posted on September 5, 2000 10:42:42 AM new
Hi, all! Got back yesterday from a 3-day diving getaway. We were at the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara on Friday (lots of sea lions who came out to play with us ), at San Clemente Island on Saturday, and finished up at Catalina on Sunday. I spent yesterday kicking back & doing nothing
My (mis)adventure happened on Saturday during the first dive of the day. Down at around 50 feet with three others & their instructor, sitting in on their class to round out the numbers for their exercises. While doing a sharing air exercise I had a freak accident with my regulator. The girl I was teamed with had given me her safe second to breathe from, and I was switching back to my primary regulator. I purged it as usual & then breathed in. Got a mouthful of seawater!! Quickly grabbed *my* safe second & popped it in my mouth--had to purge it twice as I still had seawater in my mouth. When the huge cloud of bubbles I'd made cleared, I reached for my primary to see what had gone wrong. The class instructor motioned for me to surface & when we got up there, I asked "what happened?" It turned out I had blown the metal O-ring on my regulator which turns out to be something that rarely if ever happens because the things are in so tightly they need a special tool to be put in place.
And that tool wasn't on the boat, of course.
I thought my diving was over for the weekend, but fortunately the boat's Dive Master was willing to let me use her regulator as she wasn't going to be doing any diving, having to watch & help all the divers on the boat. Hooray!!! I went on to do a dive on Sunday at a place called Pinnacle Rock at Catalina which was absolutely spectacular! Saw moray eels, octopus, scorpionfish, rockfish, lobsters galore and much, much more. Went down to my deepest yet, 70 feet.
Strangely enough, my little misadventure wasn't all that frightening. I felt a bit of panic at the time, but it soon passed as training took over. And somehow I wasn't a bit surprised that it happened to me--that's the way my luck has been all my life. You guys have heard of Murphy's Law? Well, I learned long ago that I fall under Carter's Corollary, which says that Murphy was an optimist
posted on September 5, 2000 04:38:06 PM newfemme: No, I'd never go into skydiving! Too afraid of heights But I can just envisage all the disasters that would probably befall me....
I'm so new to scuba that everything I see is thrilling This weekend puts me up to 14 dives. I'm waiting for a new Advanced Open Water class to form so that I can learn the ins & outs of navigating by compass underwater.
One of my dives this past weekend was my first night dive--went down with another newby & an instructor. Descending was a bit nervewracking as it is hard to see what is below you, even carrying lights. The dive took us through a kelp forest. Yuck!!!! It caught at my fins & snorkle. Not thrilling. Much as the other divers raved about the "wonderful" kelp forests we encountered this weekend, I have to say that I *don't* like them at all (day or night). This is unfortunate as California, where I'll be doing just about all my diving, is known for its kelp forests
spazmodeus: actually, the moray eels weren't aggressive at all Just poked their head out to look at us.
posted on September 5, 2000 08:15:50 PM new
femme Aren't you glad you didn't take up skydiving? LOL
Bunnicula, when you think about all of the 'could haves' you're really very lucky. I wish I could scuba dive but I can't cos I'm just too durned claustrophobic. Love to snorkel tho!
We were at the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara on Friday (lots of sea lions who came out to play with us 
