JUN 05 Dive Reports

[Stryker]

Some wanted to walk to Crescent Bay with gear, others were smarter.

Hey I resent that.. The luggage cart made it worth it..


Dive #1
Date: 6/11/05
Dive Location: Deadman's Reef - Wrinkles Dive
Time: 7:52AM
Bottom Time: 69 minutes
Max Depth: 49ft
Vis: 15-20'
Wave height: 1-3
Temp at depth: 59 on the bottom....
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
I started the day off by parking at Heisler and walking over to Crescent to meet up with a few buddies to hit up dead mans..... It was looking very ugly out and was drizzling. I had a feeling that the day was going to look like this.... I decided due to the warm water lately to dive hood-less.. Upon hitting the bottom it was a bit chilly and gave me a headache for the first 5 minutes. After hitting the reef we were treated to several octos (none of which were out ready to say hi)... Half way through the dive we came across a FEMALE sheephead that I would guess was at LEAST 2 feet in length.... she looked a little vicious so we didnt mess with her.... Despite having some equipment issues it was a great way to start the wrinkles day....

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Dive #2
Date: 6/11/05
Dive Location: Heisler Park, Laguna Beach - Wrinkles Dive
Time: 12:28am
Bottom Time: 49min
Max Depth:37
Vis: 3-7'
Wave height: 1-3
Temp at depth: 66
Gas mix: 38% Nitrox
Comments:
Buddied up with CaptainMarvel, ScubaInspired, and TeqP as everyone else began lunch and headed out to the buoys despite hearing about bad visibility. We dropped down into that "lawnmower bag" and went ahead with the dive and ended up having a decent dive... Saw an eel by the Western buoy line that looked like he wanted a meal pretty badly.. Several octos also all over the place (this seemed to be a recurring theme throughout the whole day)... Lots of "grumpy" large sized bass (Barred Sand Bass) tried to get me into a staring contest.... ScubaInspired ran his tank a little low so we had to swim a ways (surge was strong).... Still a good dive none the less....

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Dive #3
Date: 6/11/05
Dive Location: Shaws Cove, Laguna Beach - Wrinkles Dive
Time: 4:31PM
Bottom Time: 65
Max Depth: 37
Vis: 10-17'
Wave height: 1-2ft
Temp at depth: 66
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
This is the dive that really saved the day for me. CaptainMarvel, Stoddu, and myself decided to give Shaws a shot since Heisler seemed like a lost cause.... We swam out and the the water looked extremely clear. We entered the reef and immediately turned into the "archway"... it took us quite a while to get to the archway due to a really strong surge.... After we got to it, I decided to turn into the swim through and was treated to a 20-30 foot "ride" up the chute... I looked back behind me and it was BLACK.... I tried to turn around and had to work at it... I exited the way I came in and we headed back out to the outer edge of the reef.. The reef was teeming with nudibranches (Hopkins Rose, Spanish Shawls, and a white which black spots unidentified) and octos everywhere... The vis was GREAT compared to Heisler.. Also ran into 2 eels who looked just as hungry as the one from Heisler (maybe they dine together?).... Despite working extremely hard in the archway, it was well worth the struggle.... After the turn around, I got head down to see how far behind me the others were and I lost a 4LB weight out of my weight belt... I bolted after it and struggled for a good 5 minutes to get it back in.... While on the sand on the way in we also were treated to 2 fairly large halibut (22" +). To those of you who didnt want to join you missed a GREAT dive....

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Dive #4
Date: 6/11/05
Dive Location: Shaws Cove, Laguna Beach - Wrinkles Dive
Time: 8:58PM
Bottom Time: 51
Max Depth: 45
Vis: 10-20'
Wave height: 1-2 on entry.... 2-4 on exit (large lulls)
Temp at depth: 57
Gas mix: 40% Nitrox
Comments:
Well this was a great dive to end an overall great day.. Headhunter, Stoddu, the two guys from texas, and myself waited til dark and dropped into the reef.. This was a relaxing dive and I definitely wanted to send the Texans back with a dive to definitely remember. Immediately after hitting the reef we spotted 2 octos in holes... Rays littered the sand we well as Sand Bass.... There were quite a few "possessive" and protective Garibaldi that seemed to say "get away from my hole or ill bite your face off".... its funny because it almost looks like they had an angry grin on their faces.... throughout the dive I also spotted around 8 more octos, 3 or 4 of which were out in the open... Also spotted one eel who looked like we woke him up (cranky) and another one who decided to hide before I could show him to anyone.... Great way to end the day, and good to see everyone who turned out... It was a great day...

