Laughing Like Goons

Tech diving is a hard and expensive sport. It can be very dangerous for careless, wreckless or inexperienced diver. I often get into the water with well over 250 lbs of gear on my back. The price for 25 minutes of bottom time can ofter exceed $150. It takes years to develop the kinesthetic senses to be able to dive safely at this level. Your body sometimes takes a beating from decompression. You hearing goes bad. The dives in the Puget Sound and Lake Washington are really cold, dark, dirty and silty.

Today a friend of mine saw a video of the PB4Y which sits 150ft at the bottom of Lake Washington. She noticed how nasty the conditions were and she asked me what the attraction to this kind of diving was. I told her that when my buddies and I get out of the water we are usually laughing like goons.

The Time Bandit

I have a knack for naming boats.

Several years ago a friend had a small black RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat). It must have looked pretty menacing to see a couple of guys dresses head to toe in black dry suits on a black boat. We used to get big stares from the passenger ferries in the Puget Sound. I named this boat The Jihad.

My friend Scott has a boat which he modified specifically to go wreck diving. Up until today Scott's boat did not really have a name. Today we dove the wreck of a WW2 Navy bomber called the PB4Y. This airplane sits at the 150ft depth of Lake Washington and is considered by some the Mount Everest of Lake Washington. This airplane almost looks like it belongs in a museum.

Scott's boat has a pirate flag on the bow. It is used to chase ghosts from the past that very few people ever get to see. I named this boat The Time Bandit.

A Hard Choice

The Mark V is an awesome dive boat. It is custom build specifically for diving in the cold emerald sea around Seattle. The Mark V is designed to accommodate 14 divers but since this was a tech charter we only had 7. This was my first time on the Mark V. The dive plan was to do Dalco Wall which is off the south east corner of Vashon Island.

Dalco Wall starts at the advanced recreational depth of around 80ft. There are several small shelves as you go deeper. At 130ft Dalco Wall drops off into an abyss. The joke is that at Dalco wall you can go deep enough to see lights just like in the movie The Abyss.

The dive plan was simple, go down to 150ft for 25 minutes and then do about 25 minutes of mandatory decompression. The gas we would breath during most of the dive consists of 21% O2 35%He with the rest being N2. We add He for 2 reasons. First, He prevents gas narcosis. Second, He being a small molecule leaves the body much more quickly the N2. Helium is also easier to breath. We don't worry about O2 from the decompression point of view because O2 is metabolically active; your body consumes it. For a decompression gas we choose to breath 50% oxygen starting at 70ft. The extra O2 in 50% speeds cleaning up of metabolically inert gasses. We can't breath 50% O2 any deeper than 70ft because it is toxic.

The visibility on Dalco was pretty spectacular, at least 50ft. We dropped off right at a point where there are some underwater pinnacles. The dive was spectacular. We even saw the lights!

I was calling deco. Everything was going well until one minute into our 50ft stop. My buddy lost buoyancy control. Visibility was good so I held my stop and then headed to my 40ft stop. My buddy came back to me during this stop so I held an extra minute for his benefit. He popped a second time. This time I could see him at the surface and we didn't look like he was coming back down. We was still swimming so that was good. If we were to get a serious case of decompression sickness (DCS) that would be really bad. People have become incapacitated and even died from serious DCS hits.

My buddy missed 13 our of 25 minutes of mandatory decompression. I was concerned for his safety. I had to make a hard choice. He popped so gasses in his buddy probably fizzed. I had to place myself in a position where I could be the most helpful for him while also minimizing my risk. I monitored him from 40ft then 30ft. I decided to just do minute stops from 30ft. I cut out 7 minutes of deco, but more important, I would be in good shape and be able to help my buddy if necessary. The boat arrived to pick him up and he was already on the boat when I surface. When I was back on the boat he as already breathing O2.

After the dive all 7 of use that were one the boat debriefed about this incident. My buddy took a fairly hard hit and was really tired. I took a slight hit and was really tired by the evening.

Friends

It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to add something to this blog. The past couple of months have been crazy. I have a new job doing security testing. I am getting a divorce from my wife of 19 years.

I have discovered that through diving I have made friends who love me. I have just spent the most wonderful weekend diving and driving around the Monterey California area. The diving was beautiful; much better than the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Seeing dolphins 20ft from the beach was great. Walking around Pt. Lobos was beautiful. Watching condors soaring only a few yards away was spectacular. But by far the most wonderful thing I experienced this past weekend was my time with my friend.

She was and angel that spared me from the most horrible feelings I have ever experienced. Then she broke me heart so that I could learn to stand on my own without a crutch.

