MC Hammer or Abalone Dive? Tough Day, BIG Reward

Hi everyone,

I'm new to posting on this forum ( I generally post on the NCUH forum).  BigJim thought you guys might get a kick out of my last dive report from a few days ago so I wanted to post it here for you all.

-Pete


Every once and a while I make a total blunder of my schedule and overcommit.  This Saturday was one of those days.  Originally, I had the day booked out to go for what would possibly be my last halibut dive of the year with a dive buddy.  Like an a**hole, I accidentally also booked myself up to freedive with another diver, ab dive a spot I researched a year ago and haven't been to yet with a buddy I keep promising to go scout with, take a new diver out, and hang out with the fiance.  Then, on Friday afternoon, I received a call.

Friend: "Hey, my fiance is having a boat party for his parents' anniversary tomorrow [Saturday]...MC Hammer will be there and hanging out for the evening."

With that line, I cancelled all my plans with everyone and decided to go to this event.

Friday evening rolls around and I'm tormented...I haven't gone freediving/ab diving in months, and really, who cares about MC Hammer anymore.  But will I ever get a chance to see him again?

Tormented, I make up my mind.  I call up my buddy who wants to scout a spot I researched last year, and we get ready to go north to look for trophy abs.

Up at 4am, and out the door by 4:30am, we arrive mid-day and start diving.  Banks board is the floatation of choice.  After a long hike, a longer surface swim, and some pretty murky water, we begin looking for the elusive 10" abalone.

The vis isn't great, maybe 4', but the water is being cooperative.  We huddle up to a wash rock and begin working.

I won't say that I'm in great diving shape right now, and it shows.  A few dives in, I feel like I'm going to vomit, and my times are a dismal 25-30 seconds.  Angry, I start grabbing kelp stalks and forcing myself down to increase my times.  We're not seeing many abs, so it's getting fairly frustrating.

My dive buddy calls out that he's gotten a 10" ab.  Thus far, I'd seen 7 abs, all under 9".  I'm pissed.  We move around a bit farther, and literally 10 minutes later, he pulls out a monster ab.  Disappointed, I begin sulking underwater, looking in holes.

And then I see it.  It's glorious, and far back in a cave, hanging upside down and feeding.  Must be a 10" ab.  I grab my bar, and can't quite reach it.  Happily, I go back to my board, and pull out my Abscalibur (32" bar).  With a little work and struggling, I pop the ab, and it falls into the bottom of the cave.  I toss my bar in, it lands on the ab, and the ab sticks to it.  SUCCESS.  I drag it out of the hole, waiting to hear the glorious click of the 10" gauge.  But the click never comes.  The ab is barely less than 10".  Downtrodden, I make one more descent into the hole.

What happens next doesn't quite make sense.  I put my hand in the hole, and shine a light around.  I see the outline of a large scallop and lose my mind.  Over the next 45 minutes, I pry, pull, and push to get the bastard out of the hole. eventually, it gives and I pull my prize out of the hole and make for the surface.  It's then that I examine my "scallop".  Upon quick inspection, I see that I've spent the last 45 minutes pulling a rock out of a hole.  Thoughts of suicide cross my mind.

Within about 20 minutes, I'm diving around and find a hole with a decent lingcod in it.  The lingcod looks to be about 33", and she's happy as a clam sitting in a hole with her head part way out.  I leave my bar, head to the board and grab my well used gun.  I swim back, dive down, and from maybe four inches away, shoot the lingcod in the head.  It goes through it's rolling motion, and swims off.  I find my spear next to the lingcod.  The spear must have dinged off its head and never penetrated.  This is the worst day of my life.

Dejected, I begin going deeper, into about 35' of water.  At this point, I'm debating grabbing onto a rock and just ending the torture and misery from this dive day.  All the hiking, swimming, abs under 10", and rock scallops that are just rocks are getting to me.  Add a dinked lingcod and it seems like the day is ruined.

It's amazing how one dive can change your day/life/attitude.  In about 32' I see some short kelp moving around, and when the surge hits it just right, it exposes a cave that is about as big around as a beach ball, and goes back about 8'.  In the back, on a wall, and upside down is a huge, huge ab.  I signal my buddy and drop my bar in the hole.

