NorCal Kayak Anglers
Kayak Fishing Zone => Safety First => Topic started by: monkeyface on August 06, 2009, 12:51:50 PM
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Hi guys. Sharky suggests I post this here, and who am I to argue with Sharky?
I’m sure every macho man in the world’s going to scoff at this and tell me how stupid I am. But really, in the end… I just wanted to be honest, so here it is… my fourth post to date...
How To Kill Yourself While Ab Diving
1. Forebodings
Today was my first and last abalone diving experience. Thank you but I’ll stick to rock picking. The funny thing was I knew all along that this trip would be a disaster. Yesterday I ran into a native of Tomales Bay, a fisheries biologist named Brian who raised his eyebrows when I told him my buddy was taking me to Tomales Point for my first ab diving adventure.
“You know that might be a tough area for your first dive, man,” he said.
My buddy and {insert name of ambiguously titled semi federal agency of fish data collection here} colleague JB has been ab diving for 20 years and was confident that we could pick up a few snails just around the corner from Bird Rock. I had been hinting to JB for a long time that I wanted to try ab diving, and with yesterday’s placid conditions he called me up and suggested we give it a try. JB is a surfer and—as I said—ab diving veteran of twenty years. I am neither of these. My relationship with the ocean is from the vantage point of sitting on top of it, casting into it, or poking it’s intertidal regions with a wire hanger lashed to a bamboo stick. Somehow, in all the preparations for this expedition the exact level of my inexpertise was not adequately addressed.
Suffice it to say, I went into the field with borrowed equipment and a dangerous combination of abalone lust and zero experience.
Despite being of an athletic disposition, (baseball, football, rugby, raquetball, etc) I am, sadly, not much of an underwater kinda guy—for those of you who actually know who I am this may seem incongruous with my occupation, marine passions, etc… but there it is, on the table; anyway I’d rather be an open and honest idiot than a shy and dishonest one.
Again, to be clear: I have snorkled exactly twice in my life. Once in the friendly crystalline waters of Costa Rica, once in the bath tub coves of Hawaii.
2. Early Warnings
We arrived at Miller Ramp. The borrowed wet suit was too tight, the weight belt too heavy. (Incredibly, I did not think to try them out first). We chugged to the spot in a 14 foot zodiac. JB dove in and began plucking abs. He had his first one in five minutes. I jumped in the water, and, not having dealt with the weight belt before, sank like a stone. Getting back to the surface was more cardio vascular work than I’ve done in 15 years. I immediately inhaled about a pint of water. Washed that down with an inadvertently swallowed quart… great start. I looked around… sea lions everywhere. I tried descending head first. Wow. Much harder than it looked when JB did it. My ears exploded. I got wrapped in kelp. This happens some times when poke poling. No biggie. You relax, you work your way out. But unlike poke poling my face was under water. I tried to relax, no problem, I’ve freed myself from kelp dozens of times.
But then. In an instant, I was completely out of breath. My leg started to cramp, and the kelp filaments tore the mask off my face. I had been in the water for one minute and I found myself… well for lack of a better term… drowning.
But the indignity of dying in this trite and stupid manner, wrapped in kelp, (like every weekend-warrior-ab-diving-fatality on record) while my friend JB leisurely gathered his limit of abs 30 feet away from me was not something I could live—or I should say die—with.
So with nothing left in my lungs and my head spinning, I forced myself to relax, go limp, and in that manner barely… and seriously guys… barely… rolled out of the kelp and made it to the surface.
My first breath was about 78 percent water. I choked gagged coughed and spat. My leg tightened into a rock hard baseball sized knot of sheer pain.
My flippers started falling off. I was like Charlie Chaplin out there. Only I was moments away from death. I swam back to the Zodiac, climbed aboard and stared down at the sea lions—who were all looking at me like, who’s this lunatic trying to kill himself out here? JB looked over at me but I really didn’t want him to see how inept I was so I just waved, as in: Everything’s cool, I’m just readjusting my flippers, bro, and tried to get my breath. Meanwhile JB swam over and dropped his second ab in the boat. Dove down again.
Damn it! Thought I, I gotta get at least one!
3. If You Don’t Drown At First: Try, Try Again
So despite the obvious signs that I had no business being in the water I tightened the mask, the flippers, massaged my leg and dove back in. Lunatic.
JB says I looked uncomfortable out there. {Ya think?}. But why I wonder didn’t he suggest I call it quits? The thought has occurred to me that maybe he was trying to kill me… Anyway, I’ll bring that up with him later.
