Christmas Donut Dive and Cleanup 20 Dec 08

Wow, what a beautiful day!!! Thank you to Bob, Tyler, Derek, Seth, Casey, Sue, Gil, and Caroline for coming out today. The donuts were sweet the coffee was, well warm... and the conditions were great. There no surf other than the wake of the crab boat, the wind was down and the VIS was too... About 3 to 6 feet of VIS made for a secluded dive for most. The water was 63 degrees. (Time for that hood.) Everyone had a good time and we overcame some issues.

Issues? Did I say issues? Ok me first. DUH, I show up and am unable to dive. Sinus blockage is never a good way to start a dive, and yes I have had a reverse squeeze. One word, OUCH!!

The next issue was that a mask was forgotten. But thanks to the great people that we have in the diving community there was a spare to be had. Then the weight calculations were for fresh not salt water... makes for a great (large, hehe) surface swim. Wait there is more... weight issues that is. Some ankle weights were left behind. Cool huh? Well yes if you are diving in a .5 mm skin in 63 degree water and have 1% to 2% body fat, now that is downright cold after a few minutes. Oh yah, dive flags... LOL.

Ok, now back to the blog. We all have issues from time to time and they are not fun. But all of the issues that were had today are not all that uncommon. Gear is right where we won't forget it, and it is there when we get back from our trip or when we get back to the car. No big deal. I am inspired though to create a check list that will make sure that I remember those things that I need for each dive. I may even make one that I can go over once I have my gear on so that I don't leave that backup flash light in the dive bag. By the way, I am not the only one that has thought of this. There are check lists out there already, but I did not use one and I should have. My thought is that they may be too vague or general. I have a specific set of kit that I use for different dives. Like slates for my training dives, or a shark's tooth bag for the fossil hunts, or the three lights that I know that I should take with me on a night dive.

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas to all and thanks for the inspiration
Carl