Dive Into Your Imagination

For the longest time I thought that the oil rigs off the coast of California were harming our ocean environment. Little did I know they are actually providing for it and the animals on it. Because of these huge structures many species have a home now including my friends the seal lions! This was my first dive on an oilrig and I will always remember it. You’ll never believe what happened on the dive!

After signing our releases that said we are not terrorists and will not destroy the rig, we received our briefing from Captain Curly. Anticipation was building and as much as I wanted to just jump in we had to go over safety precautions. Curly informed us that because it was too deep to anchor up it is a live boat dive, which means that the boat will remain powered on and the engines will only shut off when divers are exiting or entering the boat. Yet another item to add to my first time experiences on this dive.

My dive buddy J and I had the opportunity to create our own short film on our experiences of the dive. I was very eager to even experience the dive for underwater learning, and creating something from it added even more to the anticipation and excitement. After filming our stand ups of our pre-dive thoughts we got geared up and got ready to rumble. Five of us sat down in a line on the swim step and prepared to dive in. Looking like synchronized scuba divers, one by one we dove into the water. We then immediately approached the oil rig and began our descents!

My eyes bulged as I entered a new dimension that looked so much like something from a Sci-Fi movie. Besides the huge pillars that provide homes for the animals, I saw so many interesting creatures. Creatures like crabs, skeleton shrimp, and vibrant purple, yellow, and orange anemones. My favorite was the barnacles; they are suspension feeders so they stick out a fan like hand and catch as much bacteria as they can and quickly suck them back in. I grew up on the beach playing among barnacles on the rocks but never before had I seen them eat and witness such incredible ocean adaptations! After I was mesmerized on all the diverse creatures and their activity I explored the rigs structure.

The oil rig consists of larger than life pillars that criss cross and hold the whole structure together. There was donut shaped structures that you could hover in and were covered in all different colors simulating the frosting and sprinkles of a donut. As I observed the structure I swam in and out of crevices becoming one with the rig. All of the colors and shapes made this whole experience surreal and I would do it again in a heartbeat! We continued to gather footage for our story and were so involved in the production we forgot about air consumption!