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Post by nikeajax on Jun 2, 2013 16:17:12 GMT -8
Friday night my wife and I went to the Oakland Museum of California, we happened to stumble across an exhibit they are having about Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Unfortunately they only have a slight blurb about it on their site: www.museumca.org/view/gallery-natural-sciences"Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, an underwater, coral-topped mountain west of Point Reyes, features an upwelling of nutrient-rich waters that feed marine animals that visit from all over the Pacific." here's the Wiki article about it too: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordell_Bank_National_Marine_SanctuaryI had no idea that it was such an amazingly rich environment for marine life. They have a nice slide show you can watch and listen to divers talking about their experiences there. Crazy deep, and apparently recreational diving is prohibited... One of the divers was saying that he was "Narc'ed" and tripping on the intensely bright colors of the marine life. Another was talking about the bubbles making sounds; started out normal, "blooooop", and eventually sounding more like a "plink" due to the depth: 400-feet! They are North of the Farallons, the place that the dive gear is named after... Jaybird
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Post by nikeajax on Jun 3, 2013 10:00:03 GMT -8
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Post by fishnbeer on Jun 3, 2013 11:37:01 GMT -8
Hello Jaybird
I was one of the lucky ones to be one of the original Cordell Bank dive team members. It was an interesting time as much of the dive planning was done prior to each expedition, but it often led to add hock planning as conditions changed daily. We often made routine dives to 200 feet using double 72's on just air. At that deep the effects of narcosis were surely felt. I must say it was the most beautiful and challenging place I have ever dove. We would schedule most of the diving during the fall months and often had visibility 75' plus on many days. Quite amazing for a place located northwest off San Francisco.
I was part of the team that called themselves the Sacto Team as the team was made up of experienced divers from the Sacramento, CA area. On several occasions our team dove with triple 80's on our backs. The spare 80 tank was mounted on the back of the doubles and was used to power an air lift to suck up sediment samples at the 200+ depth. My main job on the dives was doing deep photography and shooting 16mm film u/w. In fact most of my film footage was used to document the dives. For the dives I used double 72's and a Poseidon Cyklon 300 reg that worked awesome at the deep depths. For decompression we had a T-bar at 10 feet mounted to a surface float and had spare 72's mounted on the T-bar for extra air decompressing. The spare tanks mounted on the T-bar were a necessity as we would often run out of air during deco and had to breath off the spare tanks.
Recently modern tech divers went down to re-explore Cordell Banks using modern gear, air mixes etc., but sometimes I'm amazed on our success in the old days using only air at deep depths without any major accidents. Cordell will always be remembered in my mind as one of the most beautiful dive locations I have ever been too. The tops of the banks were crowded with rock fish and the pink hydro coral covered the peaks with not an inch was uncovered with marine life. It truly is a magnificent place and I often dream of going back someday.
Btw Jaybird on the NOAA Sanctuaries podcast site you mentioned there is a photo of me on the T-bar decompressing wearing white coveralls and using my Poseidon. I heard the Oakland Museum opened the exhibit but I have yet to go see it. I will prob plan on going in the next few weeks though.
Jerry
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Post by nikeajax on Jun 3, 2013 12:03:09 GMT -8
Jerry, thanks for your input--really! Yeah, the Sacto-Team is mentioned in the podcast--I've only listened to half of it, as I want to share it with my wife...
I'm sure with most of us, whenever I hear about ANYTHING having to do with scuba, I get excited, especially when it's before they had all the fancy equipment and breathing mixtures to make it easier, and less dangerous! Gosh, I'm envious of you, in that you did something VERY few people will ever get to do, not unlike being an astronaut when I think about it: are ya gunna write a biography of all your adventures??!?!?!
Jaybird
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Post by nikeajax on Jun 3, 2013 12:33:06 GMT -8
" I must say it was the most beautiful and challenging place I have ever dove. We would schedule most of the diving during the fall months and often had visibility 75' plus on many days. Quite amazing for a place located northwest off San Francisco."That really speaks volumes about California--it's such an incredibly diverse place that most people just can't understand what all the hubbub is... I was trying to ID some of the regs in the photos they have at the exhibit--well I couldn't! I had no idea what a Cyklon looked like... found a cool site with some swell images: www.therebreathersite.eu/Eurotek2010/MENU.htmwww.therebreathersite.eu/Eurotek2010/Automaten/PoseidonCyclonSport/poseidon_cyclon_sport.htmlJaybird
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Post by fishnbeer on Jun 3, 2013 12:49:22 GMT -8
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Post by SeaRat on Jun 3, 2013 14:56:51 GMT -8
Jerry and Jaybird,
Thank you for putting this thread together, and for contributing the links to it. This is fascinating. I've looked at the NOAA video, and will explore it further. I did not know of the existence of this preserve. 'Looks like it would be a great dive.
John
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