Diver_Jan
Contributor
scottfiji:
Thanks for sharing Scott! I felt I was there for the adventure as I read your report. Isn't diving AWESOME???
November 04 Dive Reports
- Thread starter Otter
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Thanks for sharing Scott! I felt I was there for the adventure as I read your report. Isn't diving AWESOME???
Date: Monday, 11/8/04
Dive Location: No where
Bottom Time: 0 minutes
Max Depth: 0 ft
Reading all the reports of great dives is killing me! A small sea urchin poke turned into an infection of the nerve sheath, which required an operation last week to slice the hand open from finger tip to palm. Can't dive for another two weeks... the longest I've been out of the water for 3 years ... maybe this belongs in "Whine & Cheese!"
Dive Location: No where
Bottom Time: 0 minutes
Max Depth: 0 ft
Reading all the reports of great dives is killing me! A small sea urchin poke turned into an infection of the nerve sheath, which required an operation last week to slice the hand open from finger tip to palm. Can't dive for another two weeks... the longest I've been out of the water for 3 years ... maybe this belongs in "Whine & Cheese!"
Diver_Jan
Contributor
MyDiveLog:
Reminds me of a patient of mine that had a rose thorn in his knee that got infected, had to have an antibiotic knee spacer put in, then a total knee replacement! Hmmm...Sea Urchins, they must be the rose thorns of the sea!
Hope you will be back in the water shortly!
Date:Nov 8, 2004
Dive Location: Laguna Beach, Dead Man's Reef
Time: 4:01 PM
Bottom Time: 16:10
Max Depth: 66 FSW
Vis: Pea Soup Green 10 feet give or take
Wave height: 1 ft
Temp at depth: 63 SUUNTO Degrees
Surface Temp:66 SUUNTO Degrees
Tide information:
Comments: Met up with Jenney who was out from Utah. Jenny has done some ocean dives in some warm water climates. This was her first trip to cooler waters and 7 mil wetsuits as well as her first beach dive. We swam out to Deadmand reef on the surface and tried to go down. Discovered the weight adjustment for fresh to salt and from no wetsuit to 7mm was a tad bit off. I donated 4 Lbs off my weight belt and with assistance she was able to get down. Once down past 20 feet or so it was fine and we had a nice dive. But during all the attempts to get down and the exchanging of weights etc, we had drifted east of our intended drop down location. We cam down into 66 feet of water with another 10 or so to the bottom.. So I started us swimming North and West to get back to the reef. But alas it was not to be. We had used a lot of air in the attempts to get down and stuff and so when her tank hit 1000 PSI, I knew we would have more problems going up in a controlled manner the lower her tank got. So we started a controlled ascent. I was not able to hold us for the 3 minute safety stop and you know how religious I am about those. Our speed for the last 10 feet was more than I like to see too, but not too bad. All in all we had a fun dive. We just did not get to see all we had hoped to. We called it a day with the one dive.
Dive Location: Laguna Beach, Dead Man's Reef
Time: 4:01 PM
Bottom Time: 16:10
Max Depth: 66 FSW
Vis: Pea Soup Green 10 feet give or take
Wave height: 1 ft
Temp at depth: 63 SUUNTO Degrees
Surface Temp:66 SUUNTO Degrees
Tide information:
Comments: Met up with Jenney who was out from Utah. Jenny has done some ocean dives in some warm water climates. This was her first trip to cooler waters and 7 mil wetsuits as well as her first beach dive. We swam out to Deadmand reef on the surface and tried to go down. Discovered the weight adjustment for fresh to salt and from no wetsuit to 7mm was a tad bit off. I donated 4 Lbs off my weight belt and with assistance she was able to get down. Once down past 20 feet or so it was fine and we had a nice dive. But during all the attempts to get down and the exchanging of weights etc, we had drifted east of our intended drop down location. We cam down into 66 feet of water with another 10 or so to the bottom.. So I started us swimming North and West to get back to the reef. But alas it was not to be. We had used a lot of air in the attempts to get down and stuff and so when her tank hit 1000 PSI, I knew we would have more problems going up in a controlled manner the lower her tank got. So we started a controlled ascent. I was not able to hold us for the 3 minute safety stop and you know how religious I am about those. Our speed for the last 10 feet was more than I like to see too, but not too bad. All in all we had a fun dive. We just did not get to see all we had hoped to. We called it a day with the one dive.
Date:Nov 9, 2004
Dive Location: Laguna Beach, Seal rock
Time: 11:27 AM
Bottom Time: 27 minutes total.
