Oct 24 2008
My first beach dive…..
The cherry had to pop sometime 😉 and it was meant to be yesterday 10/23/08, i have heard a lot of people complain about beach diving with the sand, getting in through the surf and just getting in one dive etc. So it was about time i saw for myself what was the fuss about.
Corral Beach in Malibu was going to be the dive and Ice, Kim the buddies, thank you for letting me tag along 
. The plan was to meet at 8pm and then go ahead with the dive. I had to get an air fill so it took me while and i reached the site almost at 8ish, Kim was there almost half an hour early.
Ice briefed us about the dive site and since it was my first beach dive we decided to go towards the little reef which is easily accessible and also the conditions were great with 1ft waves and 1-2 ft surge etc. that mean’t the visibility would also be good and it indeed turned out to be so.
So we geared up, did all the buddy check and then headed out. Even with the small waves and surge you have to put in fair amount of effort so that you don’t get tossed around. It wasn’t that easy getting in but wasn’t that bad as well. Ice was going to lead this dive since he knew the site well. I was getting toasted in my wet suit but as soon as we entered the water i was fine.
After a surface swim of about 100ft or so, we decided to drop down and then head towards the reefs. After 5 mins or so, swimming through the sandy bottom we hit the reefs. We came across a lobster and Ice grabbed it but it was below the legal size. There were quite a fishes which would show up all of sudden and it was cool. My dive light was doing its job very well and it seemed that the fishes were less active. This was my second night dive so i didn’t know what to expect as such.
There were times on the reef because of me kicking up the bottom or something the vis would drop to 2-3 ft but through out the dive there were lot of particles in water and most of my pics sucked. We spotted a couple of spanish shawls, there were these shells which i have never seen before in water. I have played a lot with those things in india but never seen the creatures as such. There were lots of kelp fishes, Gorgonians, star fishes and it was really nice.
I was enjoying the dive a lot, being pushed around in the swell, let the water do all the work in moving me rather than me spending energy. I got few good pics but then i had difficulty managing everything, the light was hanging, holding my new camera isn’t easy and then i wasn’t checking my computer often as well.
Since I was the one with the smallest tank in terms of air it was because of me we had to end the dive, i started with about 2100 PSI courtesy my steel 72 and then at about 900 psi it was time to head to back, had to save some air for the way out. 33 mins of dive time, wasn’t that bad at all. When we ended the dive the plan was go out and then head back in since Ice and Kim had about 1800 psi left.
Getting out wasn’t that hard, i tried to take off my fins but could manage to only get one out, i was able to walk backwards so it wasn’t a big deal as such. By the time I reached the car was exhausted and didn’t want to be back for second dive. Also it was 10 pm already so it was time to head out home. I had a great time and i enjoyed every bit of beach diving, specially at night.
For future dives, I need a bigger tank a HP 100 or 95 for sure so that i can fill that sucker with lots of air.
Dive Details:
Max Depth: 28 ft.
Time: 33 mins
Air Consumption: 1031 psi
Min/Max Temp: 15.6 – 17.6 Celcius