Rear ended, plastic faces , and WOW...

Trip report , Windy Point Private, Mothers day weekend...Only contains the first dive...other dives from the weekend to follow.

Saturday started out rough, first we woke up at the time we were supposed to meet Melissa and Chris at the park, and I am not one who accepts being late so needless to say I was a bit rattled. Then as we are on our way I realize I forgot all the bedding so I head back. Just as I am pulling back into our drive way Melissa calls and asks if we can pick her up EMT shears since hers broke. So it was actually good that we were running way behind. Sadly Harbors did not have any shears. So we decide we are hungry and head to McDonalds to catch breakfest (we never are up this early on a weekend so this is a treat) There was one car ahead of us and NO ONE ahead of her, and suddenly I realize Nathan is on the horn and I am yelling "Stuipid Fing Ahole" ...The bitch backed up into us. After finding out our car has no damage but hers does we tell her its no big deal and go our seperate ways.

Once we arrive at WP my mood shifts. Im about to get my dive on. Melissa and I are both working on our navigation, so she brought some numbered milk jugs to set up a little course for our group. While me and Nathan set up our tent and crap the others went to start setting up. They only got the start jug in place before there were gear malfunctions so on the next dive (which yay Im on) we were going to set up. While we are preparing to go Robert with Lake Travis Scuba comes over and asks if we want a free boat dive. Some rich dude and his plastic eye candy trophy girlfriend paid him to retrieve a anchor they lost. At first we are all about it, and Robert describes the dive site. Once he leaves to go get the truck ready me and Melissa register the site brief..."cables...devils cove..." and we decide we do not want to add this to our log books and let the boys know they are free to go but we are not comfortable. I already go out of my experience but so far I have not gone out of my comfort zone...This dive was out of my comfort zone and no free boat ride is worth that. However Chris, Nathan, and Matt are well capable and comfortable enough with the situation to go.

Now is when I go from content to giddy...Diving with just Melissa is a huge treat (no Im not a dyke but shes the best dive buddy ever ) and when it is just me and her is when I feel most capable in not only myself but in the water. So our plan was to finish setting up the nav course, her run it once , then air permitting just hang around and watch the fish. My job (yes yay I finally have a job under the water) was to pass her the jugs in order when she needs them, which means we get to make new communication signals. Wp is very busy, tons of students, hehehe it feels nice not to be the newest SD in the water... and we decend, and wow I must say I am starting to grasp buoyancy, it hasnt completley kicked in yet but I can avoid the crash landing, and I can after just a few adjustments, maintain neutral buoyancy and it barely hold up the dive plan.

We head to the starting point and I sit by and watch her make her compass adjustments and we head to the first jug that was in place already. Once we get to the second point I hand her the second jug and watch as she places it and secures it. At this one I could tell it was not a natural feeling to her (just yet) , and I watch as she writes stuff down on her slate. Then on to the next point, I notice she is not only much faster but more efficient in her placement and time spent and realize Im really proud that I have a buddy who not only is still learning but is a fast learner at that. I dont get nearly as much time to check the bottom for anything cool before we are off to number 3. Number 3 was set up before I even had time to tie up the bag the jugs were in. Same with number 4. However at number 4 is when she got to take a few seconds to set her compass to get back to the starting point... She did amazing, considering this was her first time setting this up and the fact shes new to getting so technical with navigation I was very proud of her, we got back with no trouble and both had a butt load of air still left.

Now she gets to do the run through to see if she was accurate on the degrees and such. Melissa swam through that course per her writings with ease, although she did make minor corrections to her numbers but they were very minor. I was really happy for her and I could definitly see the pride she felt in charting the course and felt it as well for her. We both mesh together in diving because we have similar likes in how things should be, we expect perfection from ourselves but not from others. So we understand each other I think, and it is one of the many reasons I feel completely secure with her as a buddy. After we run the course we still have a shit load of air left and decide to play in the water with the fish a bit.

I love watching the fish watch me, I feel as if they are shrinks and I am the messed up person on the couch, but I dont have to pay them to fix me. They just do, they fix me, the water gives me this feeling of being enveloped with understanding and acceptence in an unknown world. Being accepted with the unknown makes the surface easier, I know the surface, I know the world we live in, if I am feeling the grace in the water, then I must surely feel it above ("Don't call me Shirley, Shirley"...name that movie quote). While remaining stationary on the platform we watch the world go by us , we watch fish watch us , and then we see Todd, neither of us actually had seen Todd before and the fact that he was okay with us touching him made him even more perplexing. Todd let Melissa touch him, and since he didnt swim away I touched him as well... which figures, made him swim away. He was a beautiful fish who was not named until after we were on the surface and identified him and Melissa says "ahhh he's a crappie, we shall call him Todd". Anyways that is getting ahead of our dive so back to the water. At 700 psi we motion to go to our safety stop, we were at the steps and hovering on these steps was this HUGE monster of a bass. She literally would not move, no matter how close we got, and in truth seemed a bit pissed of our presence. When I looked to Melissa to shrug at her to explain the behaviour she just rubs her tummy, that is when I realized the fish was a bass...she meant good eats/ watching over her fry.

