The night after the woman was life flighted off of our deck we were
off Catalina Island ready for a night dive. I had never dove at night
which was already making me nervous and then the captain told us that
there was a rapid rip tide that would suck us out to sea if we missed
the tow line so we should make sure and get it right. Sucked out to
sea sounded bad so I made sure I knew where the line was and when the
dive was set to wrap up. We went down and it was amazing everything I
pointed my light at was alive and moving and we saw sharks and a huge
sea bass. I got close enough to even tough a three foot shark and I
was ecstatic but like all good thing the dive ended and my dad got us
in position to ascend and intercept the drag line to get us into the
boat safely. While we ascended I got turned around and ended up 30
feet from the drag rope and the force of the rip tide was starting to
pull me away from the boat at a pretty good clip. I was terrified and
swimming as hard as I could but in the confusion I forgot to put in
my snorkel and I was swimming with my head out of water which is no
way to make headway. I was trying to scream and get someone's attention but I couldn't do anything but flail and feel the ocean pulling me away from the boat and safety. My dad saw me and dropped the line and swam the forty feet
to me and then hauled me back to the drag line which I gabbed and
held harder than anything I have ever held in my life. We worked our
way back to the boat and got out and the fear of almost being swept
off and needing to be rescued drained away and all that was let was
the euphoric buzz of a magnificent communion with nature. That
feeling of helplessness and being saved by someone strong and
competing was awesome. As soon as my dad had me I knew we were going
to be fine and that is the kind of feeling a dad should give a boy.
