Metridiums

We found the Metridium field off of San Carlos beach on Sunday... Sucked half the air out of our tanks just trying to find the dern things, which left us one minute to take a picture and then skedaddle back to shore. They were all closed up for some reason - normally they are topped by feathery appendages. Hard to tell scale in this picture, but these creatures are huge - about 1 ft tall each. My dive computer also failed on this trip (thanks, Oceanic!). As a result I ascended a bit too fast and had the weird sensation of a bubble traveling up under the skin of my face (nitrogen??). It's resulted in a slight headache this week, but seems to be fading...