January '05 Dive Reports

[HBDiveGirl]

Two dives at the Shores 01/16
The usual suspects went to La Jolla and made the long swim out..twice. Here are the profiles and the images.
Inages are Here: http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/TwoDivesattheShores
Why weren't you there?
Terry S.
__________________
"It's a good day to Dive."

Terry, Thanks for posting the Great photos! The octopus glided across my screen so gracefully that I felt I should have had to equalize my ears to get to see such beauty. Also really admired the rock fish (nicely arranged worm tubes,) lizard fish ("such a cute face"), flattie, Flabellinopsis, and lobsters. Sad to say, I'm still on the surface kayaking my congested ears out to enjoy the dolphin, seals, sea lions, cormorants, grebes, and pelicans between the glorious sunshine and the reflective turquiose sea. Being unable to dive this weekend made me change focus and revel in the boundary layer. Your beautiful photos made the weekend feel complete. Thanks again!
Claudette

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

I went diving with Terry,Terry John, Simon, and Paul at the shores yesterday as well.
We saw a rockfish that was tagged by the DFG and I tried to get a few shots of his tag (but it was overgrown so couldn't see the #). Anyway, we had a great series of dives and here are my pictures:

http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/shores01162005

 

[MaxBottomtime]

After the surprisingly good conditions yesterday we decided to try for the Star of Scotland today. The trail of trash extended from Santa Monica Pier out at least two miles. We had to look for an opening just to make a giant stride into the murky water. When we reached the bottom the only thing I could see was my buddy's thumb pointing upward. Good idea. 57F, 0-1' vis.
We moved back down the coast to the rock barge at the Redondo Artificial Reef. With the gravel bottom, conditions were much nicer. Marc came home with five bugs and I made it home without hepatitus, I hope.
Our third dive was on the landing craft near Malaga Cove. Not much to see, as usual, but at least we could see. 57F, 12-15' vis.

 

[scottfiji]

I did 2 shore dives in Baja this weekend, near Ensenada. I didn't get to do boat diving because there weren't enough people, so I'll save that for next time. Supposedly the boat dives are several times better than the shore dives!

The dives were incredible, and the vis was great (30ft). I would compare them to a marineland or a point dume. Lots of huge rock structure, and lots of kelp. The marine life was similar to the life here, except there were many large sunflower stars, and loads of different colorful sponges. No gorgonians though.

Contact me if you plan on diving these sites so I can give you important details on site location, entry, and navigation.

Sightings includes lots of the following: lobster, rockfish, scallops, sea hares, garibaldi, blacksmith, giant sheephead (and a few juvies), senorita, kelp bass, treefish, shrimp, blacksmith, octopus, perch, chestnut cowries, orange puffball sponges, large opaleye, painted greenlings, blackeyed-gobies; also saw 1 scorpionfish, a couple island kelpfish, and my first zebra goby; lots of different colorful starfish and brittle stars.

Dive #1- Kennedy's Camp - Jan 15th, 2PM
61 degrees, max depth 44ft, no waves, short steep trail access, rocky pebble entry; no surge/current

This dive is at the most beautiful cove I've ever seen, its worth it just to experience this place above water. The dive had these great long underwater swimthroughs that I stumbled upon. Kelp, underwater pinnacles, lots of life. When I dropped down, I looked into a crevice and saw a lobster, garibaldi, and moray eel all peacefully sharing a hole!

Dive # 2 - La Bufadora - Jan 16th, 11AM
59 degrees, max depth 55ft, no waves, short steep trail access, rocky entry; no surge/current

Lots of life here, tons of giant rock structure, lots of kelp. A harbour seal kept me company for some of my dive. Also saw over a dozen lemon nudibranchs, and 2 large lingcod.

No underwater photos, I haven't replaced my digital camera yet; above-water pictures coming soon. I can't wait to go back! Next month again for sure. Who's in?

 

[Frank O]

Went on the Sundiver to Catalina on Sunday to acclimate to a new drysuit. Left photo gear at home to avoid task overloading. Very flat seas, vis ~20 ft near isthmus and up to ~40 ft further west on frontside. Temps 57-59 F at depth. Buddy found an intact paper nautilus shell, which was quite cool. Brought home a list of plenty of gear tweaks to make the drysuit thing work ...