Max Depth: 28 FSW
Vis: Pea Soup Green 10 feet give or take
Wave height: 1 ft
Temp at depth: 63 SUUNTO Degrees
Surface Temp:66 SUUNTO Degrees
Comments;
Jenny from Utah and I came back for another dive. We added significantly more weight to her belt today and she was able to get down. We also discovered her AL63 had a short fill at 2200 PSI. So after a little consideration we swapped tanks. I took her short fill AL63 and she took my AL80 with a full 3000 PSI in it. That worked out well for both of us. At one point when I checked our air, she had 400 PSI less than I had so we would come out just about even. SAC rate for me for this dive was 0.31.
We dropped down right on top of the reef about half way to Seal Rock. A few sea lions came to check us out which was a treat for Jenny. Note to self, if a diver has a camera, they should be in front. We got next to Seal Rock and I went out between two rocks to get away form the surge. Jenny had stopped to take a picture and well, we got separated. When I was clear of the surge, I stopped and turned around to wait for Jenny to come through. When she did not, I swam back to where I last saw her and looked around then surfaced. I spotted her snorkeling around but was unable to get her attention as she dived back under. I eventually spotted her again and we linked up near the reef coming out from shore. We dropped down again an swam in. Spotted an octopus in about 18 feet of water. Jenny was fighting to say down as she hit 1000 PSI in the AL80 tank. So we called it a dive and surfaced.
We had a good dive and I hope Jenny enjoyed it.
Dive Location: Laguna Beach, Seal rock
Time: 11:27 AM
Bottom Time: 27 minutes total.
Max Depth: 28 FSW
Vis: Pea Soup Green 10 feet give or take
Wave height: 1 ft
Temp at depth: 63 SUUNTO Degrees
Surface Temp:66 SUUNTO Degrees
Comments;
Jenny from Utah and I came back for another dive. We added significantly more weight to her belt today and she was able to get down. We also discovered her AL63 had a short fill at 2200 PSI. So after a little consideration we swapped tanks. I took her short fill AL63 and she took my AL80 with a full 3000 PSI in it. That worked out well for both of us. At one point when I checked our air, she had 400 PSI less than I had so we would come out just about even. SAC rate for me for this dive was 0.31.
We dropped down right on top of the reef about half way to Seal Rock. A few sea lions came to check us out which was a treat for Jenny. Note to self, if a diver has a camera, they should be in front. We got next to Seal Rock and I went out between two rocks to get away form the surge. Jenny had stopped to take a picture and well, we got separated. When I was clear of the surge, I stopped and turned around to wait for Jenny to come through. When she did not, I swam back to where I last saw her and looked around then surfaced. I spotted her snorkeling around but was unable to get her attention as she dived back under. I eventually spotted her again and we linked up near the reef coming out from shore. We dropped down again an swam in. Spotted an octopus in about 18 feet of water. Jenny was fighting to say down as she hit 1000 PSI in the AL80 tank. So we called it a dive and surfaced.
We had a good dive and I hope Jenny enjoyed it.
Date: 11/09/04
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: 649p
Bottom Time: 52 minutes
Max Depth:88 ft
Avg Depth: 45 ft
Vis:15-25
Swell height: 1ft
Surface Temp: 63
Temp at depth: 60
Comments:
John, Sean, Jessica and I met up with fellow Bottom Bunch divers for a night dive at Vallecetos Point. It was a great dive and everyone had a wonderful time. As I am tired.....here ends the text portion of the dive. Perhaps my more motivated colleges will run with that ball.
Images are here. http://photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/LJS110904/
In the interest of full disclosure I have decided to not modify these images save resizing. This will give all of you better feel for how my pictures usually look instead of how I make them look. I still have a long road ahead but boy am I having a great time on it.
Thanks to everyone for another great dive.
Terry
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: 649p
Bottom Time: 52 minutes
Max Depth:88 ft
Avg Depth: 45 ft
Vis:15-25
Swell height: 1ft
Surface Temp: 63
Temp at depth: 60
Comments:
John, Sean, Jessica and I met up with fellow Bottom Bunch divers for a night dive at Vallecetos Point. It was a great dive and everyone had a wonderful time. As I am tired.....here ends the text portion of the dive. Perhaps my more motivated colleges will run with that ball.
Images are here. http://photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/LJS110904/
In the interest of full disclosure I have decided to not modify these images save resizing. This will give all of you better feel for how my pictures usually look instead of how I make them look. I still have a long road ahead but boy am I having a great time on it.
Thanks to everyone for another great dive.
