Skills needed for technical diving

[BDub]

That is how i have been doing all my shore dives down here. Been scaring the hell out of life guards all the way up the coast with the long body form San Diego . Doing 2-3 hr scooter dives solo they do not like. Had a few of them thinking they lost a diver . I usually told them i was headed out for a few hours but they apparently do not know RB's.

Did I hear something about you seeing a shark down there, Greg?

Was that you? I heard they shut down the beach....

[John Rawlings]

Yeah....I've heard that all of the scuba classes were canceled down there. Don't know if it's true or not...what happened????

[airsix]

I'm not chopped liver, but I have over 50 cave dives now . . .

Acknowledged.

-Ben

[loanwolf]

Last Friday I ran into what I thought looked to me like a 10 to 12 foot bull shark it was awfully dark on top. but turned out to be a white they do not have bull sharks here and the whites get dark for the sun. Saturday a instructor saw it when he was out with a few students also. Down here no one gets too worried about sharks to speak of they are all over. Or did you mean in San Diego when the life guards were all upset because I had a tiger shark fallow me back into were all the swimmers were swimming after a long body scooter trip out to the trench. They said I had one fallowing me but I didn't see it and i was looking behind me too. Vis sucked form 30' up so i would not have seen it unless it got really close to me and they do not like scooters. Off Malibu I saw a ton of them cruising just off from the swimmers as i scootered along below. When the squids are in laying eggs that is when schools of blues come in and everything else as well. that is when everyone stays out of the water.

Greg

[loanwolf]

these squid egg masses are everywhere out their. Sorry the pic is not better but it is about 15' long and 6' wide so I had to be pretty fare away.

[bigsky]

I'm kind of noticing something, here. We have more than a few tech divers on this board with tons of deep dives under their belts. But none of them has posted anything in this thread...............

I wonder why that is?

nailer, i am not sure i actually qualify as tons of experience
but......................
what skills i think someone needs are just my opinion
and all opinion's are different
for instance
a common one seems to be gear familiarity
but this is difficult to do until you are well on your way down the dark path
remember how many tweaks and twists you tried on your doubles back in the day?
i did a dozen dives in my little doubles just trying to figure out how tight i wanted my crotch strap
the number one skill needed?
all of my tech partners have it, you have it, romer treece has it, rob has it
the magical component?
no matter what, we can deal with it
we are coming home, no matter what happens, bad boat, bad vis, bad current, or a bad lemon wedge wedgie (the worst one)
i know when i turn to my partner, what needs to be will be, and we are coming home
sounds trite, and even lame, but you cannot learn that mind set
you either know it or you do not

now where can i get one of those cards?

[Joshua Smith]

I'm kind of noticing something, here. We have more than a few tech divers on this board with tons of deep dives under their belts. But none of them has posted anything in this thread...............

I wonder why that is?

nailer, i am not sure i actually qualify as tons of experience
but......................
what skills i think someone needs are just my opinion
and all opinion's are different
for instance
a common one seems to be gear familiarity
but this is difficult to do until you are well on your way down the dark path
remember how many tweaks and twists you tried on your doubles back in the day?
i did a dozen dives in my little doubles just trying to figure out how tight i wanted my crotch strap
the number one skill needed?
all of my tech partners have it, you have it, romer treece has it, rob has it
the magical component?
no matter what, we can deal with it
we are coming home, no matter what happens, bad boat, bad vis, bad current, or a bad lemon wedge wedgie (the worst one)
i know when i turn to my partner, what needs to be will be, and we are coming home
sounds trite, and even lame, but you cannot learn that mind set
you either know it or you do not

now where can i get one of those cards?

Oh, I'll get you a card. Thanks, Paul. That was awesome.