Monastery Beach North

I am a brand new diver - this was my first dive after certification. We planned two dives, one in the morning, one in the early afternoon. We got in at low tide, around 10:30, and entry was a bit challenging, but manageable. The dive itself was glorious. Saw lots of fish, lots of marine life in general. We swam with dolphins!! It does get deep fast and we went down to 90-100 feet. It was awesome. The swim back was slow and we ran into occasional algae. The exit was a definite crawl, and quite tiring. The sand on that beach is just the right size to jam your regulator while being very hard to get out. For the second dive my regulator was jammed (we cleaned it up) and we were on our way for a second dive. The surf had gotten significantly worse. Entry was challenging, and I tested everything then went in. While they worked outside the water, in the water, both my regulators failed - I think it was a mix of coarse sand getting dislodged from hiding places and jamming my valves, and a mistake I made while putting my octopus back together. Needless to say, I decided to head back out, again crawling out. I almost died. I am a reasonably strong guy (mid-thirties, active, used to play rugby internationally). I got knocked by two huge waves, swallowed a ton of sea water, crawled some of the way and ended up in the surf utterly unable to move at all. A kind soul on the beach came my rescue, and help hold me against undertow that was sucking me back in. I did not read this page before diving there, but let my story be a reminder: THIS BEACH IS NOT FOR NOVICES or people not in great shape…