An Uncluttered World

An Uncluttered World By Steven Dempsey
View in HD  Download 1280x540p HD (Wide) Version  Visit Steven Dempsey's ExposureRoom Videos Page

Blue Water

I have always thought that October is the best times to dive in the Puget Sound. By October the plankton has died off, the fish and sea life are abundant and the rivers and creeks have not spewed silt into the water.

I wanted to scooter dive with Scott. We had a couple of fairly new divers that wanted to join in on the action and a newbie with about 25 dives. New divers sure are enthusiastic about diving; it is infectious:) I especially like new divers like these interested in DIR/UDT diving. Scott suggested the Edmonds Oil Dock as a good compromise for all of us.

The Oil Dock is a former bulk oil loading facility which is about to be torn down. This site is know for heavy currents. It also has a very long swim. It is a perfect excuse to take the scooters out. We got in the water half an hour before slack current. We surface scootered to the tee at the end of the dock. Scott towed the two most experienced  divers, I towed the newbie. I noticed something interesting before descending; I could see the bottom 45ft below! We descended and Scott and I tied off the scooters.

The pilings on the dock are encrusted with different kinds of anemones and muscles. Crabs were picking at clumps of muscles which had fallen off the pilings. Chimera were munching away on whatever they munch on. Purple and orange tube worms were waving their plume to catch bits of plankton. Schools of fish were abundant.

Under the docks I flipped on my back. I could see a wall of fish above me. I could see my bubbles bursting on the surface. This October day did not disappoint; the water was blue.

It was time to scooter back to the world of gravity. My buddy grabbed my crotch strap and we were off. While ascending with scooters I stop ever few seconds to get the gas out of my dry suit and BCD. We had instructed our buddies to do the same. At around 20ft. I signaled to my buddy to let go of me because I needed to vent my suit which is almost impossible while towing. After she let go I felt her grasping at my fins and then she let go. At around this time Scott came by and noticed I did not have my buddy. He gave me an inquisitive shrug. I pointed up. I looked up to see her at the surface and thought to myself "noob" :) I slowly ascended and met her half way to the surface. She grabbed on again and we continued our exit back to the world of gravity and air.

The Salmon of Issaquah Creek

So what does a dive junkie to when he catches a cold? 

Fish Do Have Feelings

Since I caught a cold last week, I have not been able to go diving. I have too much congestion to equalize. The cold has not prevented me from being in the water. It is fall and the local rivers and streams are full of spawning salmon and that is where I have been.

I have been in a creek taking underwater video of salmon. Last week I noticed there was one fish in particular being very aggressive about maintaining its position in front of the camera. Other salmon would come along and swim in front of the camera, but this particular fish would jump over the top of them and push the other fish out of the way.

Today I had was in the creek with the video camera and noticed that a certain fish kept following me. I would move several feet, this salmon would follow me. I moved back and again this salmon would follow me. I slowly reached over towards this fish and it let me touch him/her and move it around underwater; incredible! Clearly this salmon was reacting to my presence. Its reaction was not one of fear, but one of acceptance and curiosity.

So I guess Kurt Cobain was wrong, fish do have feelings.

Scooter diving no lights!

There are certain plankton that react to being disturbed by giving off light. This phenomenon is called bioluminescence. Every diver plays with this phenomenon on their first couple of night dives.

Last night I was scooter diving at Edmonds Underwater Park. Edmonds is a very big place so swimming there is not fun...but Edmonds on scooters, that's like crack for divers. My buddy and I met a couple of friends there. They didn't have scooters, so we offered them a tow out to the wreck of the Triumph. My buddy towed one diver while I towed two. My scooter tows like a tractor! Out at the Triumph my buddy takes pictures I just enjoy looking at the little critters. I love having the opportunity to do nothing but float in mid water. When we got back near shore I signaled to surface so that we could figure out where the entrance was. My buddy then asks me, "Do you want to scooter back with our lights off?" 

We turned off our lights and let our eyes adjust to the total darkness. 

Green sparks were flying off the nose cone of the scooter. The tailcone trailed a green ribbon. I could clearly make out the outline of my buddy and his scooter in the form of green bioluminescence and the ribbon of green trailing his tailcone. I could even make out the ripples on the sand with the light cast by these creatures. I have to figure out how to get this on video!

