Is she divable???

[mikeguerrero]

Hey all,

I'd like to dive tommorrow with my buddy and I didn't get a chance to call Glenn at Aquarius earlier today.

Does anyone know if BW or Lovers is divable?

I'm not good at reading the Monterey Bouy reports but it says 10.8 swells so that means NO to me.

Anyone want to post if they heard anything?

Thanks,

MG

 

[mikeguerrero]

Break water appears to be 4 to 6 foot swells according to Saturday's weather forcast. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

Thanks,

MG

 

[wdunne311]

.SUN...N WINDS 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT.
W SWELL 8 TO 10 FT AT 14 SECONDS.Looks borderline. The only real way to tell is head down here and see. I have the advantage of being able to drive 5 minutes down to Breakwater and decide whether I want to dive or not. I'm going to attempt it tomorrow, but only because I haven't been diving since before the 31st of December. Chuck actually has a page that helps interpret some of the data on that page.

"Actually, this is really only a little bit tongue in cheek. The offshore Coastal and Marine forecast is the first thing I check. If it's a northwest swell, and 8' or less, I go diving. If it's a west swell and 10' or less, I go diving. If it's a southwest swell (VERY rare), I go diving. Simple, right? Note that your thresholds may vary: I'm a photographer, and surge makes photography difficult, so maybe I'm a tougher grader than some. And some folks can only dive occasionally, and want to chery-pick the very best days. " From Chuck's Page

Again the only real way to tell when it looks borderline (taking into account the swell and wave model) is take the chance and come down here to look at it. You could also look at some of the webcams to see how rough it is too. Tomorrow might be a day to pack the gear and look. Worst that could happen is you don't dive and then you could check out the aquarium. And remember today's conditions have no bearing on tomorrow.

 

[Gombessa]

Reports from local dive shops today were "iffy." Around 5:30pm, breakwater was a bit surgy but totally doable - there were over 10 divers exiting around that time. Same with Macabee.

Lovers and further south had larger barreling waves, and was over my comfort level.

People seem to expect tomorrow (Sunday) may be better. Based on what I've seen tonight, I'd totally check conditions tomorrow.

 

[mikeguerrero]

I want to thank both of you for giving me a heads up on such short notice. I normally call a couple of the local shops and they give me some good feedback but unfortunately I lost my cell phone and my land line doesn't have long distance.

I'm in SF so the drive would hurt if it's not divable. Thanks to you guys I called my dive buddy and gave him a green light.

I'll see you guys down there by 8am. I hope to find some nice visibility. You should have seen the monster size waves at Half Moon Bay, they were 40 ft waves. I was happy to see a Californian take first prize.

Having waves so large at Mavericks in Half Moon bay sort of placed a damper on my excursion to Monterey Sunday; felt if this storm hit up here some of her is probably a little down south.

Well tommorrow will tell all I'll take pics and video as always.

MG

 

[mobeeno]

Looking forward to hearing your dive report Mikeguerrero

 

[mikeguerrero]

Looking forward to hearing your dive report Mikeguerrero

Here's the report:

Lover's one was not divable, at least not for us. The water was very clear in comparison to BW and three adult harbor seals were resting within the cove as huge swells from the west at lovers two were comming in. They were at least 8 feet in size.

My buddy wanted to dive lovers but I said no and we went back to BW which had over 30 divers out. Many were conducting classes with these harsh conditions. Within half way of training the instructors pulled out all their students.

It had gotten too hard for the instructor to keep all his students at the bottom for training. We got pounded hard on the entry and the exit. I've convinced my buddy he needs to ditch the cheap straps that come witht his Atomics and get the springs like me.

He went through 500 psi of gas fighting in at the shore water to place his fins. I took less that 20 secs for both fins. And let me tell you, I didn't want to fight with my fins so close to those rocks.

Once we got out visibility opened up to about 10 feet and then some areas up to 15+. I was fun comming back along side the rocks as we caught some powerful surge that litterally allowed us just to use our fins as rudders.

This conserved a lot of energy since we had gone really far out to about 50 feet of water. No sealions as they probably didn't want to mess with all that surge.

Mavericks surely did mess things up for divers but I heard their site was speechless that is for surfers.

MG

 

[wdunne311]

Glad you made it back safe. I decided not to dive. Regretted telling you to check it out and possibly dive it. Glad you had fun.