SNOBORDJON
Guest
man, with how cold it is out there and bad conditions, Im glad I chose to stay in.
JB
JB
April '05 Dive Reports
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HBDiveGirl
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Can't separate the diving from the weekend, so please bear with the non-traditional report format...it only happens 3 times a year!!
Thanks to our wonderful ScubaBoard SoCal Kelp Divers community, I had a great time this weekend at the April Winkles dive at Leo Carrillo campground.
I wasn't sure that camping and diving actually went together, but now I'm hooked and can't wait for the next time! Campfires, s'mores, cold beer and good-enough wine, STARS!, 1 minute drive to the dive site, hot showers, BLUE skies, frog songs at night and birds all day....it was a sensory delight! Yeah, I cheated and slept on an air mattress, but I popped out of the tent ready to dive each morning. Secret to Dive/Camping: a heavy duty rack to hang wetsuits afterwards. Thanks to Myrna and Jim for showing us the way!.
The Saturday dive April 9: Diving's always an exploration, and Saturday was no exception. We kicked out in high wind to the brown-water-turns-to-green line, hoping for the best. Viz got up to 3 or 4 feet, but it was nothing but sand that far out from the cove at tower 2. So, back in toward the reef and kelp, which had 1 to 3 foot viz. Enough to see lobster, lots of invertebrates on the rocks, (Spanish shawls!) and get GREAT practice at navigation and buddy communication. Carlos helped make it so easy I didn't realize until later how challenging it had been, with high current, brown to occassionally black viz, 48-50 F temp, and plenty of structure to discover with parts of your body other than your eyes. And we came up smiling because just getting to explore around underwater is always a blast! And there were all these cool friends waiting back at the campground so we couldn't lose. Smiles from Christian, TeqP, Captain Marvel, TechAdmin, and RossJC, said that ALL the divers took the conditions in stride and made it part of the weekend full of fun. The afternoon and evening at the campground was perfect California paradise...nobody pinch me, 'cause If I was dreaming I don't want to know. Perfect sunset lit the cliffs gold, and we toasted marshmallows and laughed for hours. The wind died Saturday afternoon, so we went to bed late but optimistic for morning dives
The Sunday Dives April 10: Still air, warm blue sky, and ScubaInspired arriving early to say, "let's go diving!" He and I volunteered as guinea pigs to splash in and report back. It was an easy kick over glassy green to the outer edge of the visible kelp, but dropping down brought us to 1 foot viz and a brown snow storm of debris at the bottom. It only made sense to head away from shore, so we tapped-tapped long and found a tall vertical wall blocking our path....beats the heck out of sand! We rose up from 32fsw to see that we had found a deeply crennulated reef with 4 or 5 pinnacles rising 12 feet off the bottom, and the viz got up to 5 feet once we rose off the bottom. This was GREAT!!! We both had lights, the rock was stuffed with critters and fish, and we could see each other enough to work our way over and around all parts of this big pinnacle! Spanish shawls and eggs, Giant feather duster worms, huge anemones, sheets of sponges in orange, gray, and brown, rock fish, garibaldi, painted greenlings, ghost gobies, brittle stars, orange ball sponges, little lobster, giant keyhole limpets, rock shrimp, chesnut cowries. We worked that pinnacle for all it was worth, knowing this was IT! Our needle in a haystack. And we had a great time, even with 50 degree water. It was still glassy when we surfaced. After a fun surface interval at the campground with bunches of wonderful friends, we hit it again. Headhunter and PeterMacGuiness lead the way across the still glassy water to the outer kelp line. Unfortunately, viz had deteriorated to a steady brown snow storm. ScubaInspired and I found some cleaner (3-4 foot viz?) water around several nice pinnacles stuffed with cool fish and invertebrates. The E-ticket surge had us drift-diving a good 6 feet back and forth where the current accelerated next to walls and crevices, but we both know how to relax and enjoy, so all was fun. When I grabbed a rock to look at a ling cod, the surge swept me horizontal and I fluttered like a flag in a windstorm until it let me go. You can't buy this kind of entertainment!! I put my hand down on the murky bottom, only to have the "sand" leap up and bolt off, as 14 inches of outraged halibut hurtled away. It was like stumbling around in a carnival fun house wondering what was going to happen next. 45 minutes left us both pretty numb but laughing as we headed back to camp and hot food from the grill. Camping and diving go together perfectly when all the right people show up to make it great. My son, Jacques, said it was the best camping trip ever with the nicest people. Yeah, what he said!!
