January '05 Dive Reports

[scottfiji]

Date: Jan 27, 2005
Dive Location: Old Marineland / Long Point
Time: 11:30AM
Bottom Time: 47 min
Max Depth: 53 feet
Vis: 10ft
Wave height: 1ft
Temp at depth: 57
Tide information: high tide at 9:45AM, 5.6ft
Surge/swell: no swell or current, but a long, strong surge
Comments:

Gannon and I decided a dive was in order, so we drove down to trusty old marineland. Walked down the trail to check out the surf, everything looked calm with 1ft waves. So, we decided to enter off the rocks near the point. (Our first time entering there). Suited up, took the trail the veered to the right, climbed down the rocks at the first accessible area. Waves were a little bigger here, but nothing us experts couldn't handle. Well, each of these little waves was followed by a long, strong invisible surge that kicked our butts for 2-3 minutes, tossing us around the rocks, pulling us out, sucking us in, pulling us out, sucking us in. Luckily our tanks were hitting the rocks instead of our heads, and we finally made it out with no injuries.

Vis was pretty bad, but after zero vis at Point Dume, 9-10 feet felt wonderful, and at least I could see my dive partner the entire time. We spotted spanish shawl, lemon nudibranchs, octopi, 2 scorpionfish, lots of senoritas, rockfish, painted greenlings, black-eyed & blue-banded gobies, blacksmith, a sea lion, many juvenile sheephead, and lobsters.

Not much surge at 50 ft depth, but swimming back to the protected cove at 25-30 ft depth there was again a long, strong surge that lasted several seconds in each direction, it was actually pretty fun to swim in.

All in all it was a great dive, we were really glad we went.

Scott

 

[scottfiji]

Date: Jan 29th, 2005
Dive Location: Vallecitos Wall
Time: 8:00AM
Bottom Time: 43 min
Max Depth: 124 feet
Vis: 3-8ft with dive light
Wave height: 8ft +
Temp at depth: 57
Tide information: high tide at 10:44AM, 4.6ft
current: south-flowing current

Sean, Roy, Frenchy and myself entered into large waves, fast sets, a long surf zone, and no lulls. Luckily the waves were breaking gently and diving under them, although exhausting, was fairly safe. The 4 of us (a fifth brave soul returned to shore) regrouped past the breaking waves in high swells.

Sean and I found 2 baby octopus that swam through our hands, a juvenile kelpfish that made a home in my hand, several sandabs, a small halibut, stingray, several large octopus, hundreds of juvenile fish (sheephead, blacksmith, oceanic whitefish, kelp bass, etc.), a couple large scorpionfish, a couple squid eggs, several spotfin sculpin, many crabs, and lobster.

Date: Jan 29th, 2005
Dive Location: North Wall
Time: 1:30PM
Bottom Time: 44 min
Max Depth: 85 feet
Vis: 3-8ft with dive light
Wave height: 7ft +
Temp at depth: 57
Tide information: high tide at 10:44AM, 4.6ft
current: strong south-flowing current, surge at some points along the wall

The 4 tsunami divers again battled the waves, barely making it through after a long and arduous fight. I barely made it through, thoroughly exhausted. A current pushed me far south, and I had a long swim to join up with the others past the wave breaks. Another long swim brought us to the north wall, where many delights awaited us.

Many lobsters, black-eyed gobies, schools of blacksmith, large vermillion and gopher rockfish, a wall with at least hundreds of brittle stars, adult & juvie sheephead, painted greenling, octopus, and a school of perch were all spotted.

Both dives were great adventures! Exit back onto the beach was fairly easy riding waves back into shallow water (except for Roy). Sean, thanks for buddying up with me.

Scott

 

[mccabejc]

Geez, I was checking out the CDIP measured/forecast wave heights for the La Jolla Pier yesterday morning while you guys were down there, and was amazed that they were forecasting 5-6 ft., but actually measuring 8ft+. I thought the data was bogus or something. Though it did look pretty nasty on the webcam. Glad everyone made it through okay.

 

[divinman]

Here's my psuedo-report

Date: 01/30/05
Dive Location: Lobster Shack Dive 1
Time: 0933
Bottom Time: 59:20
Max Depth: 51 ft
Vis: 35-40
Wave height: 0
Temp at depth: 58
Surface Temp: 58

Date: 01/30/05
Dive Location: Lobster Shack Dive two
Time: 1121
Bottom Time: :62:00
Max Depth: 45
Vis:20-25
Wave height:0
Temp at depth: 57
Surface Temp: 58

IMAGES: http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/LobsterShackdive

The usual suspects showed up at the boat for a the long boat ride down to the Los Coronado's Islands just over the border down Mexico way.

Looking at the swell model last night I had serious doubts that we would go but things had improved by launch time and we all piled on the boat and were soon headed south.

I find myself growing lazy, especially after a long day on the boat and two dives on top so I will just give ya a brief summary and you can check out the pictures and see for yourself. After all, a picture is worth......

Dive one was great. Dropped anchor inside the protected cove and could clearly see the rocks below the swim step at 25ft. Horizontal vis was pushing 35-40 today and with a mighty whooo hooo we dipped beneath the surface.

