Jillapalooza

IM IN UR OCEAN. EATIN UR CARDZ.

Victoria Tunnels

Dive 14

Curtis, Kristen and I along with newbie Jason set out for a morning of diving with Rudy as our dive master. Rudy decided to bring us to Victoria Tunnels since none of us had been there yet. He said there was a giant tunnel there that is really fun to go through, unfortunately we didn’t have a dive light with us so we wouldn’t be going through that one.

This time we were going to be descending a bit differently. Instead of one at a time we would be doing a drift drop where two of us roll of each side at the same time immediately followed by the other two. Curtis and Jason were first, Kristen and I followed.

We descended to around 90′ and immediately entered the first tunnel. It was pretty dark and it took my eyes awhile to adjust. There were a bunch of little silver fish that kept dive bombing us. Once we were through the other side we just explored the reef. As far as reefs go this was my favorite. There were a lot of cone shaped coral that looked like little hallow cacti with the tops cut off. They looked a bit out of place in the deeper water because the reef would have a seemingly neutral tone due to the depth, but then there would be a bright lime green piece of coral. There were also a lot of bright purple ones that would fade to a whitish transparent color toward the top. Maybe they weren’t as abundant in the other areas we dove, or maybe I just hadn’t noticed them before. They were neat. We also saw a couple different kinds of fish. There was a school of blue fish with these funny little fins that they flapped around like bird wings. I approached them slowly, keeping my distance and trying not to scare them away since I knew Curtis was behind me and probably wanted a picture also, but they didn’t seem too shy.

**BLUE BIRDY FISH AND CACTI CORAL PICS COMING SOON**

Jason was low on air and Rudy let him share his air for a while since we still had one more deep tunnel to go through. We came over the reef and descended to the second tunnel. I liked this one better than the first. The reef walls were split all the way up so it allowed more light in. I hit my hand on the coral by accident and it was all stingy, then while I was doing my underwater belly aching about my hand I hit my leg on the coral. Kristen was having ear problems trying to descend, so she and Curtis (good buddy that he is) went around the tunnel and met us on the other side. Soon after that we started our ascent. The safety stop is much nicer when the water is calm.

Once we surfaced we got to take off our gear before we got on the boat, which I much prefer to climbing a ladder with a bunch of heavy awkward stuff on. We headed back to the main dive shop for our surface interval. It was nice to be there and not have to fill out paperwork, this time we just got to relax. :D

San Pedro Canyon

Dive 13

After a surface interval at the main dive shop we loaded ourselves back on the boat. Diving the second dive would be Curtis, Kristen, Nick and I, as well as the lady from our hotel (who has been diving since 1985) with Felipe as our dive master. This time he was bringing what he called sushi (a.k.a. shark bait). We took the short boat ride to San Pedro Canyon, where we dove last Sunday.

I was the first one in the water this time. No more sitting on the boat getting seasick on the big swells for me!! Although it was nothing compared to Sundays swells, it was still hard to sit on the boat when it wasn’t driving anywhere. Once I was in the water it was rather lonely, aside from the school of the sharks who came to greet me. But it was fun to watch every one enter from a different perspective. Felipe brought the bait down with him and the sharks multiplied instantly. We swam to an area with a sandy bottom and he let the bait loose (frozen fish parts in a holey PVC tube). The sharks, grouper and snapper all gathered ’round for the food. Kristen and Nick got to hold sharks. Felipe was holding a shark and I was looking into it’s mouth when he thrust the shark at me. Funny stuff I tell ya!!

When the sushi was finished we swam around again. More canyon, more reef, more fishes. We saw an eagle ray as well as one of those flat rays that was swimming real fast like he was on a mission. We also saw a couple of turtles, hawksbill turtle to be exact. The dive was good.

Advanced Course Dives, Victoria Canyon

Dive 12

Curtis, Kristen, Nick and I boarded the boat for our first dive at 9 am. Accompanying us were the four South Africans from a previous dive (white people with British accents), and another lady who was staying at our hotel. Nick and I would be diving with Sylvin for our last required advanced dive course, while everyone else would be going with Felipe.

