Diving — Page 11

Tackle Box, dive 44

November 26, 2010

Dive: 44
Belize Dive: 2
Date: 11/26/10
Site: Tackle Box
Avg/Max Depth: 44/67
Temp: 81
TBT/CBT: 1:00/35:04
Buddies: Ted, Nick, Curtis, Kristen, Cindy, Ellie

The seven of us boarded the boat to the diveshop as well as three other people from our resort. I think it was a father and his two daughters. They were in the process of getting certified. Once at the diveshop, the seven of us boarded a bigger boat. With us came another divemaster named Loidy, two other divers, and Dianne, a Divemaster-in-training.

For our first dive outside the reef, Rudy took us to Tackle Box. The boat ride was a bit choppy. We backwards rolled into the water and descended immediately to about 40 feet. There were lots of fun tunnels to go through, unfortunately I was having equalization issues at about 66 feet. I followed from above and watched as everyone passed through the caverns. As much as I wanted to be down there with them, it was fun watching from above.

The dive was good and we swam at a leisurely pace. There was no strong current like in Hol Chan, so I didn’t have to excert much effort. I tried to stay at 17 feet for my safety stop at the end. At about 12 feet I could feel the motion of the swells. It’s an unsettling feeling to be dizzy when it doesn’t seem like you’re moving. It also helped to not watch the boat thrash around in the water, or the people trying to hold on to the ladder while they removed their gear.

Getting in went somewhat smoothly for me. I had my fins and BCD off in record time, and I kept the reg in my mouth until my gear was being pulled onto the boat. Once I was on, it was another story. A giant wave rocked the boat and I started to tumble forward. I saw Nick and aimed for him, but fell at the last minute. I smashed my nose right into his stomach. I’m just glad it wasn’t his knee or the boat!

Hol Chan, dive 43

November 25, 2010

Dive: 43
Belize Dive: 1
Date: 11/25/10
Site: Hol Chan
Avg/Max Depth: 17/26
Temp: 81
TBT/CBT: 0:48/34:04
Buddies: Ted (Nick, Curtis, Kristen, Cindy, Ellie)

Today we did our first dive here in Belize. Rudy, one of our favorite Divemasters from 2007, took us to Hol Chan. It was Cindy and Ellie’s first salt water dive, too! We saw lots of fish and some different rays. It was an easy, shallow dive, but the current was kind of crazy toward the end. Curtis was srs bzns with his underwater camera and an HD video camera.

After our dive, we went to Shark Ray Alley for a bit of snorkeling. When I jumped in the water, the first thing I did was take a deep breath thinking my reg was in. Woops. Fortunately the water only went into my mouth and not my lungs! Rudy and Martín, the captain, were feeding the fish. They got a kick out of throwing the food toward us so the fish would pummel us trying to get to it. Very awesome. True to its name, there were plenty of rays and nurse sharks. And the nurse sharks were huuuuuge! I don’t remember seeing so many that big last time.

Huntington Access, dive 42

September 25, 2010

Dive: 42
Season Dive: 1
Date: 9/25/10
Site: Huntington Access
Avg/Max Depth: 21/18
Temp: 61
TBT/CBT: 0:18/33:16
Buddies: Kristen (Curtis, Ted, Mike, Adam, Cindy, & Ellie elsewhere)

My first and last dive of the 2010 season was at Dive Fest! There was a bit of drama. I had a new wetsuit and wasn’t sure how much weight I would need. I ended up needing 30 pounds. Unfortunately, I could only fit 26 pounds in my BCD. I burned through half of my hair just trying to sink and was seconds away from climbing out and saying f*** it, when Adam and Mike surfaced. Mike had two 2 pound ankle weights that he was kind enough to let me use, and I sank easily after that. It was cold. Kristen and I did a short dive.

Dive Fest 2010

September 24, 2010

Dive Fest 2010 is officially under way! I will be reporting live thanks to my WordPress app for BlackBerry.

So far they have revealed the first clue for the medallion. BRK and I think we know which pit it’s located in. Curtis is hesitant about winning it two years in a row, but I think he’ll crack.

Keep tuned in to jillapalooza for live Dive Fest coverage. if you are any errors like Thu. A or thin or yaps it’s because I’m writing on my phone. I cannot be held responsible for missing apostrophes.

PADI #79, Mahnomen II & III, dive 41

September 26, 2009

Dive: 41
Season Dive: 8
Date: 9/26/09
Site: Padi #79, Mahnomen II & III
Avg/Max Depth: 23/28
Temp: 68
TBT/CBT: 0:33/32:58
Buddies: Ted (Curtis, Kristen, Mike, Adam)

For our night dive we decided it might be fun to give PADI #79 a try. Apparently the medallion was still there and we thought it would be fun to have a go at it. Maybe it would reflect the light and be easier to find.

The temp had dropped so it was a bit chilly. Trying to put on slightly wet gear was kind of cold and miserable. Not to mention I was having some great anxiety since it was my first night dive. I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t think a light could make anything visible for any desirable distance below the surface, and my constantly leaky mask was really starting to wear on me. Seriously, it’s bad. It leaks if I turn my head, raise my eyebrows, look down, equalize, or if it’s been 2:34 minutes since it leaked last. Anyway, I digress.

I was buddied up with Ted again which made me feel a little better since he’s a rescue diver. Actually all the boys are rescue divers, so in all fairness maybe I would have felt good with any of them. Curtis gave Kristen and me an exit plan if we were panicked and needed to abort the dive which was comforting as well. I like to have an option to end my dive without ruining it for whoever my buddy is.

My mask gave me a lot of the trouble throughout the dive which was a pain and caused me a bit of anxiety, but I expected that to happen intermittently throughout the dive. What I did not expect was that diving in the dark would be totally awesome. The visibility was much better than I expected. Seeing everyone’s lights looked really neat. I didn’t see any big fish, but I found a lot of little ones sleeping motionless in the weeds. There were also lots of mudbugs hiding under rocks with their little pinchers going. I can never remember if they are crayfish or crawfish or if it even makes a difference, so I’m going to start calling them mudbugs instead.

Mike and Adam were in the water first. They ran a line off the platform 120 degrees to the fence post so we would have a reference of where to search. Ted and I got lost trying to find the platform, so we resurfaced and surface swam to everyone before descending again. I have no sense of underwater direction, so I just tried to stay at Ted’s side for the dive. We dug through weeds and overturned rocks looking for the medallion. Adam decided to either fix the line or run it a little farther, but he was practically crawling on the bottom while he was doing it. He floundered around and collected so many weeds that he resembled some sort of sea enemy from a Scooby Doo cartoon.

After almost an hour Ted signaled to surface since he spotted all the lights up above. I got excited thinking someone had found the medallion, but that wasn’t the case. Kristen said she was heading back to shore. I probably would have went back down with the rest of them, but I was fed up with my leaky mask so I was more than happy to swim to shore with her. It was so dark outside it made for an interesting time removing and packing up our gear. And a cold time.

We were done packing up by the time the boys returned sans medallion. Broken and defeated we returned to HQ to return the rental tanks and pick up our filled tanks so we’d be ready first thing in the morning to dive again.