Covers: Dives 11-13
It's Christmas Day and I am using my free time to update my adventures in diving and revel in the beauty and possibilities of my new UW camera (to be discussed momentarily).
12/20/07 (30 min to 60 feet) - Will and I decided to go for a night dive and when we got to the dive shop to rent our gear, in walks Sean with an invitation to join him and a student on an AOW night dive. We were glad to accompany someone who knew the site better than us and about an hour later we were dropping into Cove 2. It was pretty wild how low the tide was; you could 60 more feet of beach than usual and pylons ominously threatened the safety of our shore entry. About five minutes in, seals began swarming around us, using our lights to fish by. There had to be at least three although it was difficult to tell given the surrounding darkness. We approached the Honey Bear and Sean pointed out an octopus beneath, about 12 feet wide. After awhile of shining our lights in its eyes, it started to turn white with red stripes, meaning it was getting pissed. At that point we moved off and finished the dive. I noticed that I am getting a lot better at controlling my trim and buoyancy when not kicking. I bought a smaller light tonight that I used as a backup with my rental but which will be my primary in New Zealand. This was also the first night I strapped on the knife Emory gave me for Christmas. It fit well with my leg and after a minute, I forgot that it was there. After the dive, we all went over to an Alki biker bar and bought 2 pitchers for the table and three $1 tacos each. It was delicious and we had some good dive and life stories to share. I like biker bars; they are warmer and it doesn't take 20 minutes to get a drink.
12/22/07 (40 min to 82 feet) - Went out with Will, Sean and Todd to a wall down on the Tacoma Narrows called the Day Island Wall. We were loosely accompanying a marker club (a club that lays marker lines for divers who are new to the site). The wall starts at maybe 150-200 ft out and runs parallel to the shore (see pic below).
This is a more difficult dive because it must be times to a slack current or one risks getting swept away. We timed it ALRIGHT and dropped at about 45 feet. After about a 20 ft. underwater swim, we swam out over the wall and into what seemed like an endless drop into space. We slowly dropped further and established neutral buoyancy facing the wall. Will and I quickly got separated from Sean and Todd and continued the dive on our own. Investigating the crevices and dens of the wall face revealed new life I had never seen. We saw 3 wolf eel nestled into their spaces, who didn't seem to mind too much having lights shined in their face. Todd, who brought a camera, later showed us photos of a mother guarding her nest of eggs and a few octopi. Will and I missed these as we generally stayed at the North (shallower) end of the wall. When we began our swim back to shore, we began to face quick current at about 30 feet and were forced to surface and complete the swim back to the beach on top of the water. Even then, it took us a good fifteen minutes to get back to shore swimming against the current. There is definitely a reason you must correctly time this dive.
12/24/07 (40 minutes to 70 feet) - Will and I felt the urge to do another night dive on Christmas Eve. After a delicious dinner with Jen's family, I headed towards the West Seattle bridge and Cove 2. Upon reaching the cove and meeting up with Will, he realized that he did not have a light with him. Although not the safest of solution, we decided to dive connected to each other so he could use my light as well and not risk getting separated in low viz. Our connection piece was our catch bag for crab and shrimp; we each held one handle. At this point I realized that I had forgotten my weight, a situation far worse than no light as it is impossible to sink without weight. It is also important to have the right amount of weight so as to maintain neutral buoyancy and not get stuck at the bottom having to put too much air in your BCD. Yet again, we crafted a fantastically dangerous solution. I jimmy rigged my gear bag to my BCD and filled it with rocks. Through some trial and error in the shallows, I managed to attain the proper buoyancy, although I was anything but graceful. After dropping will maintained negative buoyancy so as to prevent me from floating away if I somehow lost some of my rocks. We had a relatively uneventful dive with little in the way of moving sealife, although we did see an absolutely enormous sea star and swimming with our makeshift equipment was amusing enough to make the dive interesting. Will managed to catch two shrimp by hand (while totally screwing the viz), which we later boiled at his apartment. It was a lot of work for a meal of a shrimp each, but they were so much more delicious than shrimp you buy from the store.
Today, for Christmas, I received some dive related gifts. I got my Canon SD800 digital camera and the WP-DC9 underwater case, also made by Canon. I also received a rudimentary dive watch from my Dad, a Timex rated "Water Resistant" to 100 meters. It says not to use it as a dive watch but who cares, I will never be 100 meters deep and am not really worried about it leaking. If it does, oh well, $30 down the toilet. I tried a couple of shots with the camera and some video. There results are below. I thought the photo was pretty cool. I ran it through a watercolor filter in Photoshop to give it some extra artistic flair.
