Mac is SCUBA certified

Mackenzie passed, with flying colors, her SCUBA certification. My plan has worked, now I have a home grown SCUBA partner. It took a little extra work, well money, to get the certification, but I think it will be worth it for her.

Two weekends ago, we went to the beach so she could complete her #2, #3, & #4 ocean dives. But the ocean had other plans, surf, swell, current all were at levels prohibiting send my first born into the ocean. So we resceduled for last weekend.

When I went to the dive shop the night before the dives were suppose to happen, the word was that the dives would most likely be cancelled. Since I had already signed us up for a boat dive this coming weekend, we really needed to get Mac certified. I suggested going to Catalina on the Catalina Flyer/Express to Mackenzie's dive instructor, who was all for it. One problem, we had to get the shop manager to approve ~ it took a little work and for me to pay for the boat ride, we were heading to Catalina.

Saturday morning, alarm goes off at 4:00 - AM! Got Mac up at 4:15, left the house at 4:30, picked up the instructor at 4:45, got Long Beach around 5:30, left the dock at 6:15. We were at Catalina Landing by 7:05 in the Taxi at 7:15, at the dive site by 7:30, and in the water for the first dive by 7:45.

Now when we went into the water, there were a couple of people around the casino, but not too many. When we surfaced, there had to be well over 100 divers walking ~ most dive students. The problem with most students is that they are people that are more or less not comfortable in the water. Then they are strapped with 30-50 lbs of equipment, strapped with mask and fins, and told 'Get in the water'! It took about 15 minutes to get out of the water because of the people trying to get into the water.

Off with the tanks and I take them over to portable dive shop that is permanently parked at the casino to get air refills. 15 minutes later, we are wading through the crowd to get back in the water so Mac can complete dive #3 which is dive 2 for the day.

The visibility is great at Catalina, especially for California diving. We had about 50 foot visibility and the water temp at depth was around 60 degrees, not bad. Casino point is a protected marine habitat, and I am fairly sure the fish know it. There are some of the biggest calico bass there that I have ever seen. One disturbing note was the lack of kelp. I heard that a recent storm may have ransacked the kelp forrest there, as there was much less of the tall green stuff then the last time I visited. The good news comes from looking at the rocks, plenty of young kelp begining to sprout.

So back to Mackenzie, she reminds me of well me! At least as far as being comfortable in the water, she never had a problem with any of the skills, including; removing - replacing - and clearing her mask underwater, removing her bouancy compensator (weight intgrated) underwater, or maintaining proper bounancy. Her instructor was very impressed and had no problems signing off on her.

Hopefully in a couple of years when Ashley is old enough she will want to dive into the water as well. SCUBA is like swimming in an aquarium, it is a wonderful recreational sport, and anyone that lives near the ocean should experience the fun!