|
Post by scubadiverbob on Sept 11, 2010 23:24:28 GMT -8
|
|
|
Post by duckbill on Sept 12, 2010 0:42:31 GMT -8
Good pictures, Robert. Thanks for posting them. I think it's great that your son can now enjoy diving with you like that. I hope my sons will have a desire to dive when they get older too. Andrew needs to get his fishing license; Then he can catch and eat those mudbugs. That first dive of the day was awesome! Fishnbeer was my dive buddy, and he brought along his video camera. He has a lot of footage to edit. I can't wait to see how it looks on video. We were mostly on the east side of the river where the salmon usually swarm around. They didn't disappoint. Many of them came in pretty close. Fishnbeer got some footage where the salmon were silhouetted against the sun, and some where the sunlight was reflecting off of the salmon as they swam around us. His video footage should be the next best thing to being there. Our second dive, however, was my best salmon dive, EVER! First we were on the east side again watching the swarming salmon circling by us for a while, then we went to the base of the dam and swam up to the surface behind the waterfall. The roar is deafening! We submerged to a shelf at about 20 feet and watched the billowing globes of bubbles from the waterfall looming right above our heads. After that, we headed along the bottom to the west side of the dam and came across the most spectacular salmon sight I've seen of all the times I've made the dive. A huge, dark mass of hundreds, if not thousands, of salmon were right above us. They were not circling around like I have always seen them. They were all mostly just hovering there, facing away from the waterfall. The whole mass of them would slowly move from one area to another and back. Most of the time there was more of the darkness of salmon silhouettes than there were patches of light shining through them from above. They formed one big ceiling above us. We were at 30 feet and it was pretty dark at times. I started to feel undertrained for the dive as I've never had any formal training for diving in an overhead environment They were thick! Some of them were even down the full 30 feet where we were hanging out. After about 15 minutes or so of just sitting there taking in the spectacle of it all I started to get pretty cold. So, to conclude the dive we slowly swam up and through the mass of them. I hope I didn't cut it too short for fishnbeer. Fishnbeer didn't have the camera on the second dive as the first dive used up the batteries. One thing I've found when video taping (on land) is that I missed actually seeing events due to having to concentrate on composing them in the viewfinder. So, fishnbeer, that second dive is now recorded in our minds, as we got to fully take it all in. I hope you enjoyed the dives as much as I did. The fellowship before, during, and after was great too. I'd say we have a pretty good group of divers forming. We should do it again soon.
|
|
|
Post by scubadiverbob on Sept 12, 2010 20:41:51 GMT -8
"After about 15 minutes or so of just sitting there taking in the spectacle of it all I started to get pretty cold."
You should switch to a 3 mm shorty like I usually wear! Keeps me sort of cool .... Ok everyone, no comments on how crazy I am, PLEASE !!!! Really, when the air temp is 110, it feels really good!
|
|
|
Post by scubadiverbob on Sept 12, 2010 20:45:45 GMT -8
Hum ... My shorty is easy to put on and take off and I'm sort of overweighted with 8 pounds on my weight belt in fresh water wearing it. One time I dove the river in swimming trunks and didn't have to wear a weight belt! Definate advantages to a shorty!
|
|
|
Post by scubadiverbob on Sept 12, 2010 20:54:42 GMT -8
Now, if everyone is wondering why I suggested this for a west coast wazee, it's not because it has a casino, with a campground, where you can drink free sodas all day long and play the penny machines ...... It's because it has The Boss Burger! Andrew and Micheal ordered Big Boss Meals this last dive ....
The fish in the pictures are 20 to 40 pound King Salmon .... fun to dive with!
|
|