sh.t yes.

I'll make sure he gets to Sund Rock for a dive.

Scott

When Dan really dies in a hurricane, unlike with all the false alarms he
keeps spreading, I'd be happy to scatter his ashes at Catalina.

Speaking of Catalina, it was practically summer yesterday.  The air was in
the high 70s, the channel crossing was mild, and the conditions at the
island were almost glassy.  Viz was over 50' and the water teeming with
sheepshead and ling cod, though it was a mite-chilly 59 degrees.  The Psalty
V beat the Great Escape to Ship Rock, making them look for another site
while we did a first dive of 42 minutes, max of 115'.  My first time with my
camera in the cold water, I was surprised that so many of the pics turned
out decent, with several keepers (which I will post to my website which I do
plan on setting up really, really soon).  I found the kelp forest to be a
much more forgiving model than the coral reef.  Unfortunately I missed the
shot of one ling cod attacking another, behavior which I had never seen
before but which I found very amusing under the influence of a cold 3.5
ppN2.  The sun came out right as we descended, so we had plenty of light
available.  Still, it's surprising to see the color that the strobe fleshed
out, with encrusting corals of all colors making the dive prettier than
anything in Florida.  My first deeper dive on air with the Air Z O2 (it did
great with nitrox), I was surprised at its conservatism as I got it into
deco after a very short time.  At least it gave me a chance to figure out
the computer's deco mode without having to RTFM.  The deco cleared on my way
up which made me feel better since I wasn't sure I was weighted enough to
hold a 10' stop without holding onto kelp or kicking to stay down.  It
turned out that my weighting was perfect (since I dropped 15 pounds since
the last time I wore the suit) so I did my 10' stop for good measure.

Second dive was at Bird Rock, 100' max for 39 minutes.  Having done nothing
but warm water diving for the past 7 months, my bladder was instantly
reacting to the immersion, but in my dry suit there was no place for it to
go.  Both dives were extremely painful examples of bladder release
deprivation and I almost ripped a seal getting the suit off in time to make
it to the head without flooding my suit, the boat, or both.  Fortunately the
Psalty has two heads for its six passengers and two crew, making it perhaps
the best diver-to-head ratio in all of Southern California.  I really need
to figure out how the pee valve works; I had one installed but haven't yet
had the guts to try it.  What if it backs up?  But regardless of the
excruciating bladder discomfort, both dives were excellent.  During the
second dive, I spotted a couple legal-sized bugs that somehow had been
missed by the lobster hunting hordes and took their picture to preserve
their posterity when they undoubtedly get caught and eaten before the March
season closing.  A sea lion swam down to join us briefly and I was able to
get her picture as well.  All in all, a great reintroduction to cold water,
though I ain't throwing away my dive skin just yet.

I also sat through a Draeger class on Saturday to refresh myself and should
be going out next Sunday to start my cert dives on it.  Untrusting soul that
I am, I have it decked out with both Draeger's Oxygauge and the Oxy2 module
for my Uwatec giving me redundant ppO2 readings.  My class sensitized me to
the symptoms of hypercapnia (and hypoxia) as well as flooding the system, so
hopefully I'll come out of this alive.  If not, you can all expect a baggie
of ashes to arrive in the mail.  Please dispose of them appropriately.

Alan Street <alan@nonono_irsi.com> pounded away at his keyboard
resulting in:

no

Dan Bracuk
If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/