how does it look this weekend?

[Hepcat62]

BW today: Waves are maybe 1-2ft on the shore (so no need to crawl). No noticeable surge.

About 5-10ft vis, with tons of sea nettles at the metridium fields and none along the wall.

Damn - sorry i missed you today. I definitely dealt with the nettles during the aow class i was assisting on the metridium side of the beach. Your vis report lines up with mine, although I will say that the surge picked up significantly mid-afternoon...

Side note - a scooter makes towing the float in and out not just easy, but fun. Also, I'm really liking how my new double 100s trim out, and it's a lot of gas.

 

[Gombessa]

although I will say that the surge picked up significantly mid-afternoon...

I think we were in the water at 10:30, out by 1:00pm. Glad we missed the surgy afternoon, I suspect that, along with the viz and all the nettles, would have ended me.

Side note - a scooter makes towing the float in and out not just easy, but fun.

See, now you're just bragging

 

[Peter_C]

I think we were in the water at 10:30, out by 1:00pm.

See, now you're just bragging

Uh and your not Few folks do 2.5 hour dives

 

[Hepcat62]

See, now you're just bragging

Well, on the other hand i did have to do some high-speed nettle dodging, with quite a few very close calls with some larger specimens... Still, it was definitely a net win.

 

[Gombessa]

Uh and your not Few folks do 2.5 hour dives

LOL! The dive itself was an hour and change. I was counting the monster surface swam from the wall side of the beach to the metridium fields and the swim back to shore.

 

[andrewy]

yep 10ft viz at 70ft @ lobos. very dark and 4ft surge. still beats my shining office any day.

 

[Lenaxia]

I think we were in the water at 10:30, out by 1:00pm. Glad we missed the surgy afternoon, I suspect that, along with the viz and all the nettles, would have ended me.



See, now you're just bragging

Hey Kenn,

Just saw your video of your dive yesterday. We must've just missed eachother! We saw that diver with the blue tank on our way back in. We entered the water around 8.30 or so and didn't make it out to the Metridium fields. The cloud of nettles was so thick we couldn't actually swim through it.

Not sure if you guys caught the edge and we just caught the middle or they started dissipating by the time you guys went out but it was rather unnerving to deal with that many. I ended up catching 3 of them in the face, of course only when I turn to check on my buddy.

We hit 50ft and decided to turn. It was too thick.

 

[Gombessa]

Hey Kenn,

Just saw your video of your dive yesterday. We must've just missed eachother! We saw that diver with the blue tank on our way back in. We entered the water around 8.30 or so and didn't make it out to the Metridium fields. The cloud of nettles was so thick we couldn't actually swim through it.

Not sure if you guys caught the edge and we just caught the middle or they started dissipating by the time you guys went out but it was rather unnerving to deal with that many. I ended up catching 3 of them in the face, of course only when I turn to check on my buddy.

We hit 50ft and decided to turn. It was too thick.

I've only seen it worse than yesterday a couple of times - it got pretty bad along the pipe, and we were hugging the ground by the time we hit the met fields. But the main swarm was definitely about 10ft above us, and I only pulled out the camera to film when I had a bit of breathing room, so at times it was actually a bit more dense than what shows up in the video. By the time we hit a couple of the bigger metridium boulders, we decided it was just too crazy to stay, and turned south towards the wall. The nettles didn't dissipate until we were about halfway there. The entire traverse was - fin, dodge nettle, push nettle, try to turn, push nettle, make sure buddy hasn't been eaten, repeat. We didn't have much time to look for interesting stuff until things cleared up a bit.

Sorry to hear you got stung! I got hit for the first time yesterday, a tiny pinprick on my cheek, but I certainly felt it! I had a pretty good record of emerging unscathed until now

 

[timten]

I've only seen it worse than yesterday a couple of times - QUOTE]

Wow, as long as it isn't always like that. I was out for my 14th dive, and was in a group of 6. We tried to drop down on the pipe, and follow it out. We must have missed them on the drop down, all of a sudden got swarmed. One of the other divers got stung really bad around his mouth and signalled to surface. I was already laying on the ground trying to avoid them, we had to accend 40 feet through what looked like a packed tank at the aquarium. Once I calmed down a little on the surface my lips and forhead where burning. I think all six of us got stung. I was thinking of doing 2 dives on Sunday, but after that packed everything up, and got an early beer.

 

[Lenaxia]

I've only seen it worse than yesterday a couple of times - it got pretty bad along the pipe, and we were hugging the ground by the time we hit the met fields. But the main swarm was definitely about 10ft above us, and I only pulled out the camera to film when I had a bit of breathing room, so at times it was actually a bit more dense than what shows up in the video. By the time we hit a couple of the bigger metridium boulders, we decided it was just too crazy to stay, and turned south towards the wall. The nettles didn't dissipate until we were about halfway there. The entire traverse was - fin, dodge nettle, push nettle, try to turn, push nettle, make sure buddy hasn't been eaten, repeat. We didn't have much time to look for interesting stuff until things cleared up a bit.

Sorry to hear you got stung! I got hit for the first time yesterday, a tiny pinprick on my cheek, but I certainly felt it! I had a pretty good record of emerging unscathed until now

First time getting stung! Wow, color me green, I'm jealous at your luck!

Swimming though those nettles, i just kept remembering a horror movie I watched a long time ago. I can't remember it's name, but it was in a research facility at the bottom of the ocean and at one point, something caused jellyfish to swarm the facility and clog all the vents and everything and start killing people. As you said, gotta check to make sure buddy hasn't been eaten!