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Tactically Inept

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Malaphax

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I may have mentioned previously but a few years back I got my scuba certifications (Open Water, Advanced Open Water and Enriched Air Nitrox).  I did my diving/education in Turks and Caicos on vacation and Bali for Nitrox training. 
I've wanted to continue doing scuba diving on any tropical vacations, but sadly there was a small issue of a global pandemic that put some plans on hold. 

As things are starting to slowly open back up, I decided to sign up for a local dive here in California, I dragged kuhla along with me. 
I had never dived locally and didn't know what to expect so I rented a thick 7mm wetsuit and tried to keep an open mind. 

We went diving out on the oil rigs near Long Beach, specifically Eureka and The Twins.  Overall I had a great time and got 3 solid dives in. 

  • The water in California is quite cold, it varied from 59° to 55° during the dives.  I was warm for the first dive, but on the second dive we hit a thermocline at around ~70' and that's when it dropped to 55° and was noticeably colder.  The third dive I felt fine, but I did start shivering about halfway through.  It didn't ruin the dive for me but I was definitely starting to get cold. 
    • I didn't have a hood, but I suspect that could have helped with the cold.  I didn't get anything obvious like brain-freeze but it would be an easy way of keeping warm. 
  • The ocean was pretty rough - it got progressively worse as the day went on.  Half the boat was puking (myself included) and the third dive was a bit rushed because of the rough seas. 
    • I was fully kitted up and doing the penguin walk to the back of the boat for the second dive when the urge took me.  Puking into your regulator isn't pleasant, but it didn't stop me from doing the dives or ruin the day. 
  • While the first dive was pretty sloppy, I did feel like I was getting my bearings back during the 2nd and 3rd dives.  There was some persistent surge, both horizontal and vertical, which made me feel a bit uncertain about my buoyancy but overall I still felt safe and reasonably competent. 
    • I definitely have room to improve, from doing a better job of setting up my gear pre-dive, to handling my buoyancy better. 
  • The Rigs themselves basically have no bottom (the bottom is 700' for Eureka and ~350' for The Twins.  I have had some form of sandy bottom for most of my dives, although there were some reef walls in Turks and Caicos that appeared bottomless. 
    • The super structure of the rigs is pretty massive, with the cross braces looking like they were 2' in diameter and some of the main structures looking thicker than that.  You also have to be careful since the structure can also be overhead, I mostly avoided bumping into the structure and considering the surge and my experience level, I'd count that as a win. 
    • The visibility was solid, probably 40', which was good enough for me.  It was noticeably darker than the dives I'd been on previously, both of the more experienced divers had lights. 

This video isn't mine, but it's very recent and shows some of the same dives on the rigs. 

The local shop I used for this trip was also mentioning some dives at wreck ally in San Diego in another month or two.  I'll probably be interested in that as well. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Semi-Organized dump of random information, thoughts and research. 

Scuba Gear:
BCD - The internet says that jacket style BCDs aren't good anymore and you should use a backplate and wing (BPW) setup.  After some research I can agree with that assessment.  BPW setups generally provide better trim by forcing you into a more horizontal diving position and allow for substantial customization because you can place D-rings, pockets and weight pouches where you want and not just wherever the jacket BCD has available.  The few advantages I've seen for jacket style BCDs are that they have more storage capacity and they provide more comfort, especially on the surface - doesn't seem like a great tradeoff to me. 
Current front runner for that setup looks like this: https://www.divegearexpress.com/dgx-custom-dgx-singles-harness-backplate-wing-package
Some minor considerations about BPW are the backplate material.  I see plenty of people suggesting anything cold water should be stainless steel and considering my size/weight and need for lead regardless of water conditions, I'm inclined to go with stainless.  Aluminum is ~3lbs and stainless ~5.5lbs, seems like a no brainer to go with stainless because the math says I'll never be able to dive without at least that amount of lead on me.  The soft plate options don't appeal at all, even for travel.  I briefly considered some options with more adjustable harnesses, but the only real advantage for those is the ease of donning/doffing which is nice, but you do lose some level of customization.  Nice thing about BPW being so modular is that if I find a standard single piece harness to be frustrating, I could switch it out with an adjustable harness without much issue. 

Regulators - There's 2 standards for regulator connections, Yoke (international) and DIN (GERMAN STEEL).  This isn't really much of a choice because DIN is not only a newer/better standard, but you can buy a $20 DIN to Yoke adapter.  You can't adapt Yoke to DIN without literally rebuilding the regulator.  Almost all the major manufacturers offer both styles but DIN seems to be winning out.  Also most tanks are now sold with a pressure port that has a DIN insert, so a dive center can accommodate your DIN connector easily and then swap it back to Yoke in about 30 seconds.  Obviously any purchase I make would be DIN and then I'll throw in for the adapter just in case. 

I also read plenty about cold water rated regulators, since California waters are considered cold water.  One point of consideration is environmentally sealed regulators (diaphragm) vs non-sealed regulators.  An environmentally sealed reg has some advantages, especially if you're diving in silty/gross conditions, but I don't really plan on doing that.  There's other differences like piston vs diaphragm or balanced vs unbalanced, but most of what I was looking at was balanced and cold water capable.  Most cold water regulators are heavier construction with some heat exchange fins.  There are other features like a swivel turret that seem present on most moderate to high end regulators, or 2 high pressure ports.  I do like the idea of getting 2 identical second stages.  I think that makes more sense than cheaping out on a lower quality octo.  Also I think the braided hoses are a cool upgrade, they're substantially lighter and more flexible, the only complaint I've read is that they're more neutrally buoyant in the water, so they can get a bit floaty compared to rubber hoses. 