After about five minutes (I’m a slow learner) I realized I would never see an ab. Why? Because I am near sighted. I wear glasses. I’ve worn glasses every day of my life for the last thirty years. But somehow, in preparing for this trip I forgot that I wear glasses. So, the rocky, kelpy bottom looked kind of like a Seurat painting… you know, dots. No abs. No crevices. Just dots. I fluttered around and around on the surface for a while and then… beneath me I saw some one’s ab iron like 10 feet down. Orange handle, just like mine. Hey, and a familiar gauge lying next to it! What a coincidence….
Yes gentlemen it was mine. I had evidently dropped it. And then there was a surge, and I was carried off the spot. And I spent the next half hour trying to find the dropped ab iron. Meanwhile working myself into a slight panic fighting kelp and a slight roll (to a real diver this roll would have been nothing… to a novice it was slightly less than terrifying). Luckily JB was able to dive down and get the ab iron, as I had inexplicably lost the ability to hold my breath for more than 10 seconds (despite the fact that as a tuba player I can usually hold my breath about as long as a sperm whale).
4. On and On
On and on it went. One near disaster after another. Quarts of water swallowed. Finally I swam off a distance from the boat and tried working the shallows near Bird Rock. I had just located a decent ab--my first unaided find of the day and was gathering myself for another short dive when I noticed that all but one of the sea lions were suddenly out of the water. I also noticed that they were almost all pups—at least the ones in my vicinity. I looked around. Everything seemed wrong too me. I don’t know how else to explain it… I was coughing, I was splashing, I was uncoordinated, I was out of breath. My calf was still sore from the cramp. I felt heavy. I was cold and shivering. Every thing was too quiet. My ears were ringing. I thought to myself, this is the kind of fear and panic that all novice surfers and divers probably feel.
5. The Pencil Popper
But then I grabbed onto a rock and I took a long breath and thought very profoundly about the deep idiocy of my actions this day.
I will say this in my own semi defense—though I have now proven to be a novice and idiot under the water I am NOT a novice and idiot about the water.
And then it dawned on me what I really was at this moment, what I had been for the last hour: I was a giant, 189 pound Pencil Popper, doing my best imitation of a wounded sea lion: gasping, thrashing, treading water spastically. And to top it off, the shiny ab iron I was flailing around as I tried to tread water, what was that if it wasn’t a flasher?
Sensing that I was having some kind of emotional crisis JB looked over at me from the zodiac and waved. Thanks man. (Hey JB, next time, if you want to kill me so badly why not save the gas and simply slip something in my beer?)
At this point I put my head down and did my best Mark Spitz back to the Zodiac -- and I’m relatively certain I covered that 150 feet in record time.
After flopping in, I caught my breath and confessed to JB this was not a sport for me. At least not this spot, on my first day. Maybe a day snorkeling around a tide pool was sort of like what I should have been doing. For the immediate future, I would stick to my kayak, my poke pole, my throw net, my A-frame, and my beloved Hair-raiser on Ocean Beach. I then suggested we go catch us a few rockfish—something I’m good at. We drove the boat about two hundred yards—maybe less—to the other side of bird rock. Flat calm. 40 to 50 feet. I dropped a bar down to the bottom and began jigging. JB joined in.
Within five minutes I felt a nice tug. Fish on. I started reeling. I looked down: the water crystal blue. I could see the shaker ling maybe twenty feet down coming up with each crank of my reel. Then JB had a fish on. Same thing: small ling. I landed mine, shook it off, JB was still reeling his. We looked down at it.
From beneath this undersized ling a blob began to materialize. Hitch hiker, I thought at first. The water was so clear and the image of the fish so distorted and nebulous it was hard to tell if it was a small fish relatively close to the boat or a huge fish 30 feet down. Then everything got weird. I heard myself say: “What the f--- is that?”
The shape gained form as it ascended. And then there was a face. An eye. A large black eye, unmistakable triangle teeth (remarkably like the broad grin of a Jack O’lantern) and then a black hole mouth that can only be described when seen at that proximity (from the side of an inflatable boat) as the gaping portal of hell itself.
