July '05 Dive Reports

[HBDiveGirl]

"BIG Rock" really ROCKS!
July 4, 2005
Big Rock, Malibu
Splash: 10AM
Max depth: 38fsw
Temp at depth: 54F (Aeris)
Vis: 8-12 feet
Run time: 1 hour, 5 minutes
Gas: air
Insulation: 7mm of soft-as-pyjamas wet neoprene...ahhhhh!

In a salute to "...life, liberty, and the puffuit of happineff...",

I met Scottfiji and Jon D. for an Independence Day

dive at Big Rock in Malibu. Sky and water looked murky, but in we went, sashaying elegantly over the inshore boulders. Once underwater, Jon and Scott had somewhat differing ideas related to compass headings

, but we arrived at the pinnacles outside the main kelp bed using a few non-PADI hand-signals. These rocks are HUGE! From a 38fsw sandy base, they tower up 20 to 25 feet, filled with enough nooks and crannies to keep me happy for hours! Every surface is encrusted with anemones, sponges, hydroids, algae, small scallops, Giant keyhole limpets, cucumbers, Spanish shawls and navanax.

We went on to find octopus, clacking male Garibaldi's willing to move any intruding object out of their nests, napping treefish and scorpion fish, a really cool swim-through canyon, and a slew of other great creatures and fantastical rock formations. There were many balls of navanax eggs, and even a navanax still wrapped half-way in a fresh egg web. LOTs of other nudibranch eggs were everywhere, but I only saw Spanish Shawls out and about. Jon, Scott and I kept it all together until almost the end, when Complete and Total miscommunication flew around as contagious as a bad yawn! How much can be blamed on the narcotizing effect of 38 feet of seawater? The numbing effect of 1 hour in 54F water? We'll never know...I didn't see any pink elephants! We regrouped eventually and had a couple of good laughs..."500psi??? I thought you were waving "goodbye"!! And another good learning experience grabs me like a navanax slurping up a Hermissenda....gotcha!
Thanks, Jon and Scott for showing me around Big Rock...wonderful place and a fun dive with you both. :jump013:
Claudette

 

[ShakaZulu]

Oops. I didn't realize this was an area-specific thread. Sorry about that. :blush:

Who are you, get of of here before we turn your air off..............

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Just got back from a three day liveaboard to San Clemente Island with the Bottom Bunch dive club out of San Diego. Superb!

The reports can be found here:
http://www.mcguinness-family.net/diving/SanClemente2005/index.php

with lots of photos.

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Hi Scubabones.
I was looking at your profiles, and I reckon you could save yourself $24 per trip; you don't need nitrox for the bottom times you are getting.
Just my (penny pinching) $0.02

Peter

 

[JDog]

Can we expect 2ft of vis off our coast next week as well?

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Thank you for "taking us along", Peter. You really captured the feeling of a Channel Islands' live-aboard. Aren't they Wonderful?!! I really enjoyed how your photos are grouped by dive site so I could visualize where you were each time. The Ocean Odyssey crew/DM did a very nice thing with those site-diagrams on the dry-erase boards...Thanks for photographing those, too. I wish other dive boats would take up this idea, especially for complex sites with specific locations that everyone wants to find. Thanks again.
Claudette
(P.S. I chickened out and bought a drysuit before going on my first 3-day over Memorial Day, and I'm in awe of divers doing these multi-day trips in a wetsuit. I just could not have kept up! Life is fair, though. Wetsuits are dramatically more comfortable and soft...as long as you aren't shivering uncontrollably. I dive wet every chance I get because it's just more fun.)

Just got back from a three day liveaboard to San Clemente Island with the Bottom Bunch dive club out of San Diego. Superb!

The reports can be found here:
http://www.mcguinness-family.net/diving/SanClemente2005/index.php

with lots of photos.

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Thank you for "taking us along", Peter. You really captured the feeling of a Channel Islands' live-aboard. Aren't they Wonderful?!! I really enjoyed how your photos are grouped by dive site so I could visualize where you were each time. The Ocean Odyssey crew/DM did a very nice thing with those site-diagrams on the dry-erase boards...Thanks for photographing those, too. I wish other dive boats would take up this idea, especially for complex sites with specific locations that everyone wants to find. Thanks again.
Claudette
(P.S. I chickened out and bought a drysuit before going on my first 3-day over Memorial Day, and I'm in awe of divers doing these multi-day trips in a wetsuit. I just could not have kept up! Life is fair, though. Wetsuits are dramatically more comfortable and soft...as long as you aren't shivering uncontrollably. I dive wet every chance I get because it's just more fun.)

