Van Damme Memorial Day....

Took the kayak up to Van Damme yesterday. Left the house at 5:00am and arrived at Van Damme at 8:15am.  The water was flat like a lake.  Setup and got in the water at 8:45am.  Swam around for an hour and a half.  Speared some pirches and popped 3 good size abs.  My FF (Cuda) works pretty well now.  Came in and was approached by the F&G fish counter lady. Very pleasant and professional, she asked if she can measured the fishes I speared and my replied to her was " It's going to cost you", just kidding and she gave me a big smile. I actually did a solo dive today and the wife was not too thrill about it. Overall, good dive and a very beautiful day. Sorry don't know how to changed the date on my camera. Not good with these kine a stuff.

Fred

Nice job, those are gonna taste gooooooood!

Great report of a successful day.   

Selling a solo mission to mama is not an easy task.     Getting out there and avoiding feeling guilty about it is important too.  Good job on that.   

Abking, I know mama was not thrill about the solo dive but after she saw the catch, she kinda forgot about the solo dive.  I know it was a little earie out there diving alone but I'm always careful when it comes to diving alone.

Fred

Good Job Teleni,

I was at Van Damme that morning as well, with two friends from Fort Bragg.  Normally we dive from the kayaks there, but it was kind of a last minute thing and we just went in off the beach.  I saw a solo guy out there when we first went out and my friend Josh was talking to him, maybe you??  Anyway, drop me a line when you need a dive partner for there, I live only 1 hour and 45 from there, so I can easily do day trips there.  Rockfish starting next week, so I will be making several launches there to try some of my favorite spots, I'll post when going.  Take care,

Norm

Sounds like a great day. About the solo diving... in the past, I never would tell my grams that I was going to dive alone. She just figured it out later when I dropped off some abs and fish. It's usually easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

Freddie

Norm, we will be up in Albion all week next week.  My brother is arriving from hawaii this Thursday for my daughter's graduation from high school this Saturday and after that, we're heading up north for our yearly excursion of the northern coastline.  He is one of those extreme blue water diver in hawaii.  So we will be taking the whaler and a couple kayaks up there.  Drop me a line if you wanna stop by.  Mahalo

Fred

That sounds sweet Fred.  Hope you and your brother have a great trip!  I keep looking at Albion every time I go over the bridge, but have yet to go out of there.  Unfortunately,  I will be working all next week but if you will still be there next weekend, I will likely be prowling around up that way.  Let me know when you plan to depart from up there, would be great to meet you.  Enjoy the time with your family!!

Norm

Hi Fred:

         I'm glad to see you are having a great time at VanDamme. It's
a great place to dive alone but, watch out for Sneaker Swells.
         The Windward side of the S. Island has some 9" in about 30 Ft.
that your Bro might like to try for. I go for low hanging Fruit and only Dive the Lee side S. crack.
                                                                       Sea-ya
                                                                       Ernie

I'm another one of those guys that most often dives alone. I mean heck, I grew up watching Lloyd Bridges in Sea Hunt every day after school, he always dove alone. I've always figured if I don't have to look out after anybody but myself, then I'm going to stay safe. Alone, I never would dive into caves, only open waters.

I used to spend a week on Catalina Island every year with my brother who was skipper  of the King Neptune, 74 foot dive boat out of Avalon. I would take the DM role, and I always would insist all divers buddy up. The my brother would always pipe in, "yeah don't pay attention to my knucklhead bro when he hops in alone after you all check back in".. Mean little brother.