JANUARY 2006 Dive Reports

[Skull]

Date: 06 Jan 2006
Dive Location: LJ Shores
Dive Boat: none
Buddy(ies): Mike "Doc" Simpson- no relation to Homer, well maybe after you read the comments
Time: 3:45 pm
Bottom Time: 0:24:00
Max Depth: 104 fsw
Vis: 5-7 feet
Wave height: swells in the 2 foot range
Temp at depth: 53 F Oceanic DataMax
Surface Temp:79 F. Consol Air Temp
Gas mix: 21% Air
Comments: Beautiful end of a stressful week. Met at the shores off of the Marine Room. Entered with AL 80's ... for me no problem since I'm middle aged and shall we say self weighted...marbled (I like to think) like a very expensive DeL Monico Rib Eye... mind you I can still manage 1 mile in a pool in 30 mins and or 2 hrs of racketball. My dive buddy on the other hand says he is fat ... 28 yrs old 177 lbs (IMHO in full scuba gear) none the less I accept his plea. Course he is weighted for steel ... 100yrds into the surf I look back and no Doc ~14 deep so I look up ...there he is so I surface. He can't decend ... so I grab him and gently drag him down till he can atleast grab a few rocks. Mosty construction debris but I wouldn't want to agravate the ecologically challanged. He has three good sized boulders in his arms looking like a 14 yr old shoplifting bread from a bakery. We swim past the bouy, encountered a few batrays and several sheep crab. Then we began to see the squip egg pods ... what a magnificent sight ... a white winter wonderland for this old displaced Pennsylvanian. Head N down the canyon and encounter many pods with many sand grabs.
At about 1000 lbs we decide to turn for shore. Now I don't know about you but the farther west you head in California the wetter you become and conversely the farther east you head the more dry you become...Apparently Doc didn't learn that in USN SeALs ... navigation is not his strong point .... here comes the Homer part. Poor visibility and an increasing surge I look back and no Doc .... circle one time no Doc ... look up and no Doc. Ok better head in to the life gaurd station since in 60 fsw and about 400 yrds to shore I have a heck of a surface swim with gear on ...Continue SCUBA underwater to about 14 fsw DC indicates surfacing is ok pop up amoung 20 or so surfers and 2 body surfers. I ask if they have seen another diver ... yea he is about 200 yrds south of me and about 100 yrds further out. Now I'm thinking @ 100 ft bouyancy was not an issue anymore but if he did begin to drift up maybe he shot up like a rocket. Surfers say he is swimming on the surface breast stroke . If he embollized he would be in trouble. Get to a standing depth and removed my fins standing in about 4' of surf and can see Doc as he is swimming towards shore. I yell to him to ask if he is ok he responds with a big ok so I march out and head for the showers. He magically appears and says he had more air than me so he took a south tact...nice real nice. Granted it is the shores and there are guards on duty we should have stayed together on an east heading. All in all a fantastic dive. BTW Doc was a Corpsman in the SeALs. He is a good guy with great physical skills just a little young and shall we say full of p and vinagar.

p.s. I am new to this board and would like to say hi to all in SoCal .... this was a great weekend -eh?

 

[divinman]

p.s. I am new to this board and would like to say hi to all in SoCal .... this was a great weekend -eh?

Welcome to the board Skull. I am just heading to the shore now. Keep writing reports.

Terry

 

[Skull]

Date: 07 Jan 2006
Dive Location: Ruby E Lee
Dive Boat: mine- Sophia 1 - 20' Pro-Line Cuddy-Walk
Buddy(ies): Mike "Doc" Simpson- no relation to Homer, not this time
Time: 1:15 pm
Bottom Time: 0:23:00
Max Depth: 79 fsw
Vis: 2-4 feet
Wave height: rolling swells in the 5 foot range and choppy
Temp at depth: 53 F Oceanic DataMax
Surface Temp:63 F. Consol Air Temp
Gas mix: 21% Air
Comments: Been waiting for two weeks for a break and we took advantage of it. Ruby was on our to do list and come hell or high water we were going to dive on that ol wreak today .... by god. Well God got the last laugh at our Machishmo. Doc has been pestering me for two weeks. For those of you outside of SoCal the surf in SD has been 12-25' depending on the tide and the storm surge since Dec. 21, 2005. My friend Mark made the front page of the local fish wrap shooting the OB Pier nearly scalping himself on the underside several times... but that is a different sport. Head out of Mission Bay and the channel is managable. Heading is 275 for 3 mins @ 20kt/hr. Bingo the dive bouy for the Ruby. Gear up and into the H2O , decend the line to the deck of the Ruby. Hit the inflate button on the BC and no inflation ... what gives it inflated last night after I cleaned it .... wait maybe a bad seal so I reach back and tighten the compression fitting ... hit the inflate button and I'm blowing air and struggling to stop from sinking ...what the heck so I give the compression fitting one more try and dang it I turns a full 1 1/2 turns .... stripped? ... naw just 5 mm gloves with no feeling ... hit the buttton and neutral bouyancy ... Doc has a look of what gives ... oks from me and a returned ok we begin to explore ... so much life it was beautiful. Considering the vis. is bout 3 ft...Perch, Calico, a few star fish and one big hunk of ship to explore. Surge is starting to get to me and later I find out to Doc too. 1000lbs we begin our ascend. Month ago we dove the Yukon and ascended a little too fast so we have decided to really work on our ascent. Nice and easy ... do a 3 min saftey at 15ft but am holding on to the line in a very strong surge. Surface and head to the boat. Doff the gear and climb onto the Sophia .... Getting sea sick now so I take a few minutes to stare at the coast line and gaze over at Doc who is now praying to Posidon talking about something about RALPHHHHHH ... Start the boat and surf back to Mission Bay literally for another great day underwater and another fine day on the Sophia.

p.s. my dive instructor told me a story about gear and the water .... always remember to inflate your BC on the surface no matter. He took a client to PV Mexico on a kayak dive ( he confesses it was his first kayak dive ) and dropped the gear in the 90 fsw water forgetting to inflate the BC .... well he donated two perfectly good BC's, Regs and Tanks to Posidon ... it was his gear but the trip was completely ruined since it was the first Dive.

