Meistrell Family Dive Trip to Catalina

August 29th, 2007 by Jenna Meistrell

I paddled out for a surf this morning. The waves were choppy and walled out. The whole time I was sitting in the surf I was thinking about how peaceful it is underwater and how at that moment I would much rather be diving.

Last week I took my first dive class. After I finished I went with my Uncle Bob and cousins to do the dive check out in Catalina. Last Friday night Uncle Bob, Aunt Patty, my dad Billy, my brother Daley, Uncle Robbie, cousins Matt, Kelly, Kenna, Robert, Rhoni and Randi, our dive instructor Dave and two assistant dive instructors boarded the Body Glove Boat and made our way to Catalina. I fell asleep on the way but when I woke up someone was screaming, "White Dolphins". I didn’t know it but white dolphins are pretty rare. Uncle Bob pulled closer to them and my cousin Matt jumped overboard to snorkel with them as they swam by. My dad said if anyone else wanted to do it they better get their bathing suits on fast. I figured it was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities so Daley and I jumped in. As we floated on the surface with our masks in the water, they swam 5 feet beneath us and looked up with one eye as they passed. It was an amazing experience and a great way to start off the day. I had been nervous about diving but I figured if I could jump in the water with a pod of dolphins then I had already taken a big step and diving should be a piece of cake.

The diving part is easy but the gear…oh the gear. We had 8 dive students, Dave, our instructor, and 2 dive assistants on the boat, which equivocates to 11 BCDs, 11Tanks, 11 Regulators, 11 Dive Suits… you get the picture. Even on a boat as large as the Disappearence the gear took over. Not only was everything everywhere but also the gear was difficult to put on and suffocating before entering the water. Once I got to the bottom the struggle to get ready and put on all the gear was well worth the experience of being forty feet below the surface. In total we did 4 dives on the trip. The last day we went to Emerald Bay. We did two dives there and it was gorgeous. We swam through kelp forests, hand fed sea urchins to Garibaldi, and found an old toilet that like a reef became home to little fish and mini starfish.

By the end of the trip seven third generation Meistrells were certified and exhausted. As a third Generation Meistrell myself I am proud to be carrying on the diving tradition. Diving was in part what first enticed my Grandpa Bill and Uncle Bob to the ocean. It was their love for diving that brought them to Dive N’ Surf and then to Body Glove. Diving and surfing have coexisted for a long time though a lot of people don’t realize it. Older surfers used to dive when the waves were flat and surf when there was swell. Now when I come into Body Glove in the morning everyone is not always coming back from their morning surf. When the surf is flat you see dive gear in the back of everyone’s cars. I think it is pretty sweet that the Body Glove family is now carrying on part of a tradition that inspired the company.