Video: Blue water at Lobos

[Peter_C]

Nice! What was the vis? Sunday definitely had a bit more swell than I had anticipated, but that means the water comes up maybe 2ft more up the boat ramp than usual

The vis was 100 feet. Minus around 75 feet you couldn't see through. Pretty good conditions for the North Coast with not enough surge to even talk about. Our night dive had great vis inside Gerstle Cove, then at the mouth it deteriorated to around 8 feet, then opened back up once outside the cove. We kicked all of our dives for a change. Ryan found a huge Wolf Eel, that we watched for awhile.

I am excited as our next planned dive is for launching out of Point Arena and diving Arena Rock! Gotta whip up some rope in the right lengths to build a sling for my boat so we can launch there. With hopes of an upwelling anything will be better than last time we dove there, with less than one foot of vis. I couldn't see the anchor rope in my hand.

 

[ae3753]

The vis was 100 feet. Minus around 75 feet you couldn't see through.

Very nice

 

[ae3753]

I still cannot believe how much life is on the South side, more stuff than I can possibly count.

Every corner every fin kick, fish were jumping out and greeting me....

Just a killer dive that I will not soon forget... :O

Really great to hear. Monastery remains one of my favorite sites as well, really beautiful and very nice on calm and cooperative days.

 

[Drewpy]

Nice to hear that the water is clear again!

Mike-When conditions are favorable.. S Monastary can be spectacular! I had one of my best Monterey dives there as well..60+ ft of viz, 2 five foot angel sharks in the sand,halibut, and a ton of life in all the corridors along the reef! It is a special place and I prefer it to the north side! Wish I had a scooter to get out around the bend...

But that sand and climbing that dune after sucks!!

Drew

 

[Gombessa]

As soon as SOMEbody gets into some drygloves... MoCal is on the schedule. ;-)

We'll see how long I last in wet gloves...

Ken, at least half the tech divers I know here have tried dry gloves and have moved back to 3-5mm wet gloves, so you may not be missing out on much. As for me, I'd rather have warm, dry bundled hands than have ease with snaps and double-enders!

Claudette, let us know the schedule, and we'll get fresh tablecloths and silverware ready

Gotta get back to Monterey next year, and hope for an upwelling like that. Last time I was down there, we hit one, and we had ambient light on Beto's Reef.

We've been very lucky further outside the cove; it seems like chances for good viz around Beto's are 50% better than at closer destinations (though we also only go that far on more calmer, higher-viz probability days).

After that shot both Kenn and I wondered if we shallowed any jellies while being battered around on the surface.

We should have brought some peanut butter and some toast, those little guys were flitting around everywhere at the surface. It as gorgeous!

This weekend is looking a little dicey though, seems like a storm is gonna slam into the coast by about Friday.

 

[boomx5]

Nice video! I can't wait to get back down to Monterey.

 

[kathydee]

Really great to hear. Monastery remains one of my favorite sites as well, really beautiful and very nice on calm and cooperative days.

I've never been to Monastery - but I am really starting to look forward to it!

Ken, at least half the tech divers I know here have tried dry gloves and have moved back to 3-5mm wet gloves, so you may not be missing out on much. As for me, I'd rather have warm, dry bundled hands than have ease with snaps and double-enders!

Have only done a few dives with my dry gloves, fingers are warmer but not toasty. I agree, now clipping is really awkard at best, especially when the fingers are chilly.

Will give it a little time to make the adjustment, but curious what the warmest local wet glove of choice is?

 

[Gombessa]

Have only done a few dives with my dry gloves, fingers are warmer but not toasty. I agree, now clipping is really awkard at best, especially when the fingers are chilly.

This depends on the glove liners (they're undergarments for the hands after all )

You can always get thicker liners, at the expense of even less dexterity.

IMO the biggest advantage of dry gloves is the extra barrier against leaky seals - when I was diving wet, I'd get damp forearms, especially when manipulating a lot of stuff like clips and during drills, because I have very deep tendon grooves. Now, even a near-complete dryglove flood still stops at the wrist seals.

 

[Hinalo]

Kenn's reason for switching to drygloves was the same as mine: wet forearms. I've gotten used to the dexterity issues and can do everything I need to do, except maybe a little slower. Just takes a little practice.

 

[kathydee]

This depends on the glove liners (they're undergarments for the hands after all )

You can always get thicker liners, at the expense of even less dexterity.

IMO the biggest advantage of dry gloves is the extra barrier against leaky seals - when I was diving wet, I'd get damp forearms, especially when manipulating a lot of stuff like clips and during drills, because I have very deep tendon grooves. Now, even a near-complete dryglove flood still stops at the wrist seals.

Kenn's reason for switching to drygloves was the same as mine: wet forearms. I've gotten used to the dexterity issues and can do everything I need to do, except maybe a little slower. Just takes a little practice.

I love the dry forearms and seal redundancy ! And the colored fingers make hand signals so much clearer.

But am annoyingly clumsy with the clips and getting stuff from my pockets -- which is taking way too much focus.

Thicker liners and less dexterity is probably not a good idea at this point ;-). But feet are cold too so am adding a much warmer undergarment next week & just ordered my 12mm hood which will increase core temp and probably hand temps? Equaling more dexterity.

Think I've only been diving the dry gloves for about 5 dives - guessing they will take a little while longer to get use to? How long did it take you to pass the fumbling stage?

Ah, I remember how easy is was to clip the 3/8" bolt clips when gloveless in the tropics ;-).