I saw some weird brand recommendations. 
Option A - many people on various internet forums seem to have high praises for a small ODM based out of Florida.  They're not super cheap (still cheaper than major brands at retail prices) and they also include the first service for free.  The downside is that you're probably going to struggle finding a local tech to service the regs, so you're basically stuck with mailing it back to them.  More importantly, since this is a small shop, I have some concerns if this place would ever go out of business or stop supporting these regulators. 
https://www.deep6gear.com/signature-recreational-single-tank-regulator-package.html
Option B - knockoffs (kinda).  Dive Gear Express again has their own regulators, which they flat out admit are basically rebadged scubapro mk25 & g260 products made at the same manufacturer (WMD) in Taiwan.  Aside from the fact that this is once again a much cheaper option, there's also some appeal that even if the seller went out of business, you could probably find a scubapro tech to service this equipment.  Additional bonus is that Dive Gear Express is a huge proponent of right-to-repair and sells parts kits for all their products. 
https://www.divegearexpress.com/dgx-gears-xtra-streamlined-ow-reg-package
Option C - is HOG, they're also Florida based and are well respected.  They offer regulator servicing classes for people (not just resellers) which could end up being an option although that scares me more than a little. 
https://www.divers-supply.com/hog-d3-din-env-w-zenith-reversible-regulator-set.html
Option D - is to go with a more traditional name.  I see plenty of respect for Apeks, something like the xtx50 is a strong recommendation I saw multiple people make.  I've also heard you can get better pricing buying from a EU based shop and paying the shipping costs.  Alternatively you can go for the new hotness with xdeep's new regulator sets which just released, but again they're EU based so you may need to pay a premium for them here in the US or deal with an international sale.  I suppose you could go with scubapro or mares or something sold by a local dive center, but man do you pay out the ass for that.
If I wanted to roll all the Dive Gear Express purchases into one bundle they offer that as well: https://www.divegearexpress.com/dgx-custom-dgx-singles-harness-backplate-wing-xtra-reg-package

Other stuff:
I'm also seeing a bunch of dive professionals and various organizations (not PADI) start recommending or even requiring a long-hose setup.  I've seen comments and videos extolling the virtues of this setup and I certainly understand the mechanics of it.  But at this point I'm not interested in it.  Aside from the obvious that I'm not trained on it; I feel strongly that since PADI is the largest scuba agency, I'd rather conform to their style so I don't need to give a small lecture to any potential random dive buddy about why I don't have a bright yellow alternate/octo. 
Some of the advantages of a long-hose setup also make less sense for my use case.  The longer hose is designed so that if you're doing wreck penetrations with single file entry, you have enough length to provide the hose to your buddy and still clear the entry without issue.  Guess who isn't a wreck diver? <this guy>  Also in an open water dive, I'd rather the random dive buddy know he can yank a bright yellow hose off of me than have them start pawing at me looking for help, let alone yank the reg out of my mouth. 
Final point, is that hoses can be easily adjusted, you just buy new ones and fit them to your existing gear.  So if at some point the winds of change to swap everyone to a long-hose setup or something like that, it's not a huge deal. 

Wetsuit: This is one of the few things I'd absolutely make a concerted effort to try on in person.  For California diving I'd want 7mm and probably buy a 5mm hood as well.  Some random contenders include: Bare, Henderson (especially their talon line since it's made in america), and others.  There's also some potential considerations of a semi-dry suit which is basically a 7mm on steroids.  I'd prefer to stick to a more reasonably priced suit if possible since this would only be used for California diving.  I also briefly looked into dry suits and immediately decided not to deal with that.  Dry suits are very expensive and require special training, seems like major overkill unless I suddenly decide to start diving every weekend. 

Cutting Tool: https://www.divegearexpress.com/eezycut-line-cutter
That's basically the go to, it's safe, compact and capable of cutting through anything.  I've also seen it come in tons of colors and the blades can be easily replaced. 
Other option is EMT shears.  https://www.divegearexpress.com/dgx-titanium-emt-shears

Compass: https://www.divegearexpress.com/dgx-tech-compass-w-bungee-mount-and-cord
I should probably get one, it's low on the priority list.  I prefer the idea of having a dive guide, but it's arguably a piece of safety equipment. 

There's other stuff like weight pouches, quick release cam bands and other minor considerations that would need to be taken into account, but they're much lower on any priority list. 

This post is a goddamn essay already, I'm just hitting submit. 

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  • 2 months later...

I tested my gear at Catalina last weekend.  I didn't die, and everything seemed to work properly.  I still have some minor adjustments I need to make especially regarding storing accessories, but I'm basically there. 

Catalina was cool, not cold, only 65 by my computer's measurements, but it was crowded as hell.  I've never seen a dive site that crowded before, probably somewhere between 150-200+ divers on site.  Saw a couple of giant black seabass, which was neat.  I felt like the dive guide was a bit of a cowboy.  Overall a good experience, but I'd probably prefer more boat based diving.  I'd like to try out wreck alley down in San Diego / La Jolla, maybe that's a plan for another trip. 

At this point I'm mostly looking to just increase the amount of diving I do before I make any adjustments or look for any additional training.  I'm not expecting this to become an every weekend type of thing, but I do want to try and dive somewhat regularly.

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  • 1 month later...

I just got back from doing some extensive diving in Saba.  I may break more details about the vacation into a separate thread at some point. 

  • Diving wise this pretty good.  Quick stats:
    • 27 total dives, 5 of which were night dives, 1 was a dawn dive.  Every day was 4 day dives & 1 night dive, except the final day which was 1 dawn dive & 1 early morning dive.
    • 21 hours and 40 minutes spent underwater in 6 days of diving
    • Deepest of 96.6' - average of 63.3' | Longest dive of 1 hour - average of 48 minutes
    • All diving was done on 32% Nitrox
  • Water temp was 83 the entire time, so I went with just a long sleeve rash guard and board shorts. 
  • Visibility for the first 4 days was poor, some dives were 20' and others were a bit better at 30' - however on the last 2 days some current must have run through and the visibility jumped to 100'+ arguably the best visibility I've ever experienced - I say 100+ because you honestly couldn't make good estimates with visibility that good, one dive guide suggested it could be as much as 200'+.  You could look down from the boat and see the reef at 70' no issue, that night dive was so clear the only limit on visibility was the range on my flashlight. 
  • Night Dives - I had never done them before now I have 5 under my belt.  They're certainly unique, probably not my favorite but I did see some bio-luminescent squid.  I didn't bother with the gopro on the night dives because gopro's have notoriously bad low light performance and I didn't feel like juggling a dive light, my buoyancy controls and a camera all at once. 
  • Very little in the way of rough conditions, only a few drift dives, most were static. 
    • EXCEPT - one dive where we had absolutely ripping current.  That dive actually had me a bit concerned for my safety.  The current was so strong the group was almost blown off the dive site, and we all had to make a very challenging swim back to the mooring line.  I flat out dropped to the sandy bottom and half swam half clawing along the bottom.  I did get to the mooring line first and started pulling other people onto the line - until I realized I had blown through most of my gas and had to make a fairly swift exit after my safety stop.  For reference I was normally making it back to the boat with between 400 - 1000 psi remaining but that dive I was down to 250, some group members made it back lower than that, I think two people said they were at 190 and 110 (yikes).
  • Gear held up very well - I got some genuine compliments from two of the dive guides for a "clean" setup
    • Still need to do some additional tuning, I think I'm going to try going back to my shorter SPG hose and mount another d-ring on my belt behind a weight pocket. 
    • Dive light was fantastic, during the day I could quickly turn it up to full to help point out something interesting, night dives I did on the lowest setting and it was plenty to navigate by. 
    • Dive computer is an absolute monster - took the 6 days of diving ~22+ hours of on time and was still reading 60% battery life.
    • Fins chewed up my feet, need to invest in some lycra socks or very thin neoprene booties - the small booties I brought were too large to use with my travel fins. 

