February 20, 2010 Dives - Electric Beach, Black Rock & Land of Oz

On Saturday morning, February 20, 2010, I dove with Shawn McElravy (divemaster) from Ocean Concepts and Paula Hoover as the victim for Paula's Rescue Diver class. We did the two Rescue dives - unresponsive diver on the bottom and unresponsive diver on the surface. Since I was the victim, I set up on the bottom and then Paula had to come and find me, bring me to the surface and then tow me to shore and get me out of the water while doing rescue breaths.

She found me quickly and did a good job with getting me to the surface except she was a little bit aggressive on the speed. We came up about four times too fast. I was glad I was only down 18 feet.

She put the rescue mask on me and began towing me to shore. She was working pretty hard, but I wasn't allowed to help her out. It was a lot more work for her than when I did it with Shawn. When we got close to shore, she removed my BCD and hers and then drug me out onto the beach.

Everything went really well except that in all the confusion of trying to get the BCDs back on and the sand rinsed out, my mask disappeared. We all searched for quite a while, but it was gone. Shawn lent me one of his for the afternoon/evening dives.

Later in the day I dove with Grant (divemaster) and Justin, an Advanced Open Water student. There were 6 divers and 2 guides. Justin and three others were doing their first three Advanced Open Water dives with Grant, and I rounded out the group. We dove Black Rock, an 80-foot deep dive on a coral reef with an overhang for the afternoon dive, and Land of Oz, a 65-foot deep dive on a coral reef for the evening and night dives.

On the first (third) dive the three students were doing their deep dive. We dropped down to the bottom at the base of Black Rock and looked at how depth affects colors. Then went on a tour. Visibility was exceptional - probably 120 feet!

This Kangaroo Nudibranch was out in the open on the top of the reef.

Kangaroo Nudibranch

There were several big Yellowmargin Moray Eels on the reef, mostly tucked back into little holes and overhangs. These two were where I could get photos.

Yellowmargin Moray Eel

This is the only site I have seen this Red Seaweed.

Dasya iridescens

There are always lots of these urchins at Black Rock, but they are always out in the open and getting a decent photo is a challenge.

Pebble Collector Urchin

One of the Advanced Open Water students.

Eric Hess

A cloud of reef fish over Black Rock.

When my buddy ran out of air, we were right at the mooring line, so we slowly ascended, did a safety stop and then got out. Justin had less than 500 psi and I had 1200.

On the second (fourth) dive, the students were doing their navigation dive. I helped by stretching a line out 150 feet for them to measure their fin kicks against. when that was done, they were all supposed to swim a square with 150 foot sides using a compass. Since Justin needed a buddy to go with him, I followed along intending to take some photos and just enjoy it.

Boy, was I wrong! He took off and it was all I could do to keep him in sight. When it appeared we were going to swim all the way to Kaua'i, he finally stopped and made a 90 degree turn. I didn't get caught up, but was able to cut the corner and get close. He then swam about 150 feet and turned again and we headed back for the long swim to equal out the first leg. By an absolute miracle, he stopped at exactly the right place to make another turn and swim 150 feet back to the mooring line. Unfortunately, he was down to 500 psi. I did manage to stop him at that point and took him up to 15 feet and we swam directly back to the hang bar. I got him on an emergency regulator, helped him adjust his buoyancy and checked his air gauge. He was at 200 psi. After a three minute safety stop, we ascended and got out. I still had 1300 psi, but was pretty tired!

After a very long surface interval while we waited for the sun to set, we got in for the third (fifth) dive. I was cold to start the dive, but warmed up as we went along. Right at first it dawned on me why Justin is going through so much air. He is vertical in the water and is constantly treading water to stay off the bottom rather than adjusting his buoyancy!

The dive started along a small wall. The rest of the group just took off and didn't even look at the wall. There was a big Decoy Scorpionfish. He was a little skittish, but I managed to snap a couple of photos.

Decoy Scorpionfish

Still along the wall, just past the Scorpionfish, I discovered a Hawaiian Green Lionfish - the largest I have ever seen. He was out in the open and was all spread out displaying. I tried to get the attention of the others, but they just ignored me.

Hawaiian Green Lionfish

During the surface interval, I should have eaten a sandwich, but didn't really feel like it. Instead, I ate cookies and chips. I paid for that during this dive. I had a huge case of heartburn. Of course, underwater, there is no way do do anything about it! As the dive went on, it just got worse and worse.

We spent most of the dive out in the flat instead of along the walls or little canyons on the site. Consequently, we didn't see as much as we could have. Toward the end of the dive, I came across an enormous Tiger Cowry with its mantle out and covering its shell!

Tiger Cowry

About this time Grant decided he and Justin would go back to the boat since Justin was low on air again. I followed along, since my stomach was killing me even though I still had 1500 psi left.

After I got back on the boat I took a big drink of water and immediately lost it back over the side. Nothing else came up and I felt queasy for a while, but that solved the heartburn! Next time I have to eat something, but I am not a big fan of the sandwiches. I may start taking a yogurt and a granola bar.