Seems like just a couple of weeks since I started this blog & had my 1st "dry" dive in the dry suit...Tonight I hit dry dives #20 & 21...Purrrrty cool :-) Tonight's first dive made me re-think my choice(s) in dive buddies (no, not "Max"- he's the best buddy I have); I'm going to skip the details but the main problem was my 2 dive buddies failure to stick to our dive plan.. We decided beforehand to do the North Wall (90ft or so), which entailed a LONG surface swim going out & coming back; we'd spend a few minutes on the wall checking out the critters, then head back into shallows to avoid the long return surface swim. One buddy decided to throw the "I'm gonna get deeper than you" card and went to 118ft; other buddy & I stayed at 105, waiting for him to come back.. Upon his return to our trio, we begin our ascent to shallows..For those who have done a dive at the north wall in LJS, there is a peninsula there- we were on top of it (around 55 ft) when a current hit us and began pushing us back down into the canyon. Ok, this is not good. Down at 55 ft, getting pushed deeper, and buddy #3's attempt at a new "depth record" had caused us to use a lot of air at depth.. Well, 2 things were going on in my head: (1) we're getting pushed into the canyon trying to fight a current and not getting anywhere, and (2) we have a LONG swim in- there's no way we can make it underwater... At 900psi, I made the decision to thumb the dive and do a free ascent.. We did an easy, controlled ascent, with a stop at 35 ft for a minute, then our 3 minute stop at 15-20 ft.. I don't think I've ever done a free ascent from that depth with no line, so it was pretty awesome... but we did, in fact, have a LONG surface swim in... Of course, since it was sunset and the ocean was placid...well, can't really complain about it.. Dive 2 was much better- I made it clear that 60 ft was the limit for this dive and that if the macho "I can go deeper than you, nanny nanny boo boo" crap started again, I'd head back without them. For the most part, we did stick to our dive plan.. and we saw TONS of life! At least a dozen octopus (including a golf ball sized baby), several large thornback rays, a face to face encounter with large purple striped jelly, cusk eels, fish of all kinds, a bat ray, guitarfish, a leopard shark, moon snails, and nudi's all over!! (by now I'm sure people have picked up the fact that I love nudibranchs) :-) We interrupted 2 octopus who looked like they were gettin' busy (hence the golfball sized little baby one we saw? hehe).. Bioluminescense was back! Every little movement caused intense blue glowing so we turned our lights off and enjoyed the glow several times... And last but not least, the water was freaking COLD! You'd think with a dry suit, I'd be comfortable in 48 degrees... but nope! (buddies were shivering in their wetsuits)... BRRR!!!!!
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