Thank you, one and all, for three days of continuous fun!
See you May 7th in La Jolla!
Claudette
Thanks to our wonderful ScubaBoard SoCal Kelp Divers community, I had a great time this weekend at the April Winkles dive at Leo Carrillo campground.
I wasn't sure that camping and diving actually went together, but now I'm hooked and can't wait for the next time! Campfires, s'mores, cold beer and good-enough wine, STARS!, 1 minute drive to the dive site, hot showers, BLUE skies, frog songs at night and birds all day....it was a sensory delight! Yeah, I cheated and slept on an air mattress, but I popped out of the tent ready to dive each morning. Secret to Dive/Camping: a heavy duty rack to hang wetsuits afterwards. Thanks to Myrna and Jim for showing us the way!.
The Saturday dive April 9: Diving's always an exploration, and Saturday was no exception. We kicked out in high wind to the brown-water-turns-to-green line, hoping for the best. Viz got up to 3 or 4 feet, but it was nothing but sand that far out from the cove at tower 2. So, back in toward the reef and kelp, which had 1 to 3 foot viz. Enough to see lobster, lots of invertebrates on the rocks, (Spanish shawls!) and get GREAT practice at navigation and buddy communication. Carlos helped make it so easy I didn't realize until later how challenging it had been, with high current, brown to occassionally black viz, 48-50 F temp, and plenty of structure to discover with parts of your body other than your eyes. And we came up smiling because just getting to explore around underwater is always a blast! And there were all these cool friends waiting back at the campground so we couldn't lose. Smiles from Christian, TeqP, Captain Marvel, TechAdmin, and RossJC, said that ALL the divers took the conditions in stride and made it part of the weekend full of fun. The afternoon and evening at the campground was perfect California paradise...nobody pinch me, 'cause If I was dreaming I don't want to know. Perfect sunset lit the cliffs gold, and we toasted marshmallows and laughed for hours. The wind died Saturday afternoon, so we went to bed late but optimistic for morning dives
The Sunday Dives April 10: Still air, warm blue sky, and ScubaInspired arriving early to say, "let's go diving!" He and I volunteered as guinea pigs to splash in and report back. It was an easy kick over glassy green to the outer edge of the visible kelp, but dropping down brought us to 1 foot viz and a brown snow storm of debris at the bottom. It only made sense to head away from shore, so we tapped-tapped long and found a tall vertical wall blocking our path....beats the heck out of sand! We rose up from 32fsw to see that we had found a deeply crennulated reef with 4 or 5 pinnacles rising 12 feet off the bottom, and the viz got up to 5 feet once we rose off the bottom. This was GREAT!!! We both had lights, the rock was stuffed with critters and fish, and we could see each other enough to work our way over and around all parts of this big pinnacle! Spanish shawls and eggs, Giant feather duster worms, huge anemones, sheets of sponges in orange, gray, and brown, rock fish, garibaldi, painted greenlings, ghost gobies, brittle stars, orange ball sponges, little lobster, giant keyhole limpets, rock shrimp, chesnut cowries. We worked that pinnacle for all it was worth, knowing this was IT! Our needle in a haystack. And we had a great time, even with 50 degree water. It was still glassy when we surfaced. After a fun surface interval at the campground with bunches of wonderful friends, we hit it again. Headhunter and PeterMacGuiness lead the way across the still glassy water to the outer kelp line. Unfortunately, viz had deteriorated to a steady brown snow storm. ScubaInspired and I found some cleaner (3-4 foot viz?) water around several nice pinnacles stuffed with cool fish and invertebrates. The E-ticket surge had us drift-diving a good 6 feet back and forth where the current accelerated next to walls and crevices, but we both know how to relax and enjoy, so all was fun. When I grabbed a rock to look at a ling cod, the surge swept me horizontal and I fluttered like a flag in a windstorm until it let me go. You can't buy this kind of entertainment!! I put my hand down on the murky bottom, only to have the "sand" leap up and bolt off, as 14 inches of outraged halibut hurtled away. It was like stumbling around in a carnival fun house wondering what was going to happen next. 45 minutes left us both pretty numb but laughing as we headed back to camp and hot food from the grill. Camping and diving go together perfectly when all the right people show up to make it great. My son, Jacques, said it was the best camping trip ever with the nicest people. Yeah, what he said!!