 

[sfsusa]

Date: 1/17/05
Dive Location: Yukon (2 dives) & Ruby (1 dive) at San Diego basin
Time: 8:54 - 9:30 / 10:39 - 11:15 / 12:17 - 12: 58
Bottom Time: 38 / 36 / 41 min.
Max Depth: 104'
Vis:15'
Wave height: 0'
Temp at depth: 57F
Surface Temp: 58F
Tide information: n/a
Comments:
I went for my I first dive this year on Monday, Jan. 17. This time it was Yukon & Ruby on Ocean Express out of San Diego. Used AL80 from the boat what caused me to put extra 4lbs. in BCD pockets. However, it was not a big deal considering it was only 5 divers on the boat.

The boat captain kindly offered me to try demo Oceanic (H2O) MP3 player on my second dive on Yukon. It's really amazing gizmo while gliding at the depth and it's more fun to spend time listening music at idle safety/deco stops. The player is easy to operate and sound quality is amazing in the water even @ 100' depth.

Great dive to be wet again. :dazzler1:

 

[ShakaZulu]

Date:
Dive Location:
Time:
Bottom Time:
Max Depth:
Vis:
Wave height:
Temp at depth:
Surface Temp:
Tide information:
Comments:

If you dive, please post here.

Why are we deviating from this template???

 

[divinman]

Why are we deviating from this template???

This question from a known deviant. The template is there only as a suggestion. Deal with it Roy.

Terry

 

[ShakaZulu]

This question from a known deviant. The template is there only as a suggestion. Deal with it Roy.

Terry

Date: 18 Jan 05
Dive Location: My Desk
Time: 6:23pm
Bottom Time: 8 hours
Max Depth: 0ft
Vis: 1ft to my monitor
Wave height: 3 inches, wicked turbulance when I pushed the button.
Temp at depth: 23F
Surface Temp: 23F
Tide information: Overflowing
Comments:

I'm sorry.......I was just thinking that presenting the information in an organized manner would be more beneficial for the reader.

 

[scubacalifornia]

Date: Wednesday, 1/19/05
Dive Buddy: Mike Sveen
Dive Location: Shaw's Cove, Laguna Beach
Time: 8:15 PM
Bottom Time: 42 minutes
Max Depth: 37'
Vis: Horrible. 2'-8'
Wave height: 1-3'
Surge: 2' - 10' (really)
Temp at depth: 59 F
Surface Temp: 61 F

Never a dull moment on this dive, and I promised Mike I would try to write a dive report that captured the true essence of our evening. Since the storms, the sandy bottom entry at Shaw's has turned into a bit of an obstacle course. One step and you're in 2' of water, next step your in 3' or 4'. More exposed rock as well. Conditions looked very reasonable on the surface, bit of rip current in the middle but overall fairly flat, long intervals between waves and nothing too big. Three steps into the water...boom....unanticipated bigger wave. I do the splits but manage not to fall (remember, the bottom isn't level), Mike goes down (gracefully though). We proceed, swim out, drop down about 15', and the viz is almost nill. Lots of baby flounders in the sand. We swim west to the reef and literally find it with our faces. Surge is pretty heavy, and all that's going through my mind is where's the reef and how many urchins am I going to nail. So we stay close, meander around, and the whole time I'm thinking "gee, I must really love this sport because this sucks and I'm still enjoying myself in an odd kind of way". Then, the real fun begins. About 4' away in the haze, I watch this 4-5' long seal go by. I'm kind of startled but no worry, I've got urchins on my mind. We keep exploring, Mike finds a cool giant sheep crab, we eyeball a sculpin, a few garibaldi, a shovelnose guitarfish, a few small rays. I'm feeling surprisingly fulfilled that we're seeing anything in this mire. Then our seal friend decides to have a good time at our expense. Swims by and brushes Mike a couple of times. Then, we're peering into the Crevice and he swims by underneath.
Later, we're side by side vertically looking at the reef, and I look down only to find our friend about 6" underneath us. At some point along the way, he decides Mike will be the real target and goes after his fin. Now I completely understand why, when I was behind Mike and the surge pushed me into his fins, he flipped around like it was a shark attack. After 35 minutes of bottom time, we decided to surface, swim out of the general vicinity, drop back down and head in. All in all, a small price to pay for being wet.

Kevin Glenn