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To keep up with the dive reports, photos and adventures, go to: 

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Dive Report 4.24.12 - Title Fight!

This was one of those dives where is was my turn to pout and throw a temper tantrum...above water. Because my new fin strap decided to snap off in the water, and my spare fin straps didn't fit my new fins... So had to sit this dive out, but the weather was beautiful, the waves were ankle slappers, and I was excited for the boys to come out of the water and report their findings! Ryan, Tim, and Kimo headed down to the angel statue again, but the highlight of this dive was the fighting Sarcastic Fringeheads Ryan managed to capture on his GoPro/Watershot camera set up on the way back in!

and yes, Ryan has a sense of humor with all his gentleman fish production films. :)

Dive Report 4.16.12 - Angels and Tantrums

La Jolla Shores Night Dive

Last minute dive with Debra, Ryan, James and Dan. Storm had calmed down, the swell was low and most importantly... Deb's first dive back in the water after her Lasik surgery! The waves were knee slappers, so entry was easy, we kicked out with an occasional swell rolling through, but no biggie. The goal tonight was for Ryan to lead us to the mysterious angel statue located somewhere off Vallecitos Point at 112 feet. We dropped down in slop, maybe about 7 feet viz, BUT Ryan nailed the canyon wall. Nice! We followed the canyon wall to Vallecitos Point then headed down to 112 feet. No pressure on Mr. Divemaster candidate to navigate us, not at all... haha. As we descended down the viz was a hazy 10 feet at most. Strangely, we saw hundreds of Graceful Crabs running all over the sea floor. I wish I could have captured a photo but there was way to much debris in the water to capture anything farther than 2 feet from my camera. We hit 115 feet and knew we went too far. Ever see a temper tantrum underwater? I witnessed Ryan's tantrum last night out of frustration of not being able to find the statue. Fists clenched and shaking, feet kicking, and you could see him going "ARGGGGGGGGG!!!!!". Hilarious!! I'm sure he was dreading the teasing he was going to get on the surface. Just then James' light flashed on a dark mass... THE STATUE!!! Ryan lucks outs!!! We finally get to see the mysterious statue we had only previously heard about. It's a lot smaller than I imagined, but still cool! The dive was a success! I wish I could have gotten a full image of the statue but the viz and debris would not allow it. Next time!

Max Depth: 115 feet
Temp: 51 degrees
Viz - 3 feet in the shallows, 10 feet at depth
Current: Mild current pulling us north
Bottom Time: 42 min

Eye Candy:
The angel statue, hundreds of graceful crabs, sea lemon, sarcastic fringehead, anemones, brittle sea stars, pipe fish, giant sheepshead crab, pleurobranchaea californica, carpenter's turrid snail, swimming crabs.

 

(see more pics here!)

Dive Report 4.9.12 - "Current" Events

Marine Room Night Dive - La Jolla Shores

I'm finally back in the water on a weekly basis! My eyes have healed nicely and while they are still adjusting at times, I can already tell they make a world of difference underwater. I swear I'm seeing so much more tiny things that I never noticed before!

Monday night I head out to the Marine Room in La Jolla for a night dive with my two good friends, Bethy and Kimo. It was a beautiful night for a dive. No wind. Maybe two foot waves at the most, and an easy entry. We drop down in slop though. Completely murky with sand billowing from the current. The current easily pushed along to our depth where the ocean cleared up to a wonderful 30-40 foot viz. We happily poked along through the sand taking photos and video. The current pulled us north at this point so we missed the canyon (oops) but still found so much life to take footage of!

Max Depth: 78 feet
Temp: 49 degrees (burrrr, thanks for the wetsuit warmer Kimo!)
Viz - 3-5 feet in the shallows, 30-40 feet at depth
Current: Strong current pulling us west and sometimes north
Bottom Time: 59 min

Eye Candy:
Adult and juvenile horn sharks, scorpion fish, nudibranchs, spiny lobsters, swimming crabs, a school of pipe fish, ronquils, pygmy's, red octopus, staghorn sculpin, flat fish,

(more pics here!)

