Great diving at Venice Beach today!

[CBulla]

So today I played hooky from Lovers Key and Reefguy (Jeff) being on vacation made it easy to come up with a game plan to go diving! We went to Venice Beach today and worked on a new toothing technique. It worked. I found a nice 3.1" meg in near pristine shape, Jeff found a 2" meg in 80-85% shape and we found a neat bone yard in about 20-22 feet of water. There was a horrid long shore current (northward) that kept us working like crazy to stay still in a spot to search, and making things more interesting was the NE wind that was dragging Jeff slightly sideways to boot. We basically skipped over the smaller teeth on the way out opting to look on the return but with the current we came in much farther north than the small toothy areas and had a bit of a walk back to the Alhambra are. Beware the tiny jellies, the stung around my cheeks some (face yawl, not the other ones).

 

[thedaddy]

Congrats on the big megs!
Is the vis still about the same as when we were there for the b-day bash?

I finally convinced my wife to try Venice, so my daughter and I are taking her down this Saturday (the 8th) off Alahambra around 8:30 or so.

So, is your new technique to get out as fast/far as possible (skipping the small ones near shore)? Sorry, I'm a bit slow _and_ dense.

 

[ReefGuy]

Yeah, vis was around 8'. I usually don't just head out so fast, but the current was forcing us to keep moving, and we ended up out there pretty quick.

 

[CBulla]

We ended up down the beach quick to. It was very challenging to swim for 100m to keep my buddy either in sight or from running into him (depending on which way we turned to search). Ya know, for the four years I've been diving with Jeff, I have yet to have 2 dives alike... nothing 'routine' its always a challenge! Thanks for the fun dive yesterday dude!

 

[UB]

Congrats on Nice Finds. I was planning on going this weekend (maybe try Service Club Park) but have to work.

 

[Walter]

What's your new technique?

 

[H2Andy]

There was a horrid long shore current (northward) that kept us working like crazy to stay still in a spot to search

you should do what the guys at the Cooper River do ... they have a big
screwdiver with them, and stick it into the bottom when they want to stay put.

 

[Walter]

The current is never that strong at VB.

 

[CBulla]

you should do what the guys at the Cooper River do ... they have a big
screwdiver with them, and stick it into the bottom when they want to stay put.

The current is never that strong at VB.

Actually, yesterday, it would have been a big help to have had a screwdriver or dog-anchor or something. I spent almost the entire dive finning in one way or another to either stay near or keep from running over Jeff (depending on which direction we turned while searching). Jeff kept getting a NE drag with the flag in addion to the Northward longshore current that took us up. We swam at an angle into the current on the swim in and possibly made up ground towards the beach. We were easily 1/4 mile down the beach from where we went under and began our search at and I can guarantee we did not swim north at any point during our dive. The problem with the current was we were blown completely past the area we wanted to search.

Technique being getting a little higher off the bottom, deeper water, looking more for bigger shapes vs. the tiny teeth in the shallower water. Based on the tooth I found yesterday and the one Jeff found, it works well

 

[H2Andy]

Technique being getting a little higher off the bottom, deeper
water, looking more for bigger shapes vs. the tiny teeth in the shallower water.

makes a lot of sense