 

[headhunter]

There was one notable no-show. :mad1:

Of course, this was just the mascot that didn't show. Wrinkles actually made it to this Wrinkles dive!

...And Krowsea was there as our back up mascot, so everything worked out.

Christian

 

[kelpmermaid]

While you all were diving Laguna, I was out on the Cee Ray at Catalina. We were supposed to visit the Olympic, but as there was a sizeable swell, we skipped it and went straight to Italian Gardens.


Italian Gardens - viz 30-40 ft, I saw a temp of 57 at depth (54 ft), but I think my computer was still counting down. Sighting of multiple Giant Black Sea Bass in the 40 ft range (right at the thermocline) that came by to check us out. Magnficent! Current picked up while we were under, so the swim back to the boat burned calories.

Next two dives were conducted at Red Crane. Major highlights - sighting of a scythe butterfly fish and a huge bat ray. Warmer water here, in the low-mid 60's. Viz on the first dive towards the point, 30-40 ft., less on the second dive.

Sun came out for dives 2-3, and it was a great day!

 

[scubacalifornia]

Date: Sunday, 6/12/05
Time: 8:53 AM
Dive Location: Montage Resort / Treasure Island
Buddy: Ron Hawkins, Mike Sveen, Fernando (from M.V. Sport Chalet), Rick
Bottom Time: 48 minutes
Max Depth: 38'
Viz: 2'-8'
Wave height: 1-2', 5-6' where we first contemplated entry
Surge: 2'-4'
Temp at depth: 59 degrees Suunto
Surface Temp: 64 degrees Suunto

Checked out Cress St. first but very swirly. Parked in the structure at Montage, then piled everything into one truck and Fernando shuttled us via his top secret route to the northernmost part of the resort & villas. Donned gear, hiked across grassy area, through cactus-laden landscape, and finally hit the boardwalk and a ramp down to the sand. Bet the resort would have loved us had they seen this, but saved a very long walk from the structure. Never been to this spot - there's an open ocean entry on the right (big surf), and protected cove on the left. Opted to enter at the latter, lots of current but no waves. Dropped down into a few feet of viz, headed south and found the reef with our faces. Spent about a half hour in the maytag with viz running from near nothing to maybe 8' briefly in a couple of spots. Found a sheep crab, schooling sardines, lots of sheephead. Hard to concentrate on fish when I was playing dodge the urchins or dive buddy hide & seek most of the time in the haze. We exited at south Montage by the structure. Could have stayed home and enjoyed a capuccino this morning. Going to San Nicholas next Sat. on the Encore. Yipee. :biggrin2:

Kevin

 

[MissyP]

Well...the cave was empty!!! Nothing. I found this very odd. While looking inside, I felt something bite my arm. It was a Giribaldi! What nerve!!! I don't think that I've ever been bitten before. Pinched yes.
.

I guess this is one instance where karma bit me in the butt... ok, it was actually the leg... When I read your post a couple of days ago, I chuckled about the garibaldi bite, after all- garibaldi are such friendly fish who seem to adore people, they wouldnt bite a diver... HA! Swimming near some rocks Sunday, a garibaldi came swimming toward me at warp speed and was acting really aggressive, so I shoo'd it away.. Within a few seconds, I felt a chomp on my leg- that little sucker bit me! I suppose I either tasted good or he/she was really that po'd at me because it bit me AGAIN! It chased me a good 10-12 ft before going back to its crevice.. :cussing:
Little bugger! I didn't realize they could bite through 7mm of neoprene.

 

[Grey_Wulff]

Date: 6/12/05
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores - well it was on the surface, you could not tell beneath!
Time: 8:33am
Bottom Time: 34 mins
Max Depth: 80ft
Vis: 0 - 5ft
Wave height: 3 - 6ft
Temp at Depth: 66F
Noise: A really spooky, five to ten second pulsating rumbling (a bit like a MRI machine does sometimes).

Comments:

Bad, bad, bad! We made it through the early morning surf and there were some big sets (3 - 6ft) by the lifeguard tower where we entered. Over the sand vis was about 5ft. We went deep initially to do a mathematics test for Deep AOW. At 80ft in the canyon you could not see a thing! It was dark, dark, dark! Then there was said rumbling sound - it was really spooky! I later discovered we had heard an earthquake (6 miles ESE of Anza, CA, [ID 14151344] Magnitude 5.2). We got the mathematics out of the way PDQ and headed for the shallows. There I did Navigation AOW, although it felt more like learning to read in Brail. Did I say the conditions were bad?

