diving

Lobster Season Opener @ Catalina Island

This all started Friday morning as I was taking my friend to the local dive shop to get his personal gear as he’s taking the open water PADI certification course the following week. My dive shop guy tells me that tonight’s boat trip out to Catalina Island for the lobster season opener has open spots as a few folks dropped out, and wondered if I would be interested. The cost is 125, so I had to mull it over a little. I had never gone on this trip, but had wanted to; as well as I’m only an open water certified diver, however, I do have the necessary experience as I’ve done several night dives, and have well over 50 dives to date. So I thought about it while my friend picked up his gear. When he pays for his stuff, I tell the shop guy that I’m in, and pay for the trip. The view as we leave Long Beach.

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Continue ReadingLobster Season Opener @ Catalina Island

Scuba diving weekend and a little work on Velvet

This weekend, I relaxed with a bit of Scuba Diving. The first attempt was made on Friday afternoon, but upon reaching the beach and pulling out the gear to get ready, I realized that I had left a very important piece of equipment at home, my stupid mask. So no diving on Friday. I was successful Saturday morning, even got some very cool pictures. I snapped a picture of a Leopard Shark about 15-20 feet away. I got a little bit of work on Velvet over the weekend as well, mostly surface fixes. Sunday, I did an evening dive at Shaw’s Cove. And for good measure, a picture of Duke passed out on his back…

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F-ing Norbert

Hooray, I got to go diving today. The ship got into port at about 7:30 am. I set the alarm to go off at 6 but just went back to sleep because I was f-ing tired from the idiotic running I did the day prior. I wake up around 7:45, put on my gear and high tailed it to the landing dock. After getting packed in a very small confined area on the ship, we are finally let off the damn thing and I head over to see about my “diving adventure” excursion. I get there and there is a divemaster there waiting for me. I am the only diver from my ship. Hmm, there goes the hopes to meet a cutie diver from the ship, or any other diver from the ship. There are two other cruise ships that made port this morning; Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) and a Holland America ship. I get to the dock to get onto the ship that will take me out to the dive spot. I meet Ted from Arizona who is the single diver from the NCL ship. He is an older ex-navy guy, and fairly friendly. We hang out while heading towards the dive spot, which is about an hour and a half boat trip from Puerta Vallarta. The view, the location, etc just reminded me of going to Catalina as the port looks like Long Beach and it takes over an hour to get to the dive spots.

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Continue ReadingF-ing Norbert