Thank you, one and all, for three days of continuous fun!
See you May 7th in La Jolla!
Claudette
Diver_Jan
Contributor
Hey guys,
Jennifer, Lexi, and I met up this afternoon to dive Shaw's Cove. Conditions looked so-so. Calmer waters than that of the weekend, but lots of brown stuff in the water. Being that we were all going through diving withdrawls and Laguna Sea Sports reported 10 foot viz we decided to give it a try.
Wave height: 1-2' if that
Swell: pretty much non exisitant
Surge: 1-2' in spots; a tad more in the arch
Viz: 4-10 feet (generous) more like 8 perhaps.
Air temp: 57 degrees
Water temp: 'Bloody Cold' per Lexi; 52 degrees Suunto
(We actually had a wager going in to see who could guess the temp at depth. Lexi and Jennifer both said 51 degrees; I said 52. I think we were all on the mark.)
Max Depth: 45'
ABT: 63 minutes
After gearing up and making it through the surf zone, we dropped down in about 15' fsw. Viz initially was squat. We made our way gingerally over to the reef and headed south. As we got deeper, viz improved a tad. Lexi had never seen an eel or Spanish Shawl so Jennifer and I were keeping out eyes open. Saw lots of Chestnut cowries; sea anenomes, blacksmith, girabaldis, sheephead, treefish, greenlings, baby cuskeel inside a empty scallop, keyhole limpets, bugs galore (large ones too!), a HUGE sheep crab (yummy...I was salivating), Jennifer spotted two Spanish Shawls, then Jennifer and I spotted a huge eel to point out to Lexi. Shortly after that, I spotted a large Octo in rock crevice/ ledge. Jennifer took her glove off and allowed the Octo to explore her hand. That was cool. Reminds me of something Steve would do. LOL As we progessed towards the end of the reef I explored an area where bugs usually hang out. Not to many to be seen, but I saw the largest eel that I think I have ever seen. He was BIG>>>HUGE>>>MONSTEREOUS!
Forgot to mention that we went into the arch. The resident eel and octo are gone. Lots of fish in the crevices though. Dove through the arch to the other side. Was going to take the divas through the swimthrough under the souther rock of the arch, but it was DARK. A little too errie in poor viz. Shortly after that point we decided to turn around and head back out to the main reef.
All in all, great dive, great company; even with limited viz.
I won't be able to make the dive tomorrow night, but Lexi and I are going to dive Deadman's tomorrow afternoon at 4pm if anyone wants to show up for an earlier dive, then dive later with the group. We also plan to dive Wednesday afternoon before the SOCDC Meeting. Dive site and time to be determined.
Jennifer, Lexi, and I met up this afternoon to dive Shaw's Cove. Conditions looked so-so. Calmer waters than that of the weekend, but lots of brown stuff in the water. Being that we were all going through diving withdrawls and Laguna Sea Sports reported 10 foot viz we decided to give it a try.
Wave height: 1-2' if that
Swell: pretty much non exisitant
Surge: 1-2' in spots; a tad more in the arch
Viz: 4-10 feet (generous) more like 8 perhaps.
Air temp: 57 degrees
Water temp: 'Bloody Cold' per Lexi; 52 degrees Suunto
(We actually had a wager going in to see who could guess the temp at depth. Lexi and Jennifer both said 51 degrees; I said 52. I think we were all on the mark.)