Terry
Diver_Jan
Contributor
November 9th
7:30pm
Deadman's Reef
Temp: 62 degrees
55' for 48 minutes AL 63
waves: 1-2' at best
surge: none
Viz: 8 to 12' better in some areas
Met up with the gang from SOCDC. Some dove Moss/Woods, where others chose to dive Deadman's. I was up for Deadman's, for I heard that the viz wasn't too bad there.
Upon dropping down, I had some equalization trouble and had to resurface. Once adjusted, I slowly dropped down again. After taking a few minutes, I took a heading and headed to Deadman's. Again, it seems like we ended up a little south hitting the reef near it's deepest point. We scurried for bugs, found a few that were just shy of being legal. Spotted a nice bug who was keeping company with a large Horn Shark. My buddy Steve spotted a large Moray out of it's hole followed by a smaller moray. All of the usual suspects were out. On our way back into shore over the sand, we spotted several baby sting rays, thornback rays, cusk eels, and then...we spotted a HUGE Butterfly Ray! I don't see those too often, so that was cool. Due to that I was diving with my AL 63, I surfaced early after 48' where as my buddy stayed down and spotted an 'almost' legal halibut!
All in all, it was a great dive. The bioilluminescense was out like we had never seen before.
7:30pm
Deadman's Reef
Temp: 62 degrees
55' for 48 minutes AL 63
waves: 1-2' at best
surge: none
Viz: 8 to 12' better in some areas
Met up with the gang from SOCDC. Some dove Moss/Woods, where others chose to dive Deadman's. I was up for Deadman's, for I heard that the viz wasn't too bad there.
Upon dropping down, I had some equalization trouble and had to resurface. Once adjusted, I slowly dropped down again. After taking a few minutes, I took a heading and headed to Deadman's. Again, it seems like we ended up a little south hitting the reef near it's deepest point. We scurried for bugs, found a few that were just shy of being legal. Spotted a nice bug who was keeping company with a large Horn Shark. My buddy Steve spotted a large Moray out of it's hole followed by a smaller moray. All of the usual suspects were out. On our way back into shore over the sand, we spotted several baby sting rays, thornback rays, cusk eels, and then...we spotted a HUGE Butterfly Ray! I don't see those too often, so that was cool. Due to that I was diving with my AL 63, I surfaced early after 48' where as my buddy stayed down and spotted an 'almost' legal halibut!
All in all, it was a great dive. The bioilluminescense was out like we had never seen before.
scottfiji
Contributor
Date: Nov 9, 2004
Dive Location: Hermosa Artificial Reef, off Hermosa beach
Time: 10:02PM (night dive)
Bottom Time: 42 minutes
Max Depth: 68 Feet
Colors: Vibrant
Vis: Good, 20 feet
Wave height: 1-3 foot swell rocking the boat
Temp at depth: 56-57 Cold Degrees
WHO KNEW there was such great diving in CA? Just when I thought cascading boulders and kelp forests were the creme-la-de-creme, ScubaPro5 (Roger) dropped me into sixty-some feet of cold darkness to teach me otherwise.
I stayed in the boat while Roger did a warm-up dive in Secret Lobster Retrieval Location #481. After a mere 20 minutes he surfaced with 7 large spiny crustaceans, amazing! We then motored over to our premier destination, the Hermosa artificial reef.
A backward roll dropped me into cold, dark oblivion. A bat ray accompanied us down for our descent, hoping to use our lights to eat a few extra pelagics. We dropped into a sea pen field and began our adventure.
When I hit the reef I thought I was in Fiji or the Caribbean. I've never seen more colors in my life, more colorful fish, more coral! It was simply stunning. It must be the dive lights that bring out this color, but that didn't matter. Huge patches of pink corynactis were ubiquiitous, as were red-violet sea fans and rodents, I mean, gorgonians of unusual size. A large bright yellow zoanthid anemone stuck out. Large chestnut cowries, giant sea stars and spanish shawl were feeding fearlessly. Every fish that I saw on my last 20 dives seemed to be here, trying to sleep. Let me tell you, they were a little annoyed that I was waking them!
Hundreds of blacksmith sleeping everywhere were a gorgeous blue color. Scorpionfish were abundant, as were large barred sand bass. There were yellow rock crabs, sheephead, spotted cusk-eels, scallop, lobster, various large perch and numerous other fish. Did I mention this place was literally crawling with fish?
When I saw the cleaning shrimp having a party, I couldn't resist, so I removed my regulator, opened my mouth, and put my mouth next to them, just like I saw in a video. they didn't go in though (the girl in the video got cleaned).
