March '05 Dive Reports

[California Diver]

me and paul met up for the first dive of the day at 1 p.m. we geared up and headed out in medium size surf. upon enterance we noticed there was a bunch of crap floating on the surface, and muck floating beneath it. we descended down and at about 57 feet the vis opened up, the deeper we went the better it got. we descended down to 135 and headed south until we found the cruiser in 130 ft of water, we had expected it to be in 135 but the tide must of been low. we reached the cruiser and i began to put the slate on the bow of the miniature ship. we noticed a fairly large size sheephead that wasnt afraid to stick around for the action. after our ndl was up we started our ascent, as we reached about 50 ft the vis started to really suck and we could barely read out gauges! after our safety stop at 20 ft we ascended straight up because we didnt feel like dealing with the muck. after taking a slight beating on the way in , we were safely ashore. we then headed to o.e. and got our tanks filled for the second and third dives.

Once again we geare up and headed out into the surf. this time we planned on doing a short dive because we had expected the conditions to really suck. we descended down and headed northwest down into a draw. as we went deeper and deeper the vis really opened up. we were exploring a site totally new to us and were extremely excited. we kept descending as the vis kept getting better and better, we noticed new strange terrain down there that we plan to revisit. our ndl was up so we started to ascend up a huge wall, as we ascneded we look at all the bumps and otehr cool things, as we approached the top of the wall we noticed there were large ripples in the sand that were littered with thousands of shells and dead sand dollars. as we continued in we stumbled upon a grave site of our ancestors we poked around for a little bit in this place that was once trampled by natives many many years ago. after our safety stop we hit the beach and out we went.

we met sean and todd for the third dive (todd being a visitor from vegas). we geared up and head into large surf to the north wall. i was freaking beat. me and sean buddied up and hit the wall. we looked in the holes and saw a huge sheephead in one! we noticed lots of lobsters that sean kept putting on me, i guess im some kind of lobster taxi? we ended our dive, did our safety stop and started to swim in, i was so exhausted sean had to help me get into shore.(thanks) well thats my report of yesterdays fun, hope everyone can make the next dives!

 

[scottfiji]

Date: March 17th, 2005
Location: Casino Point, Catalina Island
Times: 8:30AM, 10:15AM, 12:45PM, 2:20PM
Depths: 52ft, 71ft, 93ft, 45ft
Visibility: 30-40ft

I did 4 dives at Casino Point last week Thursday with my friend Mark. We rented 4 tanks and a cart at CDS, and exchanged them for new tanks between dives 2 & 3.

The dive park was amazing - we saw a moray, octopus, several sheep crabs, scorpionfish, giant kelpfish, lots of sheephead, blacksmith, gobies, etc. Conditions were great, but we had to run to the 3:45 ferry (not fun), just made it by 1 minute!

Here are some pictures I took at Casino point, I hope you enjoy...the rest of the pictures are at http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/CasinoPoint-3-19

Kelp Shot

Moray, Lobster, and red-rock shrimp

Two-spotted octopus

Giant Kelpfish

Scorpionfish

 

[Otter]

Date: 3/25
Time: 17:07
Duration: 64 mins
Location: Shaw's Cove
Viz: 10''
Temp: 57 Suunto Degrees
Surge: 1-2'
Waves 0-1'
Buddy: Ross
# Finescale Triggerfish sighted: 0

Went to Crescent first and met up with a couple of divers exiting the water. They indicated viz was 8-10' and said that it had been getting progressively worse -- tide change, oh well . Looked out and saw a fishing boat loaded with 20-25 fisherman over Deadman's (I think) and decided to go to Shaws. Entered, when into the crack and while viz was poor there was no surge so went to Crescent side and swam out to the end of the reef, cut through the major canyon near the end and looped back to Crescent side. Still had lots of air so we went back through the canyon and returned on the Shaw's side. Saw a nice octopus and tons of bugs in the crack, but not much else. Reports were that Shaw's was 20' earlier in the day I bet tomorrow is going to be CROWDED.

 

[jerryn]

Date: 3/26
Time: 0915
Duration: 63 mins
Location: Malibu Road
Viz: 5'-15'
Temp: 59
Surge: 1'
Waves 1'
Max Depth 27' Average depth 22'

First good day at Malibu Road in a long time. The storms do not seem to have adversely affected the reef. Swam out to 27 feet and then west towards corral and looped around the reef. Then back accross the rocks to the exit. Usual critters, schooling black perch, blacksmith, opal eye perch and senoritas; sheephead, bass, rockfish and garibaldi.

Nice mellow zen dive.

Jerry

 

[scubacalifornia]

Date: Saturday, 3/26
Dive Location: Laguna Beach - Crescent Bay/Seal Rock
Time: 7:59am
Dive Buddies: Marshall Krupp, Gerry Lattimer
Bottom Time: 65 min.
Max Depth: 35'
Vis: 15-20'
Wave height: 1'
Surge: 0-3'
Temp at depth: 59 degrees
Surface Temp: 61 degrees
Comments:

Yipee. finally a decent diving day in Laguna. Beautiful sunshine, good viz, seems like old times. Let's just hope it lasts!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date: 3/26
Time: 10:16 and 12:17
Duration: 25 minutes and 40 minutes
Location: Unknown wrecks
Viz: 15-20'
Temp: 53F
Waves 4'
Max Depth 163' and 140'

Ross-O and I went on a wreck scouting trip this morning. We missed one wreck due to poor vis and current on the bottom but had an excellent second dive. We found three concrete pipes covered by metridiums, several large sculpin and a big Sheephead. I wish I would have brought a camera. Next time. We aborted a third dive after my drysuit zipper broke.