I'll add or edit more later if I remember something worthwhile. 

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Some additional details about the mechanics of my live-aboard trip to Saba. 

I was on a boat (115' long), arrived in St. Martin on Saturday afternoon, checked in on the boat Saturday evening for dinner, and then the boat made 2-3 hour crossing to Saba.  I was informed at dinner that the last crossing back had been rough, ~7/10 and that I should take some anti-nausea medicine and go to my room, turn out the lights and hang on for dear life.  It was in fact a very rough crossing.  Once we woke up the following day we settled into the wake up, dive, eat, dive more and sleep pattern for the duration of the trip.  The schedule looked something like: wake up at 6:30, breakfast, dive 1, snack, dive 2, lunch, dive 3, snack, dive 4, dinner, night dive, shower, maybe a nightcap and then sleep.  The boat itself did not have any sort of stability system (some new ones do) and really did rock constantly and significantly.  It wasn't uncommon to see both guests and crew stumble or catch their balance quite often, or see some utensils slide off a plate during meal times.  There were also some very narrow stairs, and I found myself using the hand railings whenever I was going up or down the stairs. 
As we were on a boat near a relatively remote island, I had basically zero cell service until day 4 when we were within site of a port town on Saba - this didn't bother me as I was expecting zero internet for the entire duration on the boat.  The point of most liveaboard ships is to sail to places further afield than most dayboats, so I suspect most of them have very limited internet connectivity - some probably have satellite internet and are willing to sell access to guests for additional fees. 

The boat can handle 18 guests (9 rooms with double occupancy), I was on with 7 guests and 7 crew (captain, 1st mate, cook, engineer, 3 dive guides).  Everyone had their own room and frankly it would have been an unpleasant experience if I had to share a room with another person.  The other 6 guests I was with were all from northern California and part of a group, which was fine - no issues getting along and almost all of them were more experienced divers than I was, one being a master diver and another being a dive master/instructor.  The other guests were all 60+ so there was a clear age gap, I've heard liveaboards tend to skew older, and I wasn't surprised by this.  The only issue I had was the group took ages to suit up and get into the water, one of the dive guides even complained to me about it saying we were the slowest group he'd had.  4 out of 7 guests completed all 27 dives (this includes me) and the other 3 only missed 1-2 dives each. 

The accommodations were spartan but reasonable.  However the cabins themselves were very small.  My cabin was on the lower deck near the middle of the ship.  The bathroom was a marine toilet complete with "oh shit" handle (which you genuinely need when the boat is rocking hard) and a shower smaller than some coffins I've seen.  The shower was in fact so small, I could not stand up straight.  The shower also had no temperature control, the water was hot, but you have a simple on/off lever.  Likewise the AC in the room had no temperature control, with a simple damper that you could close/open slightly - I found the AC a bit on the cold side at night but the provided bedding was enough to keep warm.  The lower bunk bed was wider than the top bunk, but it was roughly 14" between the bottom bunk and the top bunk, meaning I could not even sleep on my side under the top bunk section, my shoulders were too wide.  Also while I don't consider myself claustrophobic, I wouldn't want to wake up at night in the pitch black with 4 inches between me and the bunk above me.  We were also encouraged to keep the room door open during the day to help let the air circulate throughout the quarters.  There were quite a few low ceilings on the boat and I did bang my head on a few lights and door jams throughout the voyage, but nothing too terrible.  You basically only use the room to hold your bags, get ready and sleep, it was perfectly fine but by no means as nice as some of the resort rooms I've been in. 

The food was very good.  The cook was a relief chef and the crew was thrilled because the usual cook sticks to a set weekly menu (which I can understand could be obnoxious to have week after week for 12 weeks straight), the cook we had was fantastic.  Breakfasts were simple, normally different types of eggs and an option for something unique, like french toast or eggs benedict, you had to option of just asking for simple eggs instead as well as some toast, bagels, cereal and fruit provided.  Lunches were solid with some standouts being taco Tuesday and a greek meal with lamb and various add-ons with pita bread.  Ingredients were fresh with most dinners offering a soup and salad alongside at least 2 different meat options and some veggies.  There was even one meal with filet mignon.  Desert was provided after each dinner, from crem brule to freshly made nutella ice cream and even key lime pie when one guest requested it.  Snacks were generally a variety of freshly baked cookies, fresh fruits, and even granola & yogurt.  The food was good and it was impressive to think that this was being done in a small kitchen while the boat was rocking constantly.  Alcohol was included but you couldn't dive after you started drinking, this was strictly enforced, so people didn't have any drinks until after the night dive.

The dive deck was fine, there was a reasonably sized "camera table" in the middle, as well as plenty of tanks lined up on both sides of the boat.  The water entry was rather high, it looked like a 6 foot drop from the side of the boat into the water.  The rear portion of the dive deck had two sets of very narrow stairs and multiple guests opted to have some or all of their gear/weights removed before climbing up to the main dive deck.  Several group members had very large underwater cameras and lighting setups, these were often lowered into the water after they had jumped in on a special rope/fastener system.  We did do a few live drops and live pick ups which involve everyone lining up to jump off the boat in rapid succession or staying in a tight group while the boat comes past and you grabbing onto a rope at the back before pulling yourself up onto the rear ladders.  Towels were provided and they had some bungee cord and wooden clothes pegs to hang anything wet - warm towels were provided after the night dive.  Again, with 7 people the dive deck was not crowded, but I imagine 18 would have been absolutely cramped as hell.  Tanks were filled on the boat between dives, and we were provided an analyzer to check the oxygen content on all nitrox fills, with the crew requiring we document the percentage and tank pressure before every dive.  The crew would help you if requested but you were generally expected to be able to manage your own equipment in a safe manner. 

