Post #3: Dive Trip To Anacappa Island

One of my greatest dive trips has been a recent trip to Anacappa Island. It was a #-night and 4-day boat trip that included six night dives and 12 day dives aboard the Encore boat, one of my favorite boats because of the amount of space available in the boat. I had a great time because for the trip I bought an underwater camera and was able to take pictures and show my friends what I saw instead of simply telling them.
On one dive there on the island we were surrounded by a group of sea lions. I enjoyed simply lying on the bottom of the ocean watching the sea lions move. I enjoyed watching them interact with one another. As I got a little closer to the sea lions to take their pictures they began to get curious of what I looked like and playfully swam right up to my face as if to say, “what are you up to?”
On another dive, my buddy and I were fortunate enough to see an electric sting ray. At the time, we didn’t know what kind of a sting ray we were dealing with; we also didn’t know what kind of damage a sting ray like this could do. Not knowing it was an electric ray, we began being playful with it and petting it. Luckily for the sake of our own lives, the electric ray held back on his electrical powers or else my dive buddy and I could have been seriously hurt. Seeing these beautiful animals in the open water was a trip of a lifetime for me.

http://www.islandpackers.com/anacapa.html
http://www.west.net/~scifmail/anahist.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh5PK6Cvseg
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_species/default.asp?hOri=1&inhab=510
http://www.oceanlight.com/html/rays.html?data=yes

Post #2: What inspired me to persue scuba diving?

Close your eyes. Now imagine a world of brilliant colored forests of coral and majestic sea creatures. Imagine colorful schools of tropical fish and breathtaking shipwrecks. Being a scuba diver has offered me many fun adventures that I would not change for the world. I can remember when I first got the idea that I would become a diver:it was on a trip to Catalina Island that my mom and I had taken for my 6 year old birthday.
As we landed on the island and enjoyed the day, we walked by some divers. Walking by, I wondered what they were doing, so I went over to ask them some questions. I aked them what they were doing and they explained that they were diving to the bottom of the ocean to see all of the fish. Then, I asked them how they were able to hold their breath for so long and they explained their equipment to me and how their tanks allowed them to breathe underwater.
Here are some websites that you can visit if you would like to learn more about diving and dive equipment.
http://www.padi.com/padi/default.aspx
http://inventors.about.com/b/a/099646.htm
http://www.floridascubahound.com/history_of_scuba.htm
http://www.thescubaguide.com/certification/risks.aspx
http://www.genesisdiving.com/equipment.shtml
Back to the blog. After seeing the divers, I was amazed with wanting to become a scuba diver. The fact of being able to be at the bottom of the ocean for an hour or longer astonished me because I loved the ocean and liked snorkeling very much, but could never hold my breath long enough to see everything there was to see. At that point, I promised myself that I would become a diver someday.

For More Info About the YUKON and Ruby E

As a visitor to my blog, you can find more information on the YUKON and other wrecks in San Diego by clicking on these links:

http://www.cawreckdivers.org/Wrecks/Yukon.htm

http://www.loisann.com/dive_sites.html

http://www.cawreckdivers.org/Wrecks/RubyE.htm

http://diver.net/seahunt/d_wreck.htm

http://www.seasabres.com/Dive%20Spots%5CSan%20Diego%5CRuby.htm

Post #1: Diving on the Yukon

Last month I received my Wreck Diving Certification after diving on the HCMS YUKON down off the coast of San Diego. This dive was really interesting because it was my first wreck dive. We sailed and dove off of the Blue Escape dive boat. The Blue Escape is one of my favorite dive boats that sails off of the San Diego coast. It specializes in sailing to wreckage sites just like the YUKON and Ruby E., another wreck that neighbors the YUKON.
Our dive started at 6 AM in the morning. We dove down to 90 ft. and we saw the wheel house of the YUKON. As we explored further, we even found an engraving on a plaque that honored the men who died on the YUKON. The visibility near the YUKON was amazing. The ocean conditions were great, except for the temperature of the water. The water temperature ranged between 40-45 degrees as we continued our dive.
As we continued our dive, my buddy was experiencing an extreme emergency. While we were diving through the wreck, the water was extremely cold and I noticed that my dive buddy was not feeling well when I signaled to her and she did not respond. She was experiencing symptoms of nitrogen narcosis, which is a very serious underwater illness that is likely to happen when a diver is diving in water 100ft. or deeper. At the time, we were diving a depth of 120ft. From my rescue class, I knew that bringing her to a shallower depth would help her overcome the feeling of nitrogen narcosis. As we ascended she began feeling better. Through my years of diving this has been one of the most dangerous diving experiences that I was able to overcome. My friend knew that if I had not have noticed something was wrong we both might have died because we were too deep into the wreck and I might have undergone nitrogen narcosis also. She was grateful that I was there to help her and we have grown to be inseparable dive buddies who are a little bit more cautious of our diving.