First time dive with the new strobe and I have lots to learn but am pleased over all with my newbie results. Lots and lots and lots of sea lions in the water today. Barking and playing tag, pulling fins and generally having a grand ole time. Limited macro stuff today but I did get some shots of nice gorgonians and an eel. Schools of fish shimmered in the sunlight as we explored. It was a magic day underwater.

Second dive was more of the same but the vis had come down a bit but still an easy 20-25ft. I forget was really good vis is like from all the logged hours in the canyon.

Thanks to John the wonder buddy and all for making the surface interval as nice as the dive. Good friends do make for great dives.

Terry S.

 

[Roughwaterjohn]

Duuude, you rock!!! Lots and lots of great photos, but #'s 13, 20, 32 and 59 of 65 were outstanding! Not too bad for a strobe newbie. I gotta tell ya, it was great to be back in the water with so many of my great friends. Thanks Terry, Sean, Paul and Tannika (sp?), I had a wonderful time.

John

 

[mccabejc]

Date: 01/30/2005
Dive Location: Shaw’s Cove, West Reef
Time: 2:49 PM
Bottom Time: 63:10 minutes
Max Depth: 35 ft.
Vis: 5-10 ft.
Wave height: 1-3 ft.
Temp at depth: 59
Surface Temp: 61 air, 59 water
Tide information: +2, Going Low

Comments: Met up with Headhunter, Jdog, Jetfixer, Snakedr, and El Chorizo at Shaw’s on their way back from La Jolla. Weather was gorgeous, clear Santa Ana. Myrna and I first checked out Crescent, and found the surf there was 5-6 ft shore break. Boogie boarders were having fun, but didn’t see any divers. Not too inviting. Then we went over to Shaw’s and we were shocked. There was a world of difference. Surf was 1-3 ft., with long lulls. Talked to a diver, and he said the viz was around 10 ft. Talked to some others later and they said maybe 5 ft. Good enough for us. So we all suited up, and eased into the water. We went out as a group, and I buddied with Christian. We all dropped down into what looked like about 10ft. vis. We all went into the arch and noodled around a bit. Then Christian and I headed back out and started around the reef. We saw two large spider crabs gettin’ busy, locked onto each other. Leg span on one was probably 2 ft. Big sucker. Then on the way around the reef we stopped so Christian could take a viz reading with his Vexilar, and the reading was indeed 10 ft. We then headed thru the “canyon” which shortcuts the reef over to Crescent, and the viz deteriorated a lot (maybe 5 ft.) when we got over to the other side. So we turned around and headed back. Again we futzed around the reef and noodled around the arch, then headed towards the beach. Christian wanted to check his buoyancy at 500 psi, so he let his reg flow a bit to bring down the pressure, and we grooved around a bit around 10ft. After about an hour under, we decided to surface. As I popped my head out of the water Myrna was standing right above me on the reef. Yeah, I meant to do that. We eased out of the water, and met up with the rest who had already finished. A wonderful dive, especially since most of us had been dying for a good dive for so long. Christian and I were THIS close to doing a night dive, but figured that with the tide going out the viz would deteriorate, and with the darkness on top of that it wouldn’t be much fun. So we all headed to Gina’s for some excellent pizza, and congratulated each other on our first dive of the year (for most of us). The consensus was that everyone had a great dive. It was only the second time I've had a SAC rate below 0.50. I must have fallen asleep....

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Here are my pictures from the Wrinkles Dive and our Los Coronados dives from today.

Wrinkles Dives

Los Coronados, Lobster Shack with Gottadive.com

We had a great time. The Sun was out, the vis was high, and the lemonade was sweet!

 

[divinman]

Here are my pictures from the Wrinkles Dive and our Los Coronados dives from today.
Wrinkles Dives
Los Coronados, Lobster Shack with Gottadive.com
We had a great time. The Sun was out, the vis was high, and the lemonade was sweet!

Great shots as always. Thanks for sharing.

Terry

 

[JDog]

1-30-05
Shaws Cove
in at 14:50
bottom time 53 min.
Max depth 41ft
Vis. 3-10
waves: tiny, compared to yesterday in San Deigo (I did NOT dive it)
temp 61 Suunto D9 degrees

First dive of the year, felt good to get wet again, after the dive I relized how quickly you can get out of shape, the little hump up the stairs kind of winded me today. Hope the weather holds out, it would be nice to get back into the swing of things again.
Best thing seen on the dive had to be those two large crabs, doing the mating thing.

Had some good pizza after the dive for our "debriefing". Glad we did the last minute dive thing, considering I chickened out on diving yesterday.

See you all soon - Mccabejc, Head Hunter, SnakeDr., DoctorJet, and Jetfixer.

 

[scottfiji]

Here are my pictures from the Wrinkles Dive and our Los Coronados dives from today.

Wrinkles Dives

Los Coronados, Lobster Shack with Gottadive.com

We had a great time. The Sun was out, the vis was high, and the lemonade was sweet!

Sean, Terry - awesome pictures of the seals. Sean, the zebra goby shot is spectacular - they don't always like to stay still!