ScubaBoard Meet & Greet - Saturday, July 19th, 2008

It was a foggy morning waiting us when we woke up to begin our drive down to Monterey. While I had hoped that the weather would open up a bit, we got to Monterey and it was just as foggy as it had been outside our front door in San Francisco. Despite this, our spirits were not damped as we pulled into the El Torito parking lot to meet the other SB’ers who were coming to the M&G. Much to my surprise, one of my OW instructors, Joe Sparks was there too! How great this was going to be.

Soon the divers were showing up and we were all getting our gear set up, suits on and hiking the gear down the sloping beach between the hotel and the restaurant to start the dives. Joining us were two guys named Devin, Robin, Ron, Carrie, Jeff, Brandon, Katherine, Dannobee and two of his friends (although I think his friends ended up not diving with us in the end). When we got on the sand, we designated buddy groups and headed into the water – Mark and I bringing up the rear as we hadn’t walked down with our gear, but were suiting up on the beach instead (for whatever reason). But soon we were off into the water, only to hear that the cove was pretty soupy. With that in mind, Jeff led us along the surface, following the sand channel, skirting around the kelp. We dropped down en masse and Robin, Mark and I headed off into the kelp for Robin to try out his new dSLR housing that makes him look like a real professional. As I was leading, I thought the kelp would be the best area to get some good shots – macro, wide angle, etc. Plus, it has been so long since I’d seen such beautiful kelp that I couldn’t wait to get exploring!

And the kelp didn’t disappoint! While the visibility was less than what we were accustomed to in Mexico (hahaha!) it was still pretty good by Monterey standards. We had about 15-20 feet outside of the cove, considerably less inside. While we tinkered around in the kelp, we were soon joined by another dive buddy who clamped on to Mark’s bright yellow fins – a seal! Always a joy-filled event when these playful ones come along on our dive. But you have to keep them entertained. If we stopped swimming, ergo stopped entertaining, the seal would bolt. Only for us to see them on the surface just above us, floating around. I’d motion that Mark or Robin should start kicking as the seals were infinitely more interested in their colorful fins than my black ones. And when they did start kicking, down they’d come to play some more. So adorable. Soon a second one came and the two would lay on the floor, facing one another engaged in what appeared to be some sort of dialogue. Super cute. Soon it seemed they’d found other playmates and we were off to find more things to photograph.

Check out the video!


I was in the lead and so I decided we’d head into another bunch of kelp – thick and beautiful, blocking the overhead sun from filtering down to the bottom. It was majestic. You hear people talking about “soaring through underwater redwoods” – sitting inside of a kelp cathedral. It was just like that. Everywhere, tiny senoritas darted in and out of the kelp, joined by rock kelpfish, and what appeared to be juvenile rock kelpfish. It was serene, and, for a few moments – as tacky as this might sound – it was our space. Our own little cathedral. Just amazing.

Soon we headed back as Mark was getting low on air having dove the LP steel Luxfer. I walked up on shore with 1800 in my tank still, 47 minutes down. Not too bad on the air consumption. A surface interval was shared between all the divers, giddily chatting about their various seal encounters, anxious to see photos from one another. Soon we were heading back into the water as I was beginning to cool off in the shadowy day. Mark and Robin swapped out their tanks and I would dive the same since I had plenty of air left in it. Entering we prepared ourselves for the long surface swim outside the cove. Swimming around the kelp made the journey more difficult but because Robin wasn’t sporting a snorkel, it made it impossible for him to swim on his belly to avoid getting entangled. So, around we went! Soon Ron was kicking out to join us since Devin was not going to be doing a second dive as he was experiencing a bit of tooth pain, possibly a reverse squeeze.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the dive site, Ron realized that he had lost his mask that he wears on the backside of his head. Lesson to all – not the best place for it, especially when around grabby kelp! So Robin, Mark and I descended while Ron swam back in search of the mask. We had decided to do a kelp tour, with a northernly direction on a compass heading of 0-30 degrees. Returning around 180 and then 220-240 degrees back to the shore. On the surface this seemed like an awesome venture there appeared to be just tons of kelp in that area. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as great when we got down there. Oh well.

The dive was still fun – rushing over boulders, peeking in pipes. On the way back, we hit the surge and the algae on the bottom caused Robin and I to get a bit of vertigo since the bottom was doing all kinds of crazy things! It was pretty awesome though.

After the dive, drying off, and then into El Torito for a group lunch. I think there were about 11 of us hanging out, lunching and sharing stories, experiences, photos, etc. It was a great. I had a really awesome time and hope that people enjoyed themselves. If you didn’t though – at least I did! Hahaha. :)

Favorite Photo of the Day:

Robin's Seal Baited Fins - Gets 'em everytime!

Cozumel Dive Vacation – June 28th through July 5th, 2008

After almost three weeks at home, I am finally getting around to working on the blog entries recounting our experiences during our Cozumel dive trip. It was an amazing week full of awesome diving and great company – and while there was “issues” with the place we stayed, we had a great week of just hanging out, diving and being around friends. So, I can’t complain.

We flew out of San Francisco on a red-eye to Charlotte. In San Francisco we stopped into a bar near the gate and, lo and behold, ran into Susan and Vincent who I didn’t know but had been told were coming. Finding their luggage, I found them and introduced myself. How great that we weren’t even in Mexico yet but were already making friends with other divers in our group! In Charlotte, we met up with Lisa who I’ve known for years, but only in an online and telephone way. I was a little nervous about meeting Lisa, but after a hug, it felt like we’d been long time friends who were only recently living on different coasts. From Charlotte, we flew directly to Cozumel, all three of us sitting together in the same row, chatting the entire way down there. Going through customs and immigration felt like an eternity, anxiously awaiting to get to the resort, check in, bathing suits on and vacation started!