Dive guides were solid.  They were knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna, including finding a few rare species of very small creatures and pointing it out to the group.  They led the dives well, with a good eye towards safety, including calling one dive when the group was split up in low visibility.  The captain was another fill-in, he was really solid and very much a people pleaser - however he would often talk in circles instead of saying a simple no, which I'm sure he learned from dealing with entitled guests.  The captain also lead some dives and was very experienced dive master in his own right.  I believe all the dive guides were very well credentialed with at least 2 of them having degrees in marine biology or similar, and thousands of dives each.  They were not the most attentive guides I've had, opting more for a hands off approach with an understanding that most of the guests were experienced divers that could be left alone - they very rarely proactively asked your tank pressure, instead opting to have you inform them when you hit half tank or 1000psi depending on the dive.  Most dives used a mooring line and safety stops could be performed on this line, the boat did not have safety stop bars at the bottom of the boat (I've been on boats that have had these).  Some dives included a swim from the mooring line out to a dive site, where the guides would use a reel and lightly filled DSMB on the sandy bottom as a landmark.  While they did request that all divers have a light (and recommended a backup light for night dives) as well as a DSMB, they didn't have much else in the way of equipment requirements.  Only the captain had a non-standard equipment configuration, he had a backplate and wing as well as a long hose setup with an integrated inflator/second stage, everyone else including guides were in a more default recreational setup with yellow octopus hoses and standard jacket style BCDs. 

I did ask for some critiques from the dive guides on my diving.  Most said I was doing quite well considering my ~30 dives I had at the start of the trip, with some mild praise about my buoyancy and trim.  The captain attempted to show me how to fin backwards, I couldn't get it and although it's a rather specific skill I would like to practice my finning technique.  I was overweighted for about half the week and once I resolved that felt like my buoyancy became a bit better - I still have room to improve on this.  My gas consumption was fine, I was never the first one running out during the dives and I was the largest person on the boat, one dive guide even commented that my gas consumption was good for my size.  I have some minor adjustments I still need to make to my gear setup, but it performed quite well.  One thing I noticed is that I needed to really crank on the waist strap otherwise it would hang a bit loose resulting on some of my weight pockets shifting or hanging a bit off my body when horizontal. 

Stuff for next time?  Having experienced a dive trip with 5 dives a day, I have a hard time thinking I'd accept a simple 2 morning dives vacation again.  While it was borderline excessive, I'd rather be offered more diving than deal with empty afternoons.  I'm still a big proponent of nitrox, one group member was on air and had to either cut some of his dives short or float above the group on successive dives, none of the rest of us had to work about no-decompression limits - I also consider it a safety factor (even though PADI gets mad when you say that).  I probably won't push for nitrox on a local dayboat but any sort of repetitive diving I will want to push for nitrox.  I did some brief research regarding liveaboards before this trip (duh) and I have some ideas for what might be next, but I was also told that some dive resorts will do 5 dives a day, so I'll keep an eye out.  Some locations that were recommended to me were: Philippines, Indonesia (Raja Armpat & Komodo), Costa Rica (Socorro islands), Truk Lagoon (holy grail of wreck diving) and Palau.  I also decided to bite the bullet and register with DAN for dive insurance- it wasn't expensive and it covers me when I'm diving here in the US, I still would need separate scuba trip insurance (which I had for this trip) but I feel I should be a responsible adult and make sure I'm properly covered in case I end up needing medical care. 

Minor tangent - I had initially booked a trip to the Bahamas.  About 1.5 weeks before I was set to go, I was told that some fishing boat had rammed the liveaboard late at night (how fucking stupid do you have to be to hit something in the middle of the ocean?).  I had to panic rebook with the Caribbean, and everything worked out well enough.  Wasn't exactly a fun experience to re-book flights and handle travel details on that short of notice - I was lucky that I was using a travel agent and they sorted out some of the details for me.  I'm leaning towards using a travel agent for trips like this moving forward - one of the group members was the travel agent that handles these types of trips and traveling with a group makes a fair bit of sense. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

I forgot to post about a day trip I had to Catalina to do some boat diving. 

I was contacted by the woman from northern California I met on my liveaboard trip at Saba - she works as a travel guide and plans multiple scuba trips throughout the year.  She had arranged for 2 days at Catalina and I opted to join them on Sunday for boat diving, since I've done Casino Point before I wanted a bit of a change. 
The boat was ultra crowded, there were 25 divers on the deck all with 3 tanks, they did not do airfills on the boat so 75+ tanks were onboard.  It was a major pain in the ass to shift my gear from one tank to another in-between dives, keep in mind it wasn't just the BCD but also the 26lbs of weight I needed to lift up over the tank and onto the new tank.  I buddied up with a very exuberant dude, didn't have any issues with him.  The diving was mediocre.  The visibility was phenomenal, about 60-80' which is the best I've personally seen in California.  Sadly the actual dives themselves didn't have much going on, very little marine life and a ton of kelp and sargassum (which is basically thinner kelp, think of the seaweed we get on the beaches locally).  I did get tangled at least once, but didn't have an issue extracting myself - I still had my cutting tool in case I was really stuck.  I was again reminded that Catalina operates on "island time" because we were late to depart and didn't even start the first dive until ~10:30.  I feel like I'm getting more comfortable with California diving.  I did get some comments about not wearing a hood, one diver in particular called me crazy - although I didn't feel cold until near the end of the last dive.  I might look into getting a neoprene beanie, but I have very little interest in a traditional scuba hood.  I'm also glad I bought a big water parka for after the dives, that kept me plenty warm on the boat ride back and waiting for the return ferry.  I have to make a very minor adjustment to my scuba gear, but otherwise I'm getting more comfortable with my current setup. 

It was a long day for me but enjoyable. 

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  • 2 months later...

Dove the Channel Islands from the dive boat Spectre. 

This involved staying overnight in Ventura since the boat leaves at 7am and the thought of doing a ~2hour drive before getting on a boat wasn't particularly appealing.  The boat itself was fairly large (85') and allowed for 40 divers + crew (~6 I think).  It had an indoor galley with several booths and a sun deck.  The boat was super packed with all 40 divers and some additional freedivers/spearfishers onboard.  The boat ride out was rough and took about 2 hours for us to get to Santa Cruz.  We had the first dive at a small site that didn't have much going on, I did spot a giant black seabass but otherwise the visability was only 10' and combined with the kelp and some surge it was a bit messy.  The boat moved all the way to the eastern-most point of Santa Cruz for the second and third dives.  These were much better with 50' visibility and a moderate current going in one direction.  There were cool rock formations and a large number of starfish and a gigantic jellyfish.  The boat also had a bit of a weird platform instead of simple ladders for getting back onboard, I wasn't a fan of having to hoist myself into a kneeling position onto a platform covered in kelp. The boat ride back had one extremely rough patch but was actually fairly calm considering the crew kept telling people to brace for something awful on the return journey.  The entire trip was a long day, with an early wakeup so we could check in with the boat at 6:30am and we arrived back at the harbor at 5:30pm, plus a drive home. 

