Steel_Stalk
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I’m moving from Two Harbors, CA up to Santa Cruz towards the end of this month. Looking for dive buddies on CCR, I also occasionally dive single tank and even more rare doubles. Just looking for a community/teammate!
Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )
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Welcome to Sandy Shoes!
My partner and I live close to the SC Boardwalk. We don't dive CCR, but you might spot us diving in Monterey area with singles... see you around!
My partner and I live close to the SC Boardwalk. We don't dive CCR, but you might spot us diving in Monterey area with singles... see you around!
leavenotrace
Contributor
Breakwater yesterday was about mediocre to cheap egg drop soup as bigbella observed; and green like those scenes from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
There was plenty of marine life to observe but no pinniped activity mid afternoon.
There was plenty of marine life to observe but no pinniped activity mid afternoon.
wnissen
Contributor
Any reports from the last couple days? Thanks in advance.
wnissen
Contributor
Excellent vis for Breakwater today, possibly due to very calm conditions and fewer than usual classes. A bit cloudy but solid 5 m / 15 ft. when dropping at 6.5, and extended to 10-15 m / 33-50 ft. at the end as the sun blessed us. Choose to abort a descent when I was rushing and having trouble equalizing. Came back up from 7 m and chilled for a few minutes on the surface. Ended up having one of my best dives at Breakwater, 55 minutes at 14 m / 45 ft. Saw a gorgeous Hopkins Rose, a fluffy white nudibranch the size of a Costco hotdog, and a good amount of señoritas, blacksmith, and kelp fish. Saw an interesting nudi that I've never seen before, about 10 cm / 4 in., very frilly and branched, off-white so it was hard to spot. Two larger snails (15 cm / 5 in.) were mating, while a tiny shrimp stood by, waving its claws to indicate "Hahahah, yes!" The lemon dorids were having a literal field day, I counted 20 on a single 30 cm / 12 in. rock!
Second dive was along the pipe, there is a tree blocking the traffic light unfortunately, but my guide Robert led us to just the right spot to drop anyway. Saw a dead decorator crab that was 45 cm / 18 in. and a bunch of teeny ones, nothing in between. A harbor seal lay down and showed its belly to me right next to the pipe, waited expectantly, and then raced off; truly they are the golden retrievers of the ocean. Metridia were mostly closed, but always nice to see. Saw a few Sandflat Elbow Crabs, that was a new one for me. Viz a bit worse even at depth, mostly 3-5 m / 10-15 ft. 65 minutes at 15 m / 45 ft. I have to give huge props to the divemaster who signaled me with her light and pointed out a Melibe leonina, aka hooded nudibranch, of which there were three translucent beauties hanging out on the kelp. What a weird combination of jellyfish and sea slug!
Second dive was along the pipe, there is a tree blocking the traffic light unfortunately, but my guide Robert led us to just the right spot to drop anyway. Saw a dead decorator crab that was 45 cm / 18 in. and a bunch of teeny ones, nothing in between. A harbor seal lay down and showed its belly to me right next to the pipe, waited expectantly, and then raced off; truly they are the golden retrievers of the ocean. Metridia were mostly closed, but always nice to see. Saw a few Sandflat Elbow Crabs, that was a new one for me. Viz a bit worse even at depth, mostly 3-5 m / 10-15 ft. 65 minutes at 15 m / 45 ft. I have to give huge props to the divemaster who signaled me with her light and pointed out a Melibe leonina, aka hooded nudibranch, of which there were three translucent beauties hanging out on the kelp. What a weird combination of jellyfish and sea slug!
wnissen
Contributor
Forecast was for perfectly flat conditions, and it held. I knew the visibility wasn't likely to be as good as it was last weekend, and indeed it wasn't: 3 m / 10 ft. most places. Since our secondary objective on this Aqua Tutus club dive was to practice DSMB deployment, that was actually just fine, though it makes for a pretty funny looking dive profile. It's amazing how quickly you can still use air even when you're not actually going anywhere except down to 5 m / 15 ft. and back again.
The wall was still loaded with large classes, and we did at least have the advantage of full sun, so we decided to stay shallow and get the maximum illumination. So for the second dive we dropped at the edge of the kelp nearest to the 2.5 marker on the wharf and took a general heading toward the pipe. As we bimbled about, the theme of the day was decorator crabs! Saw one feeding on red algae while artfully covered in it, and another that was camouflaged to hide specifically on kelp holdfast. We crossed the length of Middle Reef and ended up at the pipe. Instead of coming back in, we circled around the rocks close to shore and really enjoyed ourselves. A highlight was a half dozen decorator crabs all garbed similarly in frilly pink algae. A crab gang! If you weren't watching carefully, you would have thought they were plants. Er, plantlike not-plants. I was getting pretty cold toward the end so we exited with 85 bar / 1250 psi. Average depth of 5 m / 15 ft., 72 minutes.
Thanks to Jim and Debbie Driggers for organizing! If you're in the greater Castro Valley area, I do recommend the club. Home - Aqua Tutus Diving Club
The wall was still loaded with large classes, and we did at least have the advantage of full sun, so we decided to stay shallow and get the maximum illumination. So for the second dive we dropped at the edge of the kelp nearest to the 2.5 marker on the wharf and took a general heading toward the pipe. As we bimbled about, the theme of the day was decorator crabs! Saw one feeding on red algae while artfully covered in it, and another that was camouflaged to hide specifically on kelp holdfast. We crossed the length of Middle Reef and ended up at the pipe. Instead of coming back in, we circled around the rocks close to shore and really enjoyed ourselves. A highlight was a half dozen decorator crabs all garbed similarly in frilly pink algae. A crab gang! If you weren't watching carefully, you would have thought they were plants. Er, plantlike not-plants. I was getting pretty cold toward the end so we exited with 85 bar / 1250 psi. Average depth of 5 m / 15 ft., 72 minutes.
Thanks to Jim and Debbie Driggers for organizing! If you're in the greater Castro Valley area, I do recommend the club. Home - Aqua Tutus Diving Club
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