Covers: Dives 5-10
12/8/07 - Our first dive was in a new are by Alki called the Junkpile, down to about 20 feet for 40 minutes. This site is not a cove, like I had been accustomed to, and is actually exposed to some very heavy currents. This dive was the first time I had tried out my new gear (particularly my new Semidry) and I definitely found it much warmer. My hangover kind of negated this warmth, but oh well... The visibility however, was extremely poor based on the unprecedented rainfall we had earlier on in the week. On this particular dive it was somewhere in between 6-8 feet. Throughout the dive, we worked on peak performance buoyancy, which included some relatively simple tasks such as hovering and making controlled ascents/descents using only our BCD (no kicking or shooting the surface). After this dive, Cory, the instructor, decided that the current was moving too fast and surfacer waves were too large to do another dive. So.... you guessed it; we went back over to cove 1.
The second dive of the day was down to 22 feet for 45 minutes and, despite the fact that we were now in a cove, somehow the visibility was even worse at less than 4 feet. We literally descended as a group and had to immediately resurface because with the silt that had come up no one could see each other. We descended again by holding each other and quickly moved away from the descent area to maximize viz. Our focus on this dive was measuring our speed (how far we travel in a given number of kick cycles), followed by some more practice with compass navigation, in which we had to navigate certain shapes in the water using only our compass. The low visibility really added to this task as no one could "cheat" by getting lost and looking around for where they were going. If you got lost, its up to the surface for you.
12-9-07 - On the second day, we did our first dives off of a boat, which was pretty fun (especially coming back into the warmth after the first dive). Our first dive of the day was our deep dive, down to 74 feet for 27 minutes at a site called Shilshole Barges. I was extremely excited for this dive to take place as it was my first deep dive (technically defined as below 60 ft) and not only that, but we were diving on a barge wreck. This barge had sunk in a storm or something and sunk to land on its side. Cory told us before we descended not to worry as most skills, such as buoyancy control and equalization, actually got easier with depth. Here is a picture of me immediately before our descent:
We started down the descent line, which seemed to go on forever. After probably a minute or so, I finally saw the bottom and executed a landing with as little silt disturbance as possible. At this point, visibility was at about 15 feet but it was so dark that we were forced to stay close to the instructors light. As we set off from the descent line, I began to wonder where the barge was and then, after no more than 30 feet, I noticed what looked to be snow in the water ahead. Thousands of tiny white blotches covered the extent of my vision. As I drew nearer, I noticed that these white blotches were plumose anemones attached to the barge, which rose as an immense metal wall in front of us. This barge was literally so big that you could not see the top. We began swimming around the barge and saw quite an array of life, including my first Lingcod, a kind of fish that can grow as large as a small shark (this one was easily 4.5 feet long). After circumnavigating the boat, we began our ascent back up the line to the boat. I have to say ascents are probably my favorite part, not because of the fact that I want to get out of the water, but because of how good the backwards equalization feels. As much as equalizing going down can be a pain, equalizing on the way up is an experience I find quite enjoyable (kind of like getting tickled inside your ears or enjoying a satisfying sneeze). This was also my first safety stop and it was pretty crowded fitting 8 people at a depth of 15 feet on one ascent line. After about a minute we found ourselves falling, which was very confusing as my hand was still firmly grasping the line (which meant somehow the line was falling). We ascended back up to 15 feet and discovered that our weight had actually pulled the boat from where it had casually drifted to back immediately overhead our position. Upon surfacing, we removed our gear and piled inside for a much welcomed lunch of chicken noodle soup, sliced bread, and cheddar cheese. I especially enjoyed the lunch as one of only 3 omnivores in our group. Vegetarians were bound to the bread and cheese. Our operator, Howie (the guy driving the boat), decided to make up for this oversight by offering hot tea. I failed to see how this made up for a missing course, but apparently most people were happy with it.
