Just wanted to share an experience

Yesterday my buddy and I kayaked out to a shipwreck ~1 mile off of shore. The wreck is an old whaling ship that was sunk in 100ft of water for the use of a submarine that takes tourists underwater. The Wreck has been there for close to 3 years and has attracted some large and very tasty fish. i.e. Uku aka Green Jobfish, Mu aka bigeye emperor, Ulua aka GT and many other reef and palagic speciece.

The day could not have been better (well maybe less one experience), water vis was over 100ft, all the usual suspects were there and no current. On my first drop to the deck I messed up a great shot on a 10lb plus uku but was excited to see many more along with some very large Mu. I was able to land 2 very nice Uku, and the bigest Moana'ukali (blue goatfish) i have seen to date.

The experience I want to share is actually the fact that both my buddy and I blacked out. (obviously not at the same time) I have come close on a few occasions before, but done nothing more than a slight samba. Yesterday I went completely out. Luckily my buddy is a great dive partner and had me in his grasp the moment I broke the surface. He said I went out for no more than 3 or 4 seconds. I felt like I hadnt at all. I seemed to be able to hear, and see but all from a distance. I cant explain the feeling, it was actually very peacfull.

I want to stress the fact that one should ALWAYS dive with a partner, and that a partner should ALWAYS watch the other diver ESPECIALLY during deep dives! If Rusty hadnt been with me I probably would not be writting this blog. Luckily I was able to return the favor only a few minutes later. As Rusty had taken a drop and shot a small papio I noticed that he spent a little extra time untangling his shooting line from the railing on the wreck. When he got about 20 ft. from th surface I noticed that he was trying real hard to get up. I slowly met his acent and grabbed him as he broke the surface. He sambad for a number of seconds and completely went out. It was a scary feeling holding him there. As I reached for his weight belt I could feel him "comming to" It wasnt long before he was coherent again but I swam him back to the yaks and we both drank some water. We decided to call it a day, as we already had a cooler full of fish and it seemed foolish to push ourselves any further.

I just want to give a thanks to my friend Rusty for being a great dive partner. Its a good feeling when you can be confident that your partner will be there when things go wrong. And though I hope I wont have to do it again, I was glad I could return the favor!

DIVE SAFE