August '05 Dive Reports

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Actually it's a dive buddy who's real name is Max Although I do enjoy diving with Phil and Claudette!!! They bring very good luck!!

Thanks Christian!

Sean

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Actually it's a dive buddy who's real name is Max Although I do enjoy diving with Phil and Claudette!!! They bring very good luck!!

Thanks Christian!

Sean

Although I did swim a little beyond the blue buoy Sunday
We dropped down at 97 feet. Missy said it was the first time she had to go uphill to get to Vallecitos Point. The Batrays were out in force stirring up the vis, but the Sheephead Family was right where we expected them to be.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Actually it's a dive buddy who's real name is Max Although I do enjoy diving with Phil and Claudette!!! They bring very good luck!!

Thanks Christian!

Sean

I'm honored, Sean... but I thought we drove down and found the good luck with you!:rose: :jump3: Thanks for the great "Rogues' Gallery" of toothsome grins.
What in God's Sandy-Half-Acre is that last creature lying in ambush?? Wow...I'm glad I'm not bite-sized for him!
Claudette

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Claudette, I think it's a "brown shrimp" but it was translucent. Definitely no target on its side. We should have 2 great dives this Saturday off Point Loma! I hope we see something incredible!!!

Sean

 

[headhunter]

Although I did swim a little beyond the blue buoy Sunday
We dropped down at 97 feet. Missy said it was the first time she had to go uphill to get to Vallecitos Point. The Batrays were out in force stirring up the vis, but the Sheephead Family was right where we expected them to be.

So, San Diego is just totally Maxed out these days!

Christian

 

[divinman]

Date: 08/24/05
Dive number: 284
Minutes submerged for August: 781 minutes
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores/North Wall
Time: 07:31a
Bottom Time: 51 minutes
Max Depth: 93ft
Avg Depth: 56ft
Vis: 10-40ft....no really! 40ft
Surface Temp: 64F
Temp at depth: 51F
Surface conditions.: water was like a huge sheet of glass, not a ripple. gin clear in the shallows. From the surface 40ft above I could still see the sand ripples.

Tyler woke me up at 545a this morning to see if I was still going diving. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I said "F....I mean heck yeah" Divers are crazy.

Got to the shores and it was picture perfect. Not a ripple on the sea. Calm. No wind. Quiet. Gearing up we hoped the conditions below would measure up to the conditions above. As we strolled through the shallows the water was vodka clear. Some would say gin clear but I am a vodka guy. Stingrays were everywhere. On the kick out we spotted dozens and dozens of them. Leopard sharks, guitarfish of many varieties and a lone butterfly ray was seen...and we were still in 8ft of water. Kicking well past the buoy and dropping to the bottom at 30ft the visibility was spectacular. You could see, well, as far as you could see. Nice! Turning to 310 we headed for the north wall. We missed it just slightly and turned back upslope and caught it about mid-wall at 65ft. Slowly drifting along, we found the usual suspects of Nudibranchs, opal eye, rockfish, scorpionfish, cabazon, etc etc etc..... But the next crack revealed.....baby wolf eel pokin out to see who was passing by. Camera at the ready I powered on and.....nothing. No power. ( later I discovered I had one of 4 batteries upside down..GRRRRR) Clipping off the ballast, we headed further west until my short filled 100 said I should turn back. Turning east on this wall is always so bizarre. It FEELS like the wrong way because you are staring into the dark depths. Trusting our compasses and fighting a current determined to push me north instead of east we made the crossing without incident. Relieved as always when the east rim appeared ahead.

Finning along we found at least 50 California sea slugs. Stan!! They are everywhere!!! How can you missed em????

At 10ft we surfaced and face down finned slowly over the sand. Out of the gloom passed a dozen shovel-nosed and banded guitarfish, then one then two then 5 leopard sharks cruised passed.

Always a pleasure to dive here. Even if it is JUST SAND.

Terry S.

 

[Diver_Jan]

I met up last night with Jennifer, David B., Veronica and Ana from SD, and my friend Brian for a night dive at Shaw's.

I was at the beach earlier in the day with my patients overlooking Cresent. Boy, was I excited to dive tonight, from the top of Seal Rock outlook, I could see cystal clear waters and could visibly see the reefs below the blue surface.

We didn't bother checking conditions, for we knew it was (had been) pretty much Lake Laguna all day. Boy, were we wrong! We were greeted by 2-4 footers coming in with lull time between them. Due to the lull, we were all able to get in without incident.

We kicked out a bit then dropped down into a hazy gloom of particulate floating around in the water, even with Red Tide being gone. Made our way over to the reef, or should I say, flew over to the reef due to moderate to heavy surge. We condintued on our way along the reef. I was going to go into the arch, however, the others kept on a 'south' heading. Plugging along, holding on in some cases, we were able to spot the usual nightly crawlers out in about: Two Spot Octopi ( way too many to count!); several Moray's, including one that we think was the one Chris and I spotted on Saturday, once again, swimming out of it's hole; two JV's eels about 2" long; Crimson Rockfish; Copper Rockfish; Blacksmith; Sand Bass; three Bat Rays; three Thornback Rays; 2 small Sting Rays; and a nice sized Halibut. Also saw several Spanish Shawl's, and spotted the elusive Purple Hydrocoral! We saw alot more, but too much to list.

The disappointing aspect of this dive, and has changed my mind on spear hunting, is that I spotted a large Treefish that had been speared towards it's dorsal fin. The poor thing was swimming around (thankfully) and appeared to be doing 'ok' even though he had a hole in his body running from one side to the other with fleshy parts exposed. I was upset and angered by this incident.

All in all, a descent dive. Not the best, but not the worst.

Ave Temp: 64'

Depth: 48'

Surge: Moderate to Heavy

Surf: 2-4' on entry; mininmal to occassional 2-4' on exit.

Viz: 2-8' at best

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Do people actually eat Treefish? It seems like someone just wanted to kill something.
I won't go into it since it's flame-bait, but your report saddens me. On Sunday I saw a sea lion with a mark on his neck like he escaped the hangman. He was happy though, swimming around!!

Thanks Jan,

Sean

 

[Diver_Jan]

Do people actually eat Treefish? It seems like someone just wanted to kill something.
I won't go into it since it's flame-bait, but your report saddens me. On Sunday I saw a sea lion with a mark on his neck like he escaped the hangman. He was happy though, swimming around!!

Thanks Jan,

Sean

Hi Sean,

I'm not sure if Treefish are eatible or not, IMO, I don't think so. This is why I was so angered when I saw this poor fellow. I hope that I will spot him in the future to monitor his progress.

I bought a spear pole which I have never used, now I think I will hang it up in the rafters for good.

Re your sea lion, where did you see him? There was one recently being rehabiliated at the Sea Lion Rescue in Laguna Beach, nearing time to be released. Could have been the same one. He got caught up in a fishing net.

If you have the time, and want to see a cool sea lion, you should visit them. Currently, they have a Northern Fur Sea Lion that wandered down south and beached itself in OC. After rehab, they (the rescue) are going to have to transport the sea lion back up north, for it's a cold water mamal. Very distinctive from our critters down here. Check it out.

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Jan,

I saw the sea lion when I was down at the Keyhole in Los Coronados. I'm sure things happen to these guys all the time. I commonly encounter fishing line off the Point Loma sites (on the reefs).

That sounds very cool to visit the sea lion! Can you tell us more about your visit? Here is some information I got off the net (loction and phone #'s)

http://www.killerorange.com/KillerRefs/Address/friendsofthesealion.htm

Thanks Jan!

Sean