After a bit of a surface interval, we tried to get out again to do positive buoyancy but failed twice. The waves were not as big (3 - 4ft) but they were coming in faster and packed much more punch. My instructor had a buoy with him that made wave ducking really challenging. If you find two Mares blue floating fins he would be very happy to have them back!

It was an entertaining day!

Grey_Wulff

 

[Sail 'n Dive]

Date: 8 June 05
Dive Location: see title
Time: morning
Bottom Time: 30
Max Depth: 66
Vis: 30
Wave height: 2; 1 to 2 knot current, a little surge
Temp at depth: 61
Surface Temp: 72
Tide information: hey I am a lake diver, I kinda forgot to take note of this
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
So this is the first of 10 dives I did last week at Catalina. Checked into the Hotel Atwater Tues night and went out on boat with Cat Diving Supply on Wed. (The CDS folks were terrific, knowledgeable, helpful, good set-up, nice boat, friendly atmosphere. Thanks you guys !) I was traveling alone so I did these 2 dives with Olivia (newbie diver) and Jeff , one of the DM/Instructors at CDS. Nice easy dive. The high point was the huge fish: the giant sea bass. What gentle giants they were too. Saw four in total, and one was quite a bit longer than myself (5' 6"). I learned not to stare at them directly, but to glance at them from the corner of my mask while finning slowly into the current and facing the same direction they were in. I managed to get lined up to one of them like this and sort of sidled over slowly, wow. I got to touch the massive tail of one of them. Unfortunately, I also saw a fish hook stuck in the gills of another one, with about 15 feet of trailing line. Also saw a huge sheep crab (Jeff picked it up by the front legs and handed it to me, that guy was kinda strong !) other critters: lobster (hey, no claws on those CA lobster !); large snails, scallops, surfperch, rockfish, sculpin, kelp kreenling, black croaker, garibaldi (the perennial) : adult and juvenile, blue-bronze chub, a few anemone; schooling anchovies and sardines, in one case pursued by 10 to 12 barricuda; scorpionfish doing the camoflauge thing -- brown and white to match the small stony bottom and occasional kelp growth. a shard of drifting fishing net and an abandoned fish/crab trap. As for navigation, we just kind of swam one way parallel to the shore at a constant depth into the current and then turned around. overshot the boat a bit (oops) but it was no big thing. Fun, relaxing dive, and the CDS guys guessed exactly right the proper weighting for me as I switched from drysuit to wetsuit for this dive. (I wore a two piece 7 mm, hood, booties, and gloves -- felt warm enough, but not as toasty as I was in my drysuit.)

 

[Sail 'n Dive]

Date: 8 June
Dive Location: Goat Harbor, Cat. Is.
Time: mid-day
Bottom Time: 39
Max Depth: 46
Vis: 40 '
Wave height: 1 to 2 feet; a little bit of current and surge
Temp at depth: 62
Surface Temp: 74
Tide information: like I said, I kinda forgot to think about it
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:

So we had a quick lunch on board the CDS boat. Chatted with the other divers (there were only 4 of us !) I think I got a bit chilly during the surface interval, as the water felt colder on the second dive.
We motored to our second location. Rick, the CDS captain, had scoped out several potential sites on the way there. I was really impressed with the care they took chosing sites. They were really aware that we had the shore dive option right there in Avalon, and that the whole point of being on the boat was to get good service and good viz. A really nice bunch of guys to dive with.
This dive was my first kelp encounter. Again, I was buddied up with Olivia, the diver with only 7 dives over 2 years in Hawaii, none in cold water, and none in the last year. I felt we needed more support, given the fact that I have not taken my rescue course yet (I plan to, but this year's training is a nitrox thing this summer -- rescue is for next summer), and Jeff from CDS was quite happy about coming along with the two of us, which was very kind of him. So although I kept communicating with Olivia as my buddy, I felt confident knowing Jeff was there to help her if things got a bit difficult -- and actually this was a good idea because in the end, she did have ear trouble and had to work hard on her bouyancy, and Jeff was right there for the two of us. Anyway, I found the kelp a bit odd and its shadows and shapes forboding at first, but pretty much got used to it in short time and found it kinda cool and even zen. Moving slowly, and keeping watch back to Olivia and Jeff, I swam in, out and around these towering columns of plant life, and it was rather magical. Of course I caught a strand or two of kelp on my gear, but Jeff had told us during the briefing to just stop and check my fins straps and first stage -- and not to whirl around -- which seemed entirely sensible. After following his advice, I had little trouble dealing with the hitch-hiking strands. As with all diving techniques, it seems that being calm and aware is the name of the game. As for fish, there was a little less schooling fish, and no giant sea bass, but a lot more of the mid-size and small-size fish I listed on our first dive of the day. We passed through some really pronounced thermaclines -- with the easily seen shimmering water on their borders -- and wow did the temperature ever drop ! I decided that these conditions are about as chilly as I would want to handle without the drysuit -- and that if I had all my gear with me, I would have preferred to be in the drysuit, especially for the boat dives where the extra weight is not that big a problem for me. That said, we found the boat on our return swim without any trouble, and it was an easy reboarding process -- and a hot deck shower and quick clothes change made the cold water a distant memory in no time at all.

