Chris' Dive Experiences: The Mythical So Cal Green Sea Turtle "Marine Room", La Jolla

Photo Courtesy of Virginia Hatter

Not all So Cal divers know that our temperate waters contain a couple of iconic animals. Animals that would normally conjure up thoughts of the warm, clear, tropical waters of the Caribbean and South Pacific. But there are a handful of lucky divers that have born witness to both Pacific seahorses and green sea turtles while diving here in San Diego. Lesley and I had heard a few stories over our 4 years of diving of divers seeing a green sea turtle, including Rod & Liz while diving at the Marine Room, but sightings remained extremely rare.

Our local dive site, The Marine Room, is named after the Marine Room restaurant sitting right on the beach, overlooking the ocean in La Jolla. Conditions at this site often vary more than other sites nearby primarily due to the coastal cliffs that surround it. During high tide, or if the surf is up a little, you’ll have waves not only rolling directly in toward the shore, but also waves cutting across as they bounce off the cliffs making it look like a big washing machine. The Marine Room offers two distinct dive options for a diver. You can kick out and to the left and enjoy rocky reefs with lots of life similar to diving La Jolla Cove, or you can kick straight out and catch the beginning of the same walls that you dive at La Jolla Shores.

Lesley and I awoke early on Friday the 13th to meet a group for a dive at Marine Room. When we arrived, we were greeted with clear skies, no surf and picture perfect surface conditions. We kicked out toward the rocky reefs on the left side of the dive site, enjoying the normal chit chat and joking that we had come to enjoy from this group of divers. Previously, Lesley and I had dove the Marine Room, but had always kicked out to dive the walls instead of the reef, so we were excited to see a new area and compare the two. We dropped down and kicked toward the kelp and reefs and I was amazed at how much life there was to see. We enjoyed loads of Calico bass, big and small, coming right up to our mask to check us out. Under almost all the rocky overhangs we found lobster peeking out at us waving their antennae. Spanish shawl nudibranchs and pipefish were found in and on the blades of eel grass. As we continued on we had a big school of jack smelt swim right in front of us.

Photo Courtesy of Virginia Hatter

At this point all of us were having a great dive stuffed with lots of cool sitings. I decided to head for a clump of kelp in front of me, passing just to the left of a huge patch of eel grass, when I heard Lesley’s quacker (which sounds like a duck call underwater) going off right behind me. I turned around to see Lesley frantically waving her hands around telling me to get over and look at something. As I made my way over to the eel grass patch that I just passed, I saw from a distance what I thought was a big halibut or electric eel sitting in the grass. As I got a few feet closer to Lesley I couldn’t believe what she had found, the mythical green sea turtle!

I think all of us were initially stunned by seeing the turtle sitting in our cold green water chomping on eel grass, instead of warm clear water chomping on the green growth found on coral as we were accustomed to. Unlike other green sea turtles that I have seen in warmer waters with their beautiful shiny shells, this one had a thick layer of sand and dirt with a group of barnacles growing on its shell. This certainly worked in its favor as camouflage in the So Cal environment.

We each moved in closer, one at a time, for a good look at the turtle that continued to sit there eating and looking at us. We stayed with the turtle for a good 5 minutes, with divers taking pictures and video before he tired of us and moved on his way. As I looked around with a smile I could tell that this special moment wasn’t lost on this group of experienced divers with high fives and dancing taking place around me.

Seeing special things like this brings a smile to a diver's face and renews the saying, "you never know what you will see”. The pictures you see here are the very pictures taken that day at the Marine Room.

Tips for Basic Regulator Maintenance

Today let’s focus on regulator care. I have seen many regulators come in for service that just make my skin crawl. I just don’t understand how some people do not take care of equipment on which they depend so completely while diving. Regulators with corrosion in the first stage can be avoided with regular care. The gritty sand which gets into your second stage and seems impossible to avoid, especially when diving La Jolla Shores, can also be removed with regular care.

I will give you some tips on how to take care of your life-preserving regulators. I would also like to dispel some of the misunderstandings on the auto closure devices (ACD) on the Aqua Lung regulators and a tip on a relatively unknown fact about the Atomic regulators.

We all know we need to test our equipment before we use it diving. For those of you who have taken a class at The Dive Shack, hopefully you remember when testing a regulator you need to breathe on it. Pushing the purge valve on the regulator to ensure it is working, in fact does nothing to test its proper functioning. When you push the purge valve, yes you make air come out, but that does not test the integrity of the diaphragm. When the reg is in your mouth and you inhale, the diaphragm collapses onto the purge valve which opens the regulator to allow air to flow. Testing your reg by actually breathing on it not only checks the valve, but also the condition of the diaphragm, and the way the regulator will be operating during the dive.

When putting your gear together for a dive, here is a helpful tip to care for your reg. Before you put your regulator onto your tank valve, blow a puff of air out of the tank. This will clean out the tank valve, which will ensure no water or other debris gets into your regulator.

