New Depths and Epic Conditions

 2 weeks ago we were blessed with the best inshore dive conditions I have ever seen, which isn't saying much because I have only been diving for a year or so. However many people who have been diving for a very long time said they had never seen it that good.

  It was Friday May 21st, the day after the night dives, my hunting buddy and now roommate headed out to the Alexander Ramsey. It was kind of ironic that the 1st time that we met last year, we "tried" to dive this wreck. Neither of us knew our ass from our elbow as far as freediving was concerned then. This day was to be a much different experience. Alex has reached depths of over 100' and took the Performance Freediving Instructors intermediate course in Ft. Lauderdale last October. In April I took the basic Freediver course offered by Evolve Freediving here in Wilmington NC.

 I have been experiencing some sinus issues that have held me back as far as my depth goals have been concerned. I could not get past 33' during my course, which left me very disappointed, but not discouraged. I can't explain why, but for some reason I feel the need to hold my breath and dive as deep as I can and hunt for my dinner.

 Not having a GPS or a depth finder on the boat makes it difficult to find a shipwreck. Luckily there is a buoy in the vicinity to mark the artificial reef. It still is not easy to find though. I knew that if we could find the buoy I could find the ship, I have done several dives there on SCUBA with friends and on the Aquatic Safaris boats. Still no guarantees though.

 There were 2 boats fishing the area when we arrived, our buddies were on one of the boats and said they were on the wreck. It rests in around 45' of water, the top of the structure lies around 20'-25' from the surface. I looked over the rail of the boat to see a sight that I will never forget!

 Peering down into the ocean was like looking into a fish tank, you could clearly make out the wreck and even see fish swimming, keep in my mind I was still on the boat! Freediving is more or less meditating, as excited as we both were, we knew we had to stay relaxed and keep our hearts from racing. After actually getting into the water, I knew how special this day was going to be! You could see the bottom, 45' below. Offshore visibility like this is common, actually this would be mediocre, but only 3 miles from the inlet this is incredible!

 I dropped down to the wreck to check the anchor and was blown away, it was as if the wreck was alive. Well it is, being covered with corals and plant life, fish were everywhere, though most of them very small. We practiced the one up one down technique and shared a gun. The gun was attached to a float and a 50' line. The visibility was so good that while I was on the surface, I pulled on the line to alert Alex of a decent sized tautog behind him. Thwack! Dinner!


 We were comfortably hunting in the 25' to35' range in and out of the wreck. I swam under a ledge of the midsection of the ship and poked my head around an opening to see another tautog. Could this be my first fish taken from a wreck? Yup! Put a great shot on him and pulled him out of the wreck to the surface. It was not the biggest fish I have ever shot but, it felt great! I finally felt like a real spearfisherman.

 Another really exciting thing happened as I swam the fish back to the boat. I was knifing the fish to "silence" it, and had a feeling. I threw the fish in the boat and climbed in the stern of the 17' Pioneer, just in time to see the 4' Sandbar Shark literally inches from my fins, which were dangling in the water still. Awesome! It was a close call with the tax collector, but my fish came home with me!

 We made a lot more dives that day. I touched the sand at 43', my new personal best. The accessibility of this wreck leaves it extremely over-fished. We did not see too many fish that were worth shooting. What a great day! I  got to practice the skills that I learned in my basic freediver course, saw some beautiful marine life and explored a wreck while holding my breath.

 Alex and I made the full circle from our first trip to the Alexander Ramsey less than a year ago. This trip was different, we knew what we were doing, we dove the wreck, we hunted the wreck, we are Freedivers now, not snorkelers!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for further postings! The rest of the weekend had epic conditions, this was just Friday!