Date: LABOR DAY WEEKEND (3 dayer Live-Aboard: Great Escape boat)
Dive Location: San Clemente Island (Sat / Sunday) Catalina Island (Monday)
Buddy(ies): HBDiveGirl
Time: 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM every day...
Bottom Time: Hours!
Max Depth: 127 FSW
Vis: From eye-popping "are you kidding me?" to "15 foot, well this sux..."
Wave height: Boat diving
Temp at depth: variable - from 52 to 68
Surface Temp: HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT
Tide information: Whatever - we got scooters
Gas mix: All 3 days: 32% dive one, 26% dive two, Air the rest of the day
Comments:
This is my second year with this crew. This is the Labor Day dive yo face off private charter trip. Our charter masters rock. The trip is usually filled with competent divers ranging from the 5 or 6 dives-a-day type (like us) to the laid-back vacation diving 2-a-day types.
Conditions were not as good as last year - water not as clear, not as warm, not as still. But each day was filled with some excellent dives.
This year we brought the scooters - so it was the "Scoot like a brut" weekend.
Last year on this trip, I had only my little P&S Sony camera (pix from 2006 here), as the big cam was in the shop - so it was macro city in 2006. This year I took lots of Wide Angle shots, some Nudis, some fish pix - the whole deal. I used all 4 lenses (60mm, 105mm, 12-24mm and 10.5 fisheye) so the variety of the pix this year is better. I've posted some samples below. The entire gallery can be seen here.
Many thanks to HBDG for diving like you mean it. We saw so much fun stuff. Only with you do I get to do this stuff.
---
Ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOME MACRO STUFF
Polycera Tricolor - how 'dette saw this I'll never know. This thing was the size of a rice kernel. One of those look at the rock and it was just there things. I shot lots of these in Mexico, this is the first one I've shot in CA
Looked through a small rock tunnel, and this Fed Ex was at the other end - like a spider in a web. It was a really cool sight.
Tylodina Fungina - after 2 years of never having a camera in my hands when I saw one of these, me and 'Chica ran up on a bunch of these. I did a little dance. This is three of them chowing the same sponge.
A pair of Mexi's
SOME FISH PIX
Moby Goby - all of these Gobys on San Clemente were tinted more yellowish than the ones I see locally in SoCal or on Catalina.
Juvi Treefish - I remember last year seeing lots of these on San Clemente on this Labor Day trip. They are among my favs! When young like this, they are so animated and curious and playful - darting in and out of their hiding spots. When do they morph into the thick-lipped inert dullards we usually see clinging motionless to the deep rocks?
Kelpfish - these are my fav local fish. They do this curious thing of just hiding their head in the kelp and presuming I can't see them. They'll often bury their head in the modest fuzz covering a rock - having their whole body exposed, to the extent that I can come over and touch them... but they won't move. So confident in their camouflage, I can get right up on them. This one was playing hide & seek with me for a couple of minutes.
We saw two octo's the entire weekend. Claudette and I are octo magnets, so it was pretty creepy only seeing TWO.
Lots and lots of eels. Big ones, small ones, ones out swimming about. We saw eels on nearly every dive.
SOME SCOOTER SHOTS
A shot on the Ascent. I was having sinus issues this weekend, so my ascents were particularly slow. Plenty of time for some shallow zoom zoom pics.
Kelp Scooting. One of my favorite things to do on the Scoot is high speed Kelp Improvisation. We call it WFOKI (Wide Frickin' Open Kelp Improvisation). Pull the hammer, shift to 5th gear, and hold it there at all costs. Shucking and jiving, making quick decisions, working on quick thinking, agility, and of course, showing off for each other! Sometimes you make salad. Sometimes you crash and burn. But all the time your nerves are on edge. Its really best in a wetsuit - but in the morning (when we shot this) it was a little cool.
One of the wonderful things that separates the X-scooter from the others is you don't ever need to wrestle or negotiate with it. You dance with it. You lead, of course, but it deftly follows the lead of a skilled partner. And the beauty you make when you dance is inspiring. ABOUT THE SHOT: We were at about 70 feet, and the Breakfast Club was below us. We were on the way up, completely in mid-water, and I motioned to Claudette to dance in the bubbles. She went into the most amazing improvisational dance. Inspired by the bubbles, their sound, the pinnacles and the blue water around us, she was spinning and turning and diving and just putting on an inspired show. It was quite lovely. I must have taken 20 or more shots, but this is my favorite, and it captures the "in the moment" joy that these wonderful tools can inspire. It was a moment I'll never forget.
'Dette was feelin' it, and just threaded the tight crevice, upside down at full speed. Pretty cool.
We had this wacky idea of doubling up on the scooters, Gladiator style. Not too easy to turn, but lots of fun!
More scooter pics
HERE
HERE
HERE
..
