May 31, 2023
Dive Shop: VIP Diving
Dive Master: Aya
This was my first dive after getting my OW Certification. Thankfully, my open water check out dives were all shore dives, so I was familiar with it. I was fortunate to be diving with the buddy I trained with plus two great friends that are experienced, including my confined water instructor. We were all on a cruise and went out with Aya at VIP Diving, and I highly recommend them!
Angel City Drift Dive to the Hilma Hooker
We piled into a pickup truck and Aya drove us to a dive site called Angel City. She told us we’d do a drift dive from there to the Hilma Hooker wreck. Because two of us were newbies and the wreck at the bottom is 100′, she told us she’d assess our skill level during the dive and if she felt comfortable taking us over the wreck she’d askus if we wanted to go. We were very pleased that she did and we both got to experience floating over it. Our more experienced buddies went to bottom to check things out there.
Being this is my first dive and first time using the Olympus TG-6, you can see I have a long way to go with underwater photography. But I love being able to share some of this with family and friends that don’t dive, even if they aren’t the best photos.
Dive Time: 43:09
Water Temp: 81°
Max Depth: 62′
Given that we had gone down on the hooker, I thought we should commemorate that with some dive shirts so I made these for us.
Salt Pier
Being so new and the physical challenges of shore diving (It was rough exiting at the Hooker), I sat this second dive how. However, one of my diving buddies, Randy, took the camera with him for the dive. You’ll see how much more experienced he is with the quality of his photos.
