom dwellers.

How long can you stay under?

1 - because part of being a spearo is being a bit of a hipster, "most sustainable, targeted way to fishing, blah blah blah"

I've not been pushing a minute and a half. Kind of scared to push into the realm of belly contractions underwater. Sitting in a chair at the office it's fine.

Sometimes you just breath up at the surface and it feels right as you drop in. My favorite feeling, like I belong there. Then you see a seal and realize you don't!

Balls to the wall until three minutes.

Oh yeah, something I keep forgetting to mention...

On that Lake Superior trip, the day we dove with Claude and Melissa, after our last dive I mentioned I really had to pee. Melissa jokes, "There are two kinds of scuba divers, those who pee in their wetsuits, and those who lie about it."

Fucking GROSS. I would have to be in dire fucking straits before I wore sewage.

I would have to be in dire fucking straits before I wore sewage.

But you'll eat it at Arby's?

GORDON wrote: Fucking GROSS. I would have to be in dire fucking straits before I wore sewage.

You're in a wetsuit, not a drysuit.

Gross.

I feel the same way about pool pissing and dogs shitting on beaches. It's fucking nasty.

You're already covered in fish poop. What harm could there be in a little mammal piss?

AInt nobody up in here covered in fish poop.

GORDON wrote:Gross.

I feel the same way about pool pissing and dogs shitting on beaches. It's fucking nasty.

I don't like it either, but WETsuit means that the water in the body of water you are in is moving into and out of your suit, you're not just sitting there rotting in pee. Find a current, grab something, and pull it away from your chest, water will flow through.

not so much. Yeah, your suit floods, but if it is too loose, and water is flowing freely, you aren't retaining the warmed water against your skin, and the wetsuit isn't doing its job.

Planning the Spring Break 2017 trip.

Thinking of going here for one of the dives.

Learning all about tide charts.

Tide charts are cool, I've always gone places with two high and low tides per tide.... but that's not how everywhere is

That place I linked... you want to dive it during the high slack tide... water is clearest. So I had to look that up, for March 2017.

Enjoy! I'd love to get diving again someday. The closest I've been lately is wearing a wetsuit and my scuba boots for white water rafting

I'm thinking of wearing my wetsuit, boots, mask, fins, etc on Halloween while we are drinking beer and handing out candy at the end of the driveway.

Looks fun. I've heard good things about diving near Jupiter.

My next diving trip is October 16th, planning on sticking my face in the water in the cove behind Pebble Beach/Carmel.
https://www.pebblebeach.com/golf/pebble ... olf-links/

Further out, I've got a camping cabin booked for the first week in December on Catalina Island. Will hopefully have a GoPro for that trip.

Did a last minute dive trip today when someone from one of my dive groups messaged me about hitting Big Sur Saturday morning.

I just got a new pair of long fins, and the weather was a ridiculous "Indian-Summer" NorCal day, 75 air/58 water, so I jumped at the invite and headed down to meet up with him. He turned out to be a cool guy, a Marine officer in his mid thirties. He's stationed in Monterey doing training classes. His first name, shit-you-not, is Gordon. He's a Major.

We went down and dove a cove that is sheltered from the surge. TONS of kelp in the water. We were doing drops between 20-40(a new benchmark for me). The kelp was really like an underwater forest. Large stalks occasionally in the water and a legit canopy at the surface. You'd have to break surface and breath with kelp on your head, sometimes.

My artsy Instagram pic


Tons of stupid rockfish all over. So dumb they were literally nibbling at the end of my pole-spear. They are lucky they taste and smell like butt and are only worth taking if you already have an excuse to filet fish. We were hunting for Lingcod, the trophy fish of NorCal. It's horrid looking, like a big ass lizard fish. Supposed to taste good though. We didn't' see any, so we didn't start massacring the short-bus rock fish.

Was an awesome time though. All my equipment performed well, though the fish-cleaning gloves I wear instead of real dive gloves were a kink in my armor. My fingers got cold in the second hour.

No Carmel trip this weekend. Because:

A) It's raining heavily outside. First time in 6 months. Not a good time to be in the water with the run-off building up that long.

B) The Ocean woke the fuck up. Check out Ocean beach in west side SF:




Nope