.
.
.
Dive Location: San Clemente Island (Sat / Sunday) Catalina Island (Monday)
Buddy(ies): HBDiveGirl
Time: 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM every day...
Bottom Time: Hours!
Max Depth: 127 FSW
Vis: From eye-popping "are you kidding me?" to "15 foot, well this sux..."
Wave height: Boat diving
Temp at depth: variable - from 52 to 68
Surface Temp: HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT
Tide information: Whatever - we got scooters
Gas mix: All 3 days: 32% dive one, 26% dive two, Air the rest of the day
Comments:
This is my second year with this crew. This is the Labor Day dive yo face off private charter trip. Our charter masters rock. The trip is usually filled with competent divers ranging from the 5 or 6 dives-a-day type (like us) to the laid-back vacation diving 2-a-day types.
Conditions were not as good as last year - water not as clear, not as warm, not as still. But each day was filled with some excellent dives.
This year we brought the scooters - so it was the "Scoot like a brut" weekend.
Last year on this trip, I had only my little P&S Sony camera (pix from 2006 here), as the big cam was in the shop - so it was macro city in 2006. This year I took lots of Wide Angle shots, some Nudis, some fish pix - the whole deal. I used all 4 lenses (60mm, 105mm, 12-24mm and 10.5 fisheye) so the variety of the pix this year is better. I've posted some samples below. The entire gallery can be seen here.
Many thanks to HBDG for diving like you mean it. We saw so much fun stuff. Only with you do I get to do this stuff.
---
Ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOME MACRO STUFF
Polycera Tricolor - how 'dette saw this I'll never know. This thing was the size of a rice kernel. One of those look at the rock and it was just there things. I shot lots of these in Mexico, this is the first one I've shot in CA
Looked through a small rock tunnel, and this Fed Ex was at the other end - like a spider in a web. It was a really cool sight.
Tylodina Fungina - after 2 years of never having a camera in my hands when I saw one of these, me and 'Chica ran up on a bunch of these. I did a little dance. This is three of them chowing the same sponge.
A pair of Mexi's
SOME FISH PIX
Moby Goby - all of these Gobys on San Clemente were tinted more yellowish than the ones I see locally in SoCal or on Catalina.
Juvi Treefish - I remember last year seeing lots of these on San Clemente on this Labor Day trip. They are among my favs! When young like this, they are so animated and curious and playful - darting in and out of their hiding spots. When do they morph into the thick-lipped inert dullards we usually see clinging motionless to the deep rocks?
Kelpfish - these are my fav local fish. They do this curious thing of just hiding their head in the kelp and presuming I can't see them. They'll often bury their head in the modest fuzz covering a rock - having their whole body exposed, to the extent that I can come over and touch them... but they won't move. So confident in their camouflage, I can get right up on them. This one was playing hide & seek with me for a couple of minutes.
We saw two octo's the entire weekend. Claudette and I are octo magnets, so it was pretty creepy only seeing TWO.
Lots and lots of eels. Big ones, small ones, ones out swimming about. We saw eels on nearly every dive.
SOME SCOOTER SHOTS
A shot on the Ascent. I was having sinus issues this weekend, so my ascents were particularly slow. Plenty of time for some shallow zoom zoom pics.
Kelp Scooting. One of my favorite things to do on the Scoot is high speed Kelp Improvisation. We call it WFOKI (Wide Frickin' Open Kelp Improvisation). Pull the hammer, shift to 5th gear, and hold it there at all costs. Shucking and jiving, making quick decisions, working on quick thinking, agility, and of course, showing off for each other! Sometimes you make salad. Sometimes you crash and burn. But all the time your nerves are on edge. Its really best in a wetsuit - but in the morning (when we shot this) it was a little cool.
One of the wonderful things that separates the X-scooter from the others is you don't ever need to wrestle or negotiate with it. You dance with it. You lead, of course, but it deftly follows the lead of a skilled partner. And the beauty you make when you dance is inspiring. ABOUT THE SHOT: We were at about 70 feet, and the Breakfast Club was below us. We were on the way up, completely in mid-water, and I motioned to Claudette to dance in the bubbles. She went into the most amazing improvisational dance. Inspired by the bubbles, their sound, the pinnacles and the blue water around us, she was spinning and turning and diving and just putting on an inspired show. It was quite lovely. I must have taken 20 or more shots, but this is my favorite, and it captures the "in the moment" joy that these wonderful tools can inspire. It was a moment I'll never forget.
'Dette was feelin' it, and just threaded the tight crevice, upside down at full speed. Pretty cool.
We had this wacky idea of doubling up on the scooters, Gladiator style. Not too easy to turn, but lots of fun!
More scooter pics
HERE
HERE
HERE
..
.
.
.
Thanks for sharing.
