How many of you SCUBA

[Californio]

"Peace" runs out of Ventura, her sister ship "Truth" runs out of Santa Barbara.

I used to dive the Peace as well. Out of Santa Barbara right? If so ya, that was a nice comfortable boat to dive from. Though they almost left me behind once. I was really good on air and using a Steel 100 tank. I came up and they had the engine started up and idling and the swim step pulled up ready to go.
We were off one of the channel islands, can not remember which one. I guess I could have swam a quarter mile to the rocky island covered in sea lions until another boat came along.

[theLBC]

I used to dive the Peace as well. Out of Santa Barbara right? If so ya, that was a nice comfortable boat to dive from. Though they almost left me behind once. I was really good on air and using a Steel 100 tank. I came up and they had the engine started up and idling and the swim step pulled up ready to go.
We were off one of the channel islands, can not remember which one. I guess I could have swam a quarter mile to the rocky island covered in sea lions until another boat came along.

they didn't make you dive with a buddy?

side note, i hate when i have to dive with somebody that runs out of air too fast.

[Californio]

Certified in the late 1960's, Johnston Air Buoy and fee diving before that.

Antartica 2018, just because I wanted to see the end of the world, water was 28f, visibility with the mixing of fresh and saltwater was crap. You dump off the rubber duck into saltwater but as you approach an iceberg the water gets brackish and you sink like a rock, hit the inflator hard to stay neutral, touching million year old ice underwater is a trip, when you back off the iceberg, dump the BC like crazy, belly flop back on the rubber duck after you, with frozen fingers, take off your H valve 95cuf tank with a spaghetti of two regulators and 30lb of lead, oh and when you hit the water, tank loses 500 PSI just like that, much prefer the Northern Channel Islands than anywhere else in the world.

Patches, I got no stinking patches.

[SoCal326]

Wow, Antarctica. That sounds crazy. So how did you end up there, was that a vacation destination....I guess it was...."just to see the end of the world". I love it.

I've never even thought about a trip there...and probably still wont, that waters a bit to cold for me.

Heck, I'm not even sure how you'd get there. I imagine a bunch of ice everywhere with no where to land but I'll be the first to admit i know nothing about Antarctica.

[CaliforniaCowboy]

"Peace" runs out of Ventura, her sister ship "Truth" runs out of Santa Barbara.

Ya, my mistake, I believe it was the conception, or one of the other Truth aquatics boats, but I mostly dove the conception. I did dive the Peace a few times, I do remember that boat now, and its hot tub, we just used it to pour hot water down our wet-suits to warm up.

they didn't make you dive with a buddy?

side note, i hate when i have to dive with somebody that runs out of air too fast.

No, I was a dive master and dove solo a lot back then, was on the conception quite a bit, I still have a 5 dive card filled up that gets me a free dive trip, it is like 18 years old but has no expiration date, I might try to redeem it one of these days. Our dive shop did not use the conception for students, I just used it for my own personal trips, I liked how comfortable the boats were, and the lady cook was a cute little hippie chick. I would dive with a buddy if there was someone there that did not have a buddy and they were not comfortable going solo. The few trips I did on the peace were done with friends from the dive shop, the owner and other dive masters so we always dove together. But ya, it was not the peace that did not do a proper count and almost headed out without me.

[Californio]

Well my dive master friend as well as a LDS owner killed himself by thinking the rules did not apply to him, sets a real bad example for the recreational sport, when the teachers don't follow what is taught. I was lucky and was taught by Navy Master Chiefs, no f**** was allowed, of course we had no BC's, only J valves and the first single hose regulators available.

I went to Antarctica with a dive buddy that I have been diving with since high school, because our wives said ok. Interesting but the chill was a pain in the rear.

[wpage]

Certified late 1960's. Too old for any rough stuff now diving when seas and winds are under 10 mph. Florida and carib.

[RandyD]

I got my introduction to SCUBA in the Marine Corps, and got to attend the Navy Dive School in Coronado. The Navy Instructor was also qualified to give us PADI and NAUI certificates. I got to dive all over the Pacific, from Okinawa, Philippines, Hawaii, The Mariana Islands which include Guam, Tinian, Saipan, and the best dives were in Truk Island. I never enjoyed diving off California as much as the other places I have mentioned, because the visibility is not as good, except a couple of dives on Catalina Island, which were spectacular. The most thrilling diving that I got to do was entering and exiting submerged submarines.

[RNE228]

My wife went to school for marine biology; had done 100's of dives before we met. After we met, I certified, and we did some Monterey diving, and then a number of trips on the Conception out to the Channels. Did some dive around Maui.

Didn't dive for a while between kid and elder care. Then in the last four years did Cozumel, then Barbados, and Cozumel again. Cozumel diving was awesome.

[bubbapug1]

I remember diving Komodo island. Spectacular scenery on a fantastic boat. However it was opening day of big season in Socal and I kept think wtf am I doing here? I could be at Cortes bank on the great escape eating turkey after bug hunting all day.

God bless you Tim Burke for you excellent trips locally. RIP.

[HooYah]

Not knocking scuba, but have any of you scuba guys tried freediving?

You'll see a lot more.

I scuba and have commercially dove (very little time logged) as well. I always see more (and shoot more ) while freediving. Hence my user name, which is also my email, and etc. etc. Set it up when I was a youngin and email was getting popular.

I've dived open and closed circuit scuba, but I still prefer freediving. My uncle in Hawaii is a real water man. I've seen him routinely do free dives with 5+ minute breath holds. In the past, him and his friends did open ocean swims from Moloka'i to Maui.

[Carcassonne]

I got certified back in 1976: I was 12 years old. It was through the Alameda County Sheriffs Department. The instructor's daughter's boyfriend or husband was the World Skin Diving Champion. I remember seeing his fins. They were about 5 feet long and very skinny. They were made in Italy.

Back then I had to learn everything; NOX, rebreathers, etc. I had to memorize the decompression charts. There were no multiple-choice questions. Every test answer had to be written in.

I got re-certified about 15 years ago (NAUI).

The Pacific Ocean around California is cold.

.