Salmon

Around October the salmon begin their final migration to complete their life's journey. The death of these creatures is the beginning of a new generation. I started to think about putting a HiDef camera in some of the local rivers and diving with the salmon. There are many possibilities to do something important for the salmon using the skills and passion that I have.  After having these thoughts the longing feeling hit me as hard as I have ever felt it. This longing feeling forces me to place my attention on the things I need to do and connect with the people I need to know. Could it be that my true life journey is beginning with the end of the salmon's life journey?

Dinosaur

Every once in a while I get the question on the beach with my doubles on my back after a dive, “ is there anything to see down there?” I usually just answer with a simple “no”. Every once in a while the emerald sea shows me something infinitely interesting. Today was one of those days.

The first thing I saw were the ribs. The bonny structures had pierced the rotting carcass. The carcass of this dinosaur was more than a hundred feet long. The flesh had not yet been picked clean by the scavengers or worms. What a magnificent specimen! It is hard to imagine that this was once an old wooden barge.

Waiting for the Darkness

After my gas fill I drove to the Tully's on Alki Avenue. I set up my laptop on a table along the window so that I can look across to the Sound. I feel a low level longing sitting here. It is a pleasant longing, not the type that breaks my heart. Can't wait to be in the cold embrace of the emerald sea again. Can't wait for the darkness to set in. I love diving at night.

Lake Mowich

Today my wife and I went on a quick hike up and down Fay Peak. This hike starts and finishes at Lake Mowich in Mt Rainier National Park. At the end of the hike I walked to the lake's edge to wash the perspiration from my face. I was struck by how clear and blue the water was. I could see at least 100ft into the lake. The longing feeling began and I started wondering if I would be able to find a buddy crazy enough to dive this lake with me. 

Chimaera!

We were scootering back from our night dive when we started seeing chimaera; aka rat fish. First it was just a few, then more. After a while I swear there must have been thousands of them. A river of rat fish was descending down the slope while we were going up. When they started jumping at my light and hitting my scooter my shoulders and arms I started to get a little worried. Visions of the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds flashed through my mind! I was expecting a chimaera to jump up and knock my mask off any minute.

Here in the Darkness

I think this one came out a little better.

The Fingers from Raul Alvarez on Vimeo

Alki - September 1, 2008

This was my first successful attempt at underwater video and my first attempt at video editing.

Alki September 1, 2008 from Raul Alvarez on Vimeo

I learned a couple of things. My hand was a little shakier than I thought. I point the camera slightly down. I need to focus longer on each subject than I normally do while diving. I found that video of just critters is not very interesting, they need to be framed around divers. Another interesting discovery about video it that I pay a lot more attention to my dive buddies.

Embrace

As I drove into the parking lot at Cove 2, the longing feeling welled up in my chest. It happened right at the moment when I finished pulling into a parking space and my attention shifted towards the water. The cold embrace of the emerald sea squeezing my drysuit as I go deep into the darkness filled my thoughts. 

I should have walked to the beach and let the longing consume me. Instead I foolishly walked across the street to get a cup of coffee. By the time I got back, it (the longing) was gone. 

It's All Good

I have had only two bad days diving and this was not one of them. The day ended in the most fitting manner with me putting a one inch gash on my head.

Our plan was to meet at the Alki Boat Launch at 11:00am to dive Waterman's Wall during the slack opportunity which presented itself. At 9:00am both of my dive buddies called me to tell me that the road to the boat launch was going to be closed starting at 10:00am. We diverted Shilshole Marina. This would only increase the boat ride by a few minutes so it was not a big deal.

When I arrived at the boat with my first load of gear I thought the boat didn't look right sitting in the water. I asked if the plug was in but was assured everything was all right. When I got back with my second load of gear I realized something was not right. One of my buddies was hanging from his thighs over the back of the boat while another buddy was frantically donning his dry suit. The boat was sitting much deeper in the water and listing to one side. The plug was not on the boat and the only thing that was going to save it from sinking was a finger in the drain plug hole. We managed to wrestle a boat full of water with three sets of doubles back on the trailer.

Once on dry land we went to West Marine 1/2 a mile down the road to get some plugs. The boat drained for almost an hour. We lost the opportunity to dive Waterman's Wall. But this is the Puget Sound, we had a boat and there were lots of other diving opportunities. We headed to Blakley Harbor to dive Fingers.

After our dive at Fingers we headed off to the West Point Barges. The first problem was the we did not have coordinates. One of my buddies called his wife and was trying to instruct her over the phone on how to get GPS coordinates off their boat's GPS. The GPS unit on the boat we were on showed some form of obstruction right where the West Point Barges should have been. We made several passes over the area with the depth sounder and were pretty certain we were right on them.

