Well, I wanted to take a coworker out on a dive because it finally warmed up last week (that balmy 73ºF), so my regular buddy, work buddy and I planned on doing the usual Marine Room dive. There was another guy waiting around for his dive group that never showed, so we decided he could come with us too (that way, if one person has problems, someone can help figure it out, and the other peeps still have a buddy). Surf was pretty terrible.. couple random couple feet tall waves hitting us from time to time on entry in a pretty low tide, and even before we got there the sand down from the last step was completely washed out so a tube sitting in 1/2 to a full foot of water awaited you as a hurdle to get to the ocean. Our max depth was 16fsw, average 8fsw, and the temp varied between 71ºF in the warm spots and random cold upwellings registering at 69ºF. On exit, the surf zone was looking so rough that my usual buddy wanted me to hand my tanks off in about 6' of water (we had surfaced because we lost someone again the viz was so bad) because I still can't lift more than 20lbs (because of the back surgery 2.5 years ago) and we surface swam back. The other two guys decided to drop and come in under all the mess topside. Judging just by the surf rolling in, no wonder viz was so bad. And that hour later? It was high tide hitting the steps, which is kind of strange that it would rise so fast... about 3' in an hour. I guess the strange ocean conditions might explain why the bottom of the stairs was washed out. Anyway, here's the half-way decent pics I got, with a video of the terrible viz:
towards the land, huge swells
out towards the ocean, my three buddies in more huge swells
And the usual critters - I was on top of this guy and could barely see him. I was so close his 3-4 buddies scattered. I tried to take a pic, but all you can see is sand, of his buddies. Cali. Spiny lobster:
A medium sized... ok, some people keep telling me it's a skate and some people tell me it's a shovelnose guitarfish. I think it's supposed to be the latter:
Sea Bass
Surfperch of some kind.
Senoritas
Couldn't get a good look through the viz, but there was a school of these guys-- they sortof looked like they had stripes on them like the last dive I did were there were big schools of these, and looking through the reef survey fish guides, it looks like this might be a salema?
Now this one was new to me.. it was pretty long, a sort-of pointy snout, and it has yellow fins and I guess spotty stripes.
Barred Sand Bass
Sargo
Garibaldi
And I think right about now-ish my usual buddy saw a leopard shark - I'm so jealous! Viz was bad enough that if he saw it under his nose, I probably wouldn't have seen it.
Bass of some kind maybe. It seems too light to be a kelp bass so..
they don't usually pull their fins out - Kelp Bass
Rock wrasse - I think the first time I've successfully gotten a pic of this lady. Maybe viz was terrible enough she didn't see me until it was too late for her to flee.
And that was it. Temps are ok, but we're not going in tomorrow. Taking the opportunity to sleep in :cool2:
towards the land, huge swells
out towards the ocean, my three buddies in more huge swells
And the usual critters - I was on top of this guy and could barely see him. I was so close his 3-4 buddies scattered. I tried to take a pic, but all you can see is sand, of his buddies. Cali. Spiny lobster:
A medium sized... ok, some people keep telling me it's a skate and some people tell me it's a shovelnose guitarfish. I think it's supposed to be the latter:
Sea Bass
Surfperch of some kind.
Senoritas
Couldn't get a good look through the viz, but there was a school of these guys-- they sortof looked like they had stripes on them like the last dive I did were there were big schools of these, and looking through the reef survey fish guides, it looks like this might be a salema?
Now this one was new to me.. it was pretty long, a sort-of pointy snout, and it has yellow fins and I guess spotty stripes.
Barred Sand Bass
Sargo
Garibaldi
And I think right about now-ish my usual buddy saw a leopard shark - I'm so jealous! Viz was bad enough that if he saw it under his nose, I probably wouldn't have seen it.
Bass of some kind maybe. It seems too light to be a kelp bass so..
they don't usually pull their fins out - Kelp Bass
Rock wrasse - I think the first time I've successfully gotten a pic of this lady. Maybe viz was terrible enough she didn't see me until it was too late for her to flee.
And that was it. Temps are ok, but we're not going in tomorrow. Taking the opportunity to sleep in :cool2:
