Dive reports with beach/weather conditions

[Aristakat]

05/25
Venice boneyard
Water temp 78
Vis 15-20 ft
Winds blowing 15 knots out of east
Not bad aong shore


Today report first dive good weekend to dive

Posted from boat

 

[divindiva69]

Sat 5/25/13
South Brohard with dkramer off the beach with kayak @ 9 AM
Water temp 79
depth 10-14 ft
Viz 4-6 ft with some whale snot in the water
time 1 1/2 hour with a break at the one hour mark
wind ENE 16 mph
found a few small teeth and lots of branches, crab pots, debris maybe left over from Debbie last summer.
fish life snook, flounder, sheepshead, sea robin, lizardfish, sand diver & a few small crab fighting for their shells!

---------- Post added May 25th, 2013 at 03:12 PM ----------

We got out early this morning ( see post 5/25) and it was not bad. Tide was incoming so toward the endof the dive, it got siltier (we were beach diving not boat diving) Definitely do-able!

---------- Post added May 25th, 2013 at 03:13 PM ----------

Hi Everyone,

Headed to Venice this weekend for some diving. I'm looking at the forecast and it looks like it will be a little windy. Saturday calls for 20 knots during the day and 10-15 in the afternoon with seas 2-3 ft. Sunday is calling for east winds around 15 knots seas 2 feet. Do you think we will be able to dive comfortably? any info is appreciated.

We got out early this morning ( see post 5/25) and it was not bad. Tide was incoming so toward the endof the dive, it got siltier (we were beach diving not boat diving) Definitely do-able!

 

[JesperS]

8/25 - 10:00 AM

Service Club Park

I had it pegged at 83 degrees! Still wore our wetsuits though and it wasn't uncomfortable.

Max 22 ft

58 min dive


Not as good as last weekend, but much better than I was expecting after the rain this week. High tide was around noon today. I'd say we had a good 10 feet of visibility the whole dive pretty much.

Dropped around the end of the pier and worked our way westward, scavenging fossil beds on the way. We finally made it to the culverts, and I was stoked! It was a mental hurdle to make it that far out, and it feels great to have a rough sense of how far it is. I'm a terrible judge of distance though, how far from shore does the culvert area start?

Since it was such a clear day, and I didn't see any boats, we puttered around for a while, checking out the fish. Tons of little stuff, lots of big stuff, most notably huuuuge snook. The culverts are large, big enough to swim through easily (though we didn't). I was impressed with the coral growth on them.

After a bit, we decided to head back. I didn't want to push it, but I think I read that you actually want to go PAST the culverts to more fossil beds, for better chances at big stuff, yeah?

We worked our way back, but had a hard time finding the beds on the way back. As soon as we found the first one, boom, kiddo finds our first meg within moments!



Well, I think it's a meg...could you confirm or deny?

Found lots more small stuff on the way back in, and got a nice haul of sand dollars too (only take the WHITE ones, the gray ones are still alive!!).

Here's the rest of the haul, minus the sand dollars:



Lovely lovely day.

Got our gear home and threw it in our new rinse bucket, Schwwwwwwiiiiiiiiing!!!!!



100 gallon Rubbermaid horse trough. Fits 2 whole setups, including the tanks with pressurized regs. So, so sexy. Electronics and such go in the little bucket



Boat diving tomorrow, my kinda weekend!

 

[J_Green]

I went out from Alhambra, probably got in the water around 1 PM. When I first went down I'd say visibility was probably around 20 feet. It looked really clear. Seemed even more clear than Sunday. I think this was around 24' of water. I popped back up and swam out a ways further to 26-27 feet and it seemed to hover around 15 feet the rest of the dive. Found a pretty decent 3 5/8 tooth and a partial 2.25" (posted pics in the pictures thread). Had a pile of sheepshead following me at one point and another nice swarm of fish later. Got them on video. Will have to post it later when I get a chance to put it together.

 

[2TH DIVR]

5/26/2013
Service Club
Time 8:30 am
Seas Flat
Wind E @ 5+
Water Temp 81
Vis 10'-15'+
Finds

 

[2TH DIVR]

5/27/2013
Service Club
8:45 am
Seas Flat
Wind E @ 5
Water Temp 81
Vis 6'-12'
Finds

 

[J_Green]

I got two dives in today from Alhambra. First was around 9:00 am. Got to 29 feet. Came up about parallel to Aristakat so we had quite a swim from shore. Visibility was mostly 10-12 I'd say. Here were the finds for that dive. Biggest is 3 5/8. They are getting cleaned up right now. My GoPro didn't get most of the first dive. It was letting some moisture in the housing and decided it was going to be a NoGoAmateur. Luckily after getting it out and drying it off it worked fine for the second dive. I'll have to post the video tomorrow.


Second dive got in the water around 1:30 probably. Got to a max depth of 28ish. Visibility was much worse. I had at times only 5 feet up to maybe 8. It didn't help that the afternoon turned pretty overcast. All in all was pretty happy with the finds on the dive. Found a really nice looking Golden Beach Meg with great black tooth and shiny enamel great serration, with a brown gum. Unfortunately it has a chip in the side of it and a little chip off the gum otherwise this would be a real beauty. It is 3 3/4" long. The rest are in the process of cleaning too. I'll post pics when I am done, some are turning out nice, but my fingers are just about worn from scraping on them.

 

[jimmytooth21]

5/24-5/27

My dad, brother and myself dove from 5/24 - 5/27. We put the boat in and headed out to Alhambra and Service Club area all weekend. Weather was great!! East winds all weekend around 15 knots in the AM flattening out to about 10 knots in the PM. Viz was excellent pushing 15-20 ft in some spots. Water temp was 83 degrees, very comfortable. I will try and post some pictures of my finds in the thread a little later. I was happy for it being only my second time diving venice. We saw yaks everyday. Specifically an orange one. Was that any of you guys? Possibly 2th Divr, maybe J Green? We had the bay boat with blue and yellow graphics. Shout out to the Aristakat too we passed you a few times headed out and coming in. A great holiday weekend with about 10 dives in the log book!

 

[gytwypt]

Looking at the pic Dives4life posted up I bet it might have been his orange Yak.

 

[SkinDvr2000]

Did a couple dives Thursday & Friday each, seas calmed for the kayak this afternoon and should get better throughout the weekend. Visibility 5 to 10 foot off Alhambra, water warm enough to drop the 7mm wetsuit but I can stay down longer when warmer. She says I can dive Saturday so the red kayak will be out, can't Sunday because I fly Monday. East winds are helping, go for it!