Diver's Cove

[Frank O]

Anyone have any thoughts/comments on Diver's Cove?

Like a lot of divers I've been to that whole string of coves just north of Laguna's main beach many times, and lots of nice dives at each.

They're all close enough that if conditions aren't good at one, you can try another (vis for example can sometimes vary due to peculiarities of each cove's geography). For example one day last summer I tried some freediving at Shaw's, the vis was marginal at best, so I walked down to Divers Cove. One of the locals told me that vis tended to be better to the east off Picnic Beach (adjacent to Divers at Heisler Park). So I ended up over there and sure enough ran into some clearer water. Has anyone else noticed any general tendencies in conditions among this string of coves?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

As mentioned before, Headhunter and I took a stroll over to Diver's Cove on Saturday, and it looks like a real nice place to dive. Nice beach, easy entry/exit, protected from waves, nice shallow reef with some good snorkeling for the family, etc. Anyone have any thoughts/comments on Diver's Cove? Especially parking. When we were there on Saturday afternoon, there were some available metered spaces. Think it will get filled up in the morning?

By the way, here's a link to a description and map of the dive site for those who haven't been there before:

http://www.saintbrendan.com/cdnaug03/DvrsCv.html

I'm planning on diving there this weekend if anyone wants to join me. Headhunter? ScotM? Anyone else?

Here's another link for you.
http://www.lagunaseasports.com/divesite/divers/divers.asp

 

[Otter]

I'm there for 2 tanks! ...well, 1 tank and I'll get it filled during the SI.

Jim, it looks like you and I are just going to work our way down the coast 1 dive site at a time! When swells approach from the south, I'd like to do the same with all of the sites starting in Palos Verdes and working our way north.

Maybe this winter we can do every well known dive site from Ventura County to the Mexican border, while hooking up with ScubaBoard divers all across SoCal!

Christian

I'll have my Rescue Class either at Shaw's or Diver's on Sat and Sun mornings. We should be real obvious..drop by and say hi.

 

[headhunter]

I'll have my Rescue Class either at Shaw's or Diver's on Sat and Sun mornings. We should be real obvious..drop by and say hi.

Cool!

We'll definitely look for you.

Since I've never met you, I'll be walking up to all of the different classes asking, "Is this the class that Craig teaches? Which one is he?"

Christian

 

[headhunter]

The weather report has things looking clear until we dive in Laguna on Saturday. Things should have plenty of time to clear up.

Here are the tide predictions on Sat. with Sunset and Sunrise times included:

2004-10-23 00:44 PDT -0.16 feet Low Tide
2004-10-23 07:03 PDT Sunrise
2004-10-23 07:25 PDT 4.85 feet High Tide
2004-10-23 13:05 PDT 1.80 feet Low Tide
2004-10-23 18:07 PDT Sunset
2004-10-23 18:49 PDT 5.10 feet High Tide

The wetsand.com website is predicting the waves to be at 1 - 2 feet on Sat. from both the NW and SW. They also predict that the wind will go down to nothing.

The weather.com website shows the day being sunny with a high of 68 degrees and 57 degrees at 9am.

The So. Cal. Swell Model shows the current swell at 2 - 4 ft. for most areas with some at 0 - 2 ft.

Looks like its going to be a great day for diving in SoCal! almtree: :sunny

Christian

 

[mccabejc]

Looks like its going to be a great day for diving in SoCal! almtree: :sunny

Christian

Ooo La LAAA !!!!

Though I was just looking at the Laguna webcam and it's looking pretty gnarly down there. Lots of foam, waves are pretty big, and you can actually see the sewer cooties floating on top.

The Laguna lifeguards say viz has improved to 4-6 feet today, and the bacteria count is very high today. ALL SYSTEMS GO !!!

From my perspective, it's good to be exposed to a little bit of bacteria once in a while. Look at it this way: if you NEVER got exposed, then suddenly got a big hit of it, you'd die on the spot. This way you build up a tolerance.

 

[headhunter]

From my perspective, it's good to be exposed to a little bit of bacteria once in a while. Look at it this way: if you NEVER got exposed, then suddenly got a big hit of it, you'd die on the spot. This way you build up a tolerance.

You, my friend, are a sick man... or at least you will be if you keep diving in stuff like that! :11:

We'll have a great time on Saturday. I'll just be sure to keep some antibiotics in the car for when we're done!

Christian

 

[mccabejc]

Reminds me of a story on the local news a couple of months ago, there was a sewage spill up near Dockweiler I think. They were filming a lifeguard talking to a surfer. The lifeguard was telling him the beach is closed due to raw sewage, you can't go in. And the surfer was actually arguing. "Dude, what's the big deal?".

I love surfing too, and I know where he's coming from, but I draw the line at surfing in the potty. Although I did surf of the coast off Rio de Janiero a while back... :11:

 

[mccabejc]

Diving conditions in Laguna today are getting better: swell 1-2 ft, with occasionally 3ft (though it looks larger on the webcam), water 66 degrees (though it looks warmer on the webcam), visibility 8-10 ft., conditions are fair.

By tomorrow it will be, like, super groovy.

_________________________

"That really hurt! I'm gonna have a lump there, you idiot! Who throws a shoe? Honestly! You fight like a woman!" - Austin Powers

 

[MyDiveLog]

Depending on the swell direction Diver's can be better than Shaw's (a S swell seems to cause sediment to swirl in Shaw's, so vis is better at Divers). My bet is that the vis this weekend will be better at Deadman's, which is farther off shore, than either Shaw's or Diver's.

You might want to think about entering at boat canyon (the stairs that lead right behind the condos) and exiting at Diver's. If you do that, enter on the far W side of the beach; enter on the E side and you'll be on-top of the reef in relatively shallow water, which can be quite surgy. Boat Canyon / Picnic Beach has some 2' to 3' rocks covered by slippery eel grass, so it's a better place to enter than exit. Swim out to 10' - 15', descend, and swim S/E until you hit the edge of the reef. The reef has a couple of narrow cuts that take you into a relatively sheltered place called 'Mermaid's Grotto.' If it's surgy be careful in the notches. It's also relatively easy to get turned around going in and out of the notches, so watch your compass. It's a small reef, so go slow and bring a light....you'll have plenty of bottom time because it's a fairly shallow dive. As you get to the Diver's end of the reef be sure to save some air to scout the sandy bottom in 20' - 15'; for some reason the larger rays always seem to be there, while the smaller ones seems to feed at Shaw's. Diver's also seems to have an unusually large number of brittle stars; I've never known why.

Another idea if you have good air consumption and are pretty good at navigation is to park at the dive shop, walk over to Diver's, enter, explore the reef, then swim u/w and exit at Shaw's. If you have to ascend near Boat Canyon be very careful, listening as you ascend ... boats sometimes zip overhead without much consideration for divers (more often in the summer than this time of year, however). If you have REALLY good air consumption you can do the same thing at Deadman's/Shaw's.


Your enthusiam is admirable ... but I'd not take the bacteria risk too lightly. Make sure to hose your ears out with Swimmer's ear or, better yet, a mix of distilled water, white vinegar, and alcohol. Also, be careful around the sea urchins ... since a stick might be more likely to lead to a staff infection if that brown ooze on top of the water is what I think it is ... as much as I'm itching to get in the water I'm going to take a pass this weekend!

Have fun & let us know how it went!

Phil