We were staying at the Wyndham in Cozumel which is a nicely situated resort for divers as it is quite far south, out of the city and close to the dive sites, making for shorter boat rides out and back. It is an all-inclusive, food and alcohol which is great but there are generally pretty long lines for… well, just about everything, especially the bar. But it was a nice enough resort. Rooms are spacious and the beds are comfortable, grounds are nice. The food is very good and the service in them tends to be very good by servers who, for the most part, seem very nice and interested in serving. But I will say that the hotel’s room cleaning was pretty bad and the management did not seem overly interested in remedying problems when they arose. But, as we all said, we weren’t impressed by the resort, but we were there to go diving and not hang out in the resort, so it didn’t matter.

We dove everyday with Sand Dollar Sports which was a decent operation. I believe that we benefited from the fact that we were on a dive shop organized trip. We had the same, large boat, DMs and crew everyday. We also had one of the best DMs I’ve ever had in my life – Alex Dorian. An amazing DM who really was genuinely interested ensuring that we had good dives with great critters and had as long as possible bottom times. It was awesome. Most dives were around 45 minutes, and we got to dive all the sites we were aiming to dive – so it was great.

When not diving, we were fortunate to have good snorkeling just off the shore from the hotel. During our snorkels there, we found schools of palometas (permits) that would aggressively bump into us, Sergeant majors, grunts, and even some barracudas. There was a Needlefish hanging out in the shallow reeds, and even a small octopus who had holed up in a rock. Mark even found a ray on one of the dives, in only about 2 feet of water.

Our DM was nice enough to suggest some other locations for snorkeling as well. One afternoon we visited Caleta where, after entering from the beach, the depth sharply increases allowing you to be in about 25-30 feet of water within 40 feet from the shore. There were tons of fish as the snorkeling boats generally feed the fish so they are quite accustomed to being around people, if only for their own selfish reasons. After putting up with the onslaught of inconsiderate snorkelers, we headed off to the second snorkeling sight down the road across from the Pirata Restaurant. While just about 1.5 miles down the road from Caleta, the site was completely different. The depth never exceeded 3 feet. The entire bottom was pitted and in almost all the holes were little urchins. Other than that, there were lovely purple sea fans. It was a lovely site although I always felt a bit nervous of being stuck by an urchin. While I am not overly interested in snorkeling most of the time, I was impressed by the quality of the snorkeling off the coast of Cozumel. It provided a very relaxing way to pass the afternoons after diving.

While the diving is different than what we are accustomed to in Northern California, it was wonderful to be in such clear, warm water. Having returned to California diving (this past weekend) with our 20’ (at best) viz – it made me appreciate the differences but, at the same time, there are definite benefits and disadvantages of both. But it was a wonderful vacation with great diving and I do miss being there. The nice thing about blogging, however, is that I guess to relive a little bit of the trip. So in the following entries, I’ll provide more detail about each of the day’s dives. Enjoy!

[PS: Mark recently bought me a download kit for my Suunto dive computer so I have been able to download my dive data. While I haven’t populated all of the information, I’ve got screen captures of the general information and will now be providing it along with my blogs! So, thanks sweets!]

July 3rd, 2008: Cozumel Diving Day 5 – Punta Sur (Devil’s Throat) & Paseo del Cedral

Our last day of diving in Cozumel felt really sad to me. I was getting into a routine that I was happy in, diving early in the morning, having lunch after rinsing and hanging gear, hitting the pool or going snorkeling, leisurely dinner and hanging out some more, having some drinks or an early night in bed. It all seemed so sad to think that it was almost over and I’d be heading home to work, responsibilities, etc. These feelings, however, were tempered by the fact that we were about to head out to try and do one of the most fascinating deep dives that Cozumel has to offer – Devil’s Throat. I’ve been told that this is a “must dive” site but that it is oftentimes hard to dive because of the current.

The Devil’s Throat site is located at Punta Sur and consists of an underwater cave formation which starts in 70-80’ of water and opens up at approximately 135 feet, which is on the edge of the recreational limits. For this, and other reasons, this is considered an advanced dive that DMs will only do if they have confidence in your skills and abilities. Because of the depth and the time that you spend at depth, a longer than standard safety stop is required in order to minimize the risk of DCS. Our DM had actually planned for us to do a multilevel ascent with a stop at 70 feet for three minutes and a second stop at 15-20 feet for 6-8 minutes depending upon whether anyone had entered decompression diving.

Arriving at the site and hearing the admonitions about the site and the possible dangers, I began to get a bit worried about it. I was thoroughly convinced as to the safety of our DM and my own abilities as a diver, but the apprehension was still there. I suppose that, in one vein, it is healthy to have a small amount of fear just so long as it is not immobilizing; but I was a little nervous about it.

Splashing in, we all knew that we would be immediately descending in order to make it down towards the opening of the “Throat” without having to burn through a lot of air swimming underwater against the current. We all were in the water within a few seconds of each other, underwater and underway. Soon our DM Alex (Dorian) was giving us the signal for “swim-through” and we were heading into the Devil’s Throat. Lisa was ahead of me on the first cave, Mark, Vince and Susan behind me. Popping out at 135 feet, Alex was taking photos of each of as we exited the throat. Depth doesn’t appear to have that much effect on me, although I’ve never had to do any drills or tests to see if I suffer from Nitrogen Narcosis. I tried to use my camera at one point to take a photograph of Lisa, only to realize that none of the buttons would work, quickly remembering that my housing is only rated to 130 feet. Whoops! Realizing this, I simply stored the camera in hopes that nothing happened to it.

