The swell predictions earlier in the week were calling for 7-12ft, with gusts of wind up to 50kt. But the CDIP model looked good, so we decided to head down for a look. As we pulled up to the gate at Point Lobos, we faced an unfamiliar site. A gate. And another one right behind it. Lobos was closed?? Yikes. There was a bit of rain, but Monastery even looked nearly diveable, so we headed down to breakwater to take a look.
There were fewer than 10 cars in the parking lot (including a truck with a familiar-looking float in the back), but the water was flat, calm, and turquoise. Strange. The few divers we saw heading out the water all reported good vis and minimal surge, so we suited up and decided to start at the pipe, hit the Metridium Field, and then head for the wall. It turned out to be a fantastic dive. Vis was consistently 25-35ft; from each patch of metridium, you could just make out the next rock. We were buzzed by a couple of sea lions, and got a bit lost trying to make it to the wall (it's a long swim). Once there, we noticed that the viz was pretty spectacular, with almost no particulates in the water. We shot an SMB for practice and hauled ourselves out of the beach. Traffic on the way back from 156 was was horrible.
Video is posted at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM8c4TiX6vs
Sadly, the source is not HD, but if you click on the "View in HD" link, it'll look better than a typical "high quality" upload since it's encoded at a higher bitrate.
Smaller version is embedded here:
There were fewer than 10 cars in the parking lot (including a truck with a familiar-looking float in the back), but the water was flat, calm, and turquoise. Strange. The few divers we saw heading out the water all reported good vis and minimal surge, so we suited up and decided to start at the pipe, hit the Metridium Field, and then head for the wall. It turned out to be a fantastic dive. Vis was consistently 25-35ft; from each patch of metridium, you could just make out the next rock. We were buzzed by a couple of sea lions, and got a bit lost trying to make it to the wall (it's a long swim). Once there, we noticed that the viz was pretty spectacular, with almost no particulates in the water. We shot an SMB for practice and hauled ourselves out of the beach. Traffic on the way back from 156 was was horrible.
Video is posted at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM8c4TiX6vs
Sadly, the source is not HD, but if you click on the "View in HD" link, it'll look better than a typical "high quality" upload since it's encoded at a higher bitrate.
Smaller version is embedded here:
