Roughwaterjohn
Contributor
La Jolla Shores dusk/night
Dive Info:
Calm seas with 1 or less waves.
Surface temperature 68 degrees, 54 degrees in the canyon.
Visibility was 15 in the shallows, with 20-30 at depth.
There was a slight south running long shore current, but no surge.
3.5 high tide, on a 1.2 knot flood
Maximum depth 91 fsw, average depth 75 fsw.
Total bottom time 47 minutes.
Photos:
Terry and I pretty much took photos of the same things.
http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photogalleries.php?s=5687
The Report:
I knew this was going to be a good dive when both Terry and I found parking next to each other on Vallecitos Street. Of course we did squeeze two big trucks into a space normally used for a medium sized car and a half, but thats just good parking skills. It was overcast and cool when we arrived, and though the sun had not yet set, we geared up and headed for the water
With a medium sized high tide and minimal wave action, we walked straight out from Vallecitos to chest deep water, shoved our booted feet into our fins and headed out towards deeper water. With the current, the buoy was hanging way south and slightly west of its usual spot, so we stayed even with it, but further north. We dropped down to decent visibility and water tinged a glowing green from the cloud diffused sunset.
We headed due west into the canyon, hitting a small thermocline at 30 fsw and its big brother at 55 fsw. As we kicked west, we sailed out over the edge, the canyon dropping away below us as we slowly gained depth before nearing the bottom just as we encountered another ledge. We sailed out over the darkness on this one also, ski jumping our way down the sandy moguls as we continued into the darker depths.
At approximately 85 fsw, we stopped to explore a little, then headed south along the wall. We saw a pair of Sheephead, a male and female, with the larger male trying to play Ostrich by sticking his head in the sand and pretending we werent there. We left him and his attempts to put a square peg into a round hole. We saw a pretty good selection of Sea Hares, in a variety of shades and sizes. We saw tiny ones no more than a couple of inches long, to big fat, swollen blobs of pumped up monstrosities. They ranged in color from burnt orange to deep maroon.
Continuing south, we saw a couple of Red Octopus, lots of Lizardfish, also in a variety of sizes, schools of small Rockfish, small Ocean Whitefish and the usual selection of Gobies and such. At 80 fsw, we came across a couple of well disguised Decorator Crabs. They were completely decked out in their muck and debris finery, looking like they just stepped off the set of Crab Eye for the Kelp Guy. These guys had decorating down pat. I tried to take photos, but even trying different angles and lighting, if they werent moving or eating, they disappeared into the background. Even looking straight at them, when they stood still, I began to doubt they were there and I had really seen them. Any stagnant photo would not have been able to show that there had ever been any life once the film ended up on paper. I tipped my hat (and promised to watch their show on TV), then continued our exploration.
We had seen a few Purple Jellies at depth, and as we angled up the slope, loosing depth but gaining warmth, we spotted a few more. Eagle Eye Terry spotted a tiny 1 Pear Crab in the sand, no easy feet when its not moving, sand colored and covered in a light dusting of silt. After his first observation, we spotted a few more within the next 20-30 as we headed towards shore.
Our north/east heading took us over the Sand Dollar fields before we encountered another Jelly in mid column and then the chain for the buoy. Terrys eagle eyes again spotted a tiny Kelpfish hanging out on the chains collar and a small Blenny in a sand cave at its base. Continuing north/east, we swam over feisty crabs, their claws clamoring to get a piece of us, then several sand clouds before we saw a large Bat Ray flying off into the darkness.
The sun had set by this time, but we still had reflected light from the clouds lighting up the shallows as we swam in that slowly narrowing world of the surf zone. We were about a foot off the sculpted bottom with the surface reflecting our progress 3 above, when we finally stopped and stood up in the surf. We chatted about the dive as we removed and clipped off our fins, shut down our lights then headed in. It was an easy exit, a quick shower and within minutes, we were dumping our gear next to our trucks.
