Scuba diving is an activity that I’ve long been apart of, through working with California Diver Magazine to getting certified about two years back. I had never actually taken the time out of my schedule to go scuba diving after I got certified, and I felt a little out of place having all of these connections with scuba. I would read stories and learn the in and outs of scuba everyday, but I never actually went diving. I decided that I was going to scuba dive this summer no matter what, so I took a refresher course in June to get all of my knowledge and skills of scuba back.
Looking out on the beach I was about to dive at
My scuba experience completely changed this past weekend on July 26th when my friend and I went to Monterey Bay to dive for my first time (his 10,000th time, give or take). I can’t lie in saying that I was not nervous to go. I had jitters, because I read many stories about incidents that can and have gone wrong in scuba, and in the back of my mind something was telling me not to go. When doing something new and adventurous, I always remember the quote by Henry S. Thomson, “buy the ticket, take the ride,” and that always calms my nerves a little bit.
Our plan was to leave at 8am, get to Monterey by 10am and get in the water by 11am. The plan went perfectly, and we even got a prime parking spot that made getting gear to and from the beach extremely easy. I broke a sweat hauling the gear to the beach and started profusely sweating after I put on a thick wetsuit, hoodie, gloves, boots, 25 pound weight belt and finally my BC with my tank on it. I hopped in the semi cold water and felt absolutely great. I filled up my BC so I could float, and I was ready for Scuba diving! My scuba buddy got all of his gear on, much more gracefully than myself, and we were off.
Me, right before going underwater.
We were going to try and find the Metridium Fields, but were unable to find the right pipeline that would take us out there. We were both happy to just be underwater and scuba diving the kelp forests of Monterey Bay. To give you an idea of where we were diving, we were at San Carlos beach near the pump house. We dove left of the pump house about 35ft-50ft underwater. The water was a mere 62-65 degrees, extremely warm for Monterey waters.
Diving through the kelp forests was absolutely amazing. Just seeing all of the cold-water fish in their essence was great. We saw cod, starfish, shiner surfperch, and many more forms of life down on the bottom of the bay. One starfish looked like it was embracing a rock with all the love it had, giving the rock a huge hug. I saw a huge cod like fish that was about 3 feet long, wide at its head and skinnier down by its tail. It was just lying on the sand camouflaged so that no one could see it. My dive partner did not see this majestic fish when I later asked if he saw the huge fish, and I regretted not using ReefID with my phone to know all of the fish that I saw.
We went to the surface 3 times while we were diving, slowly of course, for safety. It was great practicing my ascent because I now feel very comfortable with most things scuba. I got comfortable going up and down, equalizing, and going to the surface slowly. We checked our air about every 4 minutes and we dove as safely as possible. Having an experienced dive buddy really helped as it eased my nerves. He said, if we lose each other, look underwater for about a minute and if I’m not around, just swim up. This happened and right when I swam up he was about 10 yards to my left.
We were on our way back to shore and swimming quickly through the kelp forest when I realized I was getting low on air. I was at 300, so I tugged my dive buddy’s fin to let him know. We started to swim a little faster in order to get to shore without having to do a surface swim. I ended up not being able to sink because of the added buoyancy in my tank in relation to less air, so we ended up doing a surface swim to shore. The fact that I was almost 60 feet underwater gave me the chills all day. The Monterey waters was all I could talk about for the next couple of days, as I told all of my friends they needed to get certified so we could go scuba diving.
A starfish giving a rock a giant hug
The waves at the beach were extremely small so getting out of the water was no problem. And once we got the beach, we walked with all of our gear on, to the car, to make the process much easier. Taking all of the gear off was a relief after having it on for an hour or so. I got it in my bag and everything related to scuba that day went more smoothly than I could have ever imagined.
The clear waters of Monterey Bay
I will definitely be scuba diving again; it is an activity that has captured my attention. Common sense underwater is one of the most important aspects about diving for me. Always be breathing, be calm, and if you’re not comfortable swim up (slowly). I thought scuba was going to be nerve racking, but I realized that it is a safe activity if you know what you are doing. No matter what, I will be in the water again, and I hope to see you in the water!
Words and Story by Matthew Healy