March '05 Dive Reports

[MaxBottomtime]

Date:3/13/05
Dive Location:Semi secret spot off Palos Verdes
Time: 10:18
Bottom Time:1:01
Max Depth:61'
Vis:12'
Wave height:2-3'
Temp at depth:58
Surface Temp:62
Tide information:Low
Comments:The Island Diver was already on my buddy Marc's favorite bug spot, so we went in to a 60 foot rocky reef instead. We didn't see much, but I managed two lobsters. Marc got skunked. This amazed me as Marc has been lobster diving since 1971 and I didn't start until I had over 600 dives.

Date:3/13/05
Dive Location:Crane off Malaga Cove
Time:12:12
Bottom Time:30 minutes
Max Depth:56'
Vis:10'
Wave height:3'
Temp at depth:58
Surface Temp:62
Tide information:Low
Comments:The bugs we saw here in January were still here, so as soon as we saw the wreck I began shopping. Again, I got two bugs and Marc got skunked. We had several Sheephead following us around hoping for an escapee to snag, but they went hungry today. We made a long safety stop in the dirty green water and ended up having a long surface swim to Marc's boat. My arthritic knees are still screaming at me for that!

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Date:13th March
Dive Location:La Jolla Shores
Time: 10:00am
Bottom Time:35 mins
Max Depth:69ft
Vis:5ft in shallows, 10ft at depth
Wave height:2ft
Temp at depth:55F
Surface Temp:62F
Tide information:Incoming
Comments: We were completing a rescue class at the shores but we found the 'lost diver' after a search of about 4 mins so we sneaked off for a surreptitious look at the main wall area. The vis was OK, and the temp not too bad, either.
Critters of note: A large Cabezon, a baby horn shark which sat on my hand like a stuffed toy, a huge, dead sheep crab and lots of moonsnails.

BTW, I am still available for weekday diving; if anyone in the San Diego area wants to dive during the week, give me a holler

Peter

 

[hermosadive]

Date:3/13/05
Dive Location:Semi secret spot off Palos Verdes
Comments:The Island Diver was already on my buddy Marc's favorite bug spot...

Date:3/13/05
Dive Location: Max BT's buddy Marc's Favorite Bug Spot
Time: 8:12 am
Bottom Time: 34 minutes
Max Depth: 76'
Vis: 15'
Wave height: NA
Temp at depth: 56
Tide information:Low

Dive Location: Max BT's buddy Marc's Favorite Bug Spot
Time: 10:10 am
Bottom Time: 30 minutes
Max Depth: 78'
Vis: 15'

Comments: 8 DiveVet'ers hit the water with the Island Diver out of Redondo Beach. We did 2 dives on this location since a group went the previous day and reported the best vis out of both spots they visited. Spotted a few groups of legal looking bugs, but they remained wisely out of reach. HUGE lingcods, one close to 4' kept us company and even joined us on some of the swim. There was a nice current today which provide a few of us, who missed the anchorline, the opportunity to shoot safety sausages while doing drifting safety stops. Swimming back to the boat also provided a nice leg workout. Full report should be posted on DVets within a day or so.

 

[headhunter]

We figured out later that the vis on this dive was actually about 60 ft. We just kept low balling it because we couldn't believe it was that good.

Great dive!

Christian

 

[pasley]

Date:3/15/05
Dive Location: Malaga Cove Palos Verde
Time: 8:15 PM
Bottom Time: 00 minutes
Max Depth: 1 FSW
Vis: none.
Wave height: 5 ft
Temp at depth: unk
Tide information: 17:19 PST 2.28 feet Low Tide
2005-03-16 00:24 PST 4.63 feet High Tide
Comments Icy Ice and I met up at Malaga cove at about 7:30 suited up and started for the beach. I commented we had to be back before 9:00 p.m to avoid a ticket. We then checked the time and it was just after 8:00. Figuring the walk time down and up that left us about 5 minutes for diving. So we left our gear and moved our cars to the road. Then we kited up again and made the hike down to the RAT beach.

