Feb. 25th & 26th Dive

[Rickster]

Folks:

Are y'all planning to dive Nitrox here or 21 percent? Any special gear I'll need? I'm looking forwarad to it.

- Sid

Hi Sid,

I am planning to use 21%. The diving is shallow. I am diving dry, a light is standard gear to see in all the nooks and holes, and I will more than likely bring my camera. No special gear here, either.

 

[jacek_smits]

I just learned that Refugio State Park blocked car access to the east side of the park so we'll have to meet in the day use area. It means a slightly longer walk to dive the east side of the park, but not too bad. Their automated phone system mentioned that you couldn't camp there until mid March, but failed to mention they had blocked access to that side of the park and I haven't run into this before. Learn something new every day.

So we'll meet in the day use area rather than the east side as posted earlier through the following link: http://www.sbdiving.com/wiki/index.php?title=Refugio_State_Beach

Jacek

 

[da squeeze]

i will be there, just wanted to know if anyone from the santa clarita area or even ventura area is going.

 

[Rickster]

i will be there, just wanted to know if anyone from the santa clarita area or even ventura area is going.

I live in Ventura.

 

[Rickster]

I just learned that Refugio State Park blocked car access to the east side of the park so we'll have to meet in the day use area. It means a slightly longer walk to dive the east side of the park, but not too bad. Their automated phone system mentioned that you couldn't camp there until mid March, but failed to mention they had blocked access to that side of the park and I haven't run into this before. Learn something new every day.

So we'll meet in the day use area rather than the east side as posted earlier through the following link: http://www.sbdiving.com/wiki/index.php?title=Refugio_State_Beach

Jacek

Cool, Jacek!

I will see you at the day use side, in the morning.

 

[da squeeze]

just wanted to see if someone wants a ride or would like to car pool up there.

 

[Rickster]

We had a great time at Refugio yesterday! The vis was 20' +, going down to 12' on the last dive. I got in 3 wonderful dives thanks to Sidwise(from N.C.), Irdcn3, and jacek_smits. Thanks, guys! We, also, had great company from others from the Board and from sbdiving.com.

Irdcn3, you can do the dive report, on our two dives, if you wish. I will post one on the last dive Sidewise and I did.

This is a good beach to dive and I am looking forward to the Dive/picnic there next Sat.

See everyone there.

 

[jacek_smits]

Rick, irdcn3, sid

It was good meeting you guys at Refugio. It made it a very enjoyable day. The conditions at Refugio were as good as I've seen them in a while. Too bad the kelp was damaged so much by all the storms we've had lately, but I had some very nice dives. I need to get my camera ready for next weekend. Hopefully the conditions are just as good then.

I was at Santa Cruz today and the conditions were pretty minimal. A dirty 10-12 foot visibility, 55 degrees, green, fairly dark with a lot of snot in the water (i.e., small floating white gelatinous particles - it looked like a pod of whales had had a pretty good sneeze attack). It was that way on all sites we visited.

Saturday at Refugio was great though and I'm looking forward to next Saturday.

 

[sidwise]

We had a great time at Refugio yesterday! The vis was 20' +, going down to 12' on the last dive. I got in 3 wonderful dives thanks to Sidwise(from N.C.), Irdcn3, and jacek_smits. Thanks, guys! We, also, had great company from others from the Board and from sbdiving.com.

Irdcn3, you can do the dive report, on our two dives, if you wish. I will post one on the last dive Sidewise and I did.

This is a good beach to dive and I am looking forward to the Dive/picnic there next Sat.

See everyone there.

Rickster, Jacek, & company,

Thanks for turning out to show this NC diver a great time at Refugio. Man, interesting site! A fairly easy site to dive and lots of cool stuff to see.

As Jacek posted, not a ton of kelp, but still a fair amount in patches, with critters living on and among it. LOTS of critters living on the ledges and in the nooks and crannies around them. Saw one octopus on the last dive with Rickster, many, many large sea stars, a couple of skates in the sand, a plethora of sea urchins, lots of anemone, several nudibranchs, several crabs, a few sea hares, a couple of things that I figured are sea cucumbers, but not varieties I've seen before, and some stuff that I figure is cold water varieties of soft coral. Pretty good for first time out at a new site, eh?

Overall, the east side of Refugio is an excellent site to dive. If I lived here, I could easily see myself diving there often. It'd probably take 30 more dives to see everything in that one area, and we didn't even do the rest of the park. Neat!

Guys, thanks again for turning out and showing me some fine SoCal diving. Next time I'm coming this way, you can bet I'll bring my gear again.

Rickster, you know that you're just setting yourself up to be the dive guide of choice for that area, man. Everyone's gonna be wanting you to show them around.

Now it's your turn to come east and join us for some NC wreck diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

Sid

 

[Rickster]

Rickster, Jacek, & company,

Thanks for turning out to show this NC diver a great time at Refugio. Man, interesting site! A fairly easy site to dive and lots of cool stuff to see.

As Jacek posted, not a ton of kelp, but still a fair amount in patches, with critters living on and among it. LOTS of critters living on the ledges and in the nooks and crannies around them. Saw one octopus on the last dive with Rickster, many, many large sea stars, a couple of skates in the sand, a plethora of sea urchins, lots of anemone, several nudibranchs, several crabs, a few sea hares, a couple of things that I figured are sea cucumbers, but not varieties I've seen before, and some stuff that I figure is cold water varieties of soft coral. Pretty good for first time out at a new site, eh?

Overall, the east side of Refugio is an excellent site to dive. If I lived here, I could easily see myself diving there often. It'd probably take 30 more dives to see everything in that one area, and we didn't even do the rest of the park. Neat!

Guys, thanks again for turning out and showing me some fine SoCal diving. Next time I'm coming this way, you can bet I'll bring my gear again.

Rickster, you know that you're just setting yourself up to be the dive guide of choice for that area, man. Everyone's gonna be wanting you to show them around.

Now it's your turn to come east and join us for some NC wreck diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

Sid

Well, thank you, Sid, for the kind words. We really enjoyed having you out here, and loved showing you the sites at Refugio.

Hmmm! Wreck diving in NC. Sounds like an experiance to add to my "To Dive" list.

Next time you are out here, maybe we can make a couple days of it, and see some more of SoCal dive spots. Next time you will have to bring the "uncertified Divemaster"

Again, thanks for diving with me, and the great time.

Rick