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Diving for abalone is a sport enjoyed by lots of on the north coast of California. Using scuba tanks or any other underwater breathing apparatus is not enabled and you must get them by diving while holding your breath. Not to say that you can't go out at extremely low tides and "rock pick" them without entering the water, however this post is about diving for them, which is the main technique of taking them.

First off, an abalone is a big snail that resides on the rocks in the shallows of the ocean. Although there are numerous types, the one sought after here in northern California is a Red Abalone. This abalone should be 7 inches across the shell at any point in order to be "legal" under California law and hardly ever grows to over 11 inches in its life. The typical one taken by the sport scuba diver is usually in between 7 and 9 inches. By law, every scuba diver must carry their own measuring gadget while diving which are large "U formed" tools with an inside width of 7 inches. The abalone are firmly connected to the rocks by their "foot" and are pried off with a flat bar, which also need to satisfy certain criteria lawfully to prevent damage to small abalone and those that are unable to be pried off. It must not be sharp or not wide enough so the abalone are not cut with it. Every scuba diver ought to read and acquaint themselves with the regulations each year for taking abalone, as regulations alter from time to time and infractions of them typically result in fines of at least 00 and can lead to prison time and the confiscation of your diving equipment due to the safeguarded status of these animals. For example, every abalone taken must be logged appropriately both on a tag and on the report card right away upon leaving the ocean, without exception. At this time, you might have just three abalone at one time, no matter if they are in your freezer in the house or in your dive bag at the ocean, and you might take only 24 in any one year. You may not acquire another scuba diver's abalone and hand them to him or her when in the ocean or "trade up" for bigger ones after you have actually removed a legal one from the rocks. Once again, other guidelines use so it is necessary that you check out the guidelines prior to diving.

The water on the north coast of California is cold. You will require a full wet suit, consisting of a hood, gloves, and booties. The other equipment that you will require will be a mask, snorkel, fins, weight belt, abalone bar, abalone gage, and something to keep your abalone in as they must be kept different from other divers'. I extremely recommend that each diver have and use a "dive tube" to keep their abalone in as this likewise functions as an indispensable security gadget, if needed. Sea illness, cramps, fatigue, and injuries do occur and such a floatation gadget can conserve your life. It also can provide a location to drift and rest or just to float and shoot the breeze with your good friends and enjoy the views. The dive tube also has actually the added feature of having shoulder straps so it can be used as a backpack for your equipment when hiking to and from the ocean. The bag is essentially a canvas covering with a zipper that confines the inner tube of an automobile. It has actually rings connected to it so you can connect things to it such as your determining gadget, fish bags if you are a spear fisher too, and clips to hold your spear weapon when not in usage. I highly suggest using a separate bag for your fish or sea urchins as the sharp fins and quills will puncture your tube and they are not inexpensive.

The wet match is neoprene which is a foam type product and the wet fits been available in various thicknesses. This product is very buoyant and the weight belt's purpose is to offset this buoyancy so that you can submerge. Without this weight, diving is essentially impossible. Each weight belt has a quick release buckle on it so that the diver can, if needed and as a last resort, shed this belt and float with ease. When you lose or shed your belt, either somebody else dives down to get it or your dive is over! Shedding your weight belt also causes you to lose a few of your maneuverability as your lower body and legs wish to drift rather of stay undersea to provide you "traction" in the water. The quantity of weight that each diver utilizes is important to that scuba diver's ease of diving. Excessive weight and you tend to sink and the climb is more difficult, and insufficient causes you to have to struggle to reach the bottom. A middle ground is required and this medium differs with each diver depending on their wetsuit's thickness and their body mass and height. A more portly individual might need a little more weight and a thin person a little less offered the very same height, however a taller individual may need more as they have more match to counterweight.

There is a simple technique that needs to be used by the diver to ascertain the proper quantity of weight to be used. The diver needs to dawn all equipment to be dove with and enter the nature water somewhere calm and near coast where he can easily float. A dock in a harbor or a releasing ramp are good spots for this and ensure it is in the seawater that you plan to dive in, not fresh water as the buoyancy is much different. Start with about 20 pounds of weight on your belt and use a couple pounds more if you are taller or more robust than the next guy or lady. Float still while you are straight up and down with your hands to your side and your feet still. The water level must such that your dive mask is half under the water and half above so you can look either under or over the water. Change the weight to your belt until you reach this stability we call "neutral Buoyancy". When you do this, remember this weight as it may very well stick with you your entire dive career and you will wish to know this if you lose your belt or rent equipment.

It is necessary that you acknowledge your snorkel as your best friend. This breathing apparatus permits you to keep your head in the water and float easily and let you see under the water with your mask while still breathing usually. Your head is extremely heavy - 15 to 20 pounds- and if you insist on not utilizing your snorkel and holding it up out of the water so you can breathe through your mouth and nose typically, you will be kicking your rear end off in order to do so. Practice with a mask and snorkel in a pool or river or even in the hot tub so you get utilized to it. Every dive it fills with water to your mouth where it is dropped in you shoving your tongue into the hole, preventing it from entering your mouth. Then when you come up to the surface, you remove your tongue and blow fast and hard to "clear" it of water so you can again utilize it. Much of the time this one tough blow gets 90% of the water out of it and a substantial mistake that brand-new scuba divers make is to presume that all of it is out and they take a huge gasp for that required air and intake that last 10 percent and choke on it. It is essential that you breathe softly and get a nice revitalizing breath of air so that you suck the air over the water that remains in the snorkel's bottom and then clear it when again to rid of that last 10% of water. This looks like quite a task, but it begins to become practice with experience as does much of appropriate complimentary diving strategy, which then enables the scuba diver a degree of comfort that transcends him or her from the amateur to the knowledgeable scuba diver. I can't stress enough just how much experimenting your snorkel will improve your abalone diving, spear fishing, or snorkeling experience.

Diving on the north coast of California isn't like the clear ocean waters of Florida, Texas, Mexico, or Hawaii. The water here is not just cold, however generally quite rough and usually dirty where the exposure undersea is only 5 to 15 feet. Although the abalone is discovered from the mean low tide level of the ocean to depths of 50 feet or more, diving in waters that are shallow can be both unsafe and exhausting. The ocean's waves are available in and out with terrific force and sweep the scuba diver where ever it chooses to, which can include putting his/her direct against a rock! Even if you do find an abalone, trying to remain in one location long enough to get it off the rock can be almost impossible and requires that you kick like a maniac and hang on for dear life. Diving in over 15 feet of water eliminates most of these problems as the waves are just swells that gently take you up and down on the surface area and have nearly no impact as soon as you are submerged. When you decrease and discover an abalone, you remain in still water where you can relax and concentrate. The amateur diver tends to see the shallow water as much easier and much safer, once they unwind enough to give the deeper seas a try, they quickly find out that their oxygen and strength lasts much longer and that the deeper ocean is a a lot easier diving experience.

Part of diving much deeper involves the essential function of what is known as "clearing your ears". Learning how to clear your ears when diving is an outright must in order for you to avoid breaking or damaging your ear drum. Maybe you or someone you know that has tried diving to the bottom of a deep swimming pool or tried to scuba dive has actually experienced severe pain in their ears. This is due to the fact that water weighs a lot. Get a 5 gallon pail of it if you don't think me! The weight of all the air in earth's environment at sea level is 14.7 pounds per square inch. There is less of it in the high mountains and it weighs less there so your ears "pop" to let your ear drums change for that difference when you head