As we started to head back we then started to noticed just how strong the current was that so easily pushed us out to our dive spot. We surfaced to get a gauge on where we were and were still quite a distance off from the shore even though we were in pretty shallow waters. We decided to do a surface swim in so we could talked excitedly about our dive and what we saw. Then we noticed we weren't moving... I stopped kicking and almost immediately was 15 feet from my buddy heading the opposite direction back into the ocean. Time to make a decision and fast. We both had enough air to drop back down. Luckily we were able to easily swim under the current, I was dreading the thought of having to to claw my way back to shore. Once my computer read that we were at a 5 ft depth we surfaced. Phew. They don't say rule of thirds for air in diving for nothing! Dive safe! :)

Cozumel Dive Trip

We embarked on a week long trip to Cozumel with a group of divers through House of Scuba! And it was amazing! Beautiful dive resort, Casa del Mar was steps away from the shore and having an all inclusive diving package meant unlimited shore dives along WITH 2 boat dives a day, 2 additional boat NIGHT dives, and a trek to the mainland for some cenote diving! We used Jorge and his dive crew and they were nothing short of an amazing group and guide! Here are the dives spots we hit up and all the eye candy!:

Day 1: Palancar Reef, Yucab Reef, Shore Dive

 Arrow Crab in a Pink Sponge Vase

 Spotted Moray Eel

 Hawksbill Sea Turtle

 Chestnut Moray Eel hiding out

(see more pics here!)

Day 2: Palancar Caves, Tormentos Reef, & Night Dive @ Paradise Reef

 Flamingo Tongue

 Caribbean Spiny Lobster

 Carribbean Octopus (my fav!)

 Channel Clinging Crab

(see more pics here!)

Day 3: Columbia Reef, Delilah Reef, and a Seahorse Shore Dive!

 Cowfish

 Seahorse! (my first!!)

 Caribbean Squid

 .

(see more pics here!)

Day 4: Chan Kanaab Reef & Night Dive at Chan Kanaab Shallows

 Cozumel Toad Fish!

 Butterfly Fish

 Juvenile Drum Fish

 Slipper Lobster

(see more pics here!)

Day 5: Palancar Bricks and Chan Kanaab Shallows

 My fav Turtle shot. He let me get right in his face!

 Christmas Tree Worms. <3

 Grey Angel Fish

 Pipe Fish

(see more pics here!)

Day 6: Dos Ojos Cenotes

(coming soon!)


The best part of this trip was the people. I could not have asked for a more amazing group to travel with! I'm also incredibly proud of this group stepping up and helping out the local kids in need. I was put in touch with the hotel director at Casa del Mar, Sandra. She personally does what she can for the local schools and orphanages that are in desperate need of supplies. After we were informed of this we rallied our group, rallied our fellow divers, sponsored extra baggage fees and brought with us clothing and school supplies for the local kids. We made such an impression with the supplies our group brought, it actually inspired the other dive groups at our dive hotel to also contribute! There is always time to give back!

Laser Eye Surgery

So its taken me a bit to get this post surgery blog up. Sorry about that, it was just too hard to be on the computer. Not to fear, everything is healing as it should and I'm doing great! I chose NVISION in La Jolla and Dr. Parikh as my surgeon because I felt the most comfortable with him. And of the the 4 friends I asked for referrals, 3 of them used Dr Parikh coincidentally. However, I did end up deciding to change my surgery plan last minute, which threw everything I had prepared for out the window. I had planned for traditional LASIK, which a machine basically cuts a flap on your eye the laser fixes the cornea then puts the flap back in place. You basically see clearly immediately and are back to normal activities the next day. The doctor told me I was a border line patient for LASIK vs PRK. He said I could do LASIK but he wouldn't be able to get my vision to 20/20. My corneas were too thin. BUT it would still be clearer than anything I was used to. And then if I wanted, in 6 months I could do a touch up and sharpen thing up with a PRK procedure. At the time I wanted LASIK. I had a Hammerhead dive meet up meeting to run the day after surgery and a Project A.W.A.R.E event I had already volunteered for on Saturday. Immediate results and next day recovery was the only thing I was thinking about.

Thursday, February 2nd. Day of surgery.
Dr. Parikh sat down with me one last time to make sure I understood my choices. And that's when I realized I needed to slow down and forget about the activities and really think about what was best for me. And why the heck was I paying all this money to not have my vision 100%? And why would I want to plan to come back for a touch up in 6 months if I really didn't have to? I changed my mind to PRK. PRK basically removes the top layer of my eye and the laser reshapes the cornea. I know, ew gross. haha Then they have to put a bandage over the eye which is like a clear contact lens to protect it for 4-7 days. Its like waiting for an open wound to heal. Vision slowly gets better over a weeks time and even clearer over a months time. See why I originally wanted LASIK instead? Instant gratification! But not all things should be rushed and I felt my vision was one of those things. I'm lucky enough to live in a time where this is even possible, I might as well do it right the first time on whats best for my eye situation. I think what I really appreciated the most about this place was that  Dr. Parikh and his associates really took their time with me to make sure I made a good decision. Other places I went to just talked LASIK with me because it's easier for them.