Soon we were lining up for the 2nd cave entry / swim through. This was more extensive and I followed behind Mark this time. Twisting up through the cave, we entered small, tight spots, gently swimming up and through them, eventually exiting at about 75 feet. I checked my camera again and found that the buttons were again working! I guess returning to a less pressurized environment allowed the buttons, o-rings, etc return to their normal working position. And, to my relief, there didn’t appear to be any water in the case.

We soon began our 1st safety stop for three minutes to allow some of the nitrogen to dissolve, removing us further from any threat of DCS and further increasing our chances of having a longer 2nd dive. Soon we were heading up to 15’ to start a longer safety stop, passing the time taking photos of each other and a school of fish that were hanging out around us. All too soon however we were back on the surface, climbing out and chattering to one another about how marvelous the dive was, waiting to get back into the water for another beautiful blue dive.

After our surface interval, we were off to Paseo del Cedral. Alex told us that this was a good site to see big critters, so I grabbed my camera and splashed in. Another drift dive and the current was ripping! We weren’t even to the bottom and we were being swept off along the reef, with little opportunity to break and take photos. As soon as we were down, we came across these massive stoplight parrot fish, just MASSIVE though. I guess that is the benefit of being in a Marine Reserve – you can just get huge. Its mouth, however, looked like a mola mola, always open. So far, big critters – check!

But soon enough we saw it – a sweet turtle hunkered down in the reef having a snack, its beautiful head tucked down into the reef, massive French angel fish at its side. Kicking hard to keep in place, I took two photographs before letting the turtle continue its lunch. Off we go down the reef, when I look up and see one of the most beautiful sites I’ve seen on a dive. This amazing turtle is swimming above us and, as if on queue, it dives down towards the bottom, swimming towards me as I am fumbling with my camera, all the while trying to think of whether I should take video or stills! Such grace that I could only aspire to, I swam along dive of it, against current for a few minutes, just in awe of the sheer magnitude of the moment.

The reefs here are beautiful. Skimming along the tops of the reef, I stay high in order to avoid a shortened dive from running out of no-Deco time, dropping down when Alex (Dorian) signaled something found – a nurse shark, lobsters, toad fish, trigger fish – heck, who am I kidding. I rode the line of deco diving (but didn’t cross) on that dive because there were just so many things to look at. Stunning sand dollars poking out of the sandy floor, Christmas tree worms, juvenile French angels, amazing corals and sponges, groupers, squirrelfish, etc. It was a beautiful dive and a really nice high note to end the week of diving on.

On the boat, I packed my gear quietly. Our DM (Alex Dorian) asked if I were okay. The answer was yes, but sad. I didn’t want to think that it was my last day of diving – it almost made me cry. I was so enjoying myself that I simply did not want to stop. It was incredibly difficult to walk off the boat and say goodbye to the crew members who we had chatted with the entire week, gotten to know, and a DM that we had shared such amazing experiences with and had become quite good friends with. It was hard, but I know I can always go back. So thank you. Thank you Mark for being a good buddy (except when you had the camera! J ), to Lisa for being an amazing friend, a happy and excited buddy and to Sue and Vince for tagging along and being enjoyable, friendly and caring buddies and newfound friends. A warm and very heart-felt thanks for Alex “Dorian” Salas who made our trip a marvelous success. Without you, it just would not have been as magical as it ended up being. Mil gracias!




Dive #73 – Thursday, 7/3/08 – Punta Sur / Devil’s Throat – Cozumel, Mexico. 9:10 AM. Max depth 132 feet, average depth 66 feet. Bottom time 34 minutes. Water temp 82°, vis approximately 50-60 feet. Surface interval – 1 hour, 9 minutes.








Dive #74 – Thursday, 7/3/08 – Paseo de Cedra – Cozumel, Mexico. 10:54 AM. Max depth 67 feet, average depth 43 feet. Bottom time 48 minutes. 500 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 83 °, vis approximately 60-75 feet.

Favorite Photo of the Day:

Turtle on the Reef

July 2nd, 2008: Cozumel Night Dive – Paradiso Reef

We decided that we’d do a night dive while down there. We left from Caleta in a small motorboat with just the right amount of space for all 5 of us. Unfortunately Lisa was experiencing some ear troubles and didn’t want to push it in light of her desire to dive Devil’s Throat the following day, so just Susan, Vincent, Mark and I would be doing the dive along with our DM. We went to Paradiso Reef, which is just off the shore from Caleta where we had previously snorkeled. We received our dive briefing and soon we were splashing down.

Given that all of my night dives have been in the low viz of Monterey, I really wasn’t prepared for just how good our dive would be. Immediately upon descending, I was simply amazed by the visibility around us. We could see divers in the distance, their presence given away only by their lights that we could see were darting all over the reef like a sci-fi movie. It was amazing. Mark and I stayed toward the back of the group, intermittently turning off our primary lights in order to bask in the darkness and experience the dive in a bit more darkness. It was stunning. I really was so thoroughly amazed by the dive.