I think the diving was solid but I'd probably lean towards more local options like Catalina, the Oil Rigs or even potentially some shore diving.  I still want to go to Wreck Alley down in La Jolla at some point.  I briefly talked to the instructor at my local dive shop about wreck certification and he started talking about complete redundancy like it was a technical diving certification, which is a bit beyond what I'm currently looking to do. 

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  • 2 months later...

Just got back from Palau.

Dive wise it was solid, 3 days of land diving and 5 days of diving on the boat for a total of 26 dives and 22.5 hours underwater.  It was normally around 85° and 90%+ humidity, the sea breeze helped but it was damn hot. 

  • Had some deeper dives, especially Blue Holes and Saias tunnel, which were 109' and 105' respectively
    • Got to learn about my dive computer's various alarms.  I had a depth alarm and NDL alarm both of which went off.  You can dismiss them with a simple button prompt, it worked very well. 
  • Average Depth was 75' and average length was 53 minutes with the longest dives being just over 1 hour.  This is a fair bit deeper and slightly longer than the diving I was doing in Saba. 
    • My air consumption got better as the week went on, but I felt fairly confident most dives.  I was doing well on an aluminum 80 tank.  They offered aluminum 100 tanks and I considered going for it, several of the men in the group did, helping extend their bottom times. 
  • Currents were mostly mild but I had 3-4 dives that were the true Palau current, one of which was so nasty we just aborted the dive.  I was there during a half moon which also leads to unpredictable tides/currents; we even had one dive where our group went down, hit current and the dive guide actually took us back to the surface so we could ride the boat to a different spot and drop back into the water to avoid swimming across the dive site against the current. 
  • I also had several dives with reef hooks which were new to me and mostly a way to sit back and watch the show without grabbing onto the reef with your hands. 
    • Palau is one of the countries that has made wearing gloves while diving illegal - I understand the logic, I just hate it. 
  • My group was probably the second most experienced group, the 4 of us ranged from my low of ~75 dives to well over 500.  Our guide was decent but still learning the ropes he had only been on the ship for 2.5 months. 
    • The least experienced group got the best dive guides, which were the married couple who ran the ship - they were also diving sidemount and I saw on at least 2 occasions they would offer up one of their tanks to some of the less experienced divers to help keep the groups down longer. 
  • The cool stuff was probably seeing giant manta rays, some really awesome tunnels/caves which were basically giant swim-throughs and plenty of ocean life. 

Jellyfish lake was ok, unique but a bit underwhelming.  Unlike that video I also saw a second variety of moon jellyfish that made a comeback after the 2014 drought, they don't sting either. 

I'll double post more about the boat and various stuff later.  I had a great time. 

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Some additional details.

My luck with boats is absolute shit (sort of), I'm 0/2 in ending up on the boats I initially booked.  I originally booked the Bahamas and that boat got rammed at sea by some idiot which caused me to panic re-book Saint Martin/Saba with only 1.5 weeks notice. 
In this case I was booked on the black pearl, and they informed me the day I was due to board that they had "issues" and offered to re-book/transfer me to the Palau Siren (same schedule).  This ended up being a better deal in just about every way except I ended up sharing a room with a bit of a weird guy (nothing too horrible just strange).  Considering Palau is the only country I've been to where my cell phone couldn't get service and I was basically given no notice of this change, it was annoying to have to deal with issues and rely on limited wifi connections for communication. 

Speaking of the Palau Siren, it was the boat my travel agent actually recommended initially and with good reason.  The crew were fantastic, it was incredibly well staffed with 15 guests and 12 crew.  It didn't feel super crowded because there were 4 dive guides splitting up the groups into 5 people per guide max, my group was 4 people and the guide.  The directors/managers of the Siren were phenomenal and had years of experience being dive guides in Palau, they ran their ship well and unfortunately are retiring from the ship in another month; otherwise it would be an easy recommendation to anyone interested in going to Palau. 

Safety.  Just a brief note.  This crew took safety more seriously than anything I've ever seen.  The safety briefing was well over 1 hour and included a muster call where we all grabbed life jackets and reported to our evacuation stations.  The crew were all first aid trained and had an AED onboard, along with full firefighting equipment and emergency exits for all the rooms.  There was also a night watch every night. 

Accommodations were much much better than the previous liveaboard.  The rooms had 2 separate beds (no bunk-beds) and more storage space available.  The bathroom was nice and had a ceiling high enough I could stand up in, plus the shower had temperature control.  Rooms were air conditioned but the rest of the boat was not, so stepping out of the rooms was like hitting a wall of heat and humidity.  The dining area was outside with 6 fans and the sea breeze to help keep it reasonably comfortable.  There was an indoor salon which wasn't very well cooled/ventilated but still comfortable and had a couple of small tables for charging electronics and working on cameras.  I avoided the sun deck, mostly because I didn't need to come back as red as a lobster, but we did have one cocktail party up there on the last evening and it was nice.  The diving area was nice, with additional storage space for each guest, multiple areas to hang clothes out to dry and a few freshwater showers to rinse off with.  Overall the boat was quite nice, but the pictures online were outdated - I heard the ship sank back in 2015 (not fully just took on serious water after a storm) which meant the interiors of the cabins had been updated from very nice custom wood paneling to a more modest manufactured wood paneling. 

Food was great.  The chef was an Indonesian guy with a bit of flair, he would announce the dinner menu every evening with a presentation.  Only complaints is that some meals were a bit spicy - one meal in particular was spicy calamari and pepper steak - I heard a few people make some minor complaints that the breakfast omelet was literally too spicy to eat.  I think this chef had a bit of a harder time due to the supply chain for Palau being much more restrictive than more accessible locations; he did very well considering those limitations.  There was less of a focus on snacks in-between meals, compared to the other liveaboard I was on, but I suspect my waistline appreciated that.  We also had one night where the chef prepared a beach barbecue, which was tasty and a cool change of pace, we did get rained on, but not too terribly. 

