Mukilteo Club Dive 2-23-13

[coulterboy]

Though I didn't dive today, I was able to snap pics topside. Thanks for the shirts Calvin.

John (Johndo88), Eric (Yelloweye), Jesse (Scubiedoo), & Jeff (Pogiguy)

Mike (MPenders)

Jake (NWbrewer)

Dylan (Mortuus)

Curt (Oldsalt), Johndo88's wife, Joshua Smith, Penelope (Penopolypants), & Alex (Alexitt)

Joshua, Penelope, and Calvin (Tangfish) the "MAN"

John (Johndo88), & Matt (Mateo1147)

Don (DWinslow), & Jeremy (Jeremy)

Eric (Yelloweye), & Jeff (Pogiguy)

Mike (MPenders), & Jesse (Scubiedoo)

[Nwbrewer]

Good pics Tom!

I had a nice first dive looking for critters at the T-dock with ScoobieDoo and mpenders, and the second dive Mortuus and I scootered the clay wall.

I'll leave the posting of pics from dive 1 to my buddies since they had far nicer cameras than me. A little CSI video from dive 2 is online though -



http://vimeo.com/60347315

Thanks to Jeremy for putting this together!

[coulterboy]

Nice vid Jake.

[Jeremy]

Wow, cool video Jake!!

Sorry you couldn't dive with us Tom.

[Scubie Doo]

Jeremy, thanks for organizing the dive.

Jake, cool video! And thanks for showing Penders and me the ropes on dive #1.

Calvin and Josh, thanks for the t-shirt.

Mike, thanks for driving.

Dylan, thanks for the koolaid.

Tom, thanks for the top-side pics.

Curt and Alex, thanks for popping in for some SI dialogue.

And ______, thanks for the chili and soup.

I only got a couple "keepers", picture wise. But I did see my very first zebra seaslug, and it was tiny! Only the size of a finger nail. Here are a few of my favorites. Great seeing and meeting everyone!

[Mortuus]

Thanks for the topside pics, Tom! Those turned out great. I am glad we were able to get some topside ones (pics or it didn't happen, right?). Awesome turnout by those who were diving and not diving as well. I had a HELL of a lot of fun out there today.

[YellowEye]

Hi
Great seeing/meeting everybody, and great diving with you all!
And thanks for the video, now those of us who missed the wall actually know what it looks like!

Here were some of my caps. All but the anemone were from the Tdock.

[pogiguy05]

Well first I would like to thank JEREMY alot for his assistance on our first dive when I got NARC'd. I do NOT want this thread to get into one of those that end up with all kinds of opinions, so please what is important is everything turned out OK and leave it at that. With that said here is my experience.

I have been diving for about 6+ years and have always read or heard of other peoples experiences. Today I guess was mine. We surface swam out to the buoy and the plan was to follow the line down to the boat. The first attempt all three of us got separated from the line and we surfaced to try again. The current was blowing pretty good but we were able to follow the line down, but I definitely noticed I was working pretty hard against the current. I was breathing hard and remember looking at the others thinking I dont see there bubbles as rapid. As I am not use to doing direct descents and ascents in the water column I was keeping my eye on depth. Jeremy and I had planned on holding at 100-115fsw since we both were diving 32%. This was my first dive on Nitrox, but I doubt had anything to do with what happened. Just as the top of the boat came into view everything was fine, BUT then this feeling of HOLY !!@$^#& came over me and it is a feeling I did not like. Even though I had the urge to get the heck out of dodge I knew I needed to get Jeremy's attention and call the dive. I flashed him until he turn to me and I pointed at my head and signaled the thumbs up. This is a GREAT time to give one of them ALWAYS DIVE WITH A BUDDY SPEECHES!!!!! Once Jeremy signaled our other dive buddy (sorry forgot your name) that the dive was over, Jeremy came over to me and grabbed my inflator and pushed the button. Even though I was narc'd but still thinking Jeremy said I was dumping air and knew to help me out. I remember in my mind I was saying keep an eye on your depth and DO NOT ASCEND TO FAST. With that I think that is was I dumped instead of adding air to ascend. Alot of things were going thru my mind including try to stay in control and calm cause I really do not want to have to call my wife (non diver) and tell her I am heading to the hospital. We ascended pretty quickly to 110-100fsw and once again a great thanks to Jeremy for helping me. Once we got to that depth my head cleared up and my next thoughts were making the 3 minute safety stop at 20fsw. I remember bobbing from 15fsw to 20fsw and this would be due to the situation and the fact that I am not use to this kind of ascents. That being said I am glad that I was able to do my safety stop and surface. I felt bad for calling the dive, but agree that any dive everyone comes back to shore safely is a good dive.

