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Published: July 12th 2006
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A million divers
A lot of divers close to Coast Guard Pier in Monterey, CA The first weekend after we arrived here, me and Svein decided to go diving in Monterey.
After getting the equipment together, we headed off to Monterey. This was my first dive with the new P-Valve installed, but I decided not to test it, but rather check if it was waterproof.
Armin(local guy), had given us a few alternatives, he suggested we do the Coast Guard Pier first and then find something else, for instance the Mertridium field.
It wasn't to hard to find the Coast Guard Pier, as there were approximately a million divers there. Finding a parking lot was much harder. Well, we finally found one, and started to rig our equipment.
I went in to the water first, Svein came a few minutes later. Diving conditions were good, except for the crowd. We soon found out that Sveins weight belt was way too loose, it actually dropped down to his knees. I managed to get it of him, and we swam towards the pier to get it reattached. We soon found out that it was impossible to fasten it more without rebuilding it, so Svein rested on the stones while I helped him rebuild it.
Coast Guard Pier
Overview of the Coast Guard Pier. Notice all the dots in the water. Yes, they are all divers. We managed to get it rebuilt, and proceeded with the dive after checking the equipment.
The dive was so-so. First of all, the visibility was plain bad, due to the millions of divers in the area. Most of the people seemed to be participating in the PADI Sandkicker Speciality Course, as they were threading the water, kicking up as much debris and sand as possible.
Macro life was good thoug. A lot of sea-cucumbers. After we turned, 4 sealions decided to join us. Their grace underwater was breathtaking to behold at just 4-5 meters distance.
When we got up, we decided to get some food. We got ourselves some very good sandwiches and went down to the divestore to get some tips for dive 2.
Stacey(sweet girl at one of the local divestores) tipped us of going to Lovers Point, an alternative we embraced, since going to the Mertridium field didn't seem like a good idea, beeing at the same beach as the Coast Guard Pier. After driving around a bit, we finally found Lovers Point. There were a lot of people there, and at least one wedding going on, with a few guys walking around
Lovers Point
The public area on Lovers Point. We got up the stairs right next to the tree, the beach is right behind it. Entry point is to the right of this picture. in kilts.
Well, we proceeded to inspect possible entry points, and decided to climb down some rocks as we both dislike beach dives. We got dressed just as the bride arrived, so I guess there are a few pictures of her with two Norwegian divers behind. Well anyways, we walked down to the water, and got in. We had heard that there was an 8 foot Leopard shark in the area, so we decided to see if we could find her. We were planning to go around the point and go up on another beach. The dive was much more exciting than the first one, with lots of marine life. We ended up too far out though, so we were in for a 300m swim as we surfaced. We made it to the shore, and proceeded up the beach to cross behind the wedding. I dropped my weight pouches as soon as I got up.
As I went over to pick up my weight pouches, I was approached by a woman asking me if they were allowed to stay there, as there seemed to be another wedding going. I responded that I just arrived from Europe a week ago, and that I had no idea. She thought I looked like a cop because of my DUI CLX450 drysuit. It must be the "Good evening, Mr. Bond"- effect that everyone claims it makes.
Anyways, we wrapped up, and headed back home for some R&R.
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