Max Depth: 45'
ABT: 63 minutes
After gearing up and making it through the surf zone, we dropped down in about 15' fsw. Viz initially was squat. We made our way gingerally over to the reef and headed south. As we got deeper, viz improved a tad. Lexi had never seen an eel or Spanish Shawl so Jennifer and I were keeping out eyes open. Saw lots of Chestnut cowries; sea anenomes, blacksmith, girabaldis, sheephead, treefish, greenlings, baby cuskeel inside a empty scallop, keyhole limpets, bugs galore (large ones too!), a HUGE sheep crab (yummy...I was salivating), Jennifer spotted two Spanish Shawls, then Jennifer and I spotted a huge eel to point out to Lexi. Shortly after that, I spotted a large Octo in rock crevice/ ledge. Jennifer took her glove off and allowed the Octo to explore her hand. That was cool. Reminds me of something Steve would do. LOL As we progessed towards the end of the reef I explored an area where bugs usually hang out. Not to many to be seen, but I saw the largest eel that I think I have ever seen. He was BIG>>>HUGE>>>MONSTEREOUS!
Forgot to mention that we went into the arch. The resident eel and octo are gone. Lots of fish in the crevices though. Dove through the arch to the other side. Was going to take the divas through the swimthrough under the souther rock of the arch, but it was DARK. A little too errie in poor viz. Shortly after that point we decided to turn around and head back out to the main reef.
All in all, great dive, great company; even with limited viz.
I won't be able to make the dive tomorrow night, but Lexi and I are going to dive Deadman's tomorrow afternoon at 4pm if anyone wants to show up for an earlier dive, then dive later with the group. We also plan to dive Wednesday afternoon before the SOCDC Meeting. Dive site and time to be determined.
Lexy
Guest
Date: Monday, 4/11/05
Dive Location: Shaw's Cove, Laguna Beach
Time: 6:40 PM PDT
Bottom Time: 63 minutes
Max Depth: 46 ft.
Vis: 4 - 10 ft.
Wave height: 1-2 ft.
Temp at depth: bloody cold! 52F
Surface Temp: 59F
Tide information: -0.6 Low 6:40AM / 3.1 High 1:10PM / 2.2 Low 5:20PM
Dive Buddies: Jan & Jennifer
Comments: Met up with Jan and Jennifer this evening and had one of the most spectacular dives. We chatted for a bit, geared up and headed down to the beach. Met a couple from North Carolina, who excitedly requested to take photos with three diver ladies. We were greeted by 1-2 ft., long interval waves which didn't knock us down. The water looked mucky brown and viz was nil along the flats. We kicked out to the reef, where viz opened up to 5-10 ft.
On to the creatures - Started the dive off by seeing two beautiful spanish shawls, doing a lovely flamenco dance on a golden gorgonian. The quest to find moray eels was on... so we ended up seeing two large eels in two different portions of Shaws. They were both hanging out toward the back, joined by Garabaldi and a few blacksmith. The fish were pretty much snuggled up in the crevices. We found a group of garabaldi males, defending their nests. One of which, grazed my hand in a rather grumpy, darting fashion. Also saw two octopi - one of which came out to visit Jennifer's ungloved hand for a while. Brrrr! Rode through the crevice and under the arch - woah dude! Excellent ride! Toward the end of the dive, we busted a gigantic 3'-4' sheep crab. The thing was a monster and gave a threatening gesture to the three lady divers. The "grouchy crab" decided to boggy when we approached him but gave a good chase. The water was super cold tonight - where you could litterally feel the warm thermocline (gratefully) in the outer sections of the reef.
Other creatures: smooth brittle seastars, rock wrasse, kelpbass, blackeyed gobies, a juvie treefish, a few baby sea hares, sea cucumbers, bat stars, brown gorgonian, chestnut cowry, kellet's whelk, lobsters, scorpionfish, female sheephead, green anemone, sand dollars, but no triggerfish!