Two seconds later we were looking directly into the open mouth of a 14 to 16 foot great white shark. It was aiming for the undersized ling that JB had at the surface alongside the zodiac--the 14 foot inflatable zodiac. But moving slowly, leisurely, with its mouth wide open. We quickly ripped the short ling out of the water, as the shark—who had ascended in a totally vertical manner, like the famous poster of the movie Jaws, turned horizontal, it’s dorsal fin breaking the surface, and brushing up against the boat as it passed. We were at that moment a hundred and fifty yards west of where, for the better part of the morning, I had been impersonating a Pencil Popper.
JB said 16 feet, but I am subtracting 2 feet because I figure adrenaline may have added an extra 24 inches. Although it sure as hell looked bigger than the Zodiac… anyway, we both measure fish for a living so, frankly, I think we got the length spot on.
Well that’s my story. I also think, though JB disagrees, that this shark, was aware of me earlier—as I was, (albeit subconsciously) of him. I know all novices go through shark panic, but I know in my soul that fish was nearby when I swam back to the boat. I could feel it. And with the flasher, the splashing the coughing and the insane andorphins I was releasing... I think you guys realize what I'm saying.
Yeah, uh huh, I know... they don’t generally like kelpy shallow areas so the chances of him going in the cove were probably slim... right… uh huh.
But still, you guys feel me here? I mean I was thrashing around less than two hundred yards from a 14 to 16 foot super predator.
5. Postscript
So I am having a rather sober, drunken evening. Doing some soul searching. Repairing my A-frame, re-organizing my tackle. Trying to figure out why I’ve always beeen the type who jumps before learning how to walk. But really, I’m typing this out 'cause Sharky asked me to… and if he's okay with it, I don't really care what anyone else thinks.
And I don’t know, maybe it will reach someone who in his blindness and passion for fishing, might have otherwise jumped into a waters (figurative or otherwise) that he had no business being in.
From the foggy confines of San Francisco...
Your local {insert name of ambiguously titled semi federal agency of fish data collection here} representative.
K.L.
(aka: Monkeyface)
PS: JB just sent me a link to an article that confirms there have been several brutal shark attacks inside Bird Rock only 30 yards from shore… right, they don’t like shallow water, they don’t like kelp, they never come that close to shore. Uh huh...
Maybe if I keep telling myself this, I’ll actually believe it some day.
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what a read! Seriously!
I've never dove that spot, but read enough about it that I too was thinking "why would they go there for his first dive?" Glad you got to see something few ever have, and extra glad you saw it from a boat, not face to face in the water. Spooooo-key!
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Great post. Diving that spot sounds like the equivalent of a beginner surfing pinballs in waimea bay the day a 30ft swell is coming in.
For years I wanted to surf but my vision was so impaired and I didn't have the $ to correct it. Finally I took out a hard money loan and got surgery. This was before lasers. Diamond tiped knife R.K. procedure. Your eyes will then be good to go for surfing, diving, shark watching, etc. jim
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Wow, thrilling read. You are a talented writer. Glad you made it out alive!
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wow, sketchy man....
insane story...
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Thanks for sharing your first and last ab diving experience with us Kirk. Glad you've made it out OK. That's an experience of a life time!
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what a riot!
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Im gonna print that one out and give it to my co workers! They all think im crazy for fishing and diving in the ocean in A kayak!!! Now they will no for sure that I am!!! We all are!! Is it going to stop me??? Hell NO! Great storie thanks....Andy
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Great write up! Always makes me wonder what's lurking in the shadows.
-Brian G
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Fantastic read! I got goose bumps from the imagery of it - could FEEL the shark feeling YOU.
Glad it worked out OK, and grats on seeing it up close and personal from the boat!
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I have now spent the last 2 evenings numbing the inevitable PTSD nightmares with copious amounts of alcohol and doctor recommended Oaklands finest. Kirk, i love you man. I'm glad i didn't have another friend taken from me by the sea or whitey.
Recently on this board it was suggested that people were wusses (cant remember the actual term) for not paddling out at the bu after a shark sighting. I should have called it then, but I'll do it now.That message is irresponsible and could be deadly! Don't fall for the machismo. There was a sighting the day before I got attacked. A warning I did not heed and it nearly cost me an arm and a leg. Literally.
The stats about being killed by a car on the way to the beach are DEAD wrong. There is alot of fuzzy math there that doesn't take into account exactly what were doing or where. I could explain it again but i have already in the official GWS thread and a shark nearly tore my arm off, so typing is difficult.
