Moving to Madison from California.

[FreediveWI]

Another shot of the same area.

Jon

[FreediveWI]

Captain Larry had some great stories about some of his old dive buddies, Like Dick Long who is the president of DUI. I think he was also a retired fire fighter and had stories about that as well.


Jon

[FreediveWI]

Here's the Lois Ann out to sea on a nice day. We acutally had humpback whales swimming along side of us on the way back in. I really wanted to jump in with them, but it wasn't in our time frame. :'(

Jon

[FreediveWI]

First dive was on the Ruby E.

Jon

[FreediveWI]

There were lots of critters everywhere you looked.

jon

[FreediveWI]

The next couple of dives were in the kelp beds. Inbetween we got to eat lots of food home made by Lois. ;D
Jon

[FreediveWI]

John,

HAae you had a chance to dive the Hogan? I read about it's discovery after my last trip out there and wondered if it was worth a dive. It sounded kind of interesting to me.

Last, two, times I was out to Sane Diego La Jolla cove was closed due to pollution run off. I ended up diving off of the MArine room one time and down to Bird Rock another- where there was a heck of a rip current. Lots of dives in the canyon and then a bunch up near LA- Dana point, Shaw's cove and places like that.

One time I was divemastering for an instructor off of Shaw's Cove and the weather picked up while we were down. We ended up having to drag the sutdent's in through the surf one at a time- actually, I had to do all of the swimming while he waited with the rest of the group outside the surf line. It was a wild day,but we had a good time. I can't imagine openwater students from Wisconsin doing that on there first two openwater dives around here, but out there you just dealt with it.

Doing my instrcutor training out there taught me a ton about surf and currents- Istill think learning to dive through surf, safely, is a whole lot harder than learning to deco dive.


Jon

[John H. Moore]

Jon,

Yes, learning to dive through SoCal surf can be a challenge; and, sadly, too often the instructors don't cancel training dives on bad days... so the going-on-to-become-real-divers rate is even lower than it should be. Also, sadly, we lose a couple inland divers each year in the surf -- generally middle-aged out-of-shape folks on vacation who should have talked to locals about the conditions first. Very rarely do we lose them during a scuba dive... generally on the surface, especially in the surf zone.

I've often heard it said that if you can learn to dive well in California (surf, cold water, bad vis, deep), then you can dive pretty much anywhere. Don't know if it's true or just local hype, but so far my diving elsewhere has been pretty freakin easy in comparison!! (Though I haven't (yet) been places like Port Hardy (Vancouver)... which may be more of a challenge.)

Nice Children's Pool pics. That's been basically closed for years. The harbor seals took it over and the feds said, "no, no, no, no people allowed near the seals." I'm a certified fish hugger, but... that's a load of something smelly.

The Hogan gets dived on an irregular basis. You'll find some really nic pics taken not long ago on a great vis day ( ). It's mostly rubble pile at this point. It's on the deep side. I don't do 130 straight descents in open water, so haven't dived it yet. (I'd consider such a descent once I learn to dive trimix or in better vis...)

Dick Long has mostly retired. His daughter, Susan Long, is now President of DUI. Dick has been doing the travelling show -- you may have even seen him around here for the DUI Demo Days -- but I'm not sure if he'll even be doing that this coming year.

John

[FreediveWI]

I would have to agree that if you learned to dive out there you could dive most anywhere. A couple of times a summer we will get some good current out on Lake Michigan, but nothing like I have seen on the back side of Catalina. Most divers aorund here don't know how to deal with it and I have had to swim for more divers over the years than I can even count. : That's one of the reasons I started to freedive while working on the charter boats around here- it's easier to tow a fully rigged scuba diver that way! ;D

You'll have no problems. THe only thing I have ever noticed about California divers who hit Lake Michigan for the first time is that their gloves are too thin. They have warm enough wetsuits, but you really need to get a set of 6mm gloves or, better yet, mitts.

I have dove up in the Puget Sound area before- talk about some wacky tide tables! The vis isn't as nice as further south, but the fish life is really great.

How far south have you been?

I have dove Cabo a few times and made the drive from there up to La Paz at least once. Cabo Pulmo was my favorite spot down there- shallow, relativly warm, and some nice fish life. Even though it's so far south I still found myself wearing a 7mm wetsuit most of the time- and wanted my drysuit!

[Bubblemaker]

Ive done about 50 or so dive On the Hogan It can be a pleasure and then can be the worst. Being so close to Mexico its out of the shelter of the channel Islands so it can be pretty nastiy but if you have some good Santa Ann's then its a great dive. There is a sub over there also in Shallow water that is fun to dive when the conditions are right. The Moody which is the same class of ship which is in the San Pedro harbor is also a nice dive Deep being around 150' its in two pieces but more intact then the Hogan. They used it in a movie back some time ago. The cut it inhalf and then wired it back together then then blew it up. Its a nice dive but yoiur right in the middle of the LA harbor shipping channel. The Olympic is also close by to that also but in 100'.

Jon what kind of shape is the Yukon in The last time I dove it it was starting to fall apart on the inside. Any new plans to right her. I had about 100 dives on her and new every inch.

Keith

I lived in Cali for 13 years In the Inland Empire just moved back myself 2 years ago. And teaching there for 5 years I spent alot of time in the sand and surf dragging divers all up and down the beaches of Cali. I love Scripps canyon at night when the squid are running