San Fransico and Burning Man

In August 2009 I was excited, as I was only weeks away from attending my first Burning Man festival in Nevada.  One week before, I flew into San Fran and spent a few days in San Francisco hanging out with a bunch of my college FSU friends.  The day before leaving for the desert I went freediving with Mark, courtesy of Gene (president of the SanFran Reef Divers club).  We drove 3 hours North to a secret spot (haha) known for big abalone and rockfish.  Since the water was not clear, we scrapped the spearfishing and decided to get us some abalone (a very exquisite and expensive mollusc only found here and in New Zealand).  This was my first time diving in cold water, and also a first diving in a kelp forest.   Actually, first time on a kayak in the sea too!  So a quick paddle out to about 100m from the coast, and in the water we go.  The cold wasn’t so bad, but I have to admit that the extremely low visibility and the thick, heavy and stiff wetsuit sure took a toll on my bottom time.   Even though searching in 35 feet was not as easy as usual, we all got our limit of 3 abalone.  And although no big fish were seen, the bottom was very interesting, from the many rocks in the bottom to the underwater kelp trees that were everywhere across the water column.   Besides one kelp tree reaching out and tearing Mark’s fin off his feet (somehow I later found it), all went smooth.  And after cleaning up and cooking one up at the beach, I can now say I am definitely an abalone connoisseur.  Yummy!!!!!!

The very next day we drove through Yosemite National Park, then Reno, and off the the Nevada desert, to "Black Rock City".  What an experience, 1 whole week living in an artificial city with no rules, just surviving on BIG FUN and good vibes.  Repeating next year 4 sure!