Our second dive of the day took place at the West Seattle Reef and focused on our Underwater Naturalist Specialty (basically go look for animals). This was yet another first as it was the first time we would be diving in buddy teams without the watchful eye of our instructor (who would remain on the boat). Will and I began our descent along a mooring line and when we hit the bottom, I took a compass heading and we took off over the reef. It was an amazing experience to swim literally in the reef, as their were cracks between the rocks so swim through. Also, as each reef rose and fell easily 20 feet, it was kind of like being on a weightless roller coaster followed by a skydive at the end. We would go up the reef examining the life and break over the top swim out a little into space and then fall back down to the sea floor (of course regaining buoyancy before we actually hit it). We eventually found a line on the bottom, which we followed for awhile to yet more reef clusters. After hitting approximately 150 psi, I began to navigate us back, first using the line and then a reciprocal compass heading. When we had arrived at the point that I expected the mooring line to be, it was nowhere in sight. We probably should have looked for it a little harder, but instead we decided to try our first free ascent. Carefully watching my depth gauge I put a little spurt of air into my BCD and began to rise. Upon reaching 15 feet, we established neutral buoyancy for our safety stop. This was probably the most challenging part as its not easy to maintain a neutrally buoyant position with no reference above or below. Will said he watched his buoyancy through surface waves. Maybe if I had looked up like Will I could have used the waves as well. And maybe I would have noticed the fact that the boat was right on top of us. When ready to finish the ascent, I signaled to Will, who had apparently been trying to get my attention for a good 30 seconds to notify me that the boat was right over head. After swimming out from below it, we surfaced and low and behold, the ascent line is not 15 feet away. Shows how much visibility can affect a dive. End result of the dive was a max depth of 70 feet for 28 minutes.
12/13/07 - Sean offered to take Will and I alone on our final AOW dive requirement, the night dive. We stayed in Cove 2 for this dive as it was slightly familiar and had a lot of life at night. We descended to a good 60 feet and set out deeper, lights in hand searching for sines of life. At about 70 feet we saw a seal, which apparently was using our light as a means to find food. We also saw a ton of shrimp throughout the dive. As we continued deeper, I set a new max depth record, at 100 feet. I really shouldn't be focused on depth, but I was a little proud to break the big 100. The rest of the dive continued as usual and we did our safety stop on the bottom before surfacing at the shore. Dive time was 28 minutes (above the no deco limits using a standard table but we were using Sean's computer which took into account multilevel changes in on-gassing).
12/17/07 - This was the first dive I did completely outside the classroom environment. I decided to skip work today, so Will and I picked up a couple of tanks and headed for.... you guessed it, Cove 2. We dropped down on the 3rd buoy surrounding the no-dive water taxi DANGER area (haha) to 40 feet or so and swam for awhile within the 40-50 ft range. We saw some lingcod (smaller than the first), rockfish, and a few schools of fish of what looked to me to be Tang (but I dont know if we even have those here). After awhile, Will and I stumbled onto a wreck, which I recognized from my Wikipediaing the night before. The ship was called the "Honey Bear" and was an old Art Deco Cruiser. Apparently there is an 8 ft. male octopus inside, but it was really hard to see when we stuck our heads in, so we decided we would return later with lights. After a good amount of bottom time, we began a floor ascent with an unnecessary safety stop for good measure. We surfaced at the shore (not at all in the right place so we dove back down and swam at 4 feet for a bit). Total dive time was 44 minutes with a max depth of 48 feet. By the way, visibility was really excellent (from my limited experience) at about 25 feet.
In other dive news, Emory bought me a pretty sweet dive knife for Christmas. I'll strap it to my leg and look cool, but let's hope I never get tangled in anything to the point that I need to cut free. I also received the last part to my camera set. I ended up buying a Sea&Sea YS-60 TTL/N Strobe that used to be $580, but is now on factory closeout at about $135. The reason? It is engineered to only work with film cameras. However, I found a pretty cool piece of technology available from a German firm called HeinrichsWeikamp that makes an adapter used to hook up old Nikonos strobes to digital cameras. I was pretty psyched as the whole packaged costed me around $280. I just got the adapter tonight and tested it. All works fine!
I just finished my Open Water certification through Seattle Scuba Schools. We dove on Saturday and Sunday beginning at about 9:30 AM both days. All of the dives took place in Cove 1 at Seacrest Park (Alki) right next to Salty's. Water temperature was approximately 47 degrees fahrenheit. Dive specific info:
Dive 1 (Sat) - Dove to 33 feet for 20 minutes
Dive 2 (Sat) - 34 feet for 19 minutes
Dive 3 (Sun) - 22 feet for 22 minutes
Dive 4 (Sun) - 40 feet for 22 minutes
The water was not unbearably cold but the air temperature made it difficult to stop shivering on the surface. It was pretty funny surfacing after the second dive to find out that it had begun to snow! I actually found this somewhat humorous because one of the NZ clubs that I have been speaking with warned me about one of their dives being very cold. I hate to picture what they would think of a Seattle dive..... (to put it in perspective, South Island NZ water is easily 10 degrees F warmer than our water and that's on a bad day).
