Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

[uspap]

Dove North Monastery at 10:00 am today. 20ft vis at most. Very calm. A lot of kelp has been ripped out or eaten by Urchins. However, I was encouraged to see several new hold fasts and stipes, so I hope the kelp is making a come back.
Brian at Aquarius dove North Monastery later in the day around 2:00 pm and vis had improved to 40 foot around the wash rock. Also shark sighting but not sure if 7 gill or tope shark.

Second dive was Breakwater wall. First swam to middle reef kelp but vis was green and poor. Swam to wall and it was better but not more than 12ft at best. Fun dive day but was hoping for better with all of the reports.

 

[kumimonster]

Posted this on the facebooks but to keep this going, here's a post.

Went out late Wed for 2 on the wall.
How flat was it? It was as flat as your bathtub. In the surfzone it got a little wild - kind of like if you decided to crawl into your bathtub and maybe leaned back. OK. Maybe it wasn't wild at all.
No wind, no rain, no sleet, no snow. Not even current or surge worth mentioning. Both dives.

First dive was late afternoon so it was still light. (around 1800). Water = 56F! Vis 20+.
Second dive was at 2100. (sunset was at 2022-ish). Water = 56F! Vis um... black when you shut your lights off.
It was a crab-fest! Crab porn for half of it. Didn't realize they like to get busy in the open like that. Saw a couple of crabs checking out a couple of crabs going at it. Guess they're a little kinky.
I like shutting my light off to just chill in complete darkness but I was afraid one of those kinky crabs might attack us.
Between marker 6/7 on the rocks is an octopus that looks like she's ready to go - dare I say, on her last legs? Looks like she's been guarding her eggs.
Saw a few little octos too.

Only took a GoPro with me for the first one. Left it alone for the second one. I have been leaving my TG6 alone since I keep changing up my gear.

I went dry, my buddy went wet.

 

[Suresh V]

Posted this on the facebooks but to keep this going, here's a post.

Went out late Wed for 2 on the wall.
How flat was it? It was as flat as your bathtub. In the surfzone it got a little wild - kind of like if you decided to crawl into your bathtub and maybe leaned back. OK. Maybe it wasn't wild at all.
No wind, no rain, no sleet, no snow. Not even current or surge worth mentioning. Both dives.

First dive was late afternoon so it was still light. (around 1800). Water = 56F! Vis 20+.
Second dive was at 2100. (sunset was at 2022-ish). Water = 56F! Vis um... black when you shut your lights off.
It was a crab-fest! Crab porn for half of it. Didn't realize they like to get busy in the open like that. Saw a couple of crabs checking out a couple of crabs going at it. Guess they're a little kinky.
I like shutting my light off to just chill in complete darkness but I was afraid one of those kinky crabs might attack us.
Between marker 6/7 on the rocks is an octopus that looks like she's ready to go - dare I say, on her last legs? Looks like she's been guarding her eggs.
Saw a few little octos too.

Only took a GoPro with me for the first one. Left it alone for the second one. I have been leaving my TG6 alone since I keep changing up my gear.

I went dry, my buddy went wet. View attachment 673701 View attachment 673701 View attachment 673702 View attachment 673703 View attachment 673705

hilarious!!! such an awesome update!! thanks for posting!

 

[Chavodel8en]

Two dives at Lobos yesterday. Lots of kelp on the surface everywhere, got me hopeful. First dive we were planning to go to Hole in the Wall/ Lone Metridium, hoping the reports were wrong -- they were not, approaching it turns to a complete moonscape of nothing but gray rock & urchins. Really sad. So turned to Middle Reef instead & for 2nd dive. Various sections of Middle Reef also are also urchin barreny, but enough healthy parts to support two dives. Viz about 20'.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Two dives at Lobos yesterday. Lots of kelp on the surface everywhere, got me hopeful. First dive we were planning to go to Hole in the Wall/ Lone Metridium, hoping the reports were wrong -- they were not, approaching it turns to a complete moonscape of nothing but gray rock & urchins. Really sad. So turned to Middle Reef instead & for 2nd dive. Various sections of Middle Reef also are also urchin barreny, but enough healthy parts to support two dives. Viz about 20'.

The sad part is that people will probably be walking on Mars before anybody is allowed to do anything about the urchin invasions in protected parks like Lobos.