The weird thing is i read a post of jmairey where he predicted a yakker gets hit this season. Suddenly I felt scared for all my friends. The week before Kirk had complained about his cell phone bill, and said we should keep our daily gabbing to a minimum. Still i felt it to be necessary to phone him, cause i had a bad feeling. He never picked up the phone, but it was right at the time of the incident.
This is the type of encounter in which I believe a shark shield would have helped.
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crazy story kirk. stick to the pokepoling and measuring of fishes for now.
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Awesome story, Kirk.
Way to put it into words and share with the rest of us.
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Wow, great read...
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Best new guy post I've ever read.
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GREAT post!!!!!!! You should get bonus posts for that one.
A friend of mine from college, Column Tinley, got nailed by the landlord near that very spot several years ago. Luckily he survived.
I have not, nor will I ever dive in that area for the exact reason you posted.
I will however dive elsewhere.
There are much better places to go for your first time.
Could you imagine the very first time you donned a football helmet having to go against someone like Mean Joe Green, L.T., or having to try to tackle Earl Campbell???
You need to have some sort of gradient when learning how to ab dive. Not easy beginning at the apex of it all.
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Wow! Wow! Wow!
That was really enjoyable to read.
Important message too.
I'm with you....That fish knew all about you and just didn't conlude it's investigation before you got back to the boat.
Hopefully you saved someone else by sharing it with us.
Shirk
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great, great read. Send that to a magazine...Seriously! Gald you were able to make it back to share with us all.
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Kirk, just 3 more posts and youll be able to read the current fishing reports :smt044 :smt044 :smt044 :smt044 :smt044
'
cause i know how badly you need to see fish other people caught :smt005 :smt005 :smt005 :smt005 :smt005
and how much you need this info to figure out where the hot bite is :smt044 :smt044 :smt044 :smt044 :smt044
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Fantastic writing - thanks for sharing that in such an entertaining way. :smt001
Now, your bud, JB, he needs a butt-chewing for putting you out there for your first time and not overseeing your discovery of too heavy of a weightbelt and other safety issues... (if it was just a little embelishment for the readers' pleasure then JB's off the hook! :smt002)
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WOW! Great read there buddy. Don't give up though :smt012. Hookup with someone who can better show you the ropes in a safer environment, like Monterey :smt003
Ben
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Best new guy post I've ever read.
Ditto I got sick worrying about you while reading and you made it out to write it up. I did something similar not as drastic but similar. Take the class don't let your buddies talk you into barrowed gear and jumping in
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Great story and excellent writing. Very well crafted. Thanks--I enjoyed reading it.
The stats about being killed by a car on the way to the beach are DEAD wrong.
No they aren't--they are facts. Simple, unalterable, unarguable facts. Facts are facts and cannot be wrong by definition. They are statistics based on the number of participants and the fatalities per thousand and they are correct. Go ahead--take a poll on this board--how many fatalities do people know of from cars, airplanes, lightning, and GWS? Everyone they know or heard of. GWs will be the most rare. For certain. Free diving is dangerous--many more drown than are killed by sharks.
But, I understand the issue people have with balancing horrible calamities with tiny probabilities with less scary more frequent ones. It's a well-known, well-researched, and well-documented flaw in human reasoning. But that doesn't stop people from insisting anyway. Fear is a strong distortion field--its an instinct we carry over from our ancestors.
However, just like the lottery--if that number you drew is up and Mr. Greysuit is staring you down then statistics mean nothing--you are it. It is statistically a very risky to free dive in Northern California--and sharks aren't the only problem. So what--life is statistically risky--100% fatalities--no one gets out alive. Further a few things said here imply something untrue and smack of bravado over sense--no matter how experienced you are, if a GWS has you in its sights you're in trouble. Experience didn't help Randy Fry nor many others. Bt statistics show it isn't Mr. Greysuit that is likely to get you Abalone diving--there are plenty of other things that can and are more likely to get you but fortunately they are mostly in your control. So if you really want to do it--learn to do it safely and with as much control as you can over it. the rest is up to fate. And that's part of life.
Do it with full knowledge that it is statistically dangerous and that perfectly evolved apex predator who is in its element and you are not is probably aware of you every single time you are out there--but better things are on the menu a good majority of the time.
It's okay. Do it because you love to do it. I don't do it, but I climb mountains with ice axe and crampons and ropes and belays and that isn't so statistically safe either. I do it because I just cannot imagine a life without it despite the risks. My wife doesn't like that part of it but she knows I need it to feel alive. And bottom line, that's what you should consider. A life well-lived is it's own reward even if there is a risk it might be shorter. To me, it is worth the reward and the living.