So after the pep talk I met the team that would be working on my eyes. They gave me meds to relax me since I would be awake during surgery. It only took 10 minutes for me to feel loopy and start giggling. It has that effect on me, I don't know why. LOL They brought me into the surgery room and even gave me a blanket since it was cool in there. The doctors were GREAT. They talked me through the whole process, explaining what they were doing and telling me how great it was going the whole time. All I had to do was stare at a green light. Piece of cake. Didn't feel a thing from the numbing drops they put in your eyes. The smell bothered me but they said it was a smell from the gas of the laser machine.... I'm still not sure about that but I don't want to think about it too much. LOL Ten minutes later I was done! They helped me up and I got a teaser of better vision. PRK heals more slowly than LASIK and I knew that but it was still clearer than my vision had been before without my contacts or coke bottle glasses!

in the OR with Dr. Parikh right after they finished my surgery!

My vision is getting better every day, but I'm not going to sugar coat the first few days. The blurriness sucks, and I did get headaches. The eye stickiness from the drops grosses me out and I constantly felt like there is a foreign object in my eye (that lens bandage). The light sensitivity was really annoying but at least I look cool wearing my sunglasses indoors. :D

The first day after I woke up from my 4 hour nap after surgery, my eyes were watering like crazy and it freaked me out. I also felt like I got punched in both eyes. Well, that might be a tad dramatic, but they did feel really heavy. :D But the staff was great, and there is an on call doctor at all hours to answer questions from crazy patients like me. I had these really sexy after surgery goggles I have to wear when I sleep to make sure I don't rub my eyes.

The rest of the evening I was a bit loopy from the meds much to the boyfriend and best friend's entertainment. The best friend even bought me pirate eye patches. I know you're jealous. :D

The next two days I was ok. My vision had improved and I was going on with life as normal except no driving at night. Then day 4 happened...

I woke up my eyes not feeling so hot. I put my drops in and got ready for work. I went outside and OW!! The light sensitivity was INTENSE. And my eyes were throbbing. I sat in my drivers seat for a minute, then shut off the car went inside and burst into tears. I know, totally mature, but I promised I'd give the full nitty gritty details of my experience, as embarrassing as it may be. The pain was so intense I didn't know what to do and it scared me. My boyfriend called my doctor for me and I went to see one of his associates immediately. Turns out I let my eyes get too dry and I disrupted the cell growth while I was sleeping. Sometimes I sleep without my eyes fully closed and this contributed to it. I took the day off work and kept hydrating my eyes and kept my eyes closed for the majority of the day.

Tuesday February 7th. Follow-up appointment. (day 5)
My eyes felt tons better today after the previous days freak out. They checked my eyes and they weren't quite healed yet, so they replaced the bandages for two more days. Other than that, its really cool to be able to read street signs and stuff now and I might be annoying a lot of people by reading signs out loud but I don't care. The little things make me happy! I still get a little "halo" effect in my vision but true to the doctor's words, its progressively getting better. Its nice to be able to read a computer screen too now. I felt so cut off from the world! Now if this healing can just hurry up so I can get back in the water!!! Another update coming soon!



** As a reminder, this is my personal experience. Everyone heals in different ways and should have full consultations with their doctors before making an educated decision based on their personal situation and health.

Questions to Consider Before Laser Eye Surgery

I thought I'd provide my laundry list of questions I had for each of the doctors I spoke with. And yes, some questions are pretty girly. :) But it could help you start your list of questions if this is something you're considering.

- How long am I out of the ocean? (are you really surprised this was the first question out of my mouth?)

- Even after the 2-3 weeks after surgery, is the pressure at depth while diving something I need to worry about in the healing process?

- If I can't dive, can I do anything else for exercise? Like my hot Yoga class?

- Do I need to take time off work?

- How many surgeries have you performed?

- How many of those people needed vision "touch-ups" years later?

- How long have you been doing the lasik procedures?

- Do you provide other eye care solutions or are you solely a Lasik center?

- What's the healing process like?

- What's the number 1 mistake your patients make after surgery? Can it be fixed?

- I'm worried about blinking during surgery. How do you deal with that?

- What should I expect pain wise during and after surgery?