Kicked without incident, the sun was setting, easy exit with ankle slappers at this point. All in all, it was a fantastic way to end a Monday. Thanks again Jennifer & Jan for spotting all the fantastic creatures! I'm rediculously happy now!
Dive Location: Shaw's Cove, Laguna Beach
Time: 6:40 PM PDT
Bottom Time: 63 minutes
Max Depth: 46 ft.
Vis: 4 - 10 ft.
Wave height: 1-2 ft.
Temp at depth: bloody cold! 52F
Surface Temp: 59F
Tide information: -0.6 Low 6:40AM / 3.1 High 1:10PM / 2.2 Low 5:20PM
Dive Buddies: Jan & Jennifer
Comments: Met up with Jan and Jennifer this evening and had one of the most spectacular dives. We chatted for a bit, geared up and headed down to the beach. Met a couple from North Carolina, who excitedly requested to take photos with three diver ladies. We were greeted by 1-2 ft., long interval waves which didn't knock us down. The water looked mucky brown and viz was nil along the flats. We kicked out to the reef, where viz opened up to 5-10 ft.
On to the creatures - Started the dive off by seeing two beautiful spanish shawls, doing a lovely flamenco dance on a golden gorgonian. The quest to find moray eels was on... so we ended up seeing two large eels in two different portions of Shaws. They were both hanging out toward the back, joined by Garabaldi and a few blacksmith. The fish were pretty much snuggled up in the crevices. We found a group of garabaldi males, defending their nests. One of which, grazed my hand in a rather grumpy, darting fashion. Also saw two octopi - one of which came out to visit Jennifer's ungloved hand for a while. Brrrr! Rode through the crevice and under the arch - woah dude! Excellent ride! Toward the end of the dive, we busted a gigantic 3'-4' sheep crab. The thing was a monster and gave a threatening gesture to the three lady divers. The "grouchy crab" decided to boggy when we approached him but gave a good chase. The water was super cold tonight - where you could litterally feel the warm thermocline (gratefully) in the outer sections of the reef.
Other creatures: smooth brittle seastars, rock wrasse, kelpbass, blackeyed gobies, a juvie treefish, a few baby sea hares, sea cucumbers, bat stars, brown gorgonian, chestnut cowry, kellet's whelk, lobsters, scorpionfish, female sheephead, green anemone, sand dollars, but no triggerfish!
Kicked without incident, the sun was setting, easy exit with ankle slappers at this point. All in all, it was a fantastic way to end a Monday. Thanks again Jennifer & Jan for spotting all the fantastic creatures! I'm rediculously happy now!
HBDiveGirl
Contributor
- Messages
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Jan and Lexy, YOU ROCK! Terrific report, loved it, could almost feel the icy water and swinging ride through the arch. Thanks!!!
SNOBORDJON
Guest
HBDiveGirl:
Lexy
Guest
Date: Tuesday, 4/12/05
Dive Location: Deadman's (N. Crescent), Laguna Beach
Time: 17:09 PDT
Bottom Time: 46 minutes
Max Depth: 61 ft.
Vis: 12 - 15 ft.
Wave height: 1-2 ft with the occasional 3-4 ft.
Temp at depth: 53F
Surface Temp: 59F
Tide information: -0.6 Low 6:40AM / 3.1 High 1:10PM / 2.2 Low 5:20PM
Dive Buddies: Jan & Bill
Comments: Met up with Jan and Billy this afternoon. As we geared up, the local Laguna Lifeguards checked for buddies, advised of the surf and red tide. Continued to gear up and headed into the surf. Had to carefully time around the sets of slow rolling 2-3 footers but got past the surf zone without incident. Kicked out and kicked out some more to Deadmans. I kept wondering when we'd see the cool stuff.
On to the creatures - saw a few little bugs, Bill spotted a spanish shawl and a mongo big sheep crab (interestingly had a darker shell and wasn't budging), Jan found a cute little sea pansy at the end of the dive. But... the highlight of the dive was seeing Sea Lions!! (My first). One little female sea lion greeted us at depth. She looked us each in the mask and then did a acrobatic set of dives, sumersaults and rolls, then darted on. I was holding on to my snorkle, carefully just in case. But no "naughty" Sea Lion antics to report. Those guys are fast!