John-Boy
Dive Info:
Calm seas with 1 or less waves.
Surface temperature 68 degrees, 54 degrees in the canyon.
Visibility was 15 in the shallows, with 20-30 at depth.
There was a slight south running long shore current, but no surge.
3.5 high tide, on a 1.2 knot flood
Maximum depth 91 fsw, average depth 75 fsw.
Total bottom time 47 minutes.
Photos:
Terry and I pretty much took photos of the same things.
http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photogalleries.php?s=5687
The Report:
I knew this was going to be a good dive when both Terry and I found parking next to each other on Vallecitos Street. Of course we did squeeze two big trucks into a space normally used for a medium sized car and a half, but thats just good parking skills. It was overcast and cool when we arrived, and though the sun had not yet set, we geared up and headed for the water
With a medium sized high tide and minimal wave action, we walked straight out from Vallecitos to chest deep water, shoved our booted feet into our fins and headed out towards deeper water. With the current, the buoy was hanging way south and slightly west of its usual spot, so we stayed even with it, but further north. We dropped down to decent visibility and water tinged a glowing green from the cloud diffused sunset.
We headed due west into the canyon, hitting a small thermocline at 30 fsw and its big brother at 55 fsw. As we kicked west, we sailed out over the edge, the canyon dropping away below us as we slowly gained depth before nearing the bottom just as we encountered another ledge. We sailed out over the darkness on this one also, ski jumping our way down the sandy moguls as we continued into the darker depths.
At approximately 85 fsw, we stopped to explore a little, then headed south along the wall. We saw a pair of Sheephead, a male and female, with the larger male trying to play Ostrich by sticking his head in the sand and pretending we werent there. We left him and his attempts to put a square peg into a round hole. We saw a pretty good selection of Sea Hares, in a variety of shades and sizes. We saw tiny ones no more than a couple of inches long, to big fat, swollen blobs of pumped up monstrosities. They ranged in color from burnt orange to deep maroon.
Continuing south, we saw a couple of Red Octopus, lots of Lizardfish, also in a variety of sizes, schools of small Rockfish, small Ocean Whitefish and the usual selection of Gobies and such. At 80 fsw, we came across a couple of well disguised Decorator Crabs. They were completely decked out in their muck and debris finery, looking like they just stepped off the set of Crab Eye for the Kelp Guy. These guys had decorating down pat. I tried to take photos, but even trying different angles and lighting, if they werent moving or eating, they disappeared into the background. Even looking straight at them, when they stood still, I began to doubt they were there and I had really seen them. Any stagnant photo would not have been able to show that there had ever been any life once the film ended up on paper. I tipped my hat (and promised to watch their show on TV), then continued our exploration.
We had seen a few Purple Jellies at depth, and as we angled up the slope, loosing depth but gaining warmth, we spotted a few more. Eagle Eye Terry spotted a tiny 1 Pear Crab in the sand, no easy feet when its not moving, sand colored and covered in a light dusting of silt. After his first observation, we spotted a few more within the next 20-30 as we headed towards shore.
Our north/east heading took us over the Sand Dollar fields before we encountered another Jelly in mid column and then the chain for the buoy. Terrys eagle eyes again spotted a tiny Kelpfish hanging out on the chains collar and a small Blenny in a sand cave at its base. Continuing north/east, we swam over feisty crabs, their claws clamoring to get a piece of us, then several sand clouds before we saw a large Bat Ray flying off into the darkness.
The sun had set by this time, but we still had reflected light from the clouds lighting up the shallows as we swam in that slowly narrowing world of the surf zone. We were about a foot off the sculpted bottom with the surface reflecting our progress 3 above, when we finally stopped and stood up in the surf. We chatted about the dive as we removed and clipped off our fins, shut down our lights then headed in. It was an easy exit, a quick shower and within minutes, we were dumping our gear next to our trucks.
John-Boy
