Dipsy Diving
Bit of a bad photo of Monterey Bay from my Iphone.
The girls like to call my holiday hobby Dipsy as oppose to Deep Sea Diving. I think everyone prefers Dipsy, even the casual passer-by thought it better as the girls were skipping off to the aquarium with me correcting them whilst trying to get my kit on.
So while they went to look at the “static fish” as Divemaster Jim called them; I went out into the Ocean to spot them. I’d booked a last minute trip with Monterey Bay Divers and for a change got a really lovely guide – the aforementioned Jim. I’d try to get a boat dive but unfortunately all the boats were booked; it was the weekend of Monterey’s biggest Dive photography competition so all Jim could do was a shore dive. Whilst I’m on the subject of underwater photography – I’ve tried it. It’s very difficult. Sorry no pictures.
My dive buddy was Jennifer from Pittsburg; she’d never dived in seawater before; only lakes with the visibility of an arm’s length, so it was nearly all new to her. As we got in we saw a seal mucking around on one of the buoys, I was hoping he’d come and investigate us, and have a bit of a play but no…. I did see a heck of a lot of star fish and giant scary crabs in amongst the kelp. Kelp is a bit like a nursery tower block for small fish, all the young of the fish we like to eat hide in it. Kelp is also incredibly strong and wraps around you like rope so you do get a bit tangled as you’re going along. We didn’t get too far on the first dive; we’d just got to the interesting bit when we had to head back – Jennifer was low on air.
She decided not to do the second dive. I have to say it is a bit freaky trying to battle with kelp the cold (did I not mention the cold? Did I not mention the cold!?! It was the most freezingest water ever!) ; and if you’ve never dived in the sea the force and currents can be scary.
In between dives Jim told us about the previous days Diver. He’d taken out a Frenchman who worked at the embassy in Washington. He’d been busy on his phone during the dive break – important embassy business Jim thought. After the second dive he realised it had been important food business. Waiting for them on the beach was lunch. Table, chairs, china plates, wine, cheese, etc etc and a couple of hotel staff to serve. He’d actually been on the phone to his swanky hotel in Carmel and arranged a post dive meal. Wonder if he put it on expenses under “liaising with the California Dive community”.
So it was just me n’ Jim for the next dive and it was excellent. We followed an old pipe on the seabed that was used by the canneries to suck the fish up from the fishing boats. Ironic that it’s a haven for marine life. The mouth of the pipe had a big fishy sitting in it and all along there were teensy tiny pretty sea sluggy things, tons of star fish and a giant star fish with the body the size of a dinner plate and about 20 legs, he was more like a sunflower than a star. And he was blue so not a lot like a sunflower or a star fish …. At the end of the pipe we went over to this amazing stand of strange anemone. If you can imagine very soft cauliflower on the end on a fat stalk about half a meter long sticking to a rock in clusters of 100’s. Very very beautiful. Unfortunately I was incredibly cold at this point so I did the “I’m cold” sign and we headed back. On the way back down following the pipe we found some kind of underwater bunny. Jim said his latin name back on land, but its commonly known as a rabbit. It’s like no bunny I’ve seen – its red, bunny sized but has more slug features than a bunny. When you stroke it, it kind of puts up its “ears” but there the similarity ends.
We made our way back to shore and dragged ourselves out like some tired elephant seals (more about them later) The thing about shore dives is it’s not that you see any less than on a boat, it’s just the walk to and from the sea with a huge load of kit and a tight wetsuit is a bit of a bugger. And I was cold.
As per usual I had loads of air left, and if it had been warmer I could have stayed in for ages living out my “I am a sea otter” fantasy amongst the kelp. I have this habit of getting into some kind of relaxed low breathing or something when I’m diving – Jim joked “are you practicing not breathing?” The amount of air left is a kind of sign of experience or that you’re not panicking and puffing away or something; I always have about the same as my Divemaster despite my holiday diver status. So I guess I’ve finally found something I’m a natural at. Breathing. .… it’s so easy I dunno what the fuss is about.
One more thing. I haven’t seen a sea otter….Gutted. But I have seen elephant seals – huge monsters!
Edited: August 13th, 2010
