Finally, Some Bubbles

For some not so very good reasons I haven't been diving for over a year. It was time to you know what or get off the pot because I had an upcoming vacation planned for early April.

Luckily, I happened to meet a young man by the name of Nazem Youssef. Naz works at the PADI international headquarters and is a certified instructor. With my work schedule and my cycling activity it seemed that something kept on coming up that kept me from getting back in the water. So in mid March I made the commitment to take the PADI Refresher course. I met Naz at the pool and a couple of hours later I felt completely comfortable.

The proof is in the pudding right? Well the pudding set perfectly. On April 2nd I did my first "real" dive in a long time. I knew all was good when I dropped in and felt totally at home. I don't like being out of the water with all my dive and photography gear, I guess like a fish out of water. It makes sense, really.

I was aboard one of the catamarans from Tradewinds Cruise Club and this would be my fifth trip. Each one of their locations has a flavor all their own. Four couples, the captain and mate; that's it. A week of relaxing, swimming, diving, eating and a little touristy stuff. No phones, television or radio and no wake up alarms.

You're catered and pampered while still staying active. It's nice to wake up in the morning and jump off the back of the boat for an early morning swim before breakfast. I could go on, but this is about the bubbles, so here are a few pictures from the various dives. Excellent viz, friendly eels, three different kinds of rays including my first ever experience with a manta ray and tons of "stuff"!

These dives were in Tobago and for the entire week we were the only people in the water. Lots of coral growth, sea fans, brain coral, nudibranchs, you name it.



Here you can easily see how clean and clear the water is. The Tobagonians are not really keen of water, not even fishing it. There isn't a marina on the entire island of Tobago although there are surely enough bays that could easily hold some. We did happen to catch two nice size Dorado that we had for lunch.

The Spotted Moray was almost as curious as I was. I managed to get four pictures before I move on. It sat perfectly still even though I got within a couple of inches.

This Flamingo Tongue Cyphoma was kind enough to show its underside as it hung precariously to a piece sea fan that had broken away.

Here, a Flamingo Tongue and a Fingerprint Cyphoma gather their dinner on a piece of coral growth. There were pretty abundant throughout all the dives.

There are many types of gobies. These two had their own little hideaway in the coral head. You don't go looking for scenes like this but you have to be aware that you'll probably find some very unusual things and keep your eyes WIDE OPEN.

For me, this was the one. One diver spotted a barracuda about 20 ft away. I've seen them before so I didn't pay too much attention. Another diver pointed toward a lobster... I happened to turn around only because I remembered to look behind me as much as in front, below and above. There it was, a beautiful manta ray about 20ft away. I snapped one shot and "yelled" as loud as I could. The divemaster heard me and off we went after the ray. This second picture was at a distance of about 30ft. Then with one or two real flaps of his huge wings the manta disappeared into the blue.

After that sighting on the third dive nothing else mattered. There wasn't a care in the world, I didn't care if I never took another picture of if I ran out of air. The four of us came out of the water like a bunch of kids that just had the time of their lives, carrying on and trying to put the moment in perspective for our spouses and the other people on our catamaran.

So that's it, I'm back in the water. In a few weeks I plan on taking a day trip to Catalina Island although I'm not looking forward to wearing a wetsuit since the water will probably be 60F, not 80F like Tobago.

Training for Breathless Agony

After finishing the Tour De Palm Springs I immediately went into my Breathless Agony Training System (BATS). Scheduled for May 5, 2012 this will be my first attempt and will easily be the toughest ride I've ever attempted. My plan is to really ride long rides, climb a lot and completely throttle myself before I go on vacation to the Caribbean.

Then after ten days of sun and fun it's back to work and back to training.

Meanwhile, as part of my training I attacked Angeles Crest Highway from La Canada Flintridge (what a name!) to a point called Cloud Burst Summit. That's a starting elevation of 1650' and an ending elevation of just over 7000', although my real goal was a point called Dawson's Saddle at 7,901' above sea level.

I had no idea what to expect so I went prepared for anything. There isn't much water on this ride so on March 3rd I carried enough water to fill a reservoir or so it seemed. This climb isn't all that steep, it's just loong!

Then on March 10th I attacked the mountain a second time. I went a bit faster but still got no further than Cloud Burst Summit.

Convinced that I NEEDED to get to Dawson's Saddle I set out on March 24th to achieve my goal. I'm not easily dissuaded so it was off to the top for me. This time I was riding alone since other people I invited couldn't make it for various reasons.

It's not easy doing a long climbing ride alone. You need someone to push you, even if it's from behind if you're faster. This time I planned better, knowing that I didn't need to bring enough water for a football team. Strategic planning called for two stops on the way up. The first one was just over an hour from the start and the second stop was at Newcomb's Ranch about three hours from the start.

