Side mount seemed like the great thing since sliced bread, so I got that certification too.
Unfortunately, for shore entry, it’s horrible. The first time after my certification I did it at Monterey Bay, it was really heavy and I got knocked around by the waves. Now I see why nobody does it around here.
Apparently to be invited to many of the cooler dives, people want to make sure you can take care of yourself somewhat better and require you be a rescue diver, so that was the next certification to do.
Did this one with PADI as the shop is close to work.
The second part of my trip was spent Scuba diving. I spent four days in Taganga with Poseidon Dive Center. It was fantastic.
I did the following
The water was about 75 degrees which was perfect for me for skin diving. Every day I dove Nitrox so I never felt tired afterwards.
I also got my Advanced Open Water PADI certification, so that was nice.
For filtering water. This will get everything but viruses. Add a few drops of bleach and you’re good to go.
Visited here the weekend of January 19. I highly recommend it for winter car camping, especially if you have kids.
I tried several campsites and all were either officially closed or snowed in. Sugar Pine Point is right on Lake Tahoe and was reasonably plowed, right up to where I could park the truck. Furthermore, it had metal boxes for storing food, picnic tables, fire pits, and was just a short walk to the lake.
We had easily over a foot of snow everywhere, temperature in the morning was 25 degrees and it climbed to 33. About as good as you can get if you want snow.
I ended up getting The North Face Ultra 110 GTX. I went out today for a rainy hike and they were quite comfortable, light, kept my feet dry through shallow puddles, etc.
We’ll see how well they do in six months.
Project Hemingway 