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Amazing story you are lucky It didn't turn out bad. That is a very sharky area you have more guts then me even trying to ab diving there.
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The stats about being killed by a car on the way to the beach are DEAD wrong.
No they aren't--they are facts. Simple, unalterable, unarguable facts. Facts are facts and cannot be wrong by definition. They are statistics based on the number of participants and the fatalities per thousand and they are correct. Go ahead--take a poll on this board--how many fatalities do people know of from cars, airplanes, lightning, and GWS?
Those "stats" are just numbers used to "prove" a point. Its the kinda math that got Wall Street into trouble. They are used by enviros, and people who make their money from beach tourism scared of Jaws mania gripping the country.
they may be closer to true for average beach goers...average beach goers we are not! We are in way more danger than the average beach goer.
Real numbers from my life tell a completely different thing, with cars and the ocean on par, with sharks doing their fare share of damage and death.
death by whitey isn't the only outcome. Ive carried life long disabilities for 20 years now. At times they have made life quite difficult.
facts they may be, but not facts that relate to what were doing on the ocean, where we do it.
I am a GWS attack survivor and nobody knows the risk vs reward factor better than I, and yet I still do what i do.
I think i just argued the unarguable :smt001
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Kirk,
Great, rgreat post, and I agree with EWB, get it published... aside from the ego boost (good medicine at the moment, no? :smt001 ) you might save a life or two.
Ben
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Kirk,
Great, rgreat post, and I agree with EWB, get it published... aside from the ego boost (good medicine at the moment, no? :smt001 ) you might save a life or two.
Ben
Kirk was not gonna post and i told him he had a duty to all of us to post (plus i know what a great writer he is and that it would be entertaining.)
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Sharks are definitely scary creatures but when I'm diving it's the kelp I fear. Big time. I guess that's one of the reasons I suck at diving. Kirk, if you ever dive again try in the 10 to 15lbs neighborhood and make your next dive all about getting your weight dialed in and not scoring abs. Once your gear is perfect you can relax a bit and enjoy the scenery. jim
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Well, what can I say? Thank you gents. The positive feedback is nice. Anyway, the whole thing will make for a great article in the upcoming Monkeyface News.
And no... I'm not done with abbing. I just need to go slower, get some snorkling chops and try again.
Bye.
--Kirk
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Kirk,
I'm glad you're not giving up on diving. Everyone's going to have a different formula for weight belt pounds. For me at 6'5" and 206lbs with a 7mm suit, I use 10% of my body weight plus 6lbs. It just works with the percentage body fat I have.
Thanks again for a MOST entertaining read.
Rich
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Kirk, glad you survived and thanks for sharing your story. A long time ago at salt point, I got stuck on kelp and panicked a little. But then at that time I also did not know that great whites get that close to shore. If I had known that then I probably would have not gone in. Had to let go of my weight belt just to get back to shore because I was almost out of breath. Luckily my partner was able to retrieve my belt.
Laps
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Thanks for the great read !WOW!
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Great Read....
Felt like I was There.....
and I second the extra points for Great Post....
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For that you get bumped up into the club my friend. Amazing...
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a black hole mouth that can only be described when seen at that proximity (from the side of an inflatable boat) as the gaping portal of hell itself.
Well said.
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For that you get bumped up into the club my friend. Amazing...
SAHWEET!!!!!
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WOW! its incredible whats lurking just out of sight! Those sea lions knew though ;)
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Yeah, that sounds like a typical first-dive experience!
Kidding aside, that was a fantastic story. I really enjoyed reading that...and might have learned something, too. Thank you!
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Wow! Amazing read. I felt my pulse quicken as I went through your story. I'm glad it's now just that, a story, and an amazing adventure you'll always remember. Your buddies must have some serious nads to be diving anywhere near Tomales Point! After the Farallons, the stretch of coastline from Point Reyes to Bodega has got to be the sharkiest coastal zone in North America. I generally believe those "driving to the beach/hit by lightning" theories but not for areas like this.
Honestly, I'd say your buddy JB is a bit irresponsible to take you out there for your first time without proper gear even. I don't know anything about ab diving but that just seems reckless. Hopefully he learned from this experience as well.
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One of the best reads I've seen on this site! Glad things turned out the way they did, could've been really ugly out there.
-beenfishin
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LOL! thats crazy!