I had an absolute blast and really enjoyed seeing for the first time the amount of life that actually lives just a little ways off the shore. Our instructor even said that we were diving in a relatively dead area (better for training). I can't wait to see what an area rich with life will be like. Here are a couple of pics from the shore. I'm wearing all rental gear (aside from my mask, snorkel, and boots).
I went ahead and purchased all my gear. Without going into to many specifics, mostly because I cant remember all the brands right now, I got a 7 mm Semidry suit, a pair of 3.5 mm gloves, these new high tech Mantaray fins (way shorter and easier to maneuver), and a full regulator and gauge system. The regulator will be a new experience for a couple of reasons. First, it is a DIN system, unlike the yoke hookups we have been using so far. My instructor is going to throw in a free DIN/yoke converter for my travels. In addition, the first stage is Nitrox compatible, which is cool because I am sure that at some point my dives are going to necessitate that. I decided to hold off on the BC and tank until I get a little more experience and find out what types of diving I most enjoy.
Also today, I purchased my camera living vicariously through my mother's credit card (don't you love Christmas presents). After way too much research, I switched from a dedicated UW unit to a Canon SD800 so that I can take great topside pictures as well while I am over there. I also purchased the WP-DC9 underwater housing, an extra battery, and a 2GB SD card. A comment from my friend about going through 4 camera's underwater in 2 years through leakage kind of scared me, but after reading around, I think you just have to be really, really careful with the O-ring. As long as you keep it lubricated, properly seated, and inspect it for hairs, sand, salt crystals, etc every time you close it, you should be fine. The only other complaint that I have heard is that the case fogs up at depth over time. The best solution is to put the camera in while in an AC environment (aka dry) and to keep the camera off as much as possible or to disable the LCD (so as to prevent as much heat from the camera as possible).
Well that's all for now. Next post to follow my Advanced open water dives this coming weekend!
My project this last week has been getting back in touch with some of the dive clubs and setting up some more concrete dive dates so that I don't just show up ready to dive and two months later..... whoops, didn't actually get to do anything.
The first half of my trip will be spent on the South Island in Dunedin and my contact there is Nathan with Dive Otago. He offered me the chance to join in on any number of training dives that I can fit into my schedule; apparently there are plenty. He also mentioned that they will be doing one local dive (Jan. 27) and one extended dive trip (Feb 1st - 4th) to Milford Sound in Fiordland, which is supposed to be absolutely breathtaking (as seen in the picture below).
This Milford may be one of the more difficult dives on the trip. It is in the coldest waters that I will be visiting over the course of the trip and there is a good amount of surge. As a native Seattlite, I'm sure I'll be able to handle it. It's also going to be one of the more expensive ones, at $395 NZ. If I can find some better dives off the Southern island, I may replace this one with a less expensive dive, but I have yet to hear back from the Otago University Dive Club. We are staying the extra night because the return trip goes over an alpine pass and we need to avoid any complications that could come as a result of decompression sickness.
There may also be a chance to dive on that wreck I was talking about. I managed to scrounge up a picture taken immediately after the sinking:
My first meeting with the Auckland University Dive Club (henceforth referred to as Akunidive) is on February 13th. The meeting is almost immediately followed by the first weekend dive, of which there is one every weekend for the remainder of the trip. This first dive is affectionately dubbed Freshers Weekend (sounds like some fraternity event). I'm not sure where it is being held but accommodations sound interesting. As Ryan tells me, "We stay in a chalet out the back away from the families so we can party uninhibited by moral standards". I'm not sure what moral standards you could infringe upon on a dive trip, but I guess the freedom to do so is always a good thing. :) The best thing is that, being put on by students, it's affordable! $12 a night camping and $10 a dive off the boat. Sure beats the $395 for Milford Sound. The weekend following freshers is the first of two dives to Poor Knights Islands, a group of uninhabited islands touted to offer one of the top ten dive sites in the world. This dive is slightly more expensive as it is off a chartered dive boat called the Pacific Hideaway. Below are pictures of the southern arch at Poor Knights as well as Pacific Hideaway herself.
