breaking in a noob 4/6 weekend

Headed up to mendo coast for some early season ab diving and camping.  Arrived Friday and set up camp and shortly after Rider/James arrived with his wife.
  Set up camp and headed out to do a little scouting, ocean looked decent but I wanted to make sure James had good experiences for his first dive
 Woke up Saturday and I could hear the ocean had come up a lot over night and it was still raining. All the places that were previously scouted were blown out. So we went to the trusty back up spot of Noyo harbor.
conditions were sergy ruff and viz was crap, but abalone were plentiful.
  Took my time working with Rider making sure he was using safe practices and learning good technique. most dives were in the 20 foot range and I made one over 40.
To be honest Rider surprised the crap out of me, his first few dives and he was comfortably diving and exploring the bottom in 20 feet. and this was his first try. Hes gonna be a awesome diver. however in bad viz he was unable to locate any abalone.
Next Day we went to a different location and was greeted with 10 foot viz and a lot smaller serge and waves.
Again Rider surprises me by plucking his first legal abalone. then his next then his last. good job bro. in my experiences new divers rarely feel comfy at 20 feet and almost never get their limit first times out but he did it.
Big congratz to Rider for breaking into the dive scene and doing so well first time out.

Awesome!!

WTG James...and James!!

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Way to get out and score some abs!  Cool of you to take Rider and get his feet wet too!  Sounds like he is gonna make a good diver! 

I really want to thank you James. Not only for getting me out OTW for my first dive but for the weeks leading up to the trip and answering all my questions & letting me use your gear &&&. You were also cool to hang out with also Heidi and I really enjoyed meeting your family.

It was a pretty awesome experience this weekend. Sat we only had 2-3' vis and while I didn't find any abs I was able to get to bottom and try to search for them. Sun was a different story... I got to overcome my first kelp experience and push through to find some abs. When I came across my first one I was not coming up without it. I got it off the rock and felt like I was flying out of the water with the ab held high. I was so excited I actually found one.

Suiting up


Heading to beach


Getting ready to head into water


Just keep swimming


Victory (1st abalone & 1st limit)


Now the madness. I have to start buying my gear. Wife said she's gonna get me my wetsuit for birthday. Hopefully be an early birthday present.

Nice work out there James! Don't start selling your fishing pole after this dive

Great post and thanks for sharing guys.

Rider I was flashing back to my first ab when you wrote that you weren't coming up without it  . Awesome job!

James way to get a brother on some abs 

Congrats on the Ab limit and thanks for the report James & James.

Sweet!  Always love a post with videos or photo's!

Yeah go pro was useless

He'll yeah James! Congrats on your first limit of abs. Right on James for showing James how to do it right and be successful.

Sweet! Looking forward to some nice dives with you.

napajustin

Nice job Bro!!!!

Great job out there guys!

That's awesome guys! Congratulations on your first abs James!

I'm headed to Britton weds.  Not early but mid-morning for some paddling/fishin with newly installed electronics.