 

[pasley]

Date: March 26, 2005
Dive Location: Long Point (Old Marineland) Palos Verde CA
Time: 9:09 a.m.
Bottom Time: 63:20
Max Depth: 58FSW
Vis: 10-15
Wave height: 1 ft. or less
Temp at depth: 54 Suunto Degrees and it felt colder than that.
Surface Temp: 61 Sunnto degrees
Tide information: High Tide 9:20 a.m. 4.7 Feet Low: 3:17 p.m. 0.5 ft.
Partners: Scottfiji and Cesar
Comments: Entered off the rocks at the point. Great to be back in the water. Current running from East to West. Scott took a ton of photos which turned out pretty nice. Visibility was best in the shallow water under 20 feet, where we got 15 feet, maybe a bit more. Usual suspects, but less fish than I often see there. It was a tad chilly.

 

[scottfiji]

location: marineland, off long point
time: 10:55AM
bottom time: 52 min
max depth: 40ft

I did a second dive after diving with melvin and cesar at marineland. I had an easy entry and exit off the point, avoiding the swim against the increasing current. the vis improved a little to 15-19 feet. a lot of fish were out on this dive, and I saw a large bat ray and a large horn shark, and a male painted greenling aggressively chasing sheephead away from its eggs. I posted some of my pictures from the 2 dives on a separate thread.

Scott

 

[mccabejc]

location: marineland, off long point
time: 10:55AM
bottom time: 52 min
max depth: 40ft

I did a second dive after diving with melvin and cesar at marineland. I had an easy entry and exit off the point, avoiding the swim against the increasing current. the vis improved a little to 15-19 feet. a lot of fish were out on this dive, and I saw a large bat ray and a large horn shark, and a male painted greenling aggressively chasing sheephead away from its eggs. I posted some of my pictures from the 2 dives on a separate thread.

Scott

Dang, Scott, you didn't have to dive alone. I would have gone with you.

Well, if I had known about it...

 

[SoCalAngel]

Wow! Mot2vation 7 I did three awesome dives at Catalina yesterday.

Eagle Reef
vis - 40' above 30fsw,
20' between 30 - 70fsw,
opened to 60'+ below 70fsw.
temp - 55-58F until you got below 70fsw,
then a chilly 53 F, brrrrrrr
depth - max 97, ave. 50'
time 1:05
no surge, no waves, no effort!!!!!

Saw the usual stuff, including a couple of very shy zebra gobies, no pics. Saw a very big green abalone, fed it some macrocystis. In the sand, lots of cool wormy phoronids! I noticed a lot of empty swell shark cases. Towards the end of the dive, found one with the yolk and embryo still intact. I didn't move it, but was able to get a nice shot using a canister light to brighten it up a bit. Best part, though, was just before we got back to the boat, we came across a rock *covered* in little beautiful yellow zooanthid anemones. These are my favorite cnidarians!

Little Geiger
vis 20-30'
temp 55-58F
depth - 64' time - 1:01
wow the current...but I needed some exercise, right?

Ok, what is the big deal about this spot? Saw a few CA rays in the sand, obvious bat ray hangout, but none of those to be seen. Lots of sand. Yes, lots and lots of sand. We missed the pinnacle. Taught my buddy about operculums. Did find two adorable baby horn sharks, maybe 8 inches long each. Their markings are sooooo much brighter when they are little.

Blue Cavern/Sea Fan Grotto
Vis - 20-30', 40'+ in the grotto
temp 55-58F
depth - 80ish max, ave 30'
more current...but we made good use of it!

This was definately the highlight of the day! We spent about 30 minutes along the walls. So very very cool! Lots of individual cup corals here and there among the sponges, bryozoans, and metridiums covering the walls. I noticed lots of sheephead males and cute tiny kelp bass. We spotted a few morays, as well as their friends the horny lobsters. It's a good thing the hunting season is opposite of their mating season, otherwise, they be a lot easier to grab and we'd have fewer of them from year to year. Also, there were many, many big purple urchins burrowing in the rock and harboring blue banded gobies.

Of course the highlight of this spot was the sea fan grotto. We entered the grotto to find a school of banded surfperch slowly wafting to and fro in the light surge. A 4' horn shark was snoozing in an alcove within the cavern. I was shocked and amzed at seeing a dozen black abalone mating in another corner of the cavern. It is so nice to see the different abalone species *slowly* coming back. I got a lot of really pretty shots of the sea fans, too! Heaven in water!

I am so looking forward to this Thursday, as I am going up to Ventura to dive at Anacapa Isl!

Sea you all in the water! :lol2: