April '05 Dive Reports

[Stryker]

Date: Saturday 4/16/05
Dive Location: Deadman's reef / north crescent
Time: 9:10 AM
Bottom Time: 47 minutes
Max Depth: 67 ft.
Vis: 5-8 on the way down... 10-15 on the reef
Wave height: 1-2 ft
Temp at depth: 59F
Surface Temp: 64F
Dive Buddies: Snobordjon (my dive buddy), abrown302, pasley, eyasha, and another person I cant remember his name...

Comments: We swam out and the water was pretty calm so the swim wasnt too tough... We swam too far out so when we dropped down we had to navigate to find the reef.... On descent the visibility was pretty low and dark from the algae blooms. I was expecting it to be a 0 vis dive, but once we got to the sand it wasnt too terribly bad. We made our way over to the reef and Jon and I split off to go find something interesting... unfortunately that was not the case.. I was feeling a little unstable and I couldnt figure out what it was.. later I realized I lost one of my weight pouches (which came back to haunt me later)...

Most of what we saw were garibaldi, a few sea bass, young sheepheads, and lots of blue banded gobies.... At about minute 30 I was trying to pick up a large fishing weight that was in between two urchins, and was trying to avoid getting stuck... Jon began tapping my tank which I thought was accidental.. then he grabbed me and pulled me back a little for me to see a huge sheep crab no more than 12 inches from my head in the strike position.. This is the second time this has happened to me so im starting to get used to it... I put my fin in front of him for him to get something out of me disturbing him, but for the life of him he couldnt grab it... we later dubbed him the mentally handicapped crab... After navigating the sand we concluded the dive....

2 pieces of gear lost this week... not my best week....

 

[drbill]

Date: Saturday 4/16/05
Dive Location: Casino Point
Time: 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Bottom Time: 40 minutes
Max Depth: 70 ft.
Vis: 10-15 on the reef
Wave height: 1-2 ft
Temp at depth:
Surface Temp:
Dive Buddies: solo

Vis poor (yet I still got 19 min of footage over two dives... very close up). Conditions continue to be bad in the waters off Avalon and elsewhere on the island.

Casino Point Dive Park closed unexpectedly at 3:00 pm until Sunday AM for the filming of a Hallmark special in the Casino. Excuse me? My diving was done but I feel for those who came over to dive, especially those who were trying to finish certification courses and couldn't due to the shortened day. The dive operators apparently weren't told until late today (CDS as late as about 2:00 PM!).

Dr. Bill

 

[pasley]

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Date: 16 Apr 05
Dive Location: Crescent Cove
Time: 11:43 AM
Bottom Time: 36:00
Max Depth: 38 FSW
Vis: 5-8
Wave height: 1-2 ft
Temp at depth: 55 SUUNTO Degrees
Surface Temp: 63 SUUNTO degrees
Tide information:0.4 Low 11:38AM/3.5 High 7:28PM / 3.0 Low 11:42PM
Comments: Steve (sorry, don't remember his screen name) and I stuck around for another dive. Not sure why looking back on it. But hey, the gear was wet and the 2nd tank was just sitting there. So we went in. We thought we would stay shallow and in close where the visibility seemed a bit better. Swam out and around the reef comming out from shore. Dropped down and continued in the general direction of South, South west following the rodks. Vis did not improve and got worse the further from shore we went. Surge was present too as was an offshore current. So after a bit I waived my hands in front of my face and thumbed the dvie. Steve deduced that I was saying can't see "stuff" and lets call it a day, and he was ready for that. But hey, we tried.

 

[headhunter]

Casino Point Dive Park closed unexpectedly at 3:00 pm until Sunday AM for the filming of a Hallmark special in the Casino. Excuse me? My diving was done but I feel for those who came over to dive, especially those who were trying to finish certification courses and couldn't due to the shortened day. The dive operators apparently weren't told until late today (CDS as late as about 2:00 PM!).

That's odd! I would think that if they were going to do something like this that they would do it mid-week. It doesn't make sense to close a major tourist attraction on the weekend. After all the island survives on their tourist trade, right?

Christian

 

[alaity47]

Date: Sat, April 16
Time: 10am-ish
Location: Shaw's Cove
Max. Depth: 45'
Bottom Time: :45
Visibility: 4-8'
Temperature: 52


Headed out to Laguna with some folks from my dive club. When we got there, most people decided to go for Deadman's instead, but I wasn't really up for the surface swim. My buddy Kaz stuck with me for a Shaw's dive (he was also feeling like something more leisurely), and we're glad we did - our friends missed Deadman's completely.

