SCUBA

I thought I should include a picture of my new BC only because its soooo neat. Not only does it come in the colors of all my current scuba equipment, it zips up instead of having the weird/ill-fitting cummerbund and randomly placed chest strap! Its got several side tabs to pull so it fits properly across the chest, ribs, hips, torso, so it won't go up or down. Its a back-inflate so I've plenty of room to move my arms, and its got integrated weights (includes trim pockets in the back) so its super easy to stay perfectly horizontal or vertical and you don't have to worry about the in betweens unless you're trying for that.

I finally dove Lake Mead (here in Vegas) for the first time on Thursday. I played a lot with the buoyancy, but my BC is so sweet, with its zipper and the adjustments so it fits like a corset. By far the most comfortable BC I’ve ever worn. We did two dives that day, the first was a girl’s final certifying course for her open water, then the second I got to play dummy for a fella getting his rescue cert. He had to surface tow me for 100 feet simulating rescue breathing, then undo my BC and get me onto a boat and simulate CPR. Then, back in the water with my BC on, I went down to 60ft and had to pretend being out of air, fight for his air/mask/etc, then not want to stop for a decompression stop. It was pretty fun, so I think that’s something that I’ll look for after Korea (brought back old lifeguard memories), and its just good stuff to know in general.

I almost got to do this neat dive just off of Long Beach this weekend, but the weather was too bad for a novice such as myself… maybe next time. It was an oil rig, but because it goes down some 700 feet, it’s a “bottomless” dive. I’ve just got stories now of playful seals blowing bubbles in divers’ faces, huge starfish over a foot across, snaggle-toothed sheep's head fish and tiny little shrimp in all the colors of the rainbow hugging the structure. The weather cleared up a bit, though the sun never fully came, but it was a fun/relaxing weekend after all :-)

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If anyone has good ideas for warm water dives this next year+, please post a response! I’ll make sure to get the word out when I’m planning my next dive (locations from my previous post, plus Fiji I’m thinking now), and if folks are interested I'll organize all the details.