May 05 Dive Reports

[headhunter]

I've got to add a tid bit to the great dive (although it was a bit short with all the underwater sprinting ) I had with ShakaZulu.

All of a sudden, Shaka points to something and when I turn around and look, it's a bird swimming along. I checked my gauge and it was 74ft! :11:

I had no idea that that birds dove that deep! I think I've only seen them down to about 15 - 20 feet before this.

During this dive, I also checked the vis with my depth finder and stopped checking when I got 40 feet from the wall and could still see it and our fairly large group very clearly. I also got to see where all that sand and silt that was raining down on half the group was coming from... the other half of the group!

I love that feeling of being in the open ocean that you get when you cross from the underwater penninsula over the gully back to shore. You can't see the surface or the bottom or anything else around you and just get the occasional glimpse of a fish coming by. All you have is your compass and your depth guage for reference. I also like to leave a little water in the bottom of my mask as an extra reference to see if I'm tilting as I swim.

Christian

 

[scottfiji]

I've got to add a tid bit to the great dive (although it was a bit short with all the underwater sprinting ) I had with ShakaZulu.

All of a sudden, Shaka points to something and when I turn around and look, it's a bird swimming along. I checked my gauge and it was 74ft! :11:

I had no idea that that birds dove that deep! I think I've only seen them down to about 15 - 20 feet before this.

Christian

Christian - I can't believe you kept up with Roy! I've seen him turn up the speed before, he can do 20 knots. I am impressed by you, I couldn't have done it.

I've seen Cormorants at Point Dume down at 50 feet swimming past me, that is probably what you saw.

Scott

 

[headhunter]

Date: 05/14/05
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores - Vallecitos
Buddy: TeqP
Time: Somewhere around 9 am
Bottom Time: 51 min.
Max Depth: 95 ft.
Vis: 20 ft below the thermocline 10 ft. above it
Wave height: 1 - 2 ft.
Temp at depth: 54°
Surface Temp: 63°
Tide information: Low tide @ 9:08 AM 0.32 feet
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
A group of us were let out to the buoy straight out from Vallecitos St. by Mr. Clean. We checked the depth at that point and were only in 20 ft of water, so we continued out until we got to about 50 feet and then dropped down as a group. We went west to about 70', made a left turn and followed the canyon south for a couple of minutes. Phil and I split from the group and gradually dropped down to 95'.

Along the way, we came across bits of wall with many crabs, tiny halibut, tube anemonies and quite a few flat white things curled up in a circle that at first I thought were some sort of round trim pieces that fell off of a boat. Sean told me what they were, but I forgot.

At 1500 psi we headed straight up the slope to get in more shallow water and then took a heading back to the park. We actually came out right in front of the boat launch on Avenida de la Playa with a good 600 psi at the end of the dive, so we had a short stroll along the boardwalk back to the park.

On our way back across the shallow sand we ran across a couple of huge bat rays and a rather large sand dollar bed.

Nice dive!

Christian

 

[KingStroke]

...I like nitrox. It makes going up the stairs easier if you breathe on it (sounds funny out of water though). :lol:

How does Nitrox "sound funny out of water", trimix will make your voice sound funny due to the helium. N/O mix will not make your voice sound funny.

Maybe you are just refering to breathing on your reg out of water as funny???

 

[MissyP]

quite a few flat white things curled up in a circle that at first I thought were some sort of round trim pieces that fell off of a boat. Sean told me what they were, but I forgot.
Christian

Christian, I see those flat things all of the time & can't figure out what they are.. If you remember what they're called, please let me know

 

[SoCalAngel]

Christian, I see those flat things all of the time & can't figure out what they are.. If you remember what they're called, please let me know

They are egg rings from a moon snail? You can see a pic of them on divebums.com, field ID, snails, moon snail. :10:

How does Nitrox "sound funny out of water", trimix will make your voice sound funny due to the helium. N/O mix will not make your voice sound funny.

Maybe you are just refering to breathing on your reg out of water as funny???

Yep, hearing my breathing out of water from the reg is too funny...especially when the reg makes that farting sound. Must be all that O2 that makes me laugh :lol2:

 

[pasley]

Date: May 15, 2005
Dive Location: Redondo Beach CA Vets Park
Time: 8:07 p.m.
Bottom Time: 41:00
Max Depth: 79 fsw
Vis: above 30 feet 2-5 murky feet, mostly 2-3. Below 30 FSW 20+ feet of clear water.
Wave height: 1 foot maybe
Temp at depth: 54 lying suunto degrees. It was cold, but warm above 30 feet.
Surface Temp: 66 Suunto degrees
Tide information: 18:17 (6:18 pm) PDT 3.64 feet High Tide 22:42 (10:42 pm)PDT 3.11 feet Low Tide
Gas mix: Air (21%) 2930 psi start. 1100 psi end.
Comments:
Met with Scot Gietler (scottfiji) and Jonathan Davies at Vets Park to dive the canyon. We agreed on a maximum depth of 80 feet. Swam out and dropped down into 23 feet of water. Visibility was a cloudy 2-5 feet depending. When we hit 30 feet we hit a thermal cline Visibility instantly went from a very murky 2-3 feet (could make out dive lights and little more, I mean we actually bumped into each other a few times) to 20+ feet of clear and rather cold water. Along the way much was seen if you looked closely at the sand and for the small stuff. Tongue fish, octopi that were dwarfed by a human finger, brown shrimp and much more. To quote Scott “small halibut, hornyhead turbot, poacher, roughback & spotfin sculpin, squid, mole crabs, juvenile sarcastic fringe head, thornback rays, pipefish, rock crab, tonguefish, juvenile perch scorpionfish & rockfish, many swimming crabs & hermit crabs.”