The dive lasted 71 minutes for me as I was the last diver down with our DM. Mark and Susan were down for about 65 minutes. It was astonishing. We saw sea snakes, sleeping parrot fish, rays skating along the bottom. What I wish I could remember is the name of the weird, long, thick worm-like critter that, according to our DM, are attached at one end to the reef, but that come out at night and feed on the reef. They were eerie, but amazing that things like that are “present” during the day but hidden. Of course we saw octopus along the dive, I believe that there were three of them in total. One fairly large one that entertained me as it tried to find safety in the reef, changing greenish whenever my light hit it. While I am a little bit intimidated by them (don’t really know why), I found it very intriguing to just rest in the water column and watch what I consider one of the most amazing sea critters. But what really struck me were the King crabs. One of the crabs was on the edge of the reef, hanging out, giant claws picking off bits of something, tenderly moving his claw back to his mouth, eating. I probably could have stayed there the entire night and he didn’t seem to mind.

In the end, I had about 550 PSI but thought that the other divers might want to go back so the DM and I headed to the surface just by the boat. It was an amazing dive and I can’t stop smiling as I think about it even now.




Dive #73 – Wednesday, 7/2/08 – Paradiso Reef - Cozumel, Mexico. 7:59 PM. Max depth 43 feet, average depth 32 feet. Bottom time 71 minutes (longest dive!). 550 PSI at end of dive. Water temp holding fast at 82°, night dive.

July 2nd, 2008: Cozumel Diving Day 4 – Wreck C-53 (Felipe Xicoténanti) & Punta Tunich

Day four of our diving adventure on Cozumel and we were really looking forward to diving the wreck of Felipe Xicoténanti, or the C-53. After our briefing, we were asked whether or not we would want to penetrate, and our DM explained that there is a guide wire through the wreck that could be followed in case of separation or darkness. Despite our limited exposure to wreck penetration, I was not at all concerned about entering the wreck. Soon we were off, down the anchor line to the front of the wreck. Continuing our descent along the side of the hull, we swam to the propeller where photos were taken. Moving along to the other side of the wreck, we received the signal questioning / indicating our entry time. After all five of us indicating that we were okay, we swam into the wreck.

I guess I wasn’t sure what kind of penetration we’d be doing because I didn’t expect that we’d be inside the wreck for as long as we were. I was amazed when we cruised around the first deck, through room after room, connected by twisting, dark passages. Then, we were at the base of a flight of stairs, following Alex Dorian up them. On the next deck, the air bubbles from the divers behind were leaking through the holes in the floor. Soon, however, we were headed out to the back deck, exposed to the open water. Off the back deck, we descended to the sand where we found a huge cucumber under a sea rod. Back towards the wreck, we stopped to admire some brittle stars clinging to the side of the hull, beautiful in their contrasting colors to that of the wreck. Then there was a coral formation where our DM pointed out a lovely Spotted moray (Gymnothorax moringa) peeking out of the formation. Soon we all noticed that it was time for us for us to begin our ascent up the anchor line to the boat. Hanging out on the anchor line doing my safety stop, I hung horizontally watching the divers on the wreck below. So relaxed, I continued my safety stop for about another 5 minutes just to relax and off-gas a little more while enjoying the scenery.

On board we began our surface interval and then geared up for the second dive of the day which would be at Punta Tunich. This time we would be letting our dive buddy Susan use the camera since her SeaLife wasn’t cooperating at depth, despite our best efforts to figure out what was going on with it. It ended up being a lovely drift dive, cruising over the sloping reefs past fans, fronds and sponges. Soon enough we encountered a small turtle cruising along the reef accompanied by some large French and Gray angel fish. Also along the reef were Queen angels, large Stoplight Parrotfish, even one that Susan caught peeking out from under a ledge – too cute! Under larger ledges, tons for grunts hung out, allowing for close interaction with them. We even found what I called “Lobster Ledge” – an area, out of the current – about 4 or 5 of them, hanging out in the crevices, antlers poking out at us. Then as we swam desperately against the current, we found to huge lobsters climbing across the top of the reef. They were just amazing – huge in size and, while conscious of our presence, almost fearless in their journey across the reef. Truly amazing. At the end of our dive, we were visited by both a trigger fish and a electric blue file fish who let us get quite close to him before the current pulled us apart.




Dive #70 – Wednesday, 7/2/08 – C-53 Wreck – Cozumel, Mexico. 8:33 AM. Max depth 71 feet, average depth 55 feet. Bottom time 49 minutes. 500 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 82°, viz approximately 50-60 feet. Surface interval – 1 hour 1 minute.

Dive #71 – Wednesday, 7/2/08 – Punta Tunich – Cozumel, Mexico. 10:24 AM. Max depth 67 feet, average depth 46 feet. Bottom time 44 minutes. 650 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 82°, viz approximately 70-80 feet.

Favorite Photo of the Day:

Turtle (taken by Susan)

July 1st, 2008: Cozumel Diving Day 3 – Santa Rosa & Tormentos Reef

Day 3 of diving and I was loving it! The first thing we saw as we started our first dive of the day at Santa Rosa was a huge Goliath Grouper, trying to hid (unsuccessfully) under some sea rods. Soon we were headed off along the site, ducking under swim throughs that reminded Mark and I off the ski slopes of Tahoe. All over the walls of the reef were tiny fish flitting in and out of the reef – beautifully going about their business as we drifted by, taking in the scenery. The dive ended all too soon and soon we were about to begin our descent. Before we were able to head up, a blue tang past by me quickly, just barely was I able to snap a photo of him.

After our surface interval, we were headed to Tormentos Reef. Tormentos is another beautiful site – long flat sections, covered in sponges, rods and brain corals. A ray accompanied by a fish sad tenderly on the bottom. The reefs were, again, just teeming with life – small fish all over the reef including Sergeant majors, four-eye butterfly fish, Queen angel fish, and, as always, grunts. Perhaps my favorites, however, were the Sergeant majors who just were everywhere! Almost everywhere you’d look they’d be hanging out, almost checking out the scene.