I got in the water before Nick and quickly descended. Nick came in shortly after and we waited for Sylvin. We planned on going to 90′ for 10 minutes, then to 60′ for 30 minutes before ascending. I had the stopwatch, but due to some miscommunication we stayed at 85′ (couldn’t quite find 90′) for 14 minutes before ascending to 50′ for the remainder of the dive. There isn’t anything new to report from any previous dives. The reef looked the same, we saw the same fish, sharks and a turtle which is a bit more rare. We criss crossed with the other group a few times. At one point we saw a large spotted eagle ray and our two groups were in hot pursuit. It was above us and we all peaked over the reef to see it. I wonder what kind of perspective it had of the situation. Here it is swimming around, minding it’s own business and all of a sudden all these faces start peeking over the reef. Sylvin summoned for Nick and I to follow and we headed away from the other group again. When the three of us were alone we spotted a barracuda below us, then Sylvin was having some sort of problem. He motioned for us to stay put and he ascended. There we were, just me, Nick and the barracuda somewhere in the near distance. Sylvin came back after a few minutes and we continued the dive. The 15′ safety stop at the end wasn’t too bad. We were swimming instead of just hanging there, so the waves weren’t too troublesome.

Nick and I were the first on the boat again. The other group surfaced a few minutes later. They boarded the boat and we headed back to the dive shop to drop off the South Africans, who were only doing a one tank dive, then headed to the main dive shop closer to town. Once there we got some fresh fruit and Sylvin did our paperwork for the completion of the course!!

Advanced Course Dives, Hol Chan

Dives 10 and 11

Nick and I did another two dives toward our Advanced Diver certification today. The boat ride today was much better. The ocean was more rough today than yesterday so Sylvan took us to Hol Chan, back inside the calm reef. Jason (the guy from yesterday) came along with us to finish up his final open water diving coarse.

First we did our navigation dive. We snorkeled a straight line above the surface before getting our dive gear on and doing the same under the water. Then we navigated a giant square. Nick did great. I did well until the last turn when I started to veer in the wrong direction. I was really confused and disoriented, and my mask kept filling with water which didn’t help the situation at all. My eyes were burning from the salt water and I could feel tears dripping into shallow pools at the bottom of my mask. Sylvin had me do a smaller version of the square and that time I aced it.

We stopped for a short surface interval on the boat before doing our second dive, fish identification. This dive was fun and easy. Nick had a fish guide book that he carried along to look up fish with. If we didn’t know what fish were we would point to them and Sylvin would write their names down on his slate. Likewise, if he found a fish or other marine life of interest he would point at it and write it down for us. We ID’d many types of fish; parrot, damsel, flounder (which are neat because they swim on their side and their eyes are on the same side of their head), snapper, grunts, tangs, etc. We also saw a 7′ long barracuda. It was so big the gentleman who manned the boat could see it from above water. There was a giant green eel, big and fat. We also passed a group of spotted eagle rays. They swam with us for a little while. The other rays, the flat headed kind, I don’t remember what they are called, would park themselves on the ocean floor, then wiggle their wings (fins) around and partially bury themselves. On our way back to the boat we saw another nurse shark. Jason had done his final skills on the dive, and I am kind of jealous that this was his experience for his checkout dives. All we got were a tiny sunken boat, mossy trees, poor visibility and ice cold water.

Our last dive will be a multilevel dive. We’ll be starting out at 100′ and from there ascending to 70′. I assume it will be a lot like our deep dive, which was basically the same set up. We have already planned the dive and worked out what our pressure groups will be, so I don’t think there will be any skills on the actual dive, just a good ol’ time diving with Sylvin as our guide!! It’s tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning, so hopefully the wind will die down so it’s not so miserable in the boat.

Advanced Course Dives, Esmeralda & San Pedro Canyon

Dives 8 and 9

Today marked the beginning of Nick and my journey to become advanced divers. We got to the dive shop a little before 9 am with Curtis and Kristen, who were going to do a two tank local dive.