 

[uspap]

Protecting an invasive species instead of protecting the native environment. Kind of lost sight of the whole protected park thing. South Monastery is like diving on the moon. North in the shallows is getting the same way.

 

[kumimonster]

Butt o'clock in the morning. Alarm got me up and I went into auto-pilot for a bit.
Out the door 30 min later with my water bottle after saying, "good morning" to my tooth brush.
I landed at the Breakwater parking lot at 0615. it was FULL!
No, not really. It wasn't full but it was definitely getting there. Usually I can drive up at that time and get right near the stairs on the wall or even a spot in the cut out. I usually leave those since there are instructors that have to load a bunch of stuff onto the grass.
Classes. Lots of classes. Classes from local dive shops. Classes from not so local dive shops. Great day to spot floats in the water. Great day if you like to watch new divers getting their certs. Quite quite a few younger divers with their families enjoying their new-found hobby and also receiving encouragement. That's pretty awesome.
A couple dive shop clubs went to Monastery. Heard it was pretty nice in general though a few did not to forget the "it was better last week" part.

Today I brought a couple new ladies with me to join up with the San Jose Flipper Dippers club. First to the metridium fields and then along the wall.
Wow. I asked an instructor parked next to me what the water temp was and he responded 60F. :-/
I took off one of my underlayers. Good thing I did too. (I will include a quick photo of my dive computer's verdict of the temperature today. (a high of 62F WTF?!?).

Water was once again quite wet. It was almost tropical. It also was a bit on the cloudy side of things. Although wetsuit divers were lovin' in, that temp seems a bit too high for us. I can't imagine it's good for our ecosystem. I would love a nice refresh of cold water coming in.

 

[wnissen]

Dove North Monastery at 10:00 am today. 20ft vis at most. Very calm. A lot of kelp has been ripped out or eaten by Urchins. However, I was encouraged to see several new hold fasts and stipes, so I hope the kelp is making a come back.
Brian at Aquarius dove North Monastery later in the day around 2:00 pm and vis had improved to 40 foot around the wash rock. Also shark sighting but not sure if 7 gill or tope shark.

Second dive was Breakwater wall. First swam to middle reef kelp but vis was green and poor. Swam to wall and it was better but not more than 12ft at best. Fun dive day but was hoping for better with all of the reports.

Blech, I guess we should have all called in the visibility clause in our contracts.

Two dives at Lobos yesterday. Lots of kelp on the surface everywhere, got me hopeful. First dive we were planning to go to Hole in the Wall/ Lone Metridium, hoping the reports were wrong -- they were not, approaching it turns to a complete moonscape of nothing but gray rock & urchins. Really sad. So turned to Middle Reef instead & for 2nd dive. Various sections of Middle Reef also are also urchin barreny, but enough healthy parts to support two dives. Viz about 20'.

Man, that is sad.

Out the door 30 min later with my water bottle after saying, "good morning" to my tooth brush.
I landed at the Breakwater parking lot at 0615. it was FULL!

The only way I could get there that early is if I camped on the beach and got woken up by the incoming tide. Brava. I know viz is better earlier and all that, but I worry about driving that far against my circadian rhythm.

 

[kumimonster]

The only way I could get there that early is if I camped on the beach and got woken up by the incoming tide. Brava. I know viz is better earlier and all that, but I worry about driving that far against my circadian rhythm.

I don't know if the viz is actually better earlier. Maybe - before all of the students start kicking up the sand and life perhaps?

I do know that I hate the long walk from the upper, upper lot or even the street. So I plan for the early arrival and I chill and enjoy the silence, serenity, and the super-ass-close-parking. Depending on the season, I'll even enjoy the sunrise!

You are a bit further away than I am though. (I'm in Palo Alto).

From my dive last Wed night, I learned that an afternoon/night dive can be extremely peaceful and quiet too.
Bad viz isn't much when you're expecting everything to be black anyway!

 

[Suresh V]

im trying to correlate warm temperatures to low visibility ...like 3-4 days later. i assume the warmer temperatures lead to algea blooms...
then we have the time of day ( actually the tide). and the swells or the "churn".
then finally the wind conditions

still working out the actual mathematical equation...if i can figure it out ill publish a paper (NOT)

yes and students kicking up the water does affect visibility ( i used to be one of those students)