As we crossed through a sandy bit over the top of the reef, we were greeted by a whole school of yellow tail jacks, traveling through the area. They were amazing – watchful of us, they swam right past, leaving me feeling completely awestruck.

Tormentos was a beautiful dive site. The expansive vistas were amazingly gorgeous. Combined with the water clarify, I was just amazed. I could have stayed down for the entire day.



Dive #68 – Tuesday 7/1/08 – Santa Rosa Wall – Cozumel, Mexico. 8:45 AM. Max depth 81 feet, average 54 feet. Bottom time 44 minutes. 660 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 82°, vis approximately 60-75 feet. Surface interval – 50 minutes.

Dive #69 – Tuesday, 7/1/08 – Tormentos Reef – Cozumel, Meixco. 10:20 AM. Max depth 54 feet, average 43 feet. Bottom time 44 minutes, 750 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 82 °, vis approximately 50-80 feet.

Favorite Photo of the Day:

Yellowfin Jacks

June 30th, 2008: Cozumel Diving Day 2 – Colombia Deep & Punta Dalila

Colombia Deep is one of those sites that you just shouldn’t miss. It is deep, beautiful and fully of life and beauty. It was my birthday so I was really happy that we were going to be doing such an awesome site. After Lisa announced the fact that it was my birthday and the boat sang to ring it in – we were splashing down into the blue. Swim throughs left us on beautiful overhangs, covered in lovely sponges and soft corrals. There were tons of elkhorn coral covered in tiny blue fish just swimming in and out of the coral.

For our surface interval, we headed back to a pier that was covered in conch shells. Pulling up to the dock, I decided I’d dive off the deck and then swim to the shore instead of walking over the beach and getting all sandy. However, while I stood on the end of the pier, the discussion turned to how deep the water was, how much caution I should use if I jumped, I shouldn’t dive, etc. While contemplating the merits of my decision, Alex Dorian, our DM, ran up behind me and grabbed me, both of us splashing into the water below. It was fantastic. We kicked back to the shore where Alex Dorian went back to the boat and I joined Mark and Lisa who were engaged in a conversation in the shallows with another group of divers, also from the San Francisco area.

Soon, however, it was time to head back on the boat and heading off to Punta Dalila for our second dive of the day. The site itself is lovely with a slight to moderate current taking you over lovely reef patches with outcroppings and overhangs onto sandy patches. There were lovely anemone covered in yellow and black fish contrasting in color to the green and blue of the anemone as they swam around the area.

One of my favorite things about this site was the amazing number of Honeycomb cowfish that were all over the site. The first one I encountered was hiding behind some thick sea rods. I slowed myself down, trying to hid behind the other side of the rods; letting the cowfish grow accustomed to me, making him/her comfortable enough to peek out from behind the rods. Sure enough, in a few seconds, its curiosity got the best and it started inching out from behind the frond, the entire time with one of its eyes trained upon me.

But this wasn’t the only encounter with these beautifully odd fish. Between and under ledges, there were groups of them intermingled with Rock Beauties and other fish. They were so adorable and curiously nervous. It felt really special have such close encounters with these lovely fish. We were even able to see a nurse shark hiding under a ledge. An amazing site that I felt really fortunate to have been able to dive on my birthday!

Dive #67 – Monday 6/30/08 – Colombia Deep – Cozumel, Mexico. 9:02 AM. Max depth 96 feet, average depth 46 feet. Bottom time 46 minutes. 600 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 83°, vis approximately 60-70 feet. Surface interval 1 hour.

Dive #68 – Monday, 6/30/08 – Dalila – Cozumel, Mexico. 10:48 AM. Max depth 56 feet, average depth 41 feet. Bottom time 60 minutes. 800 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 82°, vis approximately 70-80 feet.

Favorite Photo of the Day:

Cowfish hiding.

June 29th, 2008: Cozumel Diving Day 1 – Palancar Gardens & San Clemente

After getting settled and signed up on Saturday for everything, we were ready to dive on Sunday. The first morning was a bit hectic at the dive shop as people were signing in and everyone was there at the same time. I felt fortunate that we had gone over the day before to fill out the necessary forms and show our cert cards to the DS and soon we were walking down the path to the pier and to our boat. We were on the “Sand Dollar Express” – a beautiful, clean and incredibly spacious catamaran which was dedicated almost entirely to our group. We quickly chose a spot under the cover out of the sun and began setting up our gear, chatting and enjoying the warm, tropical morning.

Soon the boat was underway, cutting through the amazingly blue Cozumelenian waters, clear and inviting. I was anxiously awaiting splashing in and getting to explore around! The excitement was almost unbearable and the ride out to Palancar Gardens seemed to take forever. But soon enough, we were gliding into our 3mm wetsuits (a dream compared to our normal 7mm plus hood and gloves), getting our BCDs on, masks and fins in hand and making our way to the back of the deck to jump in. I was ecstatic.

After a little giant stride into the water, slightly anxious but more excited, we reconvened and were soon letting the air out of our BCDs and descending into the WARMEST water I think I’ve ever dove in. And what was below the water surface did not disappoint in the slightest.

As my head peeked below the surface, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There, down 50 feet into the blue abyss, I could see the bottom. Looking around, I could divers in all directions. Just absolutely amazing. Mark and I, suspended in the water column, eyes wide as saucers and just making hand gestures to one another about the viz – I mean it was so good, that the viz wasn’t ending – it was just that I physically couldn’t see any further! It was truly awe inspiring.