We kicked back in without incident, the sun was setting, relatively easy exit but again had to be well timed. Another happy dive and thank you Jan and Bill for a great afternoon! So happy to finally see the sea lions!! Additionally, not getting knocked down is such a plus. Amen for steel 80's - that was a fantastic purchase.
Dive Location: Deadman's (N. Crescent), Laguna Beach
Time: 17:09 PDT
Bottom Time: 46 minutes
Max Depth: 61 ft.
Vis: 12 - 15 ft.
Wave height: 1-2 ft with the occasional 3-4 ft.
Temp at depth: 53F
Surface Temp: 59F
Tide information: -0.6 Low 6:40AM / 3.1 High 1:10PM / 2.2 Low 5:20PM
Dive Buddies: Jan & Bill
Comments: Met up with Jan and Billy this afternoon. As we geared up, the local Laguna Lifeguards checked for buddies, advised of the surf and red tide. Continued to gear up and headed into the surf. Had to carefully time around the sets of slow rolling 2-3 footers but got past the surf zone without incident. Kicked out and kicked out some more to Deadmans. I kept wondering when we'd see the cool stuff.
On to the creatures - saw a few little bugs, Bill spotted a spanish shawl and a mongo big sheep crab (interestingly had a darker shell and wasn't budging), Jan found a cute little sea pansy at the end of the dive. But... the highlight of the dive was seeing Sea Lions!! (My first). One little female sea lion greeted us at depth. She looked us each in the mask and then did a acrobatic set of dives, sumersaults and rolls, then darted on. I was holding on to my snorkle, carefully just in case. But no "naughty" Sea Lion antics to report. Those guys are fast!
We kicked back in without incident, the sun was setting, relatively easy exit but again had to be well timed. Another happy dive and thank you Jan and Bill for a great afternoon! So happy to finally see the sea lions!! Additionally, not getting knocked down is such a plus. Amen for steel 80's - that was a fantastic purchase.
Date: Tuesday, 4/12/05
Dive Location: Redondo Sub. Canyon
Time: 9:40 PM
Bottom Time: 50 minutes
Max Depth: 77 ft.
Vis: 15-20ft. at depth 5-7 ft. when within 30 feet of the surface
Wave height: 1-2 ft when I got there, 3-4 ft. when we checked the surf and when we entered... 4-4.5 when we got out... talk about a fun ride..
Temp at depth: 52F
Surface Temp: 59F
Dive Buddies: HBDiveGirl (claudette) and Scottfiji
Comments: Well this is definitely yet another dive that I will never forget. this dive was LITTERED with squid eggs... I had no clue what they were, but was informed by my dive buddy.... Also I saw probably 5 or 6 different species of crabs just in the first 10 minutes of the dive... While we descended we hit quite an abrupt thermocline, and immediately began noticing all sorts of life... lots of small sandabs and halibut littering the ground.... Over the course of the dive we saw LOTS of scorpion fish of all sizes... About half way through the dive I caught my first lobster (only one we saw, and of course I let it go...)... right after this we came across a baby horn shark (probably 6-8 inches long) which was a very need creature to see... throughout the course of the dive we saw 4 of them... One of them was 3+ feet long (amazing)... After this Claudette found a TINY baby octopus.... I got it to blot a little puff of ink as it was swimming away... Also we were lucky enough to see a cusk eel, and a tubesnout... and to top it off I caught a jumbo sized shrimp and ran across quite a few ghost shrimp... On the way back into shallower water after we surfaced, we were greeted by thrashing waves... overall another GREAT dive.... Amazing all the stuff we saw and there was not even a BIT of reef... all sand....
--------------------------------
ok I take that back I just looked when I was cleaning my gear and I lost my knife.. it was a very nice titanium knife too.. so this is NOT a dive I will like to remember... I loved that knife
Dive Location: Redondo Sub. Canyon
Time: 9:40 PM
Bottom Time: 50 minutes
Max Depth: 77 ft.
