IOP pictures

[Geoff_H]

Some photos from IOP today - a balmy 20 degrees air and water temperature made for some nice diving.

Seems a a lot of other people spotted the weather forecast since the 5.5 hour drive back took us all by surprise!

First up was a little cuttlefish doing something odd... he was sheltering from the surge with a little friend (fair enough) but I was surprised to see him sitting in the sand, colours oscillating and using his "skirt" to stir up the sand. No idea what he could have been doing?

Then, because I love cute things we have a cowfish, a baby lionfish and some flutefish who were thiriving in the strong surge

There were a few of this ku-e around, lording it over divers.. what is the English name? A type of bumphead parrotfish or not?

Slightly less at home in the surge were our diving buddies, here is Antoine demonstrating correct line clutching technique... plus the exit where the breaker was so strong it managed to *snap* my camera strap... fortunately I retrieved the housing ok.

Finally we saw a Japanese Angel shark, some nice lunch and something else.... any clues??? Some kind of urchin? The little white tentacles were moving around as if searching for food.

 

[Randy43068]

Great pictures! Thanks for posting them.

 

[Geoff_H]

A few more...

You've got mail!

Small fry

Dude where's my reef?

The shrimp and the dragon

 

[The Mushroom King]

Nice, Shots!!

Looks like entry/exit was a little rough (last weekend at IOP the ocean just spat me out!) - I was in Atami and it wasn't so bad. Great weather though!

Oh and I was just as confused by how busy the roads were and there were so many people in Atami that saturday night we couldn't get into a bar!! (ended up have some irish coffees down by the beach) When I got home I looked at my calender and then it all made sense. Saturday was 'culture day', a holiday - so probably a lot of folks getting a day off and heading out!

 

[TJO]

... and it was nice weather! It took us about two hours to go back from Atami to Yokohama of which 45 minutes was spent around Atsugi

Keep it now a secret from where we got the 200 yen Irish coffees!

 

[Geoff_H]

... and it was nice weather! It took us about two hours to go back from Atami to Yokohama of which 45 minutes was spent around Atsugi

After our six hour odysessy I can't raise much sympathy for your 2 hour quick trip

I will probably go to Atami next week - which sites did you dive? Any differences in viz between the wreck and the other sites? Or were you deep and dark tech diving where I wouldn't be able to follow?

 

[TJO]

Atami was all good at recreational depths (I was teaching a wreck class). Even the beach was excellent with lots of fishes! You know you can check the highway conditions before you leave Izu on your cellphone?!

My wife and I realized it would take some time to Tokyo and enjoyed a nice curry dinner before heading back. May see you in Atami next Sunday as we probably will be there.

 

[iflylow]

Keep it now a secret from where we got the 200 yen Irish coffees!

Now, that sounds really good!!!

 

[iflylow]

Those are nice pictures. It's interesting seeing the different species of fish in the pics. Quite a few are similar to the ones down here, but some definitely have different variations - particularly that lionfish. Neat stuff!

 

[DennisW]

The dives look fantastic, but you can keep the entry and exit. I'm getting to old for that kind of thing. Great pictures.