Yesterday was a real gem. We got into Breakwater around 10 a.m. Predictably, every parking spot was taken. The water was flat, the sky overcast. We took our time gearing up on the lawn and discussing our dive plan. We would try for the metridium fields, which I've never seen (we had an unsuccessful attempt to reach them a few months ago via kayak, but this time we would kick out).
We decided to follow the tried and true navigation method - swim out while lined to the street leading to the pumphouse (Reeside?), until you can only see the front face of the pumphouse, and the left side of the Breakwater bathrooms. We descended into 45ft, kicked north for about 20 seconds, and came across the first metridium-covered rock. Gorgeous. Vis was about 20ft or so, a bit milky, but the metridium were open and swaying in the breeze. There was an incredible amount of life around the "reef" too, nudis, sand dabs, gobys, huge sheep crab, etc. The water was balmy, my bottom timer (I never trust the thermometer on this thing) read 59F.
The second dive was even better--it's like when your dive buddy misses a dive, and you tell them "Man, it was great. The vis was spectacular, the conditions were perfect, there were dolphins splashing around us, schools of fish everywhere, those elusive nudibranchs you've been searching for were on display, masses of squid eggs, octopus, even underwater birds flying around!" Except this time it was all true.
On our surface swim back out to the metridium fields, we saw a pair of dolphins repeatedly leaping out of the water; it seemed like they were moving from boat to boat in the breakwater, showing off for tourists and kayakers by breaching over and over. One dolphin was tiny, maybe 4ft long? We just sat in the water and watched them for about 10-15 minutes.
Once we descended, things got even better. We landed on the famous pumphouse pipe, and the first thing we saw was a mat of squid eggs. We kicked out to find a huge patch of metridum, with even more ocean life around than in the morning. Large and small nudis, including a gathering of about 3-4 spanish shawls, which I've never seen in person. Vis was about 30ft I'd say, noticeably better than the morning. We found "big" octopus (with a body a bit larger than a clenched fist) who quickly squeezed himself into the safety of a crevice, and watched a cormorant dive down and poke around the bottom for snacks. I got super cold on this dive. I thought my BT was reading 47 degrees, but after the dive it registered 53F, which is a bit warmer than average. I think a lack of lunch and leaky wrist seals did me in. We got a couple of s-drills in and then ascended for a long surface kick back.
One interesting event - we tried a "green water ascend" while staying together as a group: pause at 40ft, check. 1 minute at 30ft, check. 1 minute at 20ft, check. 1 minute at 10ft, check. Then in about 5 seconds we were all at 26ft again? Wth? I'm pretty sure there aren't that many surface downcurrents at Breakwater, so we must have just positively reinforced each others' buoyancy errors during the stop. We spent another minute at 10ft and surfaced a bit perplexed...
I'd say this was as epic a day as I've ever had at Breakwater, and I really have new respect for it. What surprised me was that though there definitely is not much struture or relief as at Lobos, it really seemed like there was WAY more life here, somewhat surprising as Lobos is a protected state park...
Dive 1: 50ft, 42mins, 59F
YouTube - Metridium Fields Dive 1
Dive 2: 59ft, 48min, 53F
YouTube - Metridium Fields Dive 2
We decided to follow the tried and true navigation method - swim out while lined to the street leading to the pumphouse (Reeside?), until you can only see the front face of the pumphouse, and the left side of the Breakwater bathrooms. We descended into 45ft, kicked north for about 20 seconds, and came across the first metridium-covered rock. Gorgeous. Vis was about 20ft or so, a bit milky, but the metridium were open and swaying in the breeze. There was an incredible amount of life around the "reef" too, nudis, sand dabs, gobys, huge sheep crab, etc. The water was balmy, my bottom timer (I never trust the thermometer on this thing) read 59F.
The second dive was even better--it's like when your dive buddy misses a dive, and you tell them "Man, it was great. The vis was spectacular, the conditions were perfect, there were dolphins splashing around us, schools of fish everywhere, those elusive nudibranchs you've been searching for were on display, masses of squid eggs, octopus, even underwater birds flying around!" Except this time it was all true.
On our surface swim back out to the metridium fields, we saw a pair of dolphins repeatedly leaping out of the water; it seemed like they were moving from boat to boat in the breakwater, showing off for tourists and kayakers by breaching over and over. One dolphin was tiny, maybe 4ft long? We just sat in the water and watched them for about 10-15 minutes.
Once we descended, things got even better. We landed on the famous pumphouse pipe, and the first thing we saw was a mat of squid eggs. We kicked out to find a huge patch of metridum, with even more ocean life around than in the morning. Large and small nudis, including a gathering of about 3-4 spanish shawls, which I've never seen in person. Vis was about 30ft I'd say, noticeably better than the morning. We found "big" octopus (with a body a bit larger than a clenched fist) who quickly squeezed himself into the safety of a crevice, and watched a cormorant dive down and poke around the bottom for snacks. I got super cold on this dive. I thought my BT was reading 47 degrees, but after the dive it registered 53F, which is a bit warmer than average. I think a lack of lunch and leaky wrist seals did me in. We got a couple of s-drills in and then ascended for a long surface kick back.
One interesting event - we tried a "green water ascend" while staying together as a group: pause at 40ft, check. 1 minute at 30ft, check. 1 minute at 20ft, check. 1 minute at 10ft, check. Then in about 5 seconds we were all at 26ft again? Wth? I'm pretty sure there aren't that many surface downcurrents at Breakwater, so we must have just positively reinforced each others' buoyancy errors during the stop. We spent another minute at 10ft and surfaced a bit perplexed...
I'd say this was as epic a day as I've ever had at Breakwater, and I really have new respect for it. What surprised me was that though there definitely is not much struture or relief as at Lobos, it really seemed like there was WAY more life here, somewhat surprising as Lobos is a protected state park...
Dive 1: 50ft, 42mins, 59F
YouTube - Metridium Fields Dive 1
Dive 2: 59ft, 48min, 53F
YouTube - Metridium Fields Dive 2