Unfortunately, it was time for a dark and lonely vertical ascent. This reef is large, we still hadn't reached the end. When I say reef, I don't mean a little reef here, a little reef there. I mean huge structures everywhere complete covered in bright-colored cnidarians.
Let me tell you I prefer gradual beach ascents! I carefully watched my depth on the computer and was careful to let air out on the way up, taking about 6 minutes to ascend the 60 feet.
But Dive # 3 was in Roger's destiny. When crawling back on the boat, the strap on my dive light broke (the light was off), and it plummeted to the bottom. We got on the boat , Roger took his fins off, switched to another tank, re-geared. All this took 10 minutes, and the boat drifted. We motored back to the spot where I dropped the light, and Roger was back underwater. Search and Retrieve mission has begun! Methodology - criss-cross. I figured he would probably get more lobster, as he brought his bag with him.
After 10 minutes, he resurfaced, my dive light was not in hand. I took up his gear and lobster bags, heavy with another catch. But wait, the catch in the bag wasn't moving. Had he smashed the lobster to pieces?
No, it was my dive light!
Dive Location: Hermosa Artificial Reef, off Hermosa beach
Time: 10:02PM (night dive)
Bottom Time: 42 minutes
Max Depth: 68 Feet
Colors: Vibrant
Vis: Good, 20 feet
Wave height: 1-3 foot swell rocking the boat
Temp at depth: 56-57 Cold Degrees
WHO KNEW there was such great diving in CA? Just when I thought cascading boulders and kelp forests were the creme-la-de-creme, ScubaPro5 (Roger) dropped me into sixty-some feet of cold darkness to teach me otherwise.
I stayed in the boat while Roger did a warm-up dive in Secret Lobster Retrieval Location #481. After a mere 20 minutes he surfaced with 7 large spiny crustaceans, amazing! We then motored over to our premier destination, the Hermosa artificial reef.
A backward roll dropped me into cold, dark oblivion. A bat ray accompanied us down for our descent, hoping to use our lights to eat a few extra pelagics. We dropped into a sea pen field and began our adventure.
When I hit the reef I thought I was in Fiji or the Caribbean. I've never seen more colors in my life, more colorful fish, more coral! It was simply stunning. It must be the dive lights that bring out this color, but that didn't matter. Huge patches of pink corynactis were ubiquiitous, as were red-violet sea fans and rodents, I mean, gorgonians of unusual size. A large bright yellow zoanthid anemone stuck out. Large chestnut cowries, giant sea stars and spanish shawl were feeding fearlessly. Every fish that I saw on my last 20 dives seemed to be here, trying to sleep. Let me tell you, they were a little annoyed that I was waking them!
Hundreds of blacksmith sleeping everywhere were a gorgeous blue color. Scorpionfish were abundant, as were large barred sand bass. There were yellow rock crabs, sheephead, spotted cusk-eels, scallop, lobster, various large perch and numerous other fish. Did I mention this place was literally crawling with fish?
When I saw the cleaning shrimp having a party, I couldn't resist, so I removed my regulator, opened my mouth, and put my mouth next to them, just like I saw in a video. they didn't go in though (the girl in the video got cleaned).
Unfortunately, it was time for a dark and lonely vertical ascent. This reef is large, we still hadn't reached the end. When I say reef, I don't mean a little reef here, a little reef there. I mean huge structures everywhere complete covered in bright-colored cnidarians.
Let me tell you I prefer gradual beach ascents! I carefully watched my depth on the computer and was careful to let air out on the way up, taking about 6 minutes to ascend the 60 feet.
But Dive # 3 was in Roger's destiny. When crawling back on the boat, the strap on my dive light broke (the light was off), and it plummeted to the bottom. We got on the boat , Roger took his fins off, switched to another tank, re-geared. All this took 10 minutes, and the boat drifted. We motored back to the spot where I dropped the light, and Roger was back underwater. Search and Retrieve mission has begun! Methodology - criss-cross. I figured he would probably get more lobster, as he brought his bag with him.
After 10 minutes, he resurfaced, my dive light was not in hand. I took up his gear and lobster bags, heavy with another catch. But wait, the catch in the bag wasn't moving. Had he smashed the lobster to pieces?
No, it was my dive light!
scottfiji
Contributor
divinman:
Thanks terry. I enjoy writing it. I love reading your reports too, and viewing your pictures. Jan, your reports are great too! I plan on taking some pictures and video of my favorite sites soon. I had just bought that light a couple days ago, so I'm glad I didn't loose it on its first dive, thanks to Roger.
Similar threads