Turned the dive when I hit 4 minutes of remaining bottom time and worked pour way up the canyon. Dive profile is a thing of beauty. Nice slow ascent, with 12 minutes to go from 30 feet to 10 feet. A full 5 minutes between 20 and 10 feet with 3 minutes parked at 15 feet. I was shivering real good by then and the water at 29 feet 11 inches was a welcome warm feeling, even if you could not see squat. Exit was uneventful. SAC rate was up quite a bit on the dive, I attribute that to being cold. The warm water above 30 feet really made you feel the cold water below 30 feet.

 

[MissyP]

They are egg rings from a moon snail? You can see a pic of them on divebums.com, field ID, snails, moon snail. :10:
QUOTE]

Thanks Laurel! :daisysmil

 

[TeqP]

Christian - Nice report. I agree, it was a very nice dive and just a beautiful day to be at the beach. the bat rays and sand dollars topped of the dive nicely.

I'm hooked on these Wrinkle's dives. Very good to decent diving conditions and always very nice people.

 

[PnL]

La Jolla Canyon

Sean, Terry, Simon, Tyler and I met at Vallecitos at 6 PM for a dusk dive into the canyon. Reports of high surf were unfounded as the surf was mellow with occasional 3 footers which came in wave after wave. However, our experienced bunch of divers pushed through the surf, past the break zone, donned our fins and swam out into ~20 fsw where we descended into 8-10 feet visibility. There was mild surge at this depth. Sean was diving his doubles for the first time and after doing our bubble checks and getting the "OK" from everyone Sean indicated that he was good to go and we headed into the canyon where the drop in temperature was welcomed to my overheating, thinsulate and drysuited insulate body . The visibility began to open up and at best we had at least 20 feet of visibility. We dropped down to 130 fsw max and explored south of Vallecitos before hitting NDL and headed back up the canyon slopes. The visibility at the cusp of the canyon dropped as the surge picked up sand/silt from the sandy flats and threatened to dump it into the canyon. Hitting the thermocline on our ascent it became warm again, but we swam into about 15 fsw before our team of five divers split. Sean and Simon swam towards shore while Terry, Tyler and I turned around and headed back out into the canyon to use up the rest of our air. We headed back into the canyon and was greeted with increased visibility and the sharp thermocline. We explored the detritus as we descended and came across some kelp with the largest kelp blades/fronds I had ever seen! There were all sorts of life under this large piece of kelp including lobsters. Reaching our max depth we turned and began our ascent along the slopes and walls until we reached the muck that populated the canyon lip. We did our stops before continuing our swim into shallow waters and surfacing in 4 fsw to waves which threatened to crash over us, instead, we floated over the swells and ducked under the breakers, making our exit easy. We surfaced quite a bit south from our entry point due to the northerly current which was present.

We saw the usual life out, including a gathering of many juvenile California Lizardfish, juvie Kelp Bass, juvie Rockfish, Senoritas, schools of Surf Perch, Swimming Crabs, Navanax, Spiney Lobster, Rock Crabs, Blackspotted Shrimp, Gobies, Ocean Whitefish, Sanddabs, Turbots, Juvie Halibut, etc. As we continued into the shallows we came across a VERY large California Lizardfish, I would guestimate it to be at least 12-14 inches long. There was evidence of Bat Rays due to the excavated sand bowls and dust plumes left behind when they scattered at our approach; however, we did not see any of them. On our way back in we ran into a 2 foot Horn Shark which I thought was "Spot" but by the way it reacted to Tyler it was clearly not "Spot" but a smaller version of him . The shark swam away casually when we approached within arms reach and swam off in a circle. We also ran into what I first thought was a juvie GSB, but this fella was definitely different. It was much more elongated than the juvie GSB we have in our video/photo galleries, but was brown in color with a transparent caudal fin. There were some horizontal stripes on it as well, but it lacked the large dark pelvic fins which the juvie GSB had. We're not certain what type of fish it was, unfortunately no one had a camera so it is only through our memories with which we can attempt an identification.

It was good to be back in the water after not diving since Saturday (I know, poor Paul! ) and, of course, diving with good friends and dive buddies. Sean, the ******* that he is , did VERY well with his doubles and didn't seem to have any issues with trim or buoyancy. If you guys recall, I had all types of problems with my trim and it took me about 12 dives to get my doubles sorted out, so kudos to Sean. Terry went home to have dinner with the lovely Joanne while the rest of us went to Denny's for our after-dive nutrient enrichment activity. We talked ... talked some more ... and the talked a bit more before we called it a night and headed home. THANKS FOR THE DIVES EVERYONE!

Paul