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I've said it before, here it is again. I enjoy being at the top of the food chain, NOT part of it!
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That was an AMAZING :jawdrop read...I felt your "instincts" when you wrote about the pencil popper...
I had been invited to go abalone diving in June. However, I have never been snorkeling only swam/waded in the big blue. They were also going to "lend" me some equipment for the dive...now that I read your story, while it was not going to be in the same area, know a lil' something more about how to go about it.
Thanks for sharing,
Damian.
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I thought the Kayak Patrol Thread was funny, This one had me rolling. :smt044 :smt044 :smt044
Glad you're ok :smt002
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What a chilling read...I taught myself and it took 15 times before i finally figured it out and got one ab...and it was enough...I've gone with friends and there freaking seals "all their life" ab divers...I had no problem saying F u I'll watch, not for me man...i like to stand on um it's taken me 3 seasons to get comfortable @ 10 ft I can go 25 ft and in my mind it seems like a minute...buddy was timing me, 8 seconds on the bottom... :smt009 but damn I'm quick... :smt003
Thanks for the most excellent read!!! yes u could sell that story!!! Chilling!!! And I'm glad the kelp or weights much less the GWS didn't get u and your not giving up...like mentioned there are some really great places to dive...and the good guys not the macho ones will tell u its all about "YOUR COMFORT LEVEL" relax they say hang out in some kelp without a weight belt for an hr just floating...that was "sage" advice from someone on this site to me @ Elk from ukiah in 07 I traded a mask with him can't remember name??? it was probably my 4Th time out...
But the relaxing part was what was stressed time and time again, from many differnet peeps...
Glad to hear your going to try it again...be safe... :smt004
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To echo what everyone else has already said, that was a great read! You should definitely send that into a magazine for publication. You've also made me reconsider my recent thoughts about digging out my dive gear and breaking my 20 year spear-fishing hiatus... :smt002 Glad you survived to share your experience with us!
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Excellent reading and exciting ! You should try publishing someting if you have not already . Glad you made it through your ordeal , one or two good swallows of seawater ande I'm puking !
I've been diving 20+ years and I won't dive anywhere near there , thats crazy ! If you should want to travel as far as Pt. Arena try Moat Creek , excellent spot for a beginner especially on a low to minus tide , like a swimming pool in spots .
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Awesome Post...!! Glad you are still with us to tell the story... instead being front page news. When the " hair on the back of your neck " stands up...! and the "little voice of warning " in your subconscious starts to Scream..!!! seek safety or prepare for battle.
Gue
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I agree with everyone else, great read. I can only imagine the pucker factor when you saw the "landlord." Or for that matter getting hung up in the kelp. Glad to hear you made it back in one piece!
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Speechless (silent !*#). WOW. Firsr of all, glad u r not a statistic. I will bw giving my kids an extra big bear hug after reading your post. Second, u should give up your day job b/c u r 1 talented writer. The entire 4 acts and postscript kept me on the edge of my seat.
Personally, I am a yak newb of 2 months and just bought all my freedive gear and was looking forward to my first dive. I'll still go, but I will have newfound respect for the sea, and will go to my local lake tomorrow to start practicing. Finally, I purchased a shark shield prior to reading this post, but it doesn't make me feel any more comfortable- just make me feel that I should take extra precautions and train more before taking my virgin dive. Thx for your post.
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GREAT story!!! I used to dive for abs at Ano Nuevo many years ago and when I would tell people I was diving there they would look at me like I was a ghost!
We would dive in murky dark water for hours looking for abs and then unchins, and then clams before getting out of the water. I would get that "feeling" almost every time but luckily never met "the landlord" in person.
It's almost always better to be lucky than good.
Thanks for the great read!!!
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hey MF do u work for the DFG? i remember sharkin in bolinas and a DFG guy that looked like u came through and helped me take a picture
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DAMN MAN!!! WTG Gettin back home. thats some super scetchy stuff. and your story was amazing. i felt like i was right on the boat(thankfully i wasn't). thanx for sharin
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Great story. I am seriously thinking of getting back into diving next year. I never really got into diving for sport, but in the service/PMC we dove frequently using scuba and snorkel. I did see a hammerhead off the keys once, we just held bottom and he swam off, no real threat. I do know that going after abs, I will be taking it real slow. I tried once, and never got an ab, my buddy limited in no time flat. I know it will just take time, and a story like yours, reassures me that taking it slow and steady, at the cost of ab dinners, is just fine.