Friday Dec. 23rd Dive or Dives?

[pasley]

As Rickster knows, you have to go, look and decide. Many times I have seen reports of doom and gloom and got to the beach to lake Laguna conditions. On other days the forecast looked great, but the waves were huge.

Today’s swell is from the West, not the North West or the South West, the WEST. That means our usual sheltered spots are taking the waves right down the throat. This is suppose to peak today and tomorrow and start to settle down a bit (but still high) for Saturday before the next surfers paradise comes to town.

So what do we know today? At Redondo Beach today about noon, I could see waves from highway 190 about 1/2 mile from the ocean. That is not good. On arrival at Vets Park, we found two divers suiting up getting ready to go in. They had started off the day in Laguna Beach (beach closed), moved to Palos Verde (big surf) and Vets park was the end of the line. The surf at vest park was 2 - 3 feet and divable. King Harbor, well, occasional waves were breaking over the top of the break wall. Looking to the south past Topaz Jetty (which also looked diveable) the waves again appeared to be larger.

Bottom line, the visibility will be poor at best. I am staying dry both due to a cold and the conditions.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Pasley saw about the same thing I saw three hours later at 3:30 PM:

Modest surf at the main stairs of Veteran's park, between 1 and 3 feet, breaking gently.
Bigger swells were churning at the King Harbor Breakwall, spilling over into the harbor.
Surfzone east of the Topaz jetty was breaking 4 to 5 feet, and packed full of happy body-boarders and surfers.

So, while the beach entry at Vets is protected and feasible, a little voice in my head suggests that conditions down below are probably a bit dim... murky... thick...

No divers coming out of the water to ask.

No divers going in.

'chica's going home. :-(

I'll repeat the check and post tomorrow afternoon.
Hope springs eternal....

Claudette

 

[Rickster]

Thank you Pasley, for the surf report. I hope you feel better, soon. We will miss you, Friday.

So far, our plans are to meet at Terranea Resort (Old Marineland) at 8:00am Friday morning. Turbo][, wth, and myself are meeting. We will take a look and go from there. If it is divable then, we are on. If not then, we will go searching. LAJim is going to meet up with us around 1:30. Our plans are to get some diving in during the day, then meet up for the Sand Eaters night dive at Vets Park, Redondo.

If the diving does not pan out, then my wife and I are planing on doing some sight seeing, as we are going to stay down there for the night. Anyone else wanting to join, are welcome.

 

[Rickster]

Pasley saw about the same thing I saw three hours later at 3:30 PM:

Modest surf at the main stairs of Veteran's park, between 1 and 3 feet, breaking gently.
Bigger swells were churning at the King Harbor Breakwall, spilling over into the harbor.
Surfzone east of the Topaz jetty was breaking 4 to 5 feet, and packed full of happy body-boarders and surfers.

So, while the beach entry at Vets is protected and feasible, a little voice in my head suggests that conditions down below are probably a bit dim... murky... thick...

No divers coming out of the water to ask.

No divers going in.

'chica's going home. :-(

I'll repeat the check and post tomorrow afternoon.
Hope springs eternal....

Claudette

Thank you, Claudette! We will be looking forward to tomorrows report. So far, it looks like a navigational practice session. Cool!

Talk to you later,

 

[pasley]

Given all the conditions, I would hold out zero hope for:
1. safe entry at Terranea (Old Marineland) as an exposed West and South West facing dive site or
2. decent visibility if you do get in.
On the other hand, I will be rooting for you and hope you do get a dive in.

 

[Kevfin]

Even if I can't go diving, at least I can enjoy the new avatars Rickster and Pasley use.

 

[Rickster]

Even if I can't go diving, at least I can enjoy the new avatars Rickster and Pasley use.

lol

 

[Rickster]

Hey Kevin,
I was wondering why my air was off when I went in for this dive. I was looking thru the pictures and found the evidence!

 

[LAJim]

Nice story in LA Times about surf conditions this morning. Looked like the reporter knew the language of the sport. Even a mention of predictions on wetsand.com. Now, those predictions are glassy for tomorrow SW beaches. I don't now how long it will take for silt to settle.

Jim

 

[LLKZ16]

Malibu area looks OK for today.

I just went to Malaga Cove and Hagertys was HUGE!!!