 

[wetrat]

Welcome to the So Cal forum Skull! Thanks for the reports. Would you like to join us for the Wrinkles dive this Saturday?

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=121788

John

 

[Skull]

Would love too but I'm taking a NAUI Master Diver Course this week ...don't know where we will be diving this weekend... if LJ Shores I'll swing by and introduce myself.. Anyone familiar with IB Divers and their instructors. LDS I was supporting just moved to Bagara Australia ...Was refered to IB DIvers... seem like a nice local mom and pop shop and the instructor for the MD course has great bon ifides...also since I am NAUI thought I'd continue NAUI

 

[scubacalifornia]

Date: Sunday, 1/8/06

Time: 7:56 AM

Dive Location: Deadman's Reef / Laguna

Buddy: Ron Hawkins

Bottom Time: 1:15

Max Depth: 57'

Viz: 10'-15'

Wave height: 1'-2'

Surge: 0'-4' (only on top of the reef in pockets)

Temp at depth: 57 degrees Suunto

Really didn't know what to expect with the CDIP model still showing 4-6' swell as of 6am this morning and the bad conditions we've had the last few weeks. Very pleasant surprise....little surface chop, reasonable viz and small surf. It was however very foggy this morning; couldn't see the beach from the drop down point, so we lined up with the outer Seal Rock as always, guess-timated E-W position, and nailed the reef. Lots of little bugs, couple octos and a moray, and overall lots of fishies out today. Ran into Robb, Kathy, Steve S. and other familiar faces. First dive with spring straps on my Atomics; new product from XS Scuba. Very nice. Buckles be gone forever!

Go out and dive while the dive gods are smiling.

Kevin

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date: January 8, 2006
Dive Location: Los Angeles Harbor
Buddy(ies): Jeff Shaw
Time: Afternoon
Wave height: Some big, some small
Comments: The conditions seem to be getting better in Orange and San Diego Counties. Unfortunately, I stayed in L.A. today, so no diving...again! Jeff called me up and invited me to go play on his kayak. We paddled around Cabrillo Marina, past the remains of the S.S. Sansinena wreck and the main channel, where we had to row hard and fast to escape an oncoming fishing boat. As they passed, the crew were laughing at us. We looked at sea stars on the pier pilings, sea lions near the commercial fishing docks and ended the day with a tour of Cabrillo Aquarium. At least we got wet and saw marine life.

Propeller and drive shaft on the rocks from the S.S. Sansinena, a ship that exploded in San Pedro on 12/17/76, injuring 58 and causing 12 million dollars damage.

Waves crashing into the breakwall at Cabrillo Beach

 

[LLKZ16]

Date: 1/8/05
Dive Location: Vet’s Park
Buddy(ies): Angelique & David
Time: 9 am or so..
Bottom Time: 36 min
Max Depth: 95 ft
Vis: 5-8 @ 95 / 8-12 @ 50
Wave height: 3 to 4 footers
Temp at depth: 55 @ 95

Comments:
Angelique and I met up with David at OML hoping it would be doable. I guess the gate being locked was a bad omen. We went down to check it out and saw that the waves and the surge were kicking in high gear. Oh well, on to the next stop Malaga Cove. When we got there, the waves were breaking out front of the Gazebo which rarely happens unless the waves are BIG. Still determined to get wet, we moved on to Vets to see if it was worth it. Large waves and a rocky entry = YIKES while large waves and sand entry = Cake Walk. When we got to the lot, there were a few divers on the way out. The waves were not too bad so we decided to suite up.

We kicked out past the surf with ease. The water was glassy and warm at the surface. (Sidetrack…BTW, I too had my first dive with my new Atomic spring straps like scubacalifornia above and I can not express enough how FRIGGEN GREAT they are. It was the best damn money I have ever spent.)

We dropped down into the murky water at about 50 or so feet and started moving into deeper water. On the way, we passed lots of Octopi. One little bugger in particular must have been 2-3 inches (aahh). We also came across a few small halibut and a sarcastic fringehead keeping each other company. Also, there were very few squid eggs around. At one point we came upon a large bat ray to Angelique’s surprise….:scared: lol. With about 4 min left of no Deco time we started moving up the canyon. On the way up, the visibility and light got much better. After our safety stop we all made it out with relative ease (once again, spring straps RULE). Overall, it was a fun little dive.

 

[headhunter]

Hey Scull,

Welcome to the SoCal section of ScubaBoard! :happywave

If your class goes to the shores and you get a chance drop by the ScubaBoard group at the Wrinkles Dive and introduce yourself. If you time if right, you can get in on some lunch since we are having a BBQ.

I enjoyed reading your reports. Keep posting them!

Christian

 

[jenazah]

I too had my first dive with my new Atomic spring straps like scubacalifornia above and I can not express enough how FRIGGEN GREAT they are. It was the best damn money I have ever spent.)

Where can I get one of those ?