April '05 Dive Reports

[dazedone]

Date: 4/2/05
Dive Location: Santa Barbara Island (Pacific Star)
Time: 1st dive: 07:46am 2nd: 09:54am 3rd 11:44am
Bottom Time: 1st dive: 50min 2nd: 47min 3rd 57min
Max Depth: 37ft
Vis: 30'-40'
Wave height: 4ft on the backside, 2ft on the frontside
Temp at depth: 59
Surface Temp: 70

Comments: With the beautiful weather on friday and due to the fact that I had only 3 dives (!) under my belt so far this year (I did 107 dives last year), I HAD to get in the water. So I called up Dave and Sonja of the Pacific Star and left them a voice mail asking if they had room on the SBI trip tonight. Sonja called me back within 30 minutes and asked me where I've been (the last time I was on the Pac Star was in July), yes we have room and we would love to have you.

I packed up all my dive gear and arrived at the boat around 9pm. I snagged my favorite bunk, did the waiver thing, chatted with my trip mates and got to sleep by 11pm. I woke up around 5am and we were just passing north of Catalina and you could just begin to see the outline of SBI ahead. We arrived at the island and I opted for breakfast before my 1st dive.

The dives were the usual SBI stuff, great vis, the usual socal sea life and of course the sea lions SBI is so famous for. I spent most of my 3 dives hovering 5ft above the bottom and shooting photos and video. I got some good shots. The sea lions were all over me and they kept bumping me in the back of the head. One even dropeed a sea cucumber on me which I passed back to him.

The Pac Star is such a great boat. Friendly crew, lots of space, nice bunk layout and the only boat I know of that actually has a professional chef working on board. Chef Mike cooks up some good home cooked food, not the typical dive boat crap.

Another fantastic day of diving...

I posted the photos here:
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=952

 

[scubacalifornia]

Date: Sunday, 4/3/05
Time: 8:47am
Dive Location: Heisler Park, Laguna Beach
Buddies: Ron Hawkins, Mike Sveen
Bottom Time: 1:07
Max Depth: 37’
Vis: 10’, lots of particles
Wave height: 1-2’
Surge: 1-4’
Temp at depth: 55º brrrr!

Comments:

We checked out Cress St. first, but it looked very choppy and murky so we headed for Heisler. Reasonably flat when we entered, but very choppy on the exit. The thing that struck me most is how far we had to go out to reach depth. Before all the storms, we would hit the reef at about 35’ of depth with a reasonable swim. Took the same heading as usual from the beach, but swam much further this time. The terrain has definitely been altered. Viz was maybe 5’ early in the dive, but opened up (still with lots of particles) as we approached about 30’.

Had a bit of a wild ride on the way back. Despite holding our compass heading very closely, lots of surge and current was pushing us NE. Mike’s tank came loose at the top in about 10’ of water, so I followed him to the surface, only to find we were within a couple feet of the large reef that juts out from shore – waves breaking overhead, washing machine action. Quick action and lots of hard kicking (thank you Atomic split fins) got us out, but I certainly hadn’t anticipated the marked change in conditions that took place in just an hour’s time.

 

[mccabejc]

Time in 6:30ish
Vis varied from 8 to 20 or so
Surge - very little at top part of reef
Current, just enough to help push us in
Waves....what are those *quizzical look*?
Temp- ok, I know we are in Cally, but sheeshhhhh
53F at 40 ft 56F above 30fsw
Time- 62 minutes
Max depth- 50 ft, ave 37ft

Gonna have to give you a B+ on this one. Where was the dive? If there's 20ft. viz around somewhere I wanna be there.

And was it 6:30 AM or PM?

 

[Stryker]

mccabejc,
She forgot to say it was Deadman's Reef....

 

[scottfiji]

Wrapping up a five-day liveaboard on the South Pasadena Reef. Spent time photographing a school of wuzzatfish:

wuzzatfish

At one point left camera rig on the reef, and had to execute a bounce dive to retrieve it:

bounce dive

No nitrox onboard, but plenty of Entex, ibuprofen, Robitussin, Kleenex, etc.

Looking forward to having working eustachian tubes and hitting some real water soon!

Hey Frank, after 5 days on a live-aboard, you must be dying for some local shore diving, where the fish are easy to identify, and the sandy bottoms are close by. Thanks for the report. Let's all get out this week...