Now let’s talk about post-dive care.

After your dive, when you take the reg off the tank valve, make sure the dust cap is clean and dry before you put it back into place and secure it with the yoke screw. Just remember you do not need to crush the dust cover, finger tight always works here.

Now let’s talk about that ACD (auto closure device) on your Aqualung regulator. Some people think that because of the ACD located on your first stage, the dust cap is no longer needed. This is not true. You should still use the cap, just don’t install it to where you are pushing in on the ACD causing it to open. The reason for using the cap is, even though water is not going to get into the regulator, it will collect in the face of the ACD and if you put the reg onto the tank you are now allowing water to drip into your first stage which leads to corrosion.

When rinsing your regs, slosh your second stage around in fresh water and move any parts that are movable (i.e. adjustment knobs). It’s not a bad idea to use a cleaner like the one sold at TDS, it helps dissolve salts and chlorine. Rinsing will also help get the sand out. Some people like to soak their regs, this is really not needed, and in fact if the dust cover is not on properly water may enter the hose and trickle back into the first stage. After you rinse the reg let it hang to dry. You should make sure to drain any water that collects inside the second stages and in the ambient chamber of the first stage.

Atomic regulators are designed with a small leaf spring in the second stage. The purpose of this spring is to take the pressure off the rubber seat in the inlet valve when there is no air pressure coming down the hose. The up side to this leaf spring is it takes some of the wear away allowing a longer life for your reg. However, the down side to the leaf spring design is, even with the dust cap on, water can get into the hose from the second stage. This is why you should never soak an Atomic Regulator.

For storage, keep your reg in a cool, dry place; never in direct sunlight for an extended amount of time. Some people like to spray their gear with conditioner. It is fine to be one of those people, just make sure you use a food grade silicone (sold at The Dive Shack) and never, ever use an oil. Spray some silicone onto a dry rag and wipe it on the hoses, mouthpiece, and even the reg body if you like. This will keep it looking shiny and new. But remember don’t spray it into the reg; just wipe it on the outside with a clean cloth. You want to avoid getting any silicone on the diaphragm.

The last thing to keep in mind when caring for your regulator is to take your gear in annually to TDS for service to make sure it is clean inside, and that it is working within factory settings. Also, during the service overhaul we freshen your regulator by changing out all its o-rings and seats.

So in closing, to keep me happy and you safe during your dives, make sure you follow the proper assembly and disassembly of the gear. Test your equipment the way it is meant to be used. Clean your equipment thoroughly while ensuring you take care not to allow water into the first stage or the hoses. Store your equipment someplace where it will not get dried out. And finally, make sure your gear is serviced regularly according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.

If you ever have any questions regarding the care and maintenance of your gear, read the user’s manual and or give us a visit at The Dive Shack.

Enjoy your regulator and happy diving.

Humility Expounded

There have been some very significant Rods in my life. Many of you know Rod Tuttle, owner of The Dive Shack. Rod Deutschmann is probably a new character to you though. Rod D. (this could get confusing, huh?) and his wife Robin are amazing photographers and the instructor staff for San Diego In Focus Learning Center (http://www.iflcsandiego.com/). From the beginning my classes with them were mind blowing. They were able to simplify all of the confusing terms and settings for manual photography into simple concepts. They then had you apply these simple concepts to your own camera, in class. Each class was spent outdoors moving all over and shooting. You would concentrate on changing the settings until you achieved the image that you had pictured in your mind. Classes were fun! I learned so much each session, and was excited to come home and apply what I had learned. I was willing to shoot a piece of gravel in the driveway just to perfect these concepts.

Pinhole Camera Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

One of the first things that Rod D. taught me was that all a camera consists of is a box with a hole. In photography, we are just using the camera to capture light. We control the hole or aperture - how large it is and how long it is open - to make our images. That is it! A pinhole camera is the most simple of cameras, and perfectly illustrates the "box with a hole" concept.

Rod D. then simplified things even further for us. He said controlling a camera is as easy as filling a glass with water. The glass in this illustration is your camera sensor. You choose the size of the glass by choosing your ISO. The higher the ISO,1600 for example, the smaller the glass is and the faster it fills. A lower ISO like 100 fills more slowly.

It's your choice

The aperture would correlate with the faucet you are using to fill your glass. You choose how long it is on by choosing your shutter speed which shows up as a number. On my camera that ranges from 60" (60 seconds) to 4000 (1/4000th of a second). You also choose how fast the water is coming out of the faucet by how high you turn it on. On your camera, that correlates with your aperture or f-stop. The lower the f-stop is the bigger your aperture is. A bigger aperture lets light in more quickly so it fills your sensor up faster.

Take some time to find each of these settings on your camera. Get comfortable changing them all. Once you have done this, you have started down the path of taking full control of your images. You are going to love where this path leads you. We will explore each of these settings individually in future posts.