Dive- verb\ dived \ or dove \ dived also dove; div·ing
1 a: to plunge into water intentionally and especially headfirst; also : to execute a dive b: submerge 2 a: to come or drop down precipitously b: to plunge : to descend in a dive Usage - Dive, which was originally a weak verb, developed a past tense dove, probably by analogy with verbs like drive, drove. Dove exists in some British dialects and has become the standard past tense especially in speech in some parts of Canada. In the United States dived and dove are both widespread in speech as past tense and past participle, with dove less common than dived in the south Midland area, and dived less common than dove in the Northern and north Midland areas. In writing, the past tense dived is usual in British English and somewhat more common in American English. Dove seems relatively rare as a past participle in writing.
1 a: to plunge into water intentionally and especially headfirst; also : to execute a dive b: submerge 2 a: to come or drop down precipitously b: to plunge : to descend in a dive Usage - Dive, which was originally a weak verb, developed a past tense dove, probably by analogy with verbs like drive, drove. Dove exists in some British dialects and has become the standard past tense especially in speech in some parts of Canada. In the United States dived and dove are both widespread in speech as past tense and past participle, with dove less common than dived in the south Midland area, and dived less common than dove in the Northern and north Midland areas. In writing, the past tense dived is usual in British English and somewhat more common in American English. Dove seems relatively rare as a past participle in writing.
The tides were timed nicely at 6PM, it was 89F and sunny and Tom was taking a student to Belmar and Benny “the Indiana Jones of diving” and I were joining them.
The A Street dive is off a short lane between a house and an apartment complex, just a block west of the bridge to Avon. There is a rock bulkhead along the water with the rocks on the left forming a natural staircase into the water. The parking is very limited, and although it looks like there should be no traffic on this road, it is in constant use due to the parking lot behind the apartments.
When I arrived Benny was having a conversation with the parrot that lives in the house on the west side of the lane. Apparently they had been speaking for some time and every time Benny spoke the parrot answered…..Hello!….Woo Hoo!….Hello!…and Benny would answer….hmmmm.
A look at the water proved less than promising, but Tom deemed visibility in the 3 foot range. Who were we to argue….we were going diving. We had decided to forego the dry suit for our wetsuits since they were easier to climb up the rocks with, and I won’t say which of us was harder to squeeze into their suit. It must have been something in the air since the car next to us was also a diver and we had to do some tugging and stretching to help him along also.
Once suited up we weren’t lasting long in the heat and headed down to the water to jump in. There was a young Hispanic man fishing on the rocks who did not speak English and we had a bit of a time trying to explain that we needed the egress he was standing on…..and he needed to pull his line in. When he finally moved over, with his line still in the water, we had 7 divers lined up ready to drop in. This was going to take a while. Jeesh!
Benny and I climbed in first (note once again I had kitted up at the speed of light) and floated about with the dive flag waiting for Tom and his student. “Someone” had forgotten their dive flag and the Coast Guard has been handing out tickets so we were going to all gather round the same flag. The water seemed a little cool….and dark. A little cool and a lot dark.
We dropped down with visibility at about 3 inches. This was not good…..but maybe we had stirred things up with so many divers entering. We headed out with both of us keeping a hand on the flag line to keep from getting lost. Tom and his charge may have been on our heels but we couldn’t see them and did not again until they exited the water.
We swam along poking a finger in the sand just to know where the bottom was and several times I banged off of the rocks as we happened on them so quickly. Then it seemed we lost the edge of the rocks and were getting into some deeper water. We were turned around and heading out into the channel.
I pulled out my compass. Don’t laugh, I actually figured out we were heading North! Benny in the mean time was tapping me and trying to point in the direction he wanted to swim and so we turned, but we were really struggling trying to see the compass to follow it. Using the current, compass and bloodhound like homing skills, Benny brought us back to the rocks and the exit at A Street. Good Job!
We decided to see if things were any better heading west and dropped down once more. Looking down I could not see sand and looking up the light was blocked as Benny dropped down on my head and I scrambled to get out of the way. We were in a pile on the bottom and sorting out the flag line and signaling OK to each other with our lights. Then in the haze of the beams of our dive lights you could see two divers simultaneously signaling “up“ …. this was crazy….this dive was officially over.
We climbed up the rocks, squeezing past our fishing friend once more, immediately followed by a second dive team. About a minute later, our solo diver scrambled on up, and last but not least…..Tom and our student diver, now thoroughly schooled in low viz Jersey diving.
There could have been crabs and starfish….and lobster and conger eels…….and 3 foot stripers and platter sized summer flounder….and dolphins and sharks and humbolt squid! There could have been……really!!! We just couldn’t see them…..or anything else. I kept shining my light in my face just to make sure it was on. It was pretty much the only thing I saw the whole time.
As we all packed up our gear, and Benny continued his repartee with his parrot buddy, we discussed the conditions and the dive and looking at our computers Benny and I had a dilemma …. His computer said we dove 11 minutes in 48F water at a max depth of 13 feet….and mine……well my dive was 17 minutes in 10 feet of 47F water.
Was viz so bad we didn’t dive together and didn’t realize it? Or just two different brand computers not quite in sync? Or it just could be that "someone" was a little light on weight and had some trouble getting down? Or maybe both. But fitting all this stuff into one 11-17 minute dive? I am sure we had to work at that.