After the buoyancy issues were sorted for some of our companions, we were off. Palancar Gardens is just a beautiful site full of coral reef scenery which just does not disappoint. The site has a number of swim-throughs, which are some of my absolute favorite things to do! And floating over the reef, you pass all manner of grunt and parrot fish, especially stoplight parrot fish in their various stages, while small wrasse, and angels dart in and out of the reef. It is truly a magical first dive to begin your dive vacation on.

After a surface interval, we were treated to San Clemente, truly a Cozumel drift dive experience. Blasting over the reef, we were greeted by Lisa’s favorite fish – the barracuda. While I find these fish somewhat creepy, their lower jaw slightly jutting out, sometimes exposing their lower sharp teeth, they manner in which they eerily hang out, watching us divers fascinates me to the point that I almost feel like I can’t take my eyes off them. Sea rods are in abundance and small fish flit in and out of the elkhorn coral and barrel sponges making this site a light and fanciful dive to do.








Dive #64 – Sunday, 06/29/08 – Palancar Gardens – Cozumel, Mexico. 8:37 AM. Max depth 51 feet, average depth 38 feet. Bottom time 48 minutes. 800 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 82°, vis approximately 60-100’. Surface interval – 1 hour, 3 minutes.

Dive #65 – Sunday, 06/29/08 – San Clemente – Cozumel, Mexico. 10:53 AM. Max depth 79 feet, average depth 55 feet. Bottom time 41 minutes. 1050 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 82°, vis approximately 50-70’.

Favorite Photo of the Day:

Barracuda cruising the reef

Lake Taaaahhh!-hoe Diving – June 3-4, 2008

After starting my new job, I was in dire need of some relaxation. Fortunately, I had already scheduled a weekend away to try our hand at diving Lake Tahoe with Ron and Carrie. The weather appeared to be cooperating so we were all systems go.

As there is no place in the Lake Tahoe basin where you are able to fill tanks, leaving the nearest option Reno, and since were planning on diving 2 tanks per day, Mark and I had to rent additional tanks so that we would have a total of 8 (4 each). With the Honda weighted down with tanks, weights and all of our other gear, including sleeping bags, cameras, etc – we headed off to meet Carrie and Ron outside Sacramento, just about ½ of the way to the Lake. We arrived just before 7 AM and off loaded our gear into Ron’s dive truck which then carried all of our gear, tanks and bodies up the 90 minute drive up through the mountains and down into the basin. It was a beautiful drive, making me remember all of the fun times Mark and I had spent up there snowboarding, thrilled at the prospect of being able to try something new in the beautiful blue waters of Tahoe.

We arrived and went to Kent’s cabin, met Emily and Heather. So we were all off to launch the boat around a Carnelian Bay. We dove out of the harbor in search of the elusive “sailboat” while working on weighting issues and adjusting to freshwater diving and the coldness of the water in the lake. While the computer didn’t register that it was that much colder than Monterey, there was something really chilling about the water in Tahoe, resulting in “brain freeze” for almost all of us upon entry and initial descent. It was quite surprising actually as the ambient temperature was quite warm. Perhaps it was the contrast between the air and the water which caused the freeze.

The diving was great, although quite different from saltwater diving. The first and most remarkable aspect of it is the lack of life. I know its there, but man, the few fish that you see are just so skittish of your presence that they hide every time your reg makes any noise. I only saw fish on a few dives, some crayfish the 1st dive, although we weren’t going into crayfish territory on any of the other dives, so it was not that they weren’t there, since Emily and Heather were their constant companions on just about every dive! The other remarkable aspect about Tahoe diving is the amount of algae/silt that lies on everything. It is really important to remain in a good position with respects to your buoyancy in order to prevent stirring it all up and ruining a section of the dive site for everyone. The nice thing about the dives, however, are plentiful as well. One of the best is the ability to drink the water while diving. As someone who oftentimes experiences dry mouth (resulting in coughing at depth), it is wonderful to just be able to remove my regulator and take a sip of water. Normally I just rinse, so being able to drink the water was quite nice, plus it tastes great! As well, I really enjoyed the fact that Mark and I were able to be a bit more playful and practice some skills underwater. We had an impromptu football game with a piece of wood, wrote messages on rocks, practice navigation and various other skills like buddy breathing, mask flood/clear, mask retrieval, etc.

The scenery, what there is, is also very pretty. The boulders were a beautiful part of the diving. And, oddly enough, simultaneously sort of creepy. They scatter the floor, especially on our 3rd dive of the weekend, off the coast of the Cal-Neva resort. They are just massive, and it makes you wonder what geological force made them end up in the lake? Some of them are almost split in half, like they cracked open. Another beautifully eerie part of diving Tahoe is the way that the depth changes. You can be over 60 feet of water and move 10 yards and it drops down to 200 feet. While puttering around looking for sites, we would habitually encounter this phenomenon. And, provided your buoyancy is good, you can swim right over this “ledge” or wall and be left in awe of the fact that you can only see this expansive rock wall that just disappears into the depths.

It was a wonderful weekend with great company. Ron and Carrie and Kent are just such gracious hosts who go above and beyond with helping divers feel comfortable, opening their homes, boats and resources and knowledge to others. I feel grateful to have been able to dive with them again, and hope to do so again in the future.

Next stop - MEXICO! Hoorah for warm water diving!