Once we surface I couldnt hold it in. That was my best dive ever. There was something amazing in the way the dive went from start to finish. It was exactly what I needed to start my weekend. There were so many little signs that I am coming into my own under water. One of the biggest things I felt and saw was that Melissa does not feel like she needs to watch over me constently, as if we transformed together from scared newbie, to equal buddies. Thats actually it, (seriously the following just hit me while writing this) I think finally Melissa felt I was safe enough to be her buddy, in a good way, not that I wasnt a buddy to her before but before I was so new and she did not know me enough to tell if I was safe. Now I think she sees me and is comfortable with my skill to a point she to can relax in the water with me, she can somewhat let her guard down with the knowledge that we together are okay. Wow. I hope to get her feedback on if thats the case because it will help me to accept that I finally am coming into this unknown world and can be looked upon as a competent scuba diver with the skills to take care of myself and aid in taking care of my buddy if the need so arises. I just got goose pimples, I really am a scuba diver, I really am able to after just a little over a month of diving, feel this sense of my existence as a scuba diver. I breathe under water... me, wow. I think the past dives were more surreal for me, as if I was just an observer directing a film that eventually I would star in.

Okay I actually just had to take a break from the blog, I needed to grasp all that I had just realized and wrote. I basked in this new found status others referred to me by, but I had not truely felt yet. It was a very beautiful moment and I do not think anyone will understand how important that previous paragraph was to me but I hope that it is accepted and that my friends do not start referring me to the yellow pages to seek thearpy. Anyways back to the diving, or well at this point the surface interval, me and Melissa reiderated our happiness at staying behind from the boat dive, it was to me a perfect dive, and the happiness was evident in my words, tone, and body language. Theres something to be said about the vulnarable emotions I have after a dive, its as if I am a more naive me. One who has not experienced a world of pain in the past 30 years, the me that is trusting and open to the world. Now the dive perticulars, we had a max depth of 54 feet, down for 58 minutes (my longest dive thus far) the vis was at best 15 feet, maybe 20 but I suck at determining that so dont quote me on it. The water temp was not bitter cold, but it helped that the surface was in the mid 90s.

Our plan for the next dive was to play with the camera, after all I need to get me a proper dive avatar for scuba board. However that started to change as the boys came back from a not very successful retrieval. For this fact I will state the following, Robert with Lake Travis Scuba has not had a easy time trying to get this anchor, and the nice guy he is has gone above and beyond in trying to help this couple out. Also I must point out that he is a new resource to us divers and as such I would like to take the time to promote his business for a bit before ending this chapter of the weekend. When I first met Robert was 2 weekends ago when I had my first boat dive. I had blogged about it but somehow the blog disappeared in cyber space and my words on his operation were gone. It was well known to him that I had not been on a boat dive, and although his job simply was to charter us to the sites of our choosing , he took the time to explain many things to me about the boat, the sites, the lake, safety, and well you name it and he helped me. The only thing he failed to mention was that it is normal to tip a boat dive. Sadly I did not do this, because I didnt realize it. And knowing what I know of Robert it probably did not cross his mind that I did not tip. I truely feel that the whole reason he is operating the giant stride is simply because he loves this sport and the people in it. I think the tip he enjoyed was the moment his divers surface and thank him , with our smiles of joy at seeing parts of the lake not easily accessable. Because of this reason I urge any Austin divers, and others planning to visit Lake Travis to go to http://www.laketravisscuba.com/ and book a trip with his operation as soon as possible, and tell him I sent ya. That way I can feel less guilty about my lack of tip that he more then deserved. I know I plan to make as many trips as possible with them, you will find no greater sense of hospility then you will with him and his boat "The Giant Stride" . Thank you Robert, thank you for showing me Sternes Island and the old Scuba Park, thank you for taking a chance and starting a business catering to scuba divers, we all thank you and appreciate the vision you help create by showing divers parts of Lake Travis that may get ignored or over looked.

Due to life I must end this weekend blog , but I shall share my other 4 dives including the night dive shortly. For now I must go do what other people do, work... but while I take this surface interval of life, I will bask in the dives that I took this past weekend. The dives that shaped me into a title I finally earned...Scuba Diver.