 

[scottfiji]

Did seven great dives in San Diego this weekend, I'll give a concise summary in the following format:

time, location, max depth, bottom time, visibility, dive buddy

Saturday:
8AM - north wall, 85ft, 45min, 30ft vis, Sean
11AM - shallows, 25ft, 30min, 15-18ft vis, group
2PM - shallows, 20ft, 45min, 15-18ft vis, Emily
4PM - main wall, 75ft, 35 min, 25ft vis, Martin
6:30PM, main wall (night), 75ft, 45min, 20ft vis, Sean
Sunday:
10AM, scripps canyon, 75ft, 20min, 2-3ft vis, Simon
1PM, yukon, 98ft, 40min, 15-20ft vis, Simon

The water was freezing. Hypothermia! 49-50 degrees below the thermocline. Great diving though, good vis, and a great barbecue on Saturday. Highlights include a large angel shark, mantis shrimp, lots of squid. Got my nitrox and advanced certifications. My fiancee learned how to dive in her dry suit. Had good sushi sunday night with good friends. Did I say the dives were cold?

Pictures:
Dives in the La Jolla Canyon (daytime)
http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/LaJolla-Shores-April-2nd,-2005
Night dive in the La Jolla Canyon
http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/ShoresNight20050402
Diving the Yukon Wreck
http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/Yukon20050403

Enjoy! Looking forward to warm LA diving...
Scott

 

[Frank O]

Hey Frank, after 5 days on a live-aboard, you must be dying for some local shore diving, where the fish are easy to identify, and the sandy bottoms are close by. Thanks for the report. Let's all get out this week...

Hey Scott, I'm definitely ready -- although for me it's looking like a busy week. Thursday I'm taking a day off and going on the Peace with Jon and his son to Anacapa for some snorkeling/easy freediving (it's his son's spring break week). Will be practicing the "Gone in 60 Seconds" school of underwater photography (descend 20 feet, set up the camera, get the nudibranch shot and zip back to the surface in under a minute).

Then next week it's my son's turn for spring break, so Sunday the family heads south to La Jolla for a few days ... my designated diving days are Mon, Tue or Wed. Not the optimal timeslot on the boat schedules. I'd love to get to the Coronados, but it looks dicey ... Dive Connections has a two-tanker on its schedule Monday (4/11), but they cancelled that one this week due to lack of signups, and I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same next week (they need a minimum of eight divers to run). So I may be haunting La Jolla Cove in snorkel/freedive mode.

After that, for sure, it's the pristine underwater landscapes of PV, Redondo, Malibu or Laguna ...

P.S. Great shots from your own San Diego foray.

 

[scubainspired]

Date: 04/03/2005
Dive Location: Casino Point

Dive 1

Bottom Time: 39
Max Depth: 39
Vis: 10 -15
Temp at depth: 59
Tide information: High

Dive 2

Bottom Time: 37
Max Depth: 37
Vis: 15-20
Temp at depth: 59
Tide information: Med (rocks started to show)

Dive 3

Bottom Time: 35
Max Depth: 66 (Good old fashion reverse profile)
Vis: 10 -15
Temp at depth: 59
Tide information: Low (Steps? What steps I am a mountaineer)

Comments: This was my first time at casino point, I really enjoyed the dive. Saw an octopus, small wreck located at the buoy in front of the steps. However, I was a little disappointed. I always hear so much about Casino Point but I think there are a lot better more adventurous sites right here on the mainland. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the dive and I will go back, still, I think it will be for an over night trip.

 

[scottfiji]

Comments: This was my first time at casino point, I really enjoyed the dive. Saw an octopus, small wreck located at the buoy in front of the steps. However, I was a little disappointed. I always hear so much about Casino Point but I think there are a lot better more adventurous sites right here on the mainland. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the dive and I will go back, still, I think it will be for an over night trip.

Hmmm - not disagreeing with you, but just curious, which sites on the mainland are you talking about that are more adventurous than casino point? And what do you mean by more adventurous - an interesting choice of words!

 

[scubainspired]

Hmmm - not disagreeing with you, but just curious, which sites on the mainland are you talking about that are more adventurous than casino point? And what do you mean by more adventurous - an interesting choice of words!

Hey Scott,

Good Question, I should have taken my audience into consideration before I wrote that. What I mean by an adventurous dive; is a dive where I feel like I have to navigate to, find and explore the good stuff. Fortunately, my dive career is still in infancy, thus, making almost every dive site seem this way. Casino Point was as close to a boat dive from shore I think you can get. There were tons of other divers and stairs that lead right to the reef. For instance, Big Rock and Coral Beach I had to find for myself and being a new diver I was quite surprised that there is so much life right off shores. I did actually get some great advice on how to find the Big Rock from you. But it still felt like I had accomplished much more when I did find it, than I had at Casino Point. This point of view might be hard to imagine for so many experienced divers, however, I would be willing to bet that the reason so many of you have dived so many different place is rooted in these types of feelings. I remember watching a video clip some of you guys entering through these seemingly massive swells at a wrinkles dive a couple months ago thinking, “Wow I cant wait to develop skills like that, so I can explore every spot possible!”