Sunday, October 26, 2014

"Easybreath" - Full face snorkeling mask/snorkel

Masque facial "Easybreath" - Full face snorkeling…:


Looks kinda nice.  I'm not sure I'd pay 95 euro for something like this though. But if someone wants to send me one, I'll give it a try. Could be a good seller for our next Dive Club of Silicon Valley annyal Snorkel Safari

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Dive to Metridium Fields, Monterey, CA

Managed a repeat of the Metridiums dive this weekend.

Visibility was about the same as last month, maybe a little better.

Took my GoPro this time, so captured some video of a Metridium. Unfortunately, I didn't have my green water filter on, so the colors are somewhat messed up.




Timeline for the video:
Time OffsetDescription
0:00Urchin on the pipe
0:30Traveling along the pipe (lots of sea stars
1:10Into the murkiness
1:40Arrival at the metridiums and a friendly nudi
2:00Metridium panorama
3:00Critter time: Sea hare?
3:20Critter time: Lingcod
4:05Critter time: Tiny Nudi (back on pipe)
4:20Traveling back along the pipe in the murkiness
5:20End


Monday, May 19, 2014

Turtle in Belize

My son had been wanting to see a turtle the whole time we were diving in Belize. If fact, even before we got there. Luckily, on the last dive, of the last day, we got to see one!



And to think, we were supposed to be diving out at Turneffe Atol that day. Good job the trip got cancelled eh!

Friday, May 16, 2014

Coral Reefs 101

http://www.padi.com/blog/2013/05/24/coral-reefs-101/

Well, I just learnt something, plus got a pining to go back to Belize :-)


Sunday, April 27, 2014

Diving Metridium Fields Monterey, April 19, 2014


Dive Site

Metridiums Fields, San Carlos Beach, Monterey, California.




Click for fullsize image or Google Map


The Metridium Fields site is a beautiful dive site located at San Carlos beach in Monterey. San Carlos beach, also known as The Break Water by many local divers, is a very popular site. If you dive closer to the breakwater wall, you will be diving amongst the hordes of open water dive classes. However, further away from the wall, and a long swim from the shore, is the spectacular Metridium Fields.

Reaching the Metridium Fields requires a rather long swim. If you do it underwater this will limit your time at the dive site. If you do it on the surface you will be getting close to boat traffic. On this dive we had Diver Propultion Vehicles (DPVs), so we were able to do the descend quite close to the beach yet still have plenty of bottom time once we reach the metridiums.

Actually I was taking the PADI DPV specialty.



You enter the water from the left side of San Carlos beach. There are stairs down to the beach near the restroom at the left side of the parking lot. Before you go down to the beach, familiarize yourself with the location of the pump house just behind the restrooms, as that will be an important visual landmark for the start of the dive.

Be careful where you enter the water. At this side of the beach there are a number of submerged rocks, and also exposed rebar (metal) from the foundations of the old cannery buildings. The beach here is quite well protected, so waves are usually not too large. However, as I say the rocks and foundations can be a hazard and you don't want to fall here should a rogue wave come along.

Dive Plan, showing entry/exit, ascent/descent, and directions


Click for fullsize image

After entering the water swim away from the beach and, if looking towards the beach, out to your right (northerly). The drop off here is slow, so you need to swim out a way before it's deep enough to descend. You need to head more northernly, as you need to line yourself up with the pump house on the shore. You can also see the road, Reeside Ave, going up the hill behind the pump house.


View from the ocean, GPS coordinates show where we surfaced

View from the ocean side with GPS coordinates of surface location indicated

Click for fullsize image or Google Maps

Swim out away from the beach perpendicular to the pump house. As I said earlier, the further out you swim, the less swimming you need to do underwater to reach the Metridiums.

Take a bearing back to the beach before you drop down. Prefer a bearing towards the center of San Carlos beach rather than direct to the pump house, as you don't want to come ashore too far north here on your return - it's very rocky with no good beach north of the pump house.

Descend and head North. You should shortly hit the pipe. There are lots of small pipes around Monterey dive sites, don't be mistaken, at this dive site you are looking for a much larger pipe, about 2, or more, feet in diameter.

When you reach the pipe, follow the pipe out into deeper water (30degree heading). At the end of the pipe (the pipe ends abruptly) head North again. You will very soon hit the Metridium fields.

Once we reached the site we explored on a NE-SE direction. After completing the dive, we turned on a 180degree heading for a short while, to put us on a good path towards San Carlos beach, then turned to 240degrees. This put us on an intercept path with the pipe, which runs at 210 degrees towards shore.

Take time to look around the pipe, there is plenty of marine life living here. Nuibranches, crabs, rock-fish, sea-stars, and the occasional seal. Depending on the season, seanettles and moon jellies.

We ascended along the pipe. When we got to 15 feet we stopped for a safely stop on the bottom, alongside a nice Lingcod (which was resting on the pipe).

Dive Computer depth profile



Click for fullsize image

Dive Log


Depth 43ft
Duration 43min
Temperature 48F
Visibility 15ft

PADI DPV Specialty

As I said, I was participating in the PADI DPV Specialty Class. I can recommend the class, it's a great way to get some hands-on time with one of these fun toys without the outlay of cash. You will also learn about the various different kinds of DPV available, and our instructor took us through the various maintainance, assembly and disassembly procedures.

This dive site is an above average distance from shore, and reaching it is made much easier with a DPV.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Diving in Belize - Hol Chan

One of the sites we dived in Belize was the Hol Chan Marine Reserve.

We did a night dive here.

November 24, 2013 17:26:08
17.862582°N, 87.978395°W

GPS Coordinates of Hol Chan
Click for fullsize

View in Google Maps

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

How is PADI dive society's online magazine so terrible?

I was looking forward to reading this online today.  It should be much more convenient than a paper magazine.

http://links.bonnier.mkt3362.com/ctt?kn=1&ms=MTkwMjcwNzMS1&r=Njk3ODY3MDQyODAS1&b=0&j=MjUyNDI4MTkxS0&mt=1&rt=0

I really don't understand how they can make it work so badly.

Stop pretending that my tablet is a Paper magazine, just make the site work like a web page.  Let me pinch and zoom, let me flick.  Test your shit!