Diving was great.  I did some land based diving for 3 days and was surprised to find out just how far the land based boats would go, they hit some of the same dive sites as the liveaboard, which meant often a 45 minute ride out (and back) which was a bit long for my tastes but meant I got some great diving done.  The land based guides were very good and the lunch provided was quite nice, we even got to eat lunch on a beach one time (the same island they filmed a season of survivor on, I was told). 
The liveaboard diving was done from 2 smaller boats, often with much shorter rides (with only one exception when we dove Peleliu) and the boat drivers were super impressive.  The boats would sometimes give short detours on the way back showing little passages between the many islands and pointing out some cool stuff like pods of dolphins and a dugong and chased after them a bit. 
Only one dive was cancelled, I tried for a wreck dive but the currents were so strong that as the wreck came out of the distance I realized if I didn't swim over it, I was going to Wile E. Coyote myself into the side of the ship.  I managed to go over the wreck and attempted to swim against the current and hide behind the ship, but the current was way too strong and one of the group actually just aborted because he was struggling to breath while swimming as hard as he could. 
We did have another dive where the current literally switched about 10 minutes in, we went from hooking on a reef on one side of the corner and then quickly realizing that we needed to swim to the other side or we would get blown off the site.  The current switched and actually was more of a surge and took a solid 10 minutes of serious swimming to cross the top of the reef to the other side - that wasn't very fun.  My issue was I was sticking with my group who weren't swimming very quickly against the current, which led to me going through my gas very quickly, in hindsight I should have just blown past the group to the other side and let them catch up instead of getting stuck behind them. 

Highlights.  Giant manta rays are indeed giant.  It's my first time seeing them and it was super impressive.  The two deep dives: Blue Holes and Saies Tunnel were very cool from a geological point of view.  The dives were basically gigantic swim-throughs or chimneys.  I believe these qualify as caverns not true caves but considering both were bigger than the boat I was staying on, there wasn't any feelings of claustrophobia, just a strong sense of awe.  I probably liked those deep cavern dives the best.  While I still consider cave diving to be crazy, I can start to see the appeal if you're in a cave system with huge chambers like the ones I've heard about in Florida and Mexico. 

Dive gear.  I make it a habit to see what everyone is using.  This trip was the first time where I saw about half the guests using backplate and wing setups, while no one had a true long-hose setup, my dive guide did have an octo on a 2 meter hose that he rolled up and stored.  The directors of the ship were also dive guides and both dove sidemount with two tanks - I also saw them share air with some of the worse divers to help keep groups down on site for longer.  Most of the men on the boat opted for tanks larger than the standard aluminum 80s, they received aluminum 100s.  I briefly considered this but found I was managing my air well enough to complete full 1 hour dives without issue, although I'm almost positive I was the weakest link in my group of 4.  I did run into two minor issues.  I tried using my weight pockets to hold a reef hook and discovered there's enough of a gap that smaller items can fall out (I caught it but that wasn't great), I ended up using the cargo pocket on my swim trunks in later dives.  I also found out that reef hooks should be attached to the center chest and not a crotch d-ring, I had one of the dive guides make a simple line connected to a boltsnap that I ran from one of my chest d-rings to the other to give a spot for the reef hook to attach.  This worked quite well and I'll probably keep that in my dive bag moving forward. 

The guests were mostly fun, I met a few I might try and keep in contact with.  Again there was a big contingent from northern California, we also had a French couple and one doctor that worked in Saipan (another small island nearby).  It skewed older (this is almost entirely due to cost I suspect), with only one person being younger than me, he was a college kid who came with his dad.  It does feel a bit weird to see most guests 60+, it doesn't bother me, but I wonder if I can find some slightly younger groups to book some of these trips with in the future. 

The ugly.  Only one incident really threatened to ruin my good time.  Covid.  The college kid tested positive very early in the trip, he was actually very calm about it and quarantined in his room or out on the sundeck when other guests were off diving.  He was also very judicious about wearing a proper mask and avoiding people.  His father however, was an absolute fucking asshole that quickly showed his colors and was nearly universally hated by the end of the trip.  He tried to bully the guests into letting his son scuba dive with everyone on the second day of his son's infection (he was not only testing positive but the red line was darker that day) he specifically tried to go around the crew by announcing this at dinner, and while some guests were ok with it, several of us were not and it was shot down.  He later tried to pull this again, even though the pediatrician (guest) onboard told him it was a terrible idea that could result in permanent lung damage.  Finally the crew talked directly to the college kid and explained the risks and their best medical advice (don't dive) and he agreed. 
While the science is still new, I believe DAN and other organizations all suggest waiting until 10 days after any infection is present.  There was also a recent example I was told about regarding a rebreather diver literally drowning as his lungs filled with blood when he went diving with Covid - current estimates is that higher oxygen content (let alone what the PP02 is) can cause bad things to happen. 
My honest concern was the father was still sharing a room with his son, and while he claimed to have just recently recovered from Covid, I was still concerned about infection.  I also believe he refused to test during the trip because he didn't want his own diving to get cancelled - truly a wonderful individual. 
I did take a covid test upon returning and was negative, I don't have any symptoms so I think I managed to dodge the bullet.  The boat being mostly open air was probably a strong factor in other people not getting infected. 

Sidenote: The flights sucked, no way around that.  They were also the largest cost of the trip (yes even more than the cost of the boat).  Unfortunately the best diving in the world tends to be far away tropical locations.  I might seriously consider getting a travel oriented credit card to help offset some of these flight costs in the future or potentially get bump from economy to business. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Short update. 

Did another bit of Scuba diving off of the Sundiver Express, which is a boat based in Long Beach that does daily trips out to Catelina.  It was a 3 tank trip, boarding the boat at 7:00AM and arriving back at 4:30PM. 
The boat (and indeed the entire industry seemingly) suffers from island time, we didn't leave the dock until around 8:30AM and this was with the boat about 1/3 full.  It was a 1.5 hour crossing from Long Beach to Catalina before the diving started.  There were no limits on the diving (many boats have a 1 hour dive time limit) and surface intervals were roughly 1 hour.  The boat does have a compressor and was able to fill tanks with air between dives, but no nitrox capabilities.  Breakfast, snacks and lunch were provided - lunch was actually very nice a crockpot beef roast with onions and some buns to make sandwiches out of. 

The diving itself was good.  Visiblity was about 30' and water temps were very high ~68 at the surface and down to a low of 59 with some thermoclines, average depth of ~60' mostly due to the dive sites selected.  The dives were 40-45 minutes long, but nothing was stopping me from diving longer (it does start to get cold though).  I was provided a buddy, one of the crew stepped up for two dives and I was buddied up with a rebreather diver for the third dive.  Conditions seemed fine to me, but the crew mentioned some strong currents, I think they also chose some calmer dive locations because most of the boat was students/instructors, and they didn't want anything too deep or strong. 

