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Can someone comment if Shaw's cove was diveable today? My dive shop canceled my AOW dives due to "high waves" but it seemed normal to me 2-3ft or so but i'm not too familiar with surf entry conditions since 99% of my dives have been boat dives...i'm a bit ticked off since I took the trouble to get up early and drive all the way to just return without any progress.
Yeah we put our dive stuff away for a few days and brought out the boards. surf was nice this am maybe 3-5', diving well entry/exits might be tough and the VIS is down.
In Crescent there were some huge sets this morning, our group decided not to go out. A class actually went in, first with no gear just to get wet and they were getting hammered. Then they got geared up and went in 2 at a time, it took over an hour to get about 6 students past the surf zone and I think a few stayed out.
Getting out was not as bad as I thought it would be, but it still took them a long time to time the waves. A few still got tossed around. By this time the lifeguards were showing up and warning people diving might not be a good idea today.
The worst part is we did not even go to breakfast.
The Southern hemisphere is pumping out a steady stream of cyclonic activity and the Eastern Pacific tropical storm season is starting to kick into high gear.
These are the primary sources of South ground swell ... and for South facing Orange County it means surf. In fact, we get world class surf this time of year. This is the primary reason why OC hosts the only mainland stop on the WCT pro surfing tour each September.
Now keep in mind that Shaw's Cove is dive spot and not a surf spot for a reason. The cove does offer some amount of protection. Although it'll never pull in those perfect overhead widow peaks you see at a place like Lowers, or the carnivorous death pits of the Wedge...there's still a fair amount of energy in the water on a solid South ground swell (like we're seeing this weekend).
Long period energy (15 sec or greater) tends to runs deeper and hence begins to interact with the bottom sooner (shoaling effect). Underwater, this basically translates directly into surging action...which just churns up the bottom and generally makes a mess of things. Not worth diving in IMHO.
For the OC, it's always best to keep your options open this time of year...and surfing is always a good option
As a side note, surf is supposed to keep getting bigger over the course of the next few days. I would expect that diving will be closed the entire week if swellwatch's surf forecast is accurate.
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