RAT is now a rocky entry. Waded in and found a mostly sand bottom after only a few feet. Waded out through the mid calf deep water, and kept wading and wading and wading in mid calf deep water! Eventually it got to kneed then mid thigh deep way out there We finally got to shoulder deep water across from the pool! This is after walking almost a city block or about 75 yards! Unfortunately, the waves were breaking out beyond this point and had grown in size during our 10minutes or so of wading. We were now at the point where we could no longer touch and started putting on our fins. Got one fin on and had to duck under a wave that was curling over just as it reached us. Took two waves in this fashion, with the water going from can’t touch to chest or lower level between waves. Finally Icy Ice and I said enough. With waves of 4-5 feet or larger breaking that far out it was just not the day to dive. Our intent was to hunt lobster on the next to last night of the season. With the shallow depths and large waves we knew it would be surge city and poor visibility so we called it a night. I hate cleaning my gear and not getting to dive. But it was the right choice.

 

[mccabejc]

Yeah, Myrna took the kids there on Sunday and said Malaga was pretty trashed. Landslides and stuff.

By the way, what do you mean about getting a ticket at Malaga?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

You can't park in the school parking lot after 9:00 pm.

 

[mccabejc]

Oh, PM. I was reading AM.

Nevermind.....

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Date: 16th March
Dive Location:La Jolla Shores
Time: 10:40am
Bottom Time:36 mins
Max Depth:100ft
Vis:15ft+ better than 25ft vertically, but cloudy
Wave height: 1ft

Comments:Another improving day at the shores. Calm, sunny and no wave or current action to speak of. Also, there were a few early spring break party-goers around, which improved the view a bit.
Went out to find the secret garden, but overshot by quite a bit and had a pretty monotonous dive, a quick check of the divebums lineups tells me we got the wrong tree and the wrong house - Doh!
Anyway, we found the spot where all the crud that gets dumped into the ocean ends up; really, it would have taken a dumpster to bring back all the rubbish out there.

The swim back east from where we ended up involved a blue-water swim over a pretty deep branch and I didn't want to get into that at 75ft even if the vis was better than usual, so we made a blue-water ascent instead, which was a bit of fun in the skills department - it's been a while since I did that without a line but Mike tells me he does it all the time and it showed: practice makes perfect!

Don't pay any attention to the swell models and forecasts - its beautiful out there; go and dive.

Peter

 

[pasley]

Date: March 16, 2005 Last day of Lobster Season
Dive Location: Hermosa Beach Sea Witch
Time: 7:51 p.m.
Bottom Time: 39:20 (too long)
Max Depth: 84 FSW
Vis: Fantastic at over 20 feet easy.
Wave height: weren’t any. Flat calm seas.
Temp at depth: 59F Suunto degrees (thermo cline, it felt much colder)
Surface Temp: 63F Suunto degrees (this I belive).
Tide information: 2005-03-16 08:47 PST 0.78 feet Low Tide
2005-03-17 01:26 PST 4.28 feet High Tide

Comments: Called today and caught a last minute cancellation on a boat for the last lobster dive of the season. Partnered with Icy Ice AKA Neil. Did a back roll into the water and surfaced, gave the OK and the dive master informed me my mask strap had come off. So I removed my mask (evidently if does fit right) and put the strap back on. Mask did leak once I got to 80 feet the entire dive.

We dropped down onto the wreckage of pipes and swam around. First we spotted a likely lobster in a pipe. I went to one end and he retreated to the other end of the pipe. While he sat there in the far end of the pipe checking out my dive light Icy Ice put the moves on him right into his bag. Next it was my turn. Ice , spotted on out for an evening walk and invited him home for dinner. He accepted my gracious invitation. This guy was in the no need to measure category so into my bag he went. Back on the boat I double checked him and he was past the end of my gauge (see photo) by more than a bit. Hmmm, what to have for lunch today? Frozen chicken pot pie? No, hmmm, how about last nights leftovers? NO, perhaps a nice lobster for lunch and then maybe again for dinner.

After20 minutes or so I thumbed the dive but I had overstayed my limit (I have my Cobra set for P2 ultra conservative) and had a mandatory stop of 7 minutes that built to 12 before I got to 20 feet. Unfortunately at the end of the dive while surfacing at about 20 feet I went to check my computer and the lobster grabbed onto it. While trying to wrestle him off the computer face, I blew threw my safety stop and mandatory deco stop. Computer went into 24 hour lock out. Technically a horrible dive, but great fun. So I was toast for the rest of the night. It was a stupid error and not one I normally make.

I will finish by saying the boat was well run and equped as it should be O2. The dive masters were first rate and took great care of us.

I will let Icy Ice tell the rest of the story as he knows the people beter.