Ben Her Rides Again!

[Mo2vation]

Question: What happens when you hand off your scooter to your buddy?

Answer: Comedy!


Here is the sequence from this weekend. We were on a 3 day trip, scootering our faces off. This was the last dive of day three - last dive of the trip. We were getting a little silly...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moments after the hand off - Chica clipping on and trying to figure it out




Chica looking over the monster. Fires up left engine, about to fire up the right engine





Chica slowly takes off. "I think I can do this...."





ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM!!! Starting to trim out & pick up some speed. Looking better!





After a long straight run, 'dette takes her shot at a bank turn... of course she nails it, and is on the way back to where she started





Unable to contain herself any longer, she laughs and burns... sinking to the bottom in a pile o' scooters and bubbles...


.
.
.
.
.
.
.

[mwhities]

hahaha Hilarious.

I love that viz. Where were the two of you?

Michael

[Mo2vation]

This was on Catalina. The site was "Little Gibraltar". It was mid day, sun overhead, and the depth was about 30'.

This is what the site looked like when we dropped - clear with sand and long, LONG schools of fish.

That's the shadow of the boat, 31' above us!

---
Ken

[TobinGeorge]

Now you need to add JetBoots, zoom, zoom

Tobin

[dsteding]

Wetsuits, scooters and that vis? That's it, I'm packing my bags . . .

[mwhities]

Wetsuits, scooters and that vis? That's it, I'm packing my bags . . .

I was wondering if Bill would need a roommate.

Michael

[archman]

I look forward to the sequel, using three scooters.

[do it easy]

I look forward to the sequel, using three scooters.

and hook them up dog sled style!

[fdog]

OMG this is too funny. I'm giving this a try Thursday, with my luck the scooters will end up in opposite directions and pull my arms out at the shoulders...


All the best, James

[HBDiveGirl]

OMG this is too funny. I'm giving this a try Thursday, with my luck the scooters will end up in opposite directions and pull my arms out at the shoulders...

Oh... THAT happens all the time! (The opposite direction thing, not the pull-out-arms-at-shoulder thing ) The key was to keep the scoots in front of me with each handle tilted correctly.

To go straight: 2 o'clock on the left scooter, and 10 o'clock on the right scoot.
To make a sweeping right turn: both handles at 2 o'clock.

But, you can only TRY... when the ponies split up and head for opposite hills... LET GO!!
Just laugh and let go. The whole horse and buggy show just stops gently and amusingly.

Then rope the ponies back in, line up their noses... and GiddyUp again!!!


You'll figure it out surprisingly fast... Be prepared to hoover your tank at an astonishing rate due to all the laughter.


A thousand thanks, Ken, for coming up with this brilliant game. When you signalled 'stop", foisted your camera into my arms, and then absconded with my scooter... I couldn't figure it out. Then... I couldn't stop laughing at the shear joy of it. Within a few minutes, my hands were itching for my turn. TOO MUCH FUN!! Thanks

~~~~~~
Claudette

[Thalassamania]

Looks like you folks had some fun. Here's another approach that's likely not quite as mirthful.

[drbill]

Hey, Ken... didn't realize you were so good with Photoshop. That certainly doesn't look like the Little Gibraltar area I dive often. NICE vis! I was going to comment on your title. Ben Her? Isn't that the Roman gladiator that had a very primitive sex change operation? Then I realized you were referring to Claudette.

[HBDiveGirl]

Hey, Ken... didn't realize you were so good with Photoshop. That certainly doesn't look like the Little Gibraltar area I dive often.

HA! That was the gist of the conversation in the wheelhouse as Captain Tim pulled the hook after the dive: Nobody knows quite what to call this lovely little reef area that's always filled with fish and octopus. It's sort of "Little G. adjacent"...

It was an unexpectedly sweet little spot for our final deco stop on a busy 3-day live-aboard. Clear warm water and rivers of fish. Heavy gravel-sand substrate so even a boat-load of rototilling divers and Roman bare-back-circus-Scooter phreaks couldn't muck up the viz. The octopuses had razor clamshell middens on their front porches... unusual to see only one kind of beercan tossed out by these little cuties.

It was an hour in a sunlit aquarium. Frontside Catalina magic.


'Dette