Dive Statistics:
Dive #60 – Saturday, 06/07/08 – Meeks Bay – Lake Tahoe, California. 1:45 PM. Max depth 61 feet, average depth 29 feet. Bottom time 33 minutes. Water temp 52°, vis approximately 35-40 feet. Surface interval – 2 hours 57 minutes.

Dive #61 – Saturday, 06/07/08 – Rubicon Wall – Lake Tahoe, California. 4:54 PM. Max depth 45 feet, average depth 29 feet. Bottom time 17 minutes. Water temp 50°, viz approximately 40-45 feet.

Dive #62 – Sunday, 06/08/08 – Cal-Neva Resort – Lake Tahoe, California. 12:22 PM. Max depth 72 feet, average depth 31 feet. Bottom time 37 minutes. Water temp 52°, viz approximately 45-50 feet. Surface interval – 2 hours and 6 minutes.

Dive #63 – Sunday, 06/08/08 – Barges @ Emerald Bay – Lake Tahoe, California. 3:05 PM. Max depth 39 feet, average depth 23 feet. Bottom time 32 minutes. Water temp 54°, viz approximately 40-45 feet.

Favorite Photo:

Underwater rock writing. :)

New Dive Buddies, Great Diving - Saturday, May 17th, 2008

I have not been diving since our trip to Florida at the end of March so I was really looking forward to spending a Saturday in Monterey and diving with some new friends from ScubaBoard (and an already known Mike Guerrero). We planned to dive at the Breakwater in order to make it a nice, simple dive that wouldn’t be overly-exerting for anyone since we were a group of mixed experience levels, new gear and other such things.

I arrived at the Breakwater at 7:30 AM, fully expecting to find a half empty parking lot and a good spot near the top of the grass. Imagine my surprise, however, when I saw the mass amounts of people, all over the grass, the parking areas, the lower lots and wall. I parked and walked along the upper lot to find Tom, who was easy to find in light of his bright blue PT Cruiser. Soon Katherine came around and we were off to get a lesson from Tom on how to lineup the points in order to get to the Metridium Field. On our way back, Neil, Mike and Daniel found us and soon we were planning the day and getting geared up.

Our first dive was scheduled to start at about 9 am and my computer indicates that we dove at 9:20, so we must have entered the water around the scheduled time since the kick out to the Metridium Field takes a while. We landed the Metridium perfectly having had Tom line us all up but descending we were in a swarm of sea nettles, large and small. They were everywhere and in an underwater environment, you need to have eyes all over your head as you must remain conscious of what is above, below and surrounding you. Unfortunately because of the sheer number of the jellies, both Mike and Neil got stung on their faces and I can only hope that both of them are recovering from the stings.

After swimming around the Metridiums and surround areas, Neil and I began our 210-heading swim back to the shore. As we got into the shallows, however, I noticed that we were surrounded by quite a different landscape than is typical of the shore along the beach. Surfacing, we found we were slightly south of the beach and so we headed back at about 150-160 degrees and came up near the beach in about 5 feet of water. The visibility on the dive could have been better, especially around the Metridium Fields since I thought that we were out quite a bit further than the students, so I was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t as great as I had hoped. That being said, the dive was wonderful – full of life, kelp and a buddy with just about an equal air consumption given our tanks – so I was happy.

After a nice surface interval in the hot sun, we swapped the tanks and geared up to go out again. This time the plan was to kick out a ways, then take a 300 degree compass heading and follow the shoreline south at about 30 feet. This course would take us over the remains of the pipes and infrastructure of the old cannery facilities that historically dotted the coast of Monterey. As I had never actually even considered diving that locale but having had witnessed a bit of it on our return from the Metridium Field, I was quite interested in diving it. Kicking out, we encountered the bubbles from a group of students who were obviously underneath us. As to avoid disturbing them and to steer clear of any finned-up areas, we went out a bit further hoping to find a clear patch in which to begin our dive. Soon we were descending and heading along the 300 degree heading and off on our dive. Checking out a pile of rocks, Neil and I were separated from Tom and Katherine, which wasn’t a big deal as we knew they were buddied up having discussed the buddy plans on the surface. The dive was beautiful although I think that we were slightly too deep as we didn’t see as much of the pipes and other areas and saw more sandy patches covered by bat stars. When we returned, we headed a closer to shore and hit the pipes and saw lot more, including a pipe covered in barnacles,

Overall, I was really amazed by the sheer numbers of nudibranchs that were present – doris, rainbow nudis (Dendronotus iris), etc. What was most amazing was the mass presence of Opalescent Nudibranch (hermissenda crassicornis) – large, small and super-small. Everywhere there were Orange Sea Cucumbers (Cucumaria miniata), Sea Nettle Jelly (Chrysaora quinquecirrha) and Spaghetti worm (Terebellid polychaete) with their fine threads out of their holes. It was a great day for finding Kellet’s Whelks (Kelletia kelletii) and their eggs all over the Metridium Field and tiny little halibut and sanddabs floundering around in the sand. I even got to see a hooded nudibranch swimming through the water column. The sun was shining and I think we all had a great day.

After the 2nd dive, we all went our separate ways. I got cleaned up, packed the car and took the new dSLR over to Backscatter Photography to talk about housings and the appropriate underwater set-up. Needless the say, the price tag associated with the new set-up will put the entire idea on the backburner for quite sometime, but it was great to mingle and hear about the intricacies of these amazing u/w systems. After that, I popped into MBDC and then took a walk along the BW Pier where the sea lions were in full effect. Pups playing inside of the harbor while more mature lions were sunning themselves on every available semi-flat rock along the wall. I stood and watched them, barking at each other while one rubbed himself (herself?) on some barnacles just below the water line – no doubt getting a fantastic back scratch. Soon, however, it was time to begin the trek home, rinse the gear and download the photos. Next stop – Lake Tahoe.