That's Hwy 39 in the background.

I filled my bottles, ate and continued on. I finally made it to Cloud Burst Summit and didn't even stop. I wanted to keep on going and going. The road leveled off a bit as I was nearing the area called Islip Saddle. Interestingly there were two tunnels that I had to ride through. I had seen these on maps but never thought about the fact I would actually encounter tunnels at almost 7000'. About a mile past the tunnels I came to Islip Saddle. This area is also known as the intersection of Hwy2 that goes from La Canada to Big Pines and Hwy39 that starts in Huntington Beach at the Pacific Ocean and makes its way inland until it abruptly ends at Hwy2.

From there I was really on my own. The gate was closed and I had to sneak around to continue on my mission of finally riding to Dawson's Saddle. A quick glance and under the gate I went. Suddenly I had renewed energy and a sense of being able to finally finish my ride. My pace quickened as I continued climbing. The winds were howling now as I was well over 7000'. Every time I rounded a bend the wind changed direction. Within a mile or two it turned from 25mph headwind to a 25mph tailwind. (trust me that's a lot of wind on a huge climb like this regardless of the direction).

My feet felt warm, the air was cold and I rounded what I thought would be the last bend. Then I rounded another one and yet one more. Finally!

I reached Dawson's Saddle and what a disappointment. It's a utility garage at the summit. Sure, there's a viewing area just another bend or two ahead but I wasn't about to go one foot downhill unless I was headed back to my car.

I didn't stop more than a minute to take a picture for posterity and I headed right back back down toward Hwy 39.

As I began down, I basked for a minute in the glory of having made to my destination, albeit a bit slower than I anticipated. I should have relished that moment a bit more because I didn't get more than a mile from the summit and I clipped a sharp piece of rock with my front tire. The tire deflated quicker than enthusiasm as I came to a grinding halt.

Hmm, this isn't so bad. Just throw a tube into the tubeless tire (yeah right) and soldier on. When you're tired, this process isn't all that easy. Needless to say, I pinched the tube so now I was really stuck. With no choice but to walk down the mountain, I did just that. Removing my cycling shoes made walking/jogging a lot easier until I got to the first wet area where the snow melt ran across the road. Not wanting wet socks I hopped on the bike and very carefully and slowly rode across the wet area. This happened two more times until I realized it was getting late and I was getting cold. The excitement had worn off and now it was late afternoon and the temperature was dropping rather quickly.

I decided to ride to the intersection of Hwy 2 and 39. Sitting as far back as I could on the saddle I carefully coasted at about 4-5mph (which was substantially quicker than walking at 3mph). Over an hour later and now about 2pm, I finally made it to Islip Saddle. Somehow I felt relief even though I had almost 40 miles to go just to get to my car. At least there would be other people, perhaps a forest ranger or LA County personnel.

Hitchiking! Stick out your thumb (at least that's how we did it back east) and someone stops to give you a ride. Yeah right! In this day and age my expectations were a lot higher than they should have been. Two or three SUVs motored on by. I started to think it was my disheveled appearance, my bike... there was nothing I could do to help the situation except try to make eye contact with a driver staring at me as they drove by.

The first "car" that approached was an older Chevy Caprice with enough room for a platoon and it was basically full with some young kids that looked at me very suspiciously. Imagine, 15-20 year old kids looking at 61 year old me suspiciously! But they stopped. I explained my situation and these "kids" offered to do what ever they could to help me.

To keep a long story from getting even longer, I was in the company of five of the nicest teenagers I've ever met. They helped me get my bike securely in the trunk and made room for me as if I were part of their family. Other than a few first names I know nothing else about them but I will always remember their kindness. There is hope for this world as long as we have young adults like that to take our lead.

We finally got to my car where I thanked everyone and got out of the car only to immediately almost fall to the ground. After all, I just sat in the back of a car for an hour and my legs had stiffened up to the point of failure. Add to that the blisters I got on the bottoms of both feet from walking/jogging down the first part and I could barely move.

Now approaching 4pm I called my wife who was very understanding considering that I was essentially MIA for quite a few hours. Love is wonderful. Tired and hungry I finally made it home and had the story of a lifetime to either boast about or embarrasingly relate depending on the company.

Regardless, it was another adventure in life that I survived. I don't know that I could say it was worth it, but damn, it was almost all that and then some. Live and learn.

So now, I continue to train for Breathless Agony but will be taking a break for a well deserved vacation. We'll see how the training goes after two weeks off the bike. Stay tuned.