We dropped anchor in 100ft of water with 200ft of line. The wind was too strong for the amount of scope on the anchor and we dragged. We pulled the anchor, attached another 200ft of line, redropped over where we thought the barges were and waited for the line to get taught. We were still dragging and had to pull the anchor up a second time.

We were determined to get the dive in so we decided to run the dive as a live boat instead of anchored. We took out the extra 200ft of line and attached a couple of fenders to the end of the 200ft anchor line. We dropped again and hoped we were close enough.

The dive on the West Point Barges went smoothly. The anchor landed about 30ft from the deepest barge and the visibility was good enough that we could see a line of plumose anemones along the gunwale of the barge from the anchor.

At 6:00pm we were safely back ashore, or so we thought. We unloaded the boat and left all our double tanks on the dock. I sat on the ground to put my tanks on my back. I managed to sit the tanks on my back while on my hands and knees. I was about to stand up when I lost my balance forward, the tanks slipped of my back and the backplate put a one inch gash on the back of my head, but my dive gear was still OK.

Furtunately one of my buddies is an ER doctor and she knew exactly how to fix me. We went to the local 7/11 to get some Crazy Glue and she glued head back together. I will not be able to dive for 48 to 72 hours :-(

So you may be wondering why this was not a bad day diving. It is really very simple, no one died.

I Met a Dive Junkie

I was at the DUI DOG Rally today working the registration booth. I met a couple of people I would consider possible dive junkies like me. I can often tell they are dive junkies by their choice of words regarding not diving; carving, anxiety, depression, etc. One of these dive junkies left an impression on me. 

I registered a 15 year old girl and didn't really think much of it. She was newly certified and seemed relatively enthusiastic, then I talked to her mother. This young girl has been working at a dive shop all summer to buy all her own gear. Dive gear is expensive. She dove 4 times last week. She dove Monday evening. The School year started Tuesday. She wanted to dive Thursday evening but her mother told her she should not dive on a school night. This young girl became very anxious and even a little depressed at the thought of not being able to dive. I describe the affliction which some of us suffer and could see the recognition in her mother's eyes.

I have mixed thoughts regarding this young girl being a dive junkie. I was 42 years old and had been diving for 7 years before I felt these longing feelings. These longing feelings are the most powerful things I have ever felt. I am glad this young girl did not have to wait as long as I did to experience these things. On the other hand, despite my 42 years of emotional experience I have had a hard time coming to grips with what I feel. How is a 15 year old girl going to cope with these feelings?

Deco

We live in an extraordinary time and place. We can connect with our environment in ways our ancestors could never have imagined. 

Mid water deco is meditation for me. I am probably one of the few people who appreciates just breathing and floating in mid water. When I relax into deco I have complete connection with my breathing yet I still have this awareness telling me to keep track of my buddies. This connection and this awareness have a rhythm. The connection and awareness are very much like breathing itself; they work in opposition to each other much like breathing in fills the lungs and breathing out empties the lungs.

Dream

I woke up from a dream this morning. A great flood had come over the land. The hills were scraped clean. I walked down to the valley to see if there was anyone I could help.

Seasons

Some people do not like to dive in the same spot repeatedly. They believe that once they have seen a dive site, they know what that dive site is like.

It is the end of summer and the iridescent green seaweed known as sea lettuce (ulvaria) is beginning to dye off. I have done this dive at Alki hundreds of times. Diving in the same place over and over makes me aware that there are seasons underwater.

Haunted

Norman Mclain the author of A River Runs Through It wrote:

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.

I think he must have had the same longing I do.

Narcosis

This morning I dove with my friend Kam. A couple of years ago Kam got me out of a really bad bind, I was narc'ed out of my mind. That evening Kam and I dove to a place affectionately called Olive's Den. Olive was a female giant pacific octopus who laid her eggs in a den about 100ft deep, Here is her story.

My narcosis story is that on that evening I became very confused and disoriented. I knew I was in trouble but could not figure out how to get myself out of that situation. I was helpless. Kam realized I was in distress grabbed me by the arm and swam me to safety. When we ascended above 85ft the fog that blanketed my thoughts lifted.

After our dive to Olive's Den this morning I reminded Kam of that day. Kam does not think it was a big deal, but for me it was a very big deal to have a dive buddy who was aware. I have come to believe that people of Kam's character are one of the things I crave about diving.

Breath

No one has ever been able to breath underwater. Holding your breath underwater is the most basic of instincts. This instinct developed in mammals over hundreds of millions of years. This instinct is none other than the instinct to survive. Scuba diving allows us to breath underwater, something that goes against our survival instinct. This is the paradox of scuba diving.