April Dive Reports

[Roughwaterjohn]

Being new here, it took me a few times through to realize what was going on. I've been posting my dive reports randomly here, as I could find no specific place for them. I just realized (after reading the messages) that I'm supposed to be posting them in the April (or whatever month) Dive Reports. Yes? :06:
No one mentioned anything, so I'm sorry it took so long to figure it out. Please let me know if this doesn't work the way I think it does.

John

 

[Scottkl]

Ditto for TJ's Report, Working on that Damn octo...... And running those bats threw their passes it does seem to be that brand.... Hopfuly they will hold good charge soon <G>

Date: 10 Apr 04
Time of Dive: 11:00
Dive Time (duration): 50mins
Vis: 8-12
Wave height: 1-3
Water Temp: 59
MAX Depth: 19
Nearest High Tide:
Nearest Low Tide:
Comments:
Easy entry, dove with ScottK, his octo is freeflowing like mad, get that corrected, proceed with dive. Trapped a fly in my camera housing, he survived the dive with no ill effects. Took a few shots, grabbed 9 scallops, batteries died in buddies camera, got smacked by a wave on exit.

 

[Diver_Jan]

Hi everyone,

For those of you that didn't get to dive yesterday, you missed an AWESOME day of diving!!!

My regular buddy ended up being ill, so I met up with Donna Shelley and Jim Powell. We decided to dive Deadmans. What a fantastic choice! The surf was about nil, the surface was flat, the water was a nice toasty 60 degrees on the surface and a toasty 57 at depth of 53'. No surge to speak of.

Oh....did I forget to mention Viz??? It was the BEST I had ever seen in Laguna. At Deadmans in some parts, it had to have been well over 40+.

At our turn-around mark, we made it all the way back to shore to about 6-8 feet after 55" at depth of 53'. Hmmmm....I thought I was in Grand Cayman. The water was Crystal Clear..........BEEAAAAUUUUUUTIFUL!

Ok, now for the cool stuff we saw: HUGE Garibaldi's, Senoritas, the biggest Treefish I ever saw...had to be at least a foot long if not longer, Sargo, Sheephead, Blacksmith, Rock Wrasse, Olive Rockfish, Bat Stars, Ochre Seastars, a couple of rays, HUGE lobsters mocking us as we poked around the rocks...one even had the gall to come out into the open, lots of shrimp (no eels to be seen), lots of black eyed gobys, calico bass, goronian seafans, sea cucumbers, strawberry anemones, purple and white sea urchins, sand stars, brittle stars, a variety of sponges, limpets, purple globe crabs, and a very BIG Sheep Crab...think I got it all!

If anyone is interested in diving Tuesday night, a group is meeting at the Laguna Hills Mall at 6:30pm. The group will leave for Laguna at 6:45pm Sharp. We meet between Kings Seafood and Macy's. Be there, or you will definitely miss out on some great diving!!!

Live to dive, dive to live!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Jan

 

[Roughwaterjohn]

Jan,

You're 'REALLY' trying to get me to go to Deadmans, aren't ya

John A.

 

[pasley]

Saturday 0800 AM there was evidently quite a bit of current. We swam out and then chilled for a bit before dropping down. We should have been practically on top of it, but after trying to swim for 5 minutes we surfaced. The current had pushed us towards Shaws. Swimming on the surface it seemed we were making no progress at all, but eventualy got back into the neighborhood of Deadmans. Determined to drop down and try again, and failing that to swim a north west course to intercept the reef running out from the shore to deadmans in an area with less current. After several minutes of fighting the current we turned to the North West and intersected the reef runiing out to deadmansin about 40 FSW. Had a great dive from there on. Vis was only about 15 maybe 20 in places but was getting better.

 

[saf_25]

Saturday 0800 AM there was evidently quite a bit of current. We swam out and then chilled for a bit before dropping down. We should have been practically on top of it, but after trying to swim for 5 minutes we surfaced. The current had pushed us towards Shaws. Swimming on the surface it seemed we were making no progress at all, but eventualy got back into the neighborhood of Deadmans. Determined to drop down and try again, and failing that to swim a north west course to intercept the reef running out from the shore to deadmans in an area with less current. After several minutes of fighting the current we turned to the North West and intersected the reef runiing out to deadmansin about 40 FSW. Had a great dive from there on. Vis was only about 15 maybe 20 in places but was getting better.

We had the same problems at Crescent Sat. afternoon. Made the mistake of descending in the middle of the sand - after taking a compas heading to seal rock, we decided we'd rather swim under water than on top of it. After 30 minutes and half a tank of air ( we knew the reef was a bit of a distance from where we started, so something of a swim was expected, but by that point we knew something was off) we surfaced because we hadn't hit the reef yet, only to find that we had only gotten deeper, not anywhere further west than where we had started. We then surface swam over to the rocks and descended to explore the reef, but at that point, didn't have enough air left to safely explore the reef for too long. IT was still a nice day - vis was great (20'+), surf was minimal, and we saw some neat stuff in the sand (a trash can that has turned into an artifical reef, and some rays and flat fish), so it wasn't bad, just annoying.

 

[kelpmermaid]

I don't have the particulars with me, but here is the gist of it:

Max depth: about 60
Duration: about 40 minutes
viz: about 30-40 feet
Temp: 60F

No black sea bass sightings, but my buddy and I were surrounded by a school of barracuda on the way back to the boat -- that was pretty dramatic. Saw lots of the usual suspects, and noted a number of juvenile sheephead and senoritas.

I am waiting for film to come back on the Easter Egg Hunt dive...may post if there is anything decent.

 

[dgallo]

Aaargh!!! You're killing me, Jan! :crying2:

I wish I had gone out. Oh well. Hope it stays nice for the next few weeks.

- David

Hi everyone,

For those of you that didn't get to dive yesterday, you missed an AWESOME day of diving!!!

 

[pasley]

Date:13 April 04
Time of Dive: 8:48 AM
Dive Time (duration):48:40
Vis: 20-30 feet
Wave height: less than 1 ft if there were any.
Water Temp: 59 Suunto Degrees
MAX Depth: 31 FSW
Nearest High Tide:5:11 AM 4.8 Ft
Nearest Low Tide: 12:33 PM -0.5 Ft
Comments: Entered in next to no waves, Lake Laguna. Swam out along the reef on the right of the cove and then over to the ceneter and back to the start point. Great dive with good visibiliyt. Bit of surge in the shallows of 3 feet or so.

 

[pasley]

Date:13 April 04
Time of Dive: 12:32 PM
Dive Time (duration): 34:00
Vis: 20-30 feet
Wave height: less than 1 ft if there were any.
Water Temp: 59 Suunto Degrees
MAX Depth: 64 FSW
Nearest High Tide:5:11 AM 4.8 Ft
Nearest Low Tide: 12:33 PM -0.5 Ft

Swam out from the reef on the right to well past Seal Rock and dropped down into about 48 feet of water. continued South until 64 feet depth. Evidently missed the reef by swimming over it on the surface or to the south (most likely). Turned north for a west for a bit and then North, but must have managed to misse the reef. Swam back to the North West to intersect the reef comming out from shore, and followed it in to shore. Not what we wanted to do, but still a great dive. Saw a huge ball of bait fish.