They are all members of the Coast Guard Auxilery, the team from Cinema
Aquatics, now working along with our fantastic Los Angeles Fox Technicians
Eric Graychock and Rich DeAnda, to make a live report underwater possible.
For each dive demonstration, William Hall heads out with our photographer
Eric Barnes while Rob Trussel and I team up. Our 100 yard swim last only a
few minutes thanks to fins and some strong kicks. Once we reach the ships’
prop and keel, we meet up with four divers from the LA Port PD. The 8 of us
prepare to dive as Jim Pearson and Curtis Marzinzik from Cinema Aquatics,
along with Graychock, moor the boat to the aft.
Ten minutes out from each live report, we sink to the depths of the port.
The green, murky water allows for only a few feet of visibility. At this
depth we see the dive team conduct its training operation, the copper glow
of the ships massive prop and the mossy fur of the rudder, peering through
the brackish water.
Above the team in the pontoon boat drops an HD underwater video camera
system, connected to our wireless system above water through a blue video
cable.
I can hear the program through an underwater audio system (underwater coms),
where a cable is dropped into the water to transmit and also receive my
audio. Above, Eric Graychock manually switches audio out and in, so they
don’t cross over each other and thus cancell each other out. Got it? I am
sure you do, it sounds complicated and is has become quit a set up and
technical cooperation.
Ten feet above me, ships pass through one of the most essential ports in the
world — the port of Los Angeles. My photographer Eric Barnes and I are scuba
diving with the Port of Los Angeles dive team, 15 men committed to serve,
protect and in this case prevent.
The water hovers around 67 degrees and we can see only about five to eight
feet in front of us. Diving in any situation is dangerous, but in this case,
the traffic in the port is incredible. Tug boats, supply ships, cargo ships,
catamarans, cruise ships, water taxi’s and personal boats, among others,
clog the channel. These divers avoid it all and in many cases dirty water
from port activity and city runoff. Their job … to inspect everything. Hulls
of ships, pipelines and docks, just to name a few. Of course that coincides
with everyday police work and even water recovery.
7,500 acres handling 150 billion dollars in commerce, that’s what this area
is all about. As Port Police Captain Mike Graychik tells me, “Port
operations go on 24-7 and diving in the port is dangerous diving, it’s dark,
it’s dirty, there’s a lot of structures in the harbor that are potentially
dangerous.”
And in this day and age there are people and elements that remain a danger.
Groups around the globe intent on denying freedom and damaging the safety
and security of the United States.
Says the Captain, “Our mission is to ensure the safety and security of the
port and our officers train for that. They have the mindset that we’re
combatting terrorism here and we’re focused everyday on ensuring that we
make the port as safe as it can possibly be.”
So, how do we show these men and their demonstration live? We’ve hired the
team from Cinema Aquatics, a team of former militaruy divers who now
primarily work in movie and television production … as far as we know, we
are the first news crew ever live underwater, let alone in water under a
busy port.
