Catching up... week two...

September.3.2008

Before leaving the docks from the last Bandito trip, Guillaume and I exchanged numbers with some future diving in mind. He called to see if I would be interested in getting a couple dives in today, and was down for traveling south for a tour of Les Davis.

I had the new GPO sighting still fresh in mind, so the plan was to check it out... see if he was still home. Sure enough, found him just where I had seen him last time - tucked away nice and snug.



We quickly realized that this view was the best we were going to get, so we cut our stay short and made a bearing to the east. The usual suspects were out and about providing us a fair share of marine entertainment... that was, until we rose up a touch in the water column. Once we hit 40-45fsw we began to feel the predicted flood current for the day, it was quite manageable, but I deferred to "G". He showed me a thumb... and that's all I needed. We safely ascended a good span east of our exit (the stairs), and began our surface interval with a nice surface swim.

For our second dive we planned to drop down again to see if the GPO was taking visitors, but once we got out that way we found that he had gone out for a bite. So we high-tailed it to some other nearby attractions that we had missed our first go-round. Namely, the fish sculpture and surrounding bridge decking. No current this time around and tons to see.

Dive Buddy: Guillaume S.
(Dive 1: 84fsw for 34mins; Dive 2: 68fsw for 28mins)


September.7.2008

I'd checked out the predictions for Day Island Wall earlier in the week, and just had to get this on the board for today. From the looks of it, upon our arrival, I wasn't the only one thinking this today. There were more divers here than I had ever seen at this site. We're in the crowd, and ready for some fun.

After getting roused a bit by the crew for being the last to get ready, we made our way for the first of two splashes. As it turned out, the first dive was a trial run. We kicked across a mild ebb current on the way to the wall, and once we arrived atop it I had everyone kneel down for a check on air before making a descent. It wasn't until I reached the last diver in our 5-party group that I found the need to turn the dive. With his SPG's needle already comfortably in the red the decision was an easy one... we're headed to shore. I let the rest of our party know that I was taking a turn and with signals indicated to those with sufficient air that the Wall was theirs to explore. I bid them adieu with a so-long salute and then positioned myself alongside my new buddy for the trip in.

Not wanting to make a direct ascent from nearly 60fsw, knowing that the top-current would take us out away from the shoreline, and probably somewhere under the Narrows bridge, I decided on an underwater kick to shore. I indicated to my buddy that I wanted him on my right side, nearest my octo, and then had him place his left had on my right forearm. Holding that position we set off towards the east. A minute later the swimming halted... I felt two quick squeezes on my forearm, and then nothing at all. I turned to my right to see my buddy demonstrating his mastery of the "out-of-air" signal. Without hesitation, my yellow Aeris A1 octo was out of it's elastic keeper and offered... and in the same manner it was accepted. I assumed closer contact, grabbing on to the right shoulder strap of my buddies BCD and signaling him to relax. I showed him my SPG to let him know that we had plenty of air, and then indicated that we were going to just sit there for a moment. Once the breathing normalized I asked if he was okay to ascend. He nodded and gave the appropriate signs in return. We slowly made our way to the surface from what was now about 30fsw, where upon reaching the surface I had one of the other divers, who I didn't know until that time had followed us during this stretch, come over and assist with an oral inflation of his BCD. She was on it and had him floating on his back in no time. Good teamwork!! :)~

We got ourselves back to shore and did a little debrieing on the earlier events there. I pointed out some of my observations during the dive, and highlighted a few things that might have been done differently (relaxing, frequency of SPG checks, etc...) ... as well as those done beautifully (signals, maintaining contact on ascent, etc...). I'd be remiss if I didn't take that opportunity to provide at least a couple pointers...

In the end, this is expressly why we train for these contingencies in our scuba courses. We wouldn't train for them if they didn't happen. To say more is to overstate the obvious.

The second dive proved a bit more fruitful. We waited out a good two and one half hour surface interval before making a run for another wall dive. We lost a few divers during the SI to home chores, or some such... but there were still four of us poised for a fun-filled second attempt.

We dropped into the same area as we had the first splash, this time not feeling the slightest bit of current. At the top of the wall I again checked in with everyone to find SPG's reading "plenty" all around, which meant we were in for a gander. Over the edge we went. The vis turned out to be in our favor, looking left to right along the wall we could see some 20' in each direction. We ventured south and checked all the usual holes for Wolf Eel, but didn't come up with a find. I think Joe L. came up with the only cephalopod find of the day as well... a large red octo in a shallow crevice on the wall.

Although I'm partial to sightings of the larger marine life here... GPO's and Wolf Eel... the Wall itself, on a good vis day like today, is pretty amazing to behold. Good enough for me!!

Dive Buddy Group: Tami S., Julie E., Joe L. and Joe R. (Jeff L. and Jeremy P.) (Dive 1); Tami S., Julie E. and Joe L. (Dive 2)
(Dive 1: 57fsw for 20mins; Dive 2: 89fsw for 38mins)

September.9.2008

Happy Birth Anniversary, Kelly Rockwood!!

I didn't think we'd get Kelly in the water today, talking earlier she had kinda shrugged at the idea, but somehow the bug bit her and she made it out for a splash. I'd already been in the water for my own dive by the time she, Mike D., Dan E. and Amy R. made it out for their own here at Titlow Beach. We had a couple new divers amongst the group and so Jeremy P. and I split them up between the two of us and made for the pilings. My buddy had a little trouble staying down early on, but eventually found his way down the water column and along-side another group of divers who had made the social dive. He ended up finishing his dive with that lot, looking over the pilings, and I decided to tour with Jeremy and his buddy to the south end, taking in all the site had to offer us tonight. The sailfins took the prize tonight... they were everywhere.

Dive Buddy: Jeremy P.
Dive Buddy Group: Dan and Cameron
(30fsw for 60mins)