Friday, April 17, 2009 – First cold water sidemount dives
Today, Kevin and I meet up with some friendly UTD divers visiting from SoCal. It’s their first trip to Pt. Lobos, and Kevin and I are eager to show them a good time.
By the time I arrive at 8:30am the parking lot is already full of divers. It’s one of those rare Fridays that a reservation is required – 5 divers were already turned away by the time I arrive. It’s also one of those Fridays that looks absolutely beautiful. The cove is glassy flat and viz, even top side, looks impressive.
I attempt to take an iPhone photo to taunt my friends with, but the iPhone freezes. Hurray for the iPhone — the most overrate electronic device ever. Fortunately, Christian has his camera and is gracious enough to share (including the pictures below).
As we gear up, Kevin and I marvel at the amount of gear that keeps coming out of the SoCal divers’ van. The picture below is missing 3 add’l sets of doubles, Cubas, and bags and bags dive gear – all of it which went into one vehicle.
Ted and Matt pull up and we trade dive plans. Our first dive with the LA crew is a kick dive to Hole in the Wall. Ted and Matt will scooter west of Lone Metridium and play in walls and valleys towards Marco’s Pinnacle. Although uncommon, that’s a spectacular dive.
In addition to taking our LA friends on a tour, I am eager to get in the water and try out the Razor harness. A couple weeks prior, I had used my wife’s old sewing machine and made a cover for my camelbak BCD. Today would be my first cold water sidemount dive.
First task is to stage the sidemount tanks in the water. Low tide can be dangerous and uncomfortable for doubles divers. However, carrying one tank at a time, navigating the slippery ramp proves to be far less challenging. +1 for sidemount.
As the backmount divers start getting ready, I jump in the water and start donning my gear. Since it’s the first dive, I want to the dive the rig as I did in Mexico. As the result, I am using the mini 1/2 inch D-rings. Definitely not that smartest decision, but I wanted a baseline for comparison.
Well, as you can imagine, I struggle to don the tanks. Clipping small bolt snaps onto even smaller D-rings proves to be chore with drygloves. I climb up onto the ramp and use the low tide to my advantage. The conditions couldn’t have been better, but it still takes me almost forever to get set-up. -1 sidemount (with warm water harness gear)
I finish donning just in time for the LA divers to get in the water and I help here and there. It’s mostly Kevin providing good direction on entry.
One of the big concerns I had before the dive was surface floatation. In Mexico, the Razor harness system is optimized for under water movement. Surface floatation does not exist. The good news is that my makeshift BCD keeps my head above water. The bad news is that every time I raise my left arm, the cuff dump burps and I’m at eye level. If sidemount becomes a cold water habit, I’ll have to plug up the cuff dump on those days. -1 for cuff dump.
We surface kit to above the worm patch, and it’s visible from the surface. After a minute to regroup the teams, we descend. I do a masterful job tangling my lightcord and twisting the canister so Kevin sorts me out at the bottom.
Under water, the sidemount tanks feel pretty good. Movement is easy and trim is spot on. With the LP77’s -6.8# buoyancy on each side of me, I’m physically locked into horizontal trim. In fact, when I rotate laterally, the tanks will snap my back to the horizontal plane. Personally, I like the ease of movement with lighter sidemount tanks, but overall it’s still a pleasure to dive. +1 for sidemount.
Dumping air from the camelbak BCD is more involved because of the cuff dump. When I raise my left arm to dump the BCD, the cuff dump would activate. As the result, I end up unrouting the BCD hose and dump from the right side of the body. Fortunately, I only had to do this a couple times during the early parts of dive. The BCD was sufficient to offset the extra weight of the gas in the beginning of the dive. In the later parts, I compensate buoyancy with my drysuit. -1 for cuff dump.
As we head away from the the worm patch, I immediately regret not taking my camera. Given the Razor harness’ maiden cold water voyage, I thought it best to leave my small point-n-shoot on shore. Visibilility is stunning, at least 50′. With the bright sky above, the entire ocean is lit up. I have a ton of dives at Lobos, and it was still nice to see a certain area and say, “Wow that’s what it looks like in it’s entirety.”
Not too long in the dive, teams start to separate and head their own way. Our team consists of Kevin, Christian, Tim and I and we continue to Hole in the Wall. As we round the rocky reef just passed Hole in the Wall, I spy a 3′ leopard shark. I enthusiastically wave down my dive buddies and point out the shark chilling on the ocean floor. Kevin says that my shark motion was so enthusiastic that he thought I saw a great white.
Most leopard shark sitings are fleeting, however this one is different. The shark allows for pretty close encounter and doesn’t move an inch as four divers hover nearby. We effectively swim 270 degrees around the shark, without causing a stir.
After the shark, we reach turn pressure and head home. Kevin leads our team to Middle Reef and we meet up with Itchy, the male wolf eel. His head gets bigger every time I see him. Kevin and I insure that the Christian and Tim get a chance to look and then we kick home.
Doffing the sidemount tanks is easier, but still cumbersome and finger numbing. If I choose to dive the tanks again, I’ll definitely replace the D-rings and bolt snaps. I’m tempted to try AL80s as well, but the prospect of wearing another 12 pounds on my waist isn’t that enticing.
Second dive, we plan to scooter to Beto’s. After two 25/25 dives to Beto’s, this will be my second 32% dive to the reef.
This time donning, I need assistance. Kevin swims over and even remarks that it’s hard. Probably just to make me feel better.
As we surface scoot out, the visibility in the cove has decreased. At the worm patch, the water is no longer clear and viz drops to about 30′.
After a little coordination and corralling by Kevin, our entire group of divers arrive at Beto’s. You can see Kevin be a model diver by checking his gas and then checking the team at the destination. Sorry for the last scene on the video, my camera must have gotten narc’d at the deeper depth.
At Beto’s, Kevin and I look for the wolf eel and the ling cod guarding her eggs, but both are no longer there. Though we miss our animal friends, there’s still a lot of Beto’s to see. Both Kevin and I take turns swimming through the crevices and cracks of Beto’s.
After 20 minutes of wandering Beto’s, we head home. With additional SoCal divers with us, we make a return trip to Middle Reef to visit our wolf eel friend.
By the time we reach our 20′ and 10′ stops, I’m very low on gas. As the result, I do an automatic weight check and could add a couple of pounds to be extra comfortable. However, as is, the weighting is pretty good.
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Side mounting looks very interesting – I stumbled onto the concept one day when I was really jonesing to get wet – I grabbed my backplate and an S80 stage bottle and hit the pool just to cool off and relax for a few minutes. I was amazed at the freedom I felt and was actually stoked to have a little fun with it. Thanks for the write up on the razor and the coldwater report.