Cali Trip Pictures with my A620

[huskychemist]

I would love to see Breakwater @ night, but I need to get a group together somehow... I've been looking around the NorCal Divers section but don't see any specific immediate ways to do something like that...
I got some really cool shots of a huge crab my last time out (7/29), using my little Canon Powershot S410 (since the housing for my Nikon SLR wasn't ready yet; still cleaning up the fotos). Would love to meet some octos......

Cool pix man!

So, I have a question for you...and anybody else in Cali... Is night diving just not that popular in NorCal? I say this because we met some really cool people at Point Lobos while spending the day diving there, and many of them had NEVER done a night dive. One guy had been diving for 12 years and never done a night dive. (Not at Point Lobos...because it closes early...but just in general...) Some of the other folks also. When we dove the Breakwater during the day, there were 10 or so other divers there. For our night dive, we were the only ones. So all of this made us wonder if the Cali folks simply don't do much night diving... Just wondering.

And the octos were cool, although they were all pretty small. Still lots of fun to see.

Hope you get the dives that you want!

Lowell

 

[kg555]

Husky,

I'll definetely bring my Canon A620 with me and take a whole bunch of pictures. I just got back from vacation in Belize and in process of writing a trip report with all the pictures taken there. Hope to publish it here next week.

I liked you octo pics, and hope to see some myself.

 

[CompuDude]

Nice shots, Lowell! Welcome to Cali Diving. I see from your gallery that you've been doing some Redondo night dives, too... drop me a line next time you visit!

(There are groups of people who night dive at Redondo every Wednesday and Thursday on a regular schedule, and many other nights on a sporadic basis, so yes, we do a LOT of night diving down here!)

As for critter ID, I can help you out on your shots:

Pic #1: Xantus' Swimming Crab. (All over the place at Redondo)
Pic #4: Gopher Rockfish
Pic #5: That's most likely a Hermissenda crassicornis, although it's tough to be certain without seeing the front better
Pic #6: Club-tipped Anenomes
Pic #7: San Diego Dorid

Looks like you have some updates to do on your critter page now!

 

[huskychemist]

Nice shots, Lowell! Welcome to Cali Diving. I see from your gallery that you've been doing some Redondo night dives, too... drop me a line next time you visit!

Thanks for the critter IDs! Much appreciated. I hadn't gotten to all of them yet... Off the top of my head, I might have been right on the Gopher Rockfish, but I can't remember my original tentative ID.

As for night diving at Redondo, I'm guessing we're talking about two different Redondo's... hehehe There's a Redondo that's a local dive spot in Washington that is used for certification, etc. I do recall chuckling about seeing another "Redondo" on a list of dive sites for SoCal. Glad to hear you night dive down there. Maybe it was more of a NorCal/Monterey thing...that's where we interacted with the most divers, and very few of them said they did much night diving. It was weird, as there's so much more to see. I recall on my first night dive, after we surfaced, I said to my buddy, "And why do we dive during the day?"

Thanks again for the critter IDs.

I'm planning (very tentative) another trip to Cali next summer. I'll let you know if/when I get down there. Same applies to you if you're ever up this way...

Thanks.

Lowell

 

[CompuDude]

Ah, I see the confusion now. Yes, Redondo Beach (frequently referred to as Vets Park) is a popular dive spot down here as well. Boring dive during the day, but the conditions tend to be decent so a lot of classes are taught there (ironic, huh?). But it's one of the best night dives in SoCal, and there are divers out nearly every night in addition to the regular crews on Wednesday and Thursday nights, which I tend to frequent.

I have a series of shots from four recent Redondo night dives up on my scuba site, if you're interested. Not my best work, but there's fun stuff in there.

 

[midwestdvr]

Nice pics, husky. Glad you enjoyed your dives in Moterey.