Vis: 15-20ft. at depth 5-7 ft. when within 30 feet of the surface
Wave height: 1-2 ft when I got there, 3-4 ft. when we checked the surf and when we entered... 4-4.5 when we got out... talk about a fun ride..
Temp at depth: 52F
Surface Temp: 59F
Dive Buddies: HBDiveGirl (claudette) and Scottfiji
Comments: Well this is definitely yet another dive that I will never forget. this dive was LITTERED with squid eggs... I had no clue what they were, but was informed by my dive buddy.... Also I saw probably 5 or 6 different species of crabs just in the first 10 minutes of the dive... While we descended we hit quite an abrupt thermocline, and immediately began noticing all sorts of life... lots of small sandabs and halibut littering the ground.... Over the course of the dive we saw LOTS of scorpion fish of all sizes... About half way through the dive I caught my first lobster (only one we saw, and of course I let it go...)... right after this we came across a baby horn shark (probably 6-8 inches long) which was a very need creature to see... throughout the course of the dive we saw 4 of them... One of them was 3+ feet long (amazing)... After this Claudette found a TINY baby octopus.... I got it to blot a little puff of ink as it was swimming away... Also we were lucky enough to see a cusk eel, and a tubesnout... and to top it off I caught a jumbo sized shrimp and ran across quite a few ghost shrimp... On the way back into shallower water after we surfaced, we were greeted by thrashing waves... overall another GREAT dive.... Amazing all the stuff we saw and there was not even a BIT of reef... all sand....
--------------------------------
ok I take that back I just looked when I was cleaning my gear and I lost my knife..
it was a very nice titanium knife too.. so this is NOT a dive I will like to remember... I loved that knife
Stryker,Stryker:
I am glad you enjoyed your dive. Good dive report but you did not mention it was your FIRST NIGHT dive :11: and after only 7 or 8 lifetime dives too. So how do you like night diving? It can be fun, but it is worth while to take some instruction in the subject and to be very comfortable with diving before adding night diving to it. You were in good company on last nights dive, but you should get some night diving lessons too.
Now about that large shrimp. There is large and then there is LARGE. If your large shrimp was large as in 3-10" long then it could have been a Mantis Shrimp. Do a Google on Mantis Shrimp http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/mantis_shrimp.htm I have seen them in the Redondo Beach area before and they are somewhat common around Southern California. Beautiful creatures but very nasty too.
Many, including obviously myself would argue that is it better to look and not touch sea critters and generally not a good idea to be catching sea critters. Some of them don't play well with humans. Mantis shrimp are one such creature. You could get too close and find yourself with a shattered finger bone or a finger sliced neatly to the bone. Either way, not good. All that and they strike so fast (1/32,000 of a second) that you would never see it and with the force of a 22 cal bullet.
I think Octopus are very neat and you can be somewhat interactive with them. As you know I coaxed one out for you, but I did it on his terms by offering him something to be curious about. I try not to stress the animal and to be very gentle and usually I dont touch, but let them touch me. The squirting of ink indicates fright or stress (and yes, when I started diving, I too was treated to some ink).
You should also know as you travel the world that some ocean species pack the worlds most deadly venoms. Among these deadly creatures are some species of octopus (blue ringed), sea snakes, sea snails and various fish. Some of the deadliest are also the smallest (blue ringed octopus ½ inch to a few inches for example). So unless you are spot on with fish identification, touching could lead to trouble. Around here I don't think there is too much in way of venomous fish and such, but I am not an expert and could be wrong. But good habit is look, don't touch.
scottfiji
Contributor
Stryker:Date: Tuesday, 4/12/05
Dive Location: Redondo Sub. Canyon
ok I take that back I just looked when I was cleaning my gear and I lost my knife..
Seth, nice report! that WAS an awesome dive. Next time we'll practice the correct way to catch the bone-thrashing shimp so you don't lose your hand!
Scott
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