You're very welcome, Claudette. The diving and the boat were great, and I'm looking forward to doing it again, wet or dry!

Peter

 

[MyDiveLog]

July 6, 2005
Deadman's, Laguna Beach
Uroffee dive
Splash: 1pm
Max depth: 35fsw
Temp at surface" 68
Temp at depth: 54F (brrrrrr)
Vis: 0 feet for first 30 feet, 3 feet for the rest
Run time: 20 minutes
Gas: air

Having heard that all the red tide was clearing up, both from the LSS website and the lifeguard report, I took an advanced student on a tour dive. Standing at the beach the water looked a bit brownish, but it would clear up after getting some depth, right? Wrong.

Entry was easy, with 1' - 2' waves. Made the surface swim to the drop down point. Hmmmm, the water seems to smell of urine. Swells built a bit as we got clear of the protection of Seal Rock. Sea Lions were barking like crazy ... was one saying "turn back?" The swells started making the student sea sick, so we decided to descend and swim the remainder at depth. Good idea to hold onto the student at depth, because the water was like coffee; vis was literally less than a foot.

Got to depth to find visibility opening up to all of 35 feet. The red tide had filtered out the sunlight so much that it was actually like a night dive: pitch black. With no tank lights and only a small light each, we stayed VERY close together. After literally bumping my head on three pinnacles discretion got the better part of valor and we aborted the dive.

Surface on the return swim had become decidedly frothy....and the urine smell intensified (hence the "Uroffe" name). Persuaded LSS to change their web site before heading home to disinfect the suit and my body. Lovely dive.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date:July 7th
Dive Location: Redondo Canyon
Time: 6:07
Bottom Time: 1:05
Max Depth: 72'
Vis: 2-8'
Wave height: 2-5'
Temp at depth: 56F
Surface Temp: 66F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: HBDiveGirl (Claudette) invited me for a midweek splash into the brown soup we affectionately refer to as Vets. We dropped down into the canyon to find night dive conditions with no more than eight feet visibility. No problem. We just go into macro mode. We found more than ten octopi, a few different species of nudibranchs, a yellow kelp crab, decorator crab with so much algae on it it looked more like a crawling rock and lots of baby fish. We stayed down for a little over an hour until my light began flickering. I called the dive, figuring it was dark enough that my backup light wouldn't help much. We were surprised to see sunshine and blue skies as we surfaced. It was foggy and windy as we entered. It turned out to be a day at the beach.

Claudette gets ready to dive.

An out of focus Red tipped dorid, acanthodoris rhodoceras

 

[pasley]

Date: 07 Jul 05
Dive Location: Laguna Beach Crescent Bay Seal Rock
Time: 12:13 p.m.
Bottom Time: 28:00
Max Depth: 43
Vis: 5-10 of greenish to brown haze
Wave height: 0-1 foot
Temp at depth: 61F Suunto degrees, thermo cline at 25 feet to about 55 or so
Surface Temp: 68 Sunnto degrees
Tide information: 11:58 PDT 3.62 feet High Tide
16:04 PDT 2.62 feet Low Tide
Gas mix: Air (21%)

Comments: Met with Dan Davies and his family from Colorado for two dives. His first in the ocean, but he has dove lakes and mine shafts! Red tide had pulled in the day before and the surf was up a tad too, but not much. We entered with out problems. Dan got a bit of sand into his inflator button and lost a bit of air while he got that sorted out. But we had a nice dive with some surge of about 4-6 feet which was a new experience for him, but he quickly adapted.


Date: 07 Jul 05
Dive Location: Laguna Beach Crescent Bay Seal Rock
Time: 2:30 pm.
Bottom Time: 40:50
Max Depth: 40
Vis: 5-10 of greenish to brown haze
Wave height: 0-1 foot
Temp at depth: 55F Suunto degrees, thermo cline at 25 feet to about 55 or so
Surface Temp: 68 Sunnto degrees
Tide information: 11:58 PDT 3.62 feet High Tide
16:04 PDT 2.62 feet Low Tide
Gas mix: Air (21%)

Comments: After walking to get air fills we went out again. Saw the usual, which was the unusual for Dan Davies. Unfortunately I did not find any large octopi or eels on either dive for him, but perhaps next time. Had great fun diving with him and introducing him to the wonders of diving the ocean.