Alabama Point Seawall 1-1-8 Dive Report

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Somehow managing not to get obliterated New Years Eve Night, and also keeping from destroying myself with firework mortars, I was all ready for diving on the first day of the new year. Getting to the parking lot on the West side of the pass a couple minutes late, algulfdiver, cmufieldhockey, halftime, wjefferis, and Tim were already onsite. After a bit of discussion, we decided to get in the water where the jetties met the seawall and dive the seawall, heading north, on the chance that the tide swaps and we could ride the current back to our entry point. It was around 60F and the water looked clear, but tannic from the surface. Algulfdiver, wjefferis, and Tim made up one team; while cmufieldhockey, halftime, and myself made up another.

Once in the water, which was 59F in the tannic portion, we dropped down below a halocline to a balmy warm(bwaha!) 62F layer of clear saltwater with a solid 15-20' visibility. Eventually, we came up on the beginning of the rubble pile and likely made it halfway between where the guardrail started and the bridge down the wall. Saw a large smooth butterfly ray, small southern ray, puffers, filefish, cowfish, sand perch, sandfish, pinfish, mangroves, hermitcrab, stonecrab, sheephead, small grouper(scamp), searobin and even a seahorse. Lots of urchins, anenomes, and tubworms could also be found if you looked around a bit. Had a total dive time of 59 minutes with a max depth of 27'.

The majority of our group, including a few non-divers, hit up the Hooters in Gulf Shores afterwards for a couple drinks and a little grub. Made for a good way to warm up while trading tales of the sea! Great time and an awesome way to kick in 2008!

 

[cmufieldhockey8]

It was a wonderful way to start the new year! Halftime's daughter was kind enough to be our topside photographer.

The dive site

A nice show of divers

Algulfdiver, wjefferis, and Tim

Algulfdiver, wjefferis, and Tim climbing over the rocks.

suprbugman, me and halftime

Getting ready to get in

I personally had some issues the 2nd half of the dive... I put my bungie back on my rec wing but I didnt' cinch it up enough because I coudln't dump any air the entire dive. I also couldn't dump from the dry suit either because I think I had too much air in it for the shallow depth we were in. I couldn't fix the wing not dumping because putting myself upside down the in dry suit to get the wing to dump put all the air in my feet. Then my boots almost came off because of the air in my feet. Meanwhile I'm holding on to the flag, swimming against the current and grabbing every rock I can find. hehe

After I surfaced with halftime and dumped alll the air form everything, i went back down and had a lovely final 5 minutes of the dive.

 

[wjefferis]

This was my first dive on this site, but it defintely will not be my last. I had a good time and was surprised to see so much rubble along the seawall. When I first arrived and looked at the water by the seawall it looked like Morrison's after a bad couple days of rain so I opted to dive without my camera as I thought it would be useless (big mistake ). Once we got out a little ways and penetrated the thermocline the water temp went up from about 59* to about 62* and the visibility increased from about three feet to about 15 feet and up to 20 feet in some sections. Once I saw the clearer water and began to see all the life out there I began cursing through my regulator that I left my camera in the truck lotsalove. Oh well, I guess I will just need to get back out their again soon and take a few hundred photos.
I took my time on the way out and really looked around and was pleasantly surprised to see as much life out there as there was during the colder season. On the way back in gulfdiver1970 I believe was either a little low on air or was having trouble with bouyancy with a low tank (I was out of the loop as all hand signals were given to Algulfdiver) and he surfaced. Since Algulfdiver and I still had a little ways back to our entry point we cut our leasurely dive back in short and booked it back to make sure gulfdiver1970 wasn't hanging out by himself. We still had a total dive time of 55 minutes with a max depth of 27 fsw. The dive and dinner at Hooters was definitely a good way to start off this year, just might have to make this a tradition.

 

[Tom Smedley]

Mat

Did you do it in your three-mil??

Looks like a great time.

 

[gulfdiver1970]

was a great dive today, would have been nice had i had my weight right, boy that was a fight from the word go ,but was greatful to get to go with a great group and saw some real cool stuff!!!!

 

[cmufieldhockey8]

I'm not sure a single diver had his/her weight right... unless wjefferis did.

 

[wjefferis]

I was expecting some surge and current so I went a little heavy. It was easily compensated for with one extra push of my inflator button on my BC. The only problem came from trying to keep up with Gary on the way back in since we really booked it back to catch up with gulfdiver1970, then I was defintely feeling that extra weight.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

...would have been nice had i had my weight right, boy that was a fight from the word go...!!!

Yeah, I ended up with a couple slabs of concrete wedged into my BC - LOL

Mat

Did you do it in your three-mil??

Looks like a great time.

My 5mm was less soaked than my 3mm(from JB), so I opted for the 5 Halftime roughed it out in a 3mm though!

 

[algulfdiver]

I had no problem with weights, I even gave up 2lb to gulfdiver1970. The only issue I had was getting out of My wet suit after the dive, It was COOOOooold!!!!!

I was supprised how good the conditions were.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Its colder today though, HOLY CRAP!