Saw more lobsters than I could count, I think a few locations must be protected and so no one fishes/hunts them in those areas.  Kelp forest looked healthy, which is good to see. 

Felt fairly comfortable with my skills, my buoyancy and trim were on point and I got a couple unsolicited comments from the dive guide which is always nice.  I want to try and work in some diving every month or so in the future and look to improve my skills. 
I did have some minor equipment trouble that I was able to fix onboard, glad I had spare parts and tools in my regulator bag.  My regulators are due for service in middle 2023, if I have any additional issues, I might send them in early. 

Sidenote: The captain of the boat finally said out loud what I have already come to realize, "California diving is still kinda the wild west."  Between dive boat operators providing extremely sparse dive briefings, divers expected to be almost entirely self sufficient (including navigation, which I really need to work on), and some boats allowing solo diving; California diving is just completely different to anywhere else I've been.  There's also a decent mix of recreational diving and technical diving which you don't often see. 

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  • 5 months later...

Tried out a local dayboat out of Dana Point - The Riviera.  They're tied in with Beach Cities Scuba, who I've found is one of the larger and better run dive shops locally (they actually have several locations).  

7:15AM boarding and 8:00AM departure.  The boat was fairly crowded with about 14 people onboard, nearly all of which were students doing their open water course.  That meant that the dive sites we visited were rather shallow with flat sandy bottoms.  The visibility on the first dive was especially poor at about 3-7' and the second dive site had slightly better vis with 5-10'.  The water was also very cold at 55F, which meant just about everyone wanted out around the 30 minute mark.  
I was the only smug asshole in a drysuit, so I stayed warm without issue.  

I've been working on my drysuit skills and need many more dives under my belt before I become truly comfortable but I didn't have any emergency assents, and I only had to bail myself out once with a few somersaults (to readjust the air in the suit).  I'm hoping with some deeper dives I get even more comfortable, because at this point I'm not sure I have the confidence to ascend to a safety stop and hold position.  

I'll be going on another Catalina dayboat this Saturday (The Magician) and the dive sites planned are on the backside (east side) of Catalina which run deeper and require the advanced certification.  I suspect that even with a fairly strict 7AM departure time it's going to be a full day with 3 dives planned and probably 1.5+ hours of sailing each way.  

At some point I'll also have to see about either diving the local A.C.E wreck (115' depth) or try to arrange for a day trip down to San Diego and dive wreck alley.  

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Dove on the Magician out of San Pedro.  The boat wasn't full I'd estimate we had ~20 divers on board - it was a weird group because the dry suit divers outnumbered the wetsuit divers, not to mention the 2 rebreather guys, and more backplate and wings compared to jacket style BCDs.  They provide breakfast, lunch and a desert.  Thankfully we left fairly promptly at 7AM, the crossing was roughly 2 hours - there is a monitor in the galley that displays the captains' GPS coordinates along with an estimated time to arrival, which is super convenient to give you an estimate of how long the crossing will take.  The boat was comfortable with several bunks below decks, I took a nap on the crossing back to San Pedro.  Since the group was a bit smaller and a few people sat out some of the dives we ended quite a bit earlier than expected and made port at 3:45PM (I believe we left Catalina at ~2PM), most of the time they make it back closer to 5PM.  Food was decent, nothing fancy but considering the cost of the charter, it was well worth it. 

The diving was much better than last weekend, with visibility between 15-25' and water temps still in the 55F range.  The first site was blue caverns which are several caverns on the coastline of catalina, the caverns aren't especially large, but some of the deeper caverns are around 70' deep.  Not much in the way of sea life, mostly just geological structures.  Second and third dives were a bit more traditional catalina with kelp forests and sloping sandy bottoms.  While none of the dives were particularly impressive in terms of aquatic life, I was still happy to do some deeper dives.  My dive buddy was solid, and certainly more experienced than I was - I think I held my own fairly well and he seemed happy that I kept pace without issue. 

I was still working on my drysuit buoyancy and felt much more comfortable as the day went on.  I still need more dives to truly get the hang of the drysuit but I felt more in control and much more relaxed at dealing with the air-pocket.  I hope to continue to improve as I get more dives under my belt.  I also felt comfortable during the entire set of dives, never feeling cold, or too much squeeze from the suit.  I also picked up a few tips and a recommendation on a small piece of equipment to help deal with the air moving into the drysuit boots which I plan on ordering. 

Overall the day went quite well, and I look forward to doing this trip again when it comes up May.

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  • 1 month later...

Did 2 more trips on the Magician.  
First trip was out to the oil rigs.  We dove The Twins (Ellen) and Eureka, the third dive was the Olympic wreck.  Overall all the dives were solid, hit ~100' during both dives on the rigs.  Initial visibility was terrible at the surface but cleared up about 40' down and opened to 100'+ which was great because you could really see the entire structure.  I am still working on my drysuit skills and I'm finally starting to feel much more comfortable managing the suit and the squeeze.  Dive two was noisy because the rig was in operation and so the entire dive had a loud grinding/metal noise.  The Olympic wreck is large and impressive even if it's fairly broken up.  My dive partner was solid.  There were also a handful of divers on the boat hunting scallops.  I really appreciated that even after 3 dives we were back in harbor by 230, which allowed me to return some gear and do some cleanup in the afternoon.  

Second trip was out to Farnsworth Banks, which is on the far side of Catalina (actually a fair bit out from the island).  The site is a pinnacle, basically an underwater mountain, the top of the pinnacle is at ~50' and it goes down well past any of my limits.  The purple coral was super impressive and covered the entire dive site.  This was a somewhat uncommon trip and so the boat was full and full of tech divers.  We had 7 rebreathers, 6 scooters and another 6 people on doubles.  The cost of the scuba gear on the boat was worth more than the entire boat.  People in single tanks like myself were well and truly outnumbered.  We had some surge but conditions and visibility were decent at about 50'.  The only hard part about this site is that we were told to only descend and ascend on the anchor line, and during the first dive my buddy and I lost track of the anchor line resulting in a small error on our part that led to a 1 minute decompression obligation.  While I would have preferred not to have that happen, I was happy to learn how the computer handled it.  The third dive was a bit of a joke, the site was a shallow sandy shore with some kelp and the visibility dropped to about 15'.  It was a very long day, since the boat leaves at 6am and we didn't arrive back until a little bit before 6pm.  