- What kind of anxiety medication do you use?

- What are the shower rules?

- How long till I can wear eye makeup?

- What about regular face makeup?

- When can I use my eyelash curler again? (I told you these were girly)

- How do I deal with morning eye crunchies? (hehe I was giggling as I asked that one)

- Is eye cream safe to use? (Damn you wrinkles!!!)

- How long can I milk the "getting taken care of because I just had surgery"? :D

- You said my eyes would feel dry the first few weeks after surgery. can I start taking my allergy meds again as needed?

- What's the probability of needing Lasik again, say in 10 years?

- I notice a lot of places offer a "Lifetime Insurance Policy" upgrade. Do I really need it? Why would you recommend it?

- If you could be any vegetable, what would you be and why? (just kidding, but I do think that's a really good indirect personality question on how someone sees themselves)

Lasik Eye Surgery and Diving

I decided to take the leap. No time like January to avoid chilly night dives and 50 degree water temps to decide to be a land lubber for awhile. Who am I kidding? FIVE freaking weeks out of the water and it's KILLING ME. Did I mention I'm only on week 2? *sigh* But this is something I've wanted to do for ages and I finally decided to suck it up and take that step.

Side note. I dive with contact lenses, not a prescription mask. While those of you who have like a -1.00 nearsighted problem I have a whopping -5.50 nearsighted problem. Like coke bottle glasses. Sexy right? :D For all I know they don't make prescription masks that thick. So while the surface swim out might be fine for you, I might end up at the wrong decent point and maybe with the wrong buddy if I didn't have my contacts in. LOL And wearing a mask on the swim out through waves in southern California is just asking for you to give it up to the diving gods. I'm just saying. You know what was really awesome? Wearing contact lenses in the pool doing a no mask swim underwater for my Divemaster requirements. And by awesome, I mean not. :/

First and foremost, I'd like to be totally honest and let you know I'm completely freaked out.... I was a dummy and made the mistake of watching an eye surgery in action on a monitor at the doctors office.
Rule #1: Don't do that. HA

Rule #2: Do your research. I asked friends who had the surgery 2, 3, 5, and 10 years ago on who they used, what their experience was like, and how are their eyes now. I then took those doctors names and googled the hell out of them. Then met with them and interviewed them. It does also come down to who you personally feel comfortable with.

Rule #3: Ask questions. LOTS of them. ANYTHING you can think of. There is no dumb questions and if they act annoyed at your questions, I'd find a different doctor. Definitely ask about the difference of PRK and Custom Lasik and which options are best for you. Those are the main two but there is even more options than that. It matters, trust me. Custom Lasik is pretty standard now but PRK might be a better option for you depending on how thin your corneas are. PRK is more of a pain in the patootie because it requires more healing time. BUT it's key in the lasting effects of your surgery years down the line if you happen to have thinner corneas. Find out your options and ask WHY. :) My first immediate question was of course, how long am I out of the water??? 2-3 weeks after surgery to prevent infection. Ok fiiiiiiiiine. :( And of course I had a lot of girly questions regarding makeup and washing my face too but I'm sure that won't surprise you. :D)

Rule #4: As divers you know we are well versed in uh...antihistamines. LOL I especially have allergy and sinus issues. Guess what? Antihistamines dry the HELL out of your eyes not just your nasal canal and you need to lay off the meds before surgery. My eye scans were like night and day after I laid off the allergy meds for awhile. Side note, I look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer right now since I've been banned from Claritin for a few weeks. :/ I'm telling myself sounding like a muppet is sexy.....Who's a smart girl and decided to pull the trigger on eye surgery right in the middle of cold and allergy season? This girl!!

Coolest thing they told me was the actual surgery only takes 10-15 minutes and I would be able to see IMMEDIATELY after. Sweet! And I have my super sexy after surgery glasses. I'll be modeling those babies later. :D Then they make you go home and go to sleep for 4 hours to help generate the first layer of cell growth.