Gauging this monster is a real struggle.  While being spotted, I wedge myself into the hole as far as I can, arms stretched out trying to get a gauge on the beast.  It's up and feeding, so I can't get around the top.  It's a good sign but I'm not falling for another sub 10" ab this late in the day.  I use my trophy gauge and tap on the shell a few times.  The ab gets angry and clamps down.  This gives me enough clearance to measure him. The gauge clicks somewhere near the back of the shell.  We're in business.

It becomes painfully obvious that I won't be able to use my regular bar and wedge in there to pull this thing.  Once again, my long bar comes out, and with my partner spotting me, I go shoulders deep, pull the long bar, and start working the ab off the wall in the cave.  It takes 8 tries, but eventually he pops and falls.  I use my bar and it sticks, I pull the ab out, and with some real effort, haul it to the surface.



I knew it was an 11"+ ab as soon as I held it at the surface.  It just seemed too freakishly big to be anything else.  I just had no way of knowing for sure without a gauge.  My buddy, now feeling sick himself, turns and asks how I'm feeling.  I tell him I'm ready to call it.  We make our way out of the heightening swell, tag our abs and make the trek back to the truck.

Once back at the truck, I put out the hog trough and drop my ab on it.  It's just over 11.25" from what it looks like.  I start freaking out.  We immediately change out of our suits and drive off before anyone has a chance to stop and see what happened.  The whole way home, we're freaking out.  My buddy's abs eventually measure out to 10.1" and 10.82".  No joke by any standard.

At home, I weigh the abalone.  11.2 pounds.  Then, I shuck the ab, power-wash the top, and re-measure it with a caliper.  11.257".  It's the biggest abalone of my life.

It's safe to say that missing a meeting with MC Hammer was a good call.


*for the pics, I grabbed a 10.1" ab shell I have at home and an 8" ab shell I have at home to add perspective to the size of the 11.257" ab.  One pic is from above, and the other is from behind to see how tall/girthy it is.  8" shell on the left, 10.1" shell in the middle, 11.257" shell on the right.

HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome report and AMAZING abalone!!

I TOTALLY relate to having days where it seems like everything is going wrong and self-doubt sinks in...sometimes I'm out there and totally feel like I suck and should just go back to shore and quit pretending that I can dive at all! 

And then...like you said...it can just take one drop to totally turn things around. 

Dude...so stoked for you! MOST divers will dive their whole lives and never get an abalone even close to that big.

 

So you used jjjjjeremy's abscalibur?!?!?? That should up sales for him!

 

Congrats again and thanks for sharing!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

ps...for those that don't know Pete...he is an excellent diver (obviously) and very nice guy. You can check out his DOTY entries that have him in the top 5 here:

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/leaderboard/list_by_angler/54

Wow that's freakin huge  nice one!

Congrats on your PB Ab!  Thanks for the great report and pictures Pete.

That's a f#cking MONSTER ab!!!

HO LEE FUK dude.........congrats

When the scallop turned out to be a rock I was laughing my ass off.......because the same thing happened to me once 

Thanks for sharing the awesome report

Antonio

Holy Shit!

Well done! Did you know, MC Hammer is a preacher now? He asked me to write a song for him to launch him back into stardom, I call it "Go ahead and touch it!"

Thats such a cool report, and and 11.25!!!!  WOW!!

You are "2 Legit 2 Quit"

I talked with a tow truck driver once when my car broke down in the bay area. He said he had to bring gas to MC Hammer THREE different times on the side of the road because HE WAS JUST DUMB LIKE THAT.

I'll take any ab over meeting him.... Unless he gave me some of his parachute pants.   

Congrats on that bad ass catch!!

Thanks for the great read. And congrats in that monster

Ho Lee Fuk !

That thing is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Great report! It helped me feel like I was diving when I can't dive. What a turnaround and sweet score!

What happens next doesn't quite make sense.  I put my hand in the hole, and shine a light around.  I see the outline of a large scallop and lose my mind.  Over the next 45 minutes, I pry, pull, and push to get the bastard out of the hole. eventually, it gives and I pull my prize out of the hole and make for the surface.  It's then that I examine my "scallop".  Upon quick inspection, I see that I've spent the last 45 minutes pulling a rock out of a hole.  Thoughts of suicide cross my mind.

There's no shame in bringing up big rocks. Only the best of the best are able to do that. 

Congrats on the monster ab.

This post was 2 Legit 2 Quit!