Sunny California???

THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN JUNE Here we are enjoying that beautiful California sun, scuba diving
in balmy waters. Can't you just feel the warmth as the ocean
envelopes your body and sends refreshing trickles of water down
the back of your wetsuit?

Here are two numbers to get my point across:
--------------60 degrees outside air
------------- 57 degrees water temp.

Here is how I survived the chill:
---7mm thick wetsuit with hood
---hot meals
---hot showers
---warm sleeping bag


As I look out into the steel gray water, imagining the shock
of 57 degree water running down my back, I can't help but
make excuses as to why I don't want to dive today.

Of course, Dave shames me into gearing up. We came
here to dive. So I pull on the suit, boots, hood, goggles,
fins. I strap on my life support and waddle to the edge
of the dive platform wearing 80 lbs of gear.


I don't feel the coldness of the water until it finds it's way
slowly through gaps in the suit, down the neck hole or the arm
holes. The worse part is submerging my exposed face and hands.

It's not so bad after my body heat warms the water in my wetsuit.
Sometimes you have to sacrifice comfort to see beautiful things.

The shock of the plunge soon is forgotten once I explore this
underwater paradise. The golden kelp beds wave in the current.
Colorful fish swarm around like bees. The sea floor is alive with
plant life. There is a lobster in every crevice, a sea creature at
every turn.

A huge jelly fish lazily floats into our path. As we look around we see
a dozen more off in the distance. It truly is a wonderland under the
sea.