Our instructor, Sylvan, met us at the dive shop shortly after nine. He told us due to some large swells that we would be joining the diving group going out in the big boat instead of going in his little boat. I think he might have thrown around the term “choppy” a couple of times. We rejoined C & K, as well as some other divers, in the big boat and we were on our way. Now, there are big waves, and then there are big waves, but these were big friggin’ waves. I’m talking waves that were bigger than the boat itself. For the first few waves I thought for sure it would just come right over the top of us and wash us all out.

We got to the first dive site where we would be doing our deep dive. Because of the swells Sylvan told us to enter the water by a backward roll and to descend immediately to calmer waters. I must say I really appreciate the guys who get everything all hooked up and strap it to me, all the while holding me securely into the boat.

First time entering the water backwards and… it worked out well. I descended to find Nick and we waited for Sylvan to come find us. We descended quickly. The ocean water is so clear that I was surprised to look at my depth gauge and see that we were at 80 feet. It doesn’t seem any different than 20, other than the lack of color. Once we got to 100 feet we played tic-tac-toe on a waterproof slate in order to test if we were suffering from any nitrogen narcosis. Nick beat me the first time, but I shut him out for a draw the second. The drawing of the “O” felt a bit sluggish, but I think it was from just being underwater and not necessarily any sort of narcosis kicking in. After 8 minutes at 100′ we ascended to 60′ to lengthen our dive. We just swam around and looked at the reef and all the fishes. During our 15′ safety stop I started feeling a little dizzy. I guess it was from the surface waves, although I didn’t feel like I was moving around any. when we got to the surface the motion sickness started kicking in for Nick and I. Once on the boat the waves were miserable. I kept my eyes on the horizon while Nick laid down. After 10 minutes or so the other group surfaced and we headed to shore for a surface interval.

We stopped at a different dive shop closer to town. Nick and I filled out our dive logs and Sylvan showed us how to use the wheel to find our ending pressure group, since technically our dive was a multilevel dive. After an hour we boarded the boat and were back off. This time our dive site was only a 3 minute ride and the waves weren’t as bad, but still big. We also had a couple more people along. One guy was taking his 3rd checkout dive with Sylvan at the same time we were doing our drift dive.

We descended after the first group again and the four of us met up at about 30 feet. Sylvan tested the new guy on his required skills and after that we were off. Having the other guy along was pretty entertaining as he didn’t quite have his buoyancy under control, and at one point he got too close to Sylvan and they kept getting all entwined together. It was irritating at the same time, because now I had two people who kept bumping into me, so I tried to keep a safe distance behind the two of them.

The dive wasn’t much of a drift dive as the surge was pretty strong, so it wasn’t as relaxing as I thought it would be. We kept criss crossing with the other diving group. Kristen should have taken the advanced class with us since we were basically doing the same dive. Apparently she didn’t want to give PADI any more of her money ;). It was a lot more of the same stuff as the first dive except the visibility wasn’t as good. It was still fun though. Toward the end of the dive we met up with the other group again. Felipe was their guide again, and he had brought some fish food with. On the ocean floor there was a pile of nurse sharks eating it from his BC which he removed and let lay on the bottom. It was kind of eerie at first, seeing all these sharks eating and a BC with no diver inside. Sylvan motioned for me to come down, I emptied my BC and knelt on the ocean floor. He grabbed a shark and pulled it near us, then motioned for me to touch it. It felt so neat. It really was rough like sand paper. And dense, not squishy like the rays. Then Felipe grabbed a shark and started man handling it. He flipped it upside down and I got to rub it’s tender under belly, which was silky smooth. I didn’t have my camera with, but Curtis got some good pics and video. We had to cut out before the other group, as we were nearing our time limit due to the residual nitrogen from our first dive. When we did our safety stop Sylvan had us hold onto a buoy rope. It made me a bit less dizzy than the first dives stop, but it took awhile to get adjusted to the way the rope whipped us around when the waves would come. Fortunately the other group wasn’t very far behind us so we didn’t have to spend any unnecessarily long time on the boat waiting.

Once we got back to the dive shop Sylvan gave us our “homework” assignment and told us to read the chapters on AWARE Fish Identification and Multilevel Diving. Tomorrow we’ll be back at the dive shop at 9 am for those two dives and the navigation dive!!

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