Vis was pretty lousy, but I still enjoyed the dive, just heading out along the rocks and back. We poked our heads in the crevice and felt a rather strong current, so we continued on our way. Saw some spanish shawls, chestnut cowries, plastic easter eggs (leftover from the Egg Hunt, I guess), baby sheephead, scorpionfish, and a painted greenling. Also had a close encounter with a sheep crab; always fun.

Easy entry, and just a little surge throughout the dive (max 4 ft, I'd say). On the way out I had a bit of a scare when an ENORMOUS wave broke right when we were about to head in. (I do NOT do well with surf - my first attempt at a beach dive during OW cert resulted in a near-drowning, and I'm still building my confidence back up for beach dives 5 years later!) Luckily it was just a fluke; nothing but 1 and 2 footers.

We walked over to Crescent to take a look, and saw a few pretty sizeable sets coming in, but with long lulls between.

Sounds like there wasn't much good diving to be had anywhere this weekend. (Not that we had a BAD dive - I'm happy just to be diving!)

 

[ShakaZulu]

Date: 4/16/05
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: 11:23am
Bottom Time: 32min
Max Depth: 103 ft
Vis: 10 ft
Wave height: 2 ft
Temp at depth: 52
Surface Temp: ?
Tide information: ?

Comments: John and myself charged up the scooters and headed to the Shores. Descended at the bouy at Vallecitos, swam 270 and hit the wall from where we followed the wall south. Dropped down to 100ft looking for viz and never found it. Didn't see much of anything else either. Just nice to get wet..........

 

[headhunter]

John and myself charged up the scooters and headed to the Shores.

Hey Shaka,

Do you find that you get surprised by things when you are on flying along on a scooter with only 10 feet of vis?

Christian

 

[Frank O]

Do you find that you get surprised by things when you are on flying along on a scooter with only 10 feet of vis?

Or vice-versa -- it's easy to surprise the marine life when you go tootling along, regardless of vis. I remember doing some freedive scootering at Ship Rock, Catalina last year -- rounding a corner in the kelp and coming within a hand's reach of a pair of bat rays that abruptly bolted. I don't think they're used to seeing things shaped like us come at them that fast ...

 

[Peter McGuinness]

.. I was feeling a little unstable and I couldnt figure out what it was.. later I realized I lost one of my weight pouches (which came back to haunt me later)...

Seth,

Its a bummer to lose stuff (I'm still looking for my mind, you know......) The good news is that if all you felt was a little unstable after losing a weight pouch, you don't need whatever was in it - just think: up to half your weight requirement gone in one fell swoop! Some people pay for that kind of improvement

Here's hoping this cheers you up (that's my one and only act of random kindness for the week; phew, what a relief, now I can go back to being a curmudgeon)

Peter

 

[SNOBORDJON]

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Date: 16 Apr 05
Dive Location: Crescent Cove
Time: 11:43 AM
Bottom Time: 36:00
Max Depth: 38 FSW
Vis: 5-8
Wave height: 1-2 ft
Temp at depth: 55 SUUNTO Degrees
Surface Temp: 63 SUUNTO degrees
Tide information:0.4 Low 11:38AM/3.5 High 7:28PM / 3.0 Low 11:42PM
Comments: Steve (sorry, don't remember his screen name) and I stuck around for another dive. Not sure why looking back on it. But hey, the gear was wet and the 2nd tank was just sitting there. So we went in. We thought we would stay shallow and in close where the visibility seemed a bit better. Swam out and around the reef comming out from shore. Dropped down and continued in the general direction of South, South west following the rodks. Vis did not improve and got worse the further from shore we went. Surge was present too as was an offshore current. So after a bit I waived my hands in front of my face and thumbed the dvie. Steve deduced that I was saying can't see "stuff" and lets call it a day, and he was ready for that. But hey, we tried.

Hey Melvin,
Good meeting you today. It was a fun dive even though our initial assalult on deadmans had an eerie descent. It sounds like I made the right move in skipping the next dive. Sorry it didnt work out. We'll have to do it again soon.
Hopefully next time Aaron will have a better time too. That sucks man .
Seth I didn't realize you lost half your weights! And to think, I was a little over weighted. That crab on your head might have given you a false sence of good buoyancy! Haha

John