I'm now in my waiting period. I have to stay out of my contacts for two weeks prior to surgery and then a week before, I have a twice a day vitamin and 4 times a day eye drop regimen to implement for optimal results. I'm so freaked out, I'm following every doctor order to the max. I even set up alarms in my phone to remind me to take the vitamins and put in the drops at different times in the day. I know, HUGE nerd alert. I'm cool with it. :) I have a week to go. My surgery date is Feb 2nd. I'll keep you posted. If you are considering Lasik I'll write another post soon on all my ridiculous questions so you have an idea on where to start with your question list. I'll have TONS of time to blab on and on about things since I can't be in the water.... Lucky you! :D

Oh yea and....
Rule #76: NO EXCUSES! Play like a champion! :D (Sorry couldn't help myself)

me and my red Rudolph nose with sexy coke bottle glasses and muppet voice are signing off for the night. xo

Dive Report 1.10.12 La Jolla Shores

Dive Report for January 10, 2012

My first dive of the year!! And it was pure comedy. We had our annual Hammerhead Dive Meetup on Friday January 6th, the first Friday of the month as usual except the conditions were crappy. Big swells. So we met for some hot chocolate and rescheduled the night dive for Tuesday January 10th.

Divers: Erin, Lucas, Melissa, Heath, Fred, Bethy, Stephen, Kimo, Tyler and Jen

Location: La Jolla Shores

Conditions: 1-2 ft waves, easy kick out.Viz was 2ft at the decent, 15-25 feet at the canyon edge.

Report:
The general dive report is the conditions were calm and it was an easy kick out. We actually overshot the canyon and ended up dropping to 80 feet. Monitioring our computers, we kept it a slow, safe decent in about 2 feet of visability then took a heading and made it up to the wall where the viz cleared up nicely to 15 feet, even up to 25 feet in pockets. With effective underwater communication, two of our divers aborted due to certain difficulties, and we linked up as a buddy group rather than pairs. We had a nice slow "photography" dive along the wall till our 1200 psi safety turn around point. Saw the usual critters out about, a camo octopus, numerous sarcastic fringeheads, spiny lobster, kelp crab, sheephead crab, cusk eels, and sting rays galore. Not the stellar conditions we had been spoiled with at the shores lately, but still a really great dive in the new year!




1.10.12 La Jolla Shores Night Dive


Now the nitty gritty details...
Due to winters colds and the holiday season, this was my first dive back in the water since mid December. And I was excited. Maybe too excited. LOL We are also in the middle of a floor remodel which means the house is in disarray. More specifically the garage is in disarray... where our dive gear is. So I partly blame this on the remodel and things being out of place and partly blame me being out of my weekly dive routine. Bottom line I got to the shores, geared up, went to set up my tank... and realized I forgot my regulator. Yes that key element to help you LIVE underwater, BREATHE underwater...was not in my car. Seriously? So embarrassing. Luckily I only live about 7 minutes away. I snuck away, sped home, grabbed my reg and raced back to the shores to pull up to the majority of the crew standing there lined up ready to to make fun of me. Awesome. LOL I would have felt completely embarrassed if a certain someone else didn't forget their camera and also ran home, or certain someone else didn't leave their mask on top of their car and I had to go chasing after them while they were at the waters edge, or if a certain someone else's mask strap didn't break at decent and had to swim back in real quick to borrow another, or regulator wasn't leaky and ended up free flowing too much air as they were decending and their dive was aborted, or that someone else couldn't equalize and had to abort. Or if we didn't overshoot the canyon and dropped to 80 feet. Or if we had someone who has never descended in low viz like it was and that deep and had some minor panic feelings underwater...

So some might say why didn't you just abort the dive completely with all this going wrong? Well bottom line, we had good dive buddies that were prepared for each event that went wrong. And all that went wrong simply became a minor technicality we dealt with as it happened in a cool, calm, collective manner. We handled it and moved on with our dive. Could there have been something we could have done differently? Sure. Could it have gone much much worse if we didn't have the trained level headed divers that we did. Yes. Were we level headed and smart and still had a great dive? Yes! Dive within your limits. And continue your education. Even if it just tagging along with your favorite instructor during one of their classes to keep your key dive skills sharp. (My personal favorite is helping in a Rescue class!) And most importantly learn from each dive and don't take anything for granted. Happy and SAFE diving to you all!

Diving = Love

I've known since I was 12 I had a passion for photography. But it wasn't until I was 27 I discovered my passion for scuba diving. Something incredible and serene about being in this other underwater world. As soon as I had my bearings and buoyancy, I combined my two passions. So here I am an incredibly obsessed, girly, underwater photographer and diving enthusiast. I'm by no means a pro underwater photographer. I just LOVE it. And I want to share it with anyone who wants to look, listen and learn! I'll talk your ear off on every single experience I go through, embarrassing, and exciting because I think it's that awesome. I've met the most incredible people in the dive community and if there's one thing I've learned is that you can only become a better diver by learning from yourself and others.