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  • 5 months later...

Dear diary:

A while back I started doing research on some amazing diving locations and putting together a sort of "bucket-list" that I wanted to work towards.  When I started to read into some of the more interesting dives I realized some of them were beyond recreational scuba limits.  So I started looking into what it would take to get the training and equipment to handle "technical diving" and set myself up to dive some of these more extreme sites.  That started another whole topic of research regarding technical diving and eventually landed on rebreathers.  After doing a rather substantial amount of research I decided to take the plunge and buy a rebreather along with the entry level training to operate it.  

There are two schools of thought on technical diving currently.  The first is to progress down the technical courses with regular open-circuit scuba and gain comfort before possibly moving over to a rebreather.  The second school believes that the rebreather is a unique and different device and if you're planning on eventually switching, you should make the jump early and build as much time and experience as possible, starting from the bottom and eventually moving into the more technical heavy elements.  I elected to jump straight to the rebreather, I felt this made more sense.  

The training:
So I found myself down in Mexico learning to dive a fancy piece of equipment in some caverns / cenotes.  I selected my instructor based on some specific criteria, he's an instructor trainer, and has experience north of 2000+ hours on the unit.  I believe he's one of the most experienced people regarding this rebreather, other than the people that own the company which make the rebreather.  I was the only student in the class, which meant I ran drills all throughout the dives.  I also scheduled some fun diving after the class to help build some additional time and familiarity on the rebreather.  The class itself was less intense that I had imagined, but still very in depth.  I was only taking an "introductory" class which did not involve decompression stops (although we did a few) and involved fairly reasonable depth limits (which we also exceeded, but within reason).  After taking the class I'm reasonably confidant in the entire process, from building the unit, diving it, and post-dive maintenance.  Now I have to log a specific amount of hours & dives before moving on to the next level of the class.  My instructor mentioned that my skill level was fairly close to what would be required by the next class level, and he felt confident that once I accrued the experience I should have no issues passing.  
The progression is something like this: Entry level (100' limit, no deco) > Deco & Helium (150' limit with deco) > Mixed Gas / Mod 2 (200' limit) > Advanced Mixed Gas / Mod 3 (300' limit).  There's a chart about it here.  I'm obviously at the very beginning of this training journey and I expect I'll be working towards this over the next few years as I continue to accrue experience and time.  I also plan on reaching out to some local divers to try and join them on dives and gain experience working with others as part of a dive team.  

The diving:
I don't want to over-sell the cenotes in Mexico, but they're certainly unique and beautiful.  Almost all the diving I did is considered "cavern" diving, where you may be in an overhead environment (cannot ascend straight to the surface) but there is some level of natural light within 60m.  I think to the average untrained idiot (like myself) this is cave diving-lite.  There were a few of these caverns where I could not easily see the natural light, and if I did not have a flashlight I would have been in near perfect darkness.  Several of these caverns had paths that were pre-mapped and had nylon lines which guided you, but I totally understand how that could still be dangerous if you got turned around or lost during your dive.  There were other cenotes which were small lakes/basins with no caverns/caves branching off.  These felt more like giant freshwater pools (100'+ deep and very very large), two of these were super cool.  The cenotes are freshwater, but most have a halocline, as it transitions from freshwater on the top to saltwater at depth, this also changes temperature (the saltwater is noticeably warmer) and the shimmer effect is cool to look at but can be a little disorienting.  Not to mention the difference in buoyancy can be felt, leaving you skipping/bouncing on the salt water layer if you're not careful.  

I chose to bring my drysuit and doubles wing so I could train in the same gear configuration as I would be using here in California.  My instructor matched my configuration.  My drysuit actually had to have a repair made during the trip but worked great the rest of the time and kept me warm in the cenotes (the water temp is about 75F).  We did one day of boat diving which was fairly easy drift diving, we chose to do this in a wetsuit (it would have been way too hot in the drysuit).  The boat diving was very meh, their reef system isn't great, Cozumel has better reef diving.  Weather closed the port most days except our single day of boat diving where we got completely calm seas.  The cenotes are world famous and were more interesting diving, even if there's no wildlife, strictly geological stuff to see.  

Two of the cooler dives were Angelita & El Pit, which was more of the lake style.  Angelita was smaller but at ~90' depth there's an acid cloud sitting on top of the salt water layer, it's caused by leaves falling into the cenote and sinking through the fresh water before decaying above the salt water.  This acid cloud looks like a milky fog, similar to what you see in cheesy horror movies.  We went through the cloud, which was interesting, but due to the cloud being thick it's pitch dark beneath it, so you need your flashlight.  
El Pit was a much larger and deeper cenote, with a few caves that branch off from the bottom.  This felt like a gigantic ball room, with one side having stalactites and an overhang, along with some old fire pits and felled trees in the middle.  This dive site was more busy, and at one point some free divers dropped a weighted line about 10' from us, which was a little disconcerting.  

I enjoyed the diving, but struggled with learning the new buoyancy of the rebreather, as well as the often shallow diving of the cenotes.  The trip itself was enjoyable, but I personally prefer diving on a liveaboard or all inclusive style resort.  I'll have to start dreaming up the next vacation and working towards my next training level.  

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  • 1 month later...

Did two dives out of Dana Point.  First dive was a surprise dive on the ACE wreck.  We had a small number of divers who were all experienced enough that the captain took us here, normally dives on the ACE are planned in advance.  The wreck itself is on the deeper end with the top being 115' and the sand being 140', this translates into a rather short dive due to decompression limits.  My mask was misbehaving at the start and I ended up swapping it out so I started the dive a bit later than everyone else, but I still got a solid bit of time on the wreck.  It was teeming with life, tons of rockfish hanging out on the wreck, but there's also a fair bit of fishing line that you need to be careful around.  Visibility was great, 50'+ 
Second dive was a seal rock, which is fairly shallow reef with a few valleys and small caverns around the rock formation.  The shallow nature of the dive plus the usual California conditions (surge mostly) made it difficult for me on the rebreather.  Overall we got great conditions, with very flat seas, fantastic visibility and some good dive sites.  

The Riviera dive boat isn't really set up for my double tanks, but they were accommodating.  I also climbed the ladder with my full kit, including the rebreather, so I'm glad to know I can do that without issue.  Supposedly the local dive group will be setting up some additional trips to Catalina in 2024 on a new boat.  So I'll look forward to that as well.  

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