The last two weekend trips during my Auckland stay will be to Coramandel Peninsula followed by one more trip to Poor Knights.
I just set up this blog to chronicle my adventures in New Zealand. I figure that I will, at some point, want to reflect on my whole thought process going into this trip seeing as I have abandoned all logic and reason in my decision to film underwater for a couple months. Perhaps, if I behave in an interesting manner or tame a Great White, others might be interested.
I'll start at the beginning. A couple of months back, my girlfriend Jen made the decision to study abroad in New Zealand. Naturally, I wasn't excited about the idea of being apart for two months and looked into the trip for myself. After a short interview, I found myself signed up for a study abroad trip to New Zealand. The study program originally focused on culture and the many things that distinguish New Zealand's history, however overtime and for reasons that are not worth mentioning, the option for a more independantly guided study experience became available.
As I investigated various independent study options, I found myself drawn to the natural environment of the country. I have to say preliminary interest was generated through a combination of the fantastic scenery in the "Lord of the Rings" movie series as well as a gut feeling that if I was going to be staying in such a beautiful country, it would be foolish to spend the majority of my time in urban areas. I originally thought it would be interested to spend time on a sheep farm and learn the various aspects of operation through participation. According to 2006 figures, there are around 10 sheep to every 1 person in New Zealand and it is their primary export. I stayed with this idea for awhile, until for some reason, I began to be drawn more towards the coastal areas (and their importance to Maori culture) and finally to the waters.
My plan now is to spend my time in New Zealand scuba diving. My initial interest was in filming underwater species; after research into how much buoyancy control this takes, I may not venture with a camera in tow. I still plan on focusing on underwater aquatic life as well as the natural terrain and the differences between the North and South islands. My other goal is to establish some good relationships with the Dive Clubs and students of Auckland and Dunedin. I have already discussed dives with the Otago University Dive Club, the University of Auckland Dive Club, Dive Otago, and Seafanz Digital Underwater Photographic Society. I have gotten positive responses from all. My primary concern is affordability of chartered dive trips, which will undoubtably give me the best experiences, and my ability to fill my schedule with dives. In other words, I am trying hard not to show up in New Zealand for 2 months and only fit in 3 dives. That would be an immense disappointment, so I'm doing my best to schedule dates now.
At this point in I am in the middle of my certification. I am training with the Scuba Schools Group based out of Tacoma and have completed my at home coursework and pool dive. On December 1st and 2nd, I will be completing my Open Water Certification with a series of 5 open water dives over the course of 2 days. Following that, on December 8th and 9th, I will be completing 5 specialty dives in order to achieve my Advanced Open Water Certification. These specialty dives can include any of the following to be determined by the instructor: Peak Performance Buoyancy, Boat Diving, Underwater Naturalist, Multilevel Diving, Night Diving, or Search & recovery. I had hoped that one of the dives would be the Underwater Photographer Specialty, but apparently this is not included in the Advanced Cert.
In terms of gear, I have already purchased my mask, snorkel, and wetsuit boots to the tune of about $130. Before leaving, I plan on purchasing a 7mm Semidry Suit (~$300-$500), a regulator system, and gloves. I will rent the tank, weights, and BC as they would be difficult to fly over. Also, with the BC, I am unsure as to whether I would prefer a jacket style or backplate and wings. The jacket is the standard for beginning divers but the backplate setup allows for more future flexibility such as double tanks. If I end up purchasing a camera, it will probably be the Bonica Snapper DV, a lesser known video camera manufactured solely for underwater use and rated to 180 ft. The camera alone will be around $700. If I choose to purchase it with the attached video light and mounting tray, it will bump up to about $1300 (not a likely option based on my financial situation). It's been an interesting experience trying to prepare for this trip with limited resources, but a worthwhile experience in and of itself. In addition to camera supplies, I will need to purchase Final Cut Express and clear out a significant amount of hard drive space on my PowerBook.
Anyways, I have started compiling some information on dive sites on both islands. I purchased a scuba diving book on New Zealand dive sites called Lonely Planet Diving and Snorkeling New Zealand. Dive Club members I have been in correspondence with have also provided a number of recommendations including Goat Island and the wreck of the frigate HMNZS Canterbury, intentionally sunk in late 2007 to become a dive wreck. I would really enjoy diving on at least one wreck during my time there.
I plan to update these postings with any significant developments or whenever I feel there is some good information to add. Once in New Zealand, this will become a daily journal, but until then, it will just cover my planning process.
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