I did stay for a second dive on what people say is the clay walls. However, Mike,Eric,Jessie and I never found the walls and the only thing we seen was eel grass and sand. After that first dive I was not sure if I wanted to dive again today, but you have to get back on the horse.Much respect to your north sound divers cause you guys do alot of surface swimming WOW!!!

[Mortuus]

It's crazy how similar your experience was to mine last year. It happened in the reverse order though. I missed the clay walls while diving with Don (the buddy whose name you forgot), and then we went to the T-dock and did the direct descent down to the boat and I got narked as &*$#!! In that particular case, it was Mateo who came to my aid. Funny how many of the same parties were involved in nearly the exact same events almost exactly a year apart, both at a Jeremy-created NWDC club dive at Muk! Glad everything turned out alright! Your narc sounded exactly like mine, and it is definitely a little nerve-wracking.

[Scubie Doo]

Jeff, glad everything turned out fine. Nice job on the assist Jeremy.

[Tom Nic]

Gotta love (hate, actually) those paranoid narcs. Props to everyone for handling things, and thanks for telling the story.

Great pics, thanks for the stories, wish I coulda been there!

[coulterboy]

Nice pics, Jesse and Eric.

[Jeremy]

Super fun day today!! We did have to cut dive 1 short (Jeff...I think if you did that descent a second time you would rock it! For whatever reason folks have a hard time on the first attempt). But our team recovered very nicely and in control...kudos to Jeff and Don!!

We had lots of fun on the surface interval, drinking coffee and Koolaid.

The clay walls were fabulous with wolfies! Alas, our south sound contingent was too far south so missed the clay wall. My fault for not having them join the north end team.

But a great day overall. Gotta love Josh, Penelope, and CALVIN! Amazing and fun individuals.

I mentioned to Calvin that NWDC has really meant a lot to me and profoundly impacted my diving and led me to many new friends and dramatically improved my diving skills.

What a great venue for northwest diving...I feel privileged to know and dive with so many of you!

[Mortuus]

I forgot to mention in my last post.... Jeff, don't EVER feel bad about calling a dive early! If you feel the need to call a dive, then calling it is the right thing to do. If you have good buddies, they will not hold it against you, and will back your decision 100%.

[mpenders]

Had a great time today, both catching up with old friends and meeting new ones! Dives were good and uneventful (in a good way) but I did wish that we had found the clay walls. The post-dive tacos, beer and dive stories that were shared (not necessarily in that order) more than made up for it.

Several nice pics already posted - both topside and underwater. Here's a few I managed:

Dungeness Crab

Sea Pen

Wolf Eel

Sunflower Star and Plumose Anemones on Piling

Bay Pipefish

Tritonia festiva

Scubie Doo

NWbrewer

Looking forward to the next one!

Mike

[Nwbrewer]

Nice shots guys! Now I'm really glad I didn't post mine from dive 1!

[Penopolypants]

It was great to see people, although I'm bummed I didn't dive! Thanks Jeremy for putting it together!

[oldsalt]

I forgot to mention in my last post.... Jeff, don't EVER feel bad about calling a dive early! If you feel the need to call a dive, then calling it is the right thing to do. If you have good buddies, they will not hold it against you, and will back your decision 100%.

Amen. I wish I had called my last dive.
-Curt

[H20doctor]

That drop to the boat will get you narked, big time.. You go from surface.. to 125 ft in a nice long drop.. Glad to hear you had a dive buddy to get you back.. I guess us muk divers are used to that express way to the boat, and the troll its a really good test on experiencing nark due to the quick elevator ride to the bottom.. its really fun at night when its really dark and you dont use the line as a reference and do it as a free fall
.. Nice pictures everyone

[mpenders]

... I did see my very first zebra seaslug, and it was tiny! Only the size of a finger nail...

The hell it was - half a dozen of those things could have fit on my thumbnail with room to spare. Nice find and nice pic! My attempt at getting a shot of it came out looking like anemone poop...

[Scubie Doo]

... I did see my very first zebra seaslug, and it was tiny! Only the size of a finger nail...

The hell it was - half a dozen of those things could have fit on my thumbnail with room to spare. Nice find and nice pic! My attempt at getting a shot of it came out looking like anemone poop...

It was pretty small. BTW- you are getting really good with those diopters!
Really detailed and sharp macro and wide angle on the same dive, that is awesome.

[Tangfish]

Awesome Club Dive everyone! Thanks for the pics Coulterboy and Curt, I'm sorry I barely missed you from what I heard!

Had fun grabbing beers and sliders afterwards!

[dwinslow1]

Thanks Jeremy for organizing Saturdays event,it was a great time. It was great to meet some new friends and see
see with old friends. The T-shirts are awesome,everybody needs to get one. looking forward to the next event already.
Don

[Mortuus]

So......... When's the next one!?