Drysuit Certification Dive

Dive Site: Big Geiger Catalina

Dive Date: 2009-01-24

Dive Number: 90

Start Time: 12:47

Dive Buddy: Julia (Instructor)

Bottom Time: :42

Max Depth: 62 ft

Water Temperature: 57 F

Water Visibility: 20-25 ft

Dive Type: Boat-Express Divers

Difficulty Level: Easy

This was my third dive of the day after my two drysuit certification dives. It was much nicer diving a drysuit than diving a wetsuit since the water was very cold. The first two dives, my buoyancy wasn't that great since I was learning how to control it in a drysuit. This dive was a lot better than the first two. I kept my feet low so I did not get any air in my feet and I was able to correct with the exaust valve which was tricky at first.

During the dive, we saw a school of Blacksmith and two birds swooping down as deep as 30 feet to catch some of them. I didn't know they could go that deep. At first I was thinking, what kind of fish looks like a bird? We also saw sheephead, typical girabaldi, and opali.




Near the end of the dive, I was starting to get cold since my insulation wasn't that great and I was wearing cotton sweats which were ok for no more than two instructional dives in 25 feet of water for 25 minutes not for 3 dives in 40-60 feet of water for 40 minutes each. We did our safty stop and ascended. There was a lot of kelp separating us and the boat. It was a little difficult swimming back to the boat.

The boat that we went on to Catalina was the Sun Diver Express in Long Beach. The boat left to go to Catalina at 7am. We did 3 Dives and returned at around 3pm, which is much better than going on the slower boats.