Favorite Photo:
Hooded Nudibranch (Melibe leonine) swimming through the water

Dive Statistics:
Dive #58 – Saturday, 05/17/08 – “Metridium Fields” – Monterey, California. 9:20 AM. Max depth 49 feet, average depth 36 feet. Bottom time 50 minutes (approximately 950 PSI remaining at the end of the dive). Water temp 52°, vis approximately 12-20 feet.

Dive #59 – Saturday, 05/18/08 – “300° from the Breakwater” – Monterey, California. 12:06 PM. Max depth 41 feet, average depth 30 feet. Bottom time 55 minutes (residual time 38 minutes) (approximately 490 PSI remaining at the end of the dive). Water temp 52°, vis approximately 15-20 feet.

Vicarious Diving & Video Shoots! – Sunday, April 27th, 2008

I’ve been a landlubber since the world shortest dive on April 19th. I was looking forward to Doc Wong’s Video Shoot on safe Monastery Diving and was anticipating a day of diving. Of course, with a great Marine forecast on the horizon, I was getting excited. Of course, I shouldn’t have gotten excited as Wednesday rolled around and walloped me one of the worst colds that I had ever had in a very long time.

While extremely optimistic that the cold would dissipate prior to the dive day, I was not at all surprised when Saturday evening came and I wasn’t feeling near good enough to dive. Regardless, Mark was scheduled to dive with Michelle so we got his gear in the car. All the while, me with the heaviest of hearts. The forecast was still looking really good, so good that even Chuck Tribolet was planning on diving. I was really bummed but was hoping that I would at least catch some rays and could try out the new camera with subjects other than Mark and Gatita.

Doc Wong being assisted by Guy after his tumble.

We got up and made the trek down to Carmel, arriving at the rendezvous point slightly after Michelle and making our way to the convoy staging point (in order to get past the marathon that was running down Highway 1). Soon Doc was there and we were all hanging out, chatting and enjoying what was turning out to be a beautiful day.

Monastery is a beautiful beach. The beach is actually called Carmel River Beach – but it has adopted the nickname Monastery in the scuba community due to its proximity to a Monastery, just across the Highway 1, sitting proudly on the overlooking bluff. The beach itself, however, is quite dangerous. Because of the steep sloping beach, the way in which the waves come up the steep beach and then come rushing back, create an innocuous-seeming beach, which actually quite dangerous. Numerous people have had bad experiences because of this undertow, some have even lost their lives. In an attempt to warn visitors of the dangers, and prepare those divers who wish to dive Monastery, our friend Doc Harry Wong has been on a campaign to increase signage and create a video on safe diving procedures for the beach. We were onboard to help Doc Wong with the video; Mark would be demonstrating a safe entry into the water with Michelle. I would be providing surface support and photographs of the days events in light of my inability to participate in the diving.

Mark was amazingly composed about the entire event. Bringing his gear up the rocky beach, I was more nervous than he was. I suppose a certain part of that nervousness was because I have never actually stayed on shore while Mark was out diving – while he oftentimes doesn’t accompany me on a dive. But it wasn’t just that – it was my own fear about his safety. He would be diving North Monastery which is more exposed than the South, as it was necessary to show the entry with some kind of waves and the South looked like a lake. But North Monastery was rougher – walls of waves crashing upon the steep beach, each one making me more nervous as Mark suited up while listening to the dive briefing. But soon enough, Mark was down at the shoreline, listening to Doc, Guy and Dennis’ explanations on how to enter. Soon Michelle was entering the water, Mark standing back waiting as it is best to only have one diver in the surf zone at a time. When Michelle was safely through, it was Mark’s time. I put the camera down and walked down to the shore, watching with nervous anticipation as he watched the waves, waited for a lull, then moved out and, face down, began kicking like mad to ride the back pull off the beach and through the surf zone, regulator in mouth as instructed. It wasn’t until he was well clear of the danger zone that I relaxed, watching he and Michelle kick out along the edge of the kelp to begin their dive.

After about 35 minutes, Mark and Michelle surfaced and the exit procedure was begun – again, one diver at a time, all hands on deck ready to assist in event of an emergency. Michelle exited first, and then it was Mark’s turn. At this point, and due to their point of exit, the process was a relatively easy, rough surf exit on hands and knees, crawling until you are on dry sand where your fins are removed before you stand up. Whilst waiting for the right time, the small surf was actually pushing Mark onto shore, so it was a very stress-free exit for everyone involved.

Mark and Michelle were both pretty happy about the dive. The water temperature was cold, 48°, but because neither had their camera, the dive was spent swimming so they kept fairly warm in their wetsuits. They both related their journey, over the Monterey Bay Canyon, as Monastery Beach is the closest point to reach the Canyon from the shore. The visibility was approximately 25 to 30 feet, reduced somewhat because of the plethora of krill in the water, and better than the reports from other dive sites where the sandy bottom results in much for sediment in the water column.

It was important to both Mark and I to have participated in this venture to help promote a safe diving environment on Monastery Beach and it was a honor and a pleasure to have been able to help out. In the end, Doc’s video appears to have been a success although we await the final video to see how it came out…. After diving, Michelle, Mark and I went over to El Toritos to have some lunch and enjoy the vista of the Bay. MacAbee was equally tempting as we watched two divers kick out and begin their dives along side of a sea lion. Needless to say, I can't wait to post an actual dive blog from a successful dive!

MacAbee Beach