 

[Sail 'n Dive]

Date: 9 June
Dive Location: Casino Pt, Catalina Is.
Time: morning
Bottom Time: 35
Max Depth: 50
Vis: 15-20
Wave height: 1 foot, no surge or current to speak of
Temp at depth: 61
Surface Temp: 71
Tide information: um, highish tide I think ?
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
So Thursday was my shore diving day on Catalina. I was on my own in the morning, so I hired a DM from Cat. Diving Supply --another Jeff, and just as nice as the first Jeff -- to be my dive buddy and give me a dive site orientation.
It was relatively easy to gear up with Jeff at a spot on the cement barrier, and going down the steps was all very accessible. I am not the strongest woman on the planet, and with full gear and 28 lbs of weight, I would rather not be dealing with huge crashing waves and massive current etc. on an open beach, or, even worse, on a heap of slippery boulders. The dive park is really nicely designed for folks like me who want to shore dive but are not ready for ocean rugby. Coming back out was a little hard on my back and knees, and I guess I would not want to do that water exit 12 times a day, 7 days a week. But what the heck, a few times now and then is certainly within my reach. The experience was nevertheless a good reminder to me that building muscle strength is a great idea for smaller divers like me.
Ok, so we splash into the water, and descend a little ways out by the CDS float. As most of you socal types know, the park is a rectangle running along the NW/SE shoreline. The kelp is thickest in the middle and SE quadrants, while the NW one is more sandy.Jeff led off in a SE direction through the kelp at about a 35-40 feet depth. We stopped at the Cousteau marker, poked around some small rocky walls, where we saw, at two different places, juvenile moray eels. Garibaldi everywhere, some zealously guarding nests and youngsters clinging to the walls. Scorpionfish hanging out, again doing the chameleon thing: this time tan and white-ish. Also a smallish lingcod.kelp greenling. sheephead; some nudibranch. a sea hare, large lobster. A twisting cone-shaped dark green thingie that we later figured was a horn shark egg. rockfish. Then we reached the outer corner of the SE boundary, made obvious by the sailboat wreck, where we turned back in a NW direction. There we saw schools of silversides. About half way back, we turned and saw an odd shape moving like a shark in the water -- a shovel-nose guitarfish. We also began to hear loud pinging -- (had to be loud because I could hear it clearly even though I had a hood on) -- sounded like those submarine movies -- some boat was running radar nearby. A really nice dive, even though the viz was not all that great.

 

[Sail 'n Dive]

Date: 9 June
Dive Location: Casino Pt., marine park, Catalina Is.
Time: 1 pm -ish
Bottom Time: 33
Max Depth: 66
Vis: 30
Wave height: 1 foot, no current, a bit of surge
Temp at depth: 62
Surface Temp: 72
Tide information: um, kinda medium-ish ? -- hey I am a lake diver !
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
So after diving with Jeff # 2 from CDS, I then met up with a scuba board buddy, Chris. (I was supposed to meet up with Mo2vation as well, but he had to cancel at the last minute due to work stuff.) Getting in touch with Chris was really easy, and we arranged to meet at CDS on the green pier at noon. (The CDS trailer at the marine park is open only on Friday evenings and weekends right now.) So we met up, Chris said bye to his wife and kids who were along on vacation with him (hey, they got some disneyland time in, so everyone was getting their needs met) and we picked up tanks and weights, put them in our rented CDS carts, piled our gear bags on top of everything, and off we went, down the waterfront to the park. Geared up and splashed in. Having had an orientation dive that morning, I led the way, and we saw much of the same wonderful and beautiful stuff, except we missed the Cousteau plaque (oops), and I suffered my first garibaldi nip on the finger when I accidentally came too close to a nest. When we got to the SE boundary, Chris descended to the mast and deck of the sailboat wreck in the outer SE corner, while I hung out watching from ten feet or so above, checking out the schooling bait fish. Because Chris had more deep time than I did, he ran low on air first, and we surfaced SE of the stairs, and luckily found a nice route on the surface through the kelp. Chris later told me that some air bubbles were dribbling out of my first stage -- we guessed it was a slight nick in the O ring because we did not observe the same problem on any other dive.