October 04 Dive Reports

[ICY ICE]

Date: 10/6/04
Dive Location: Malibu Pier
Time: 8pm
Bottom Time: 36
Max Depth: 16
Vis: up to 3-10’
Wave height: 1’
Temp at depth: N/A
Surface Temp: 65
Tide information: N/A
Comments:

We started at Leo Carrillo; there were 4 divers in the water so we headed down to our 2nd site. Parking and water entry was very easy, comparing to opening night. Immediately after descending my dive buddy bagged 4 lobsters. We dove to the end of the pier, not much marine activity that night.

On the way back some medium size fish bit my leg knife. That sure spooked me, considering visibility was less than 5’, wow! “not much I can say about that one”.

My lobster was very delicious, I still owe Wrinkles a lobster: With my luck, I’d rather take her to Gladstone’s.


ICE

 

[mccabejc]

Met up with Aaron Brown and SB Diver at North Crescent this morning around 7:30 am. We watched the surf for a while, and I was surprised to see some 6ft. sets, and a couple of rogue 8 ft shore breaks. Yikes. Didn't expect that at all, considering the good conditions earlier in the week. 4 foot waves were washing over the reefs like a washing machine, and slamming against Seal Rocks. And as Pasley mentioned yesterday, there is some major beach erosion going on. Things weren't looking good at all. So we decided to drive next door to Shaws. The beach at Shaws was filled with divers, mostly classes. And conditions were no better. I was amazed that some instructors were taking their classes out in those conditions. Heard a lot of free flowing regulators while we were there, as people got mashed by the white water and got sand in their regs. Was even more amazed that some folks were putting their fins on and walking slowly backwards to enter the surf, and even doing it in a rip current. Saw a few students also exiting with fins on, and getting smashed by the waves. A couple of them ended up crawling out.

Anyway, as much as we wanted to dive today, we decided to call it. A tough call, since there were some long breaks between sets where you could make an entry. But from what we heard from some other divers the visibility wasn't all that great, and I figured the surge would be pretty bad, and it would be more work than it was worth. On the way to the car I saw DivebuddySean all geared up and heading down the stairs to the beach. You go boy !! Told him about the 8 footer we had seen a few minutes prior. Undaunted, he pressed on. Myrna and I decided to hang out for a while on the beach and watch the students, and later I saw Sean emerging. I'm looking forward to his report.

Anyone find a good place to dive tomorrow??

 

[JDog]

1st dive at Cress St. entered at 3.40pm there were 3 to 4 foot waves but we made it in OK. We surface swam to the outer reef, the vis was 15 feet, it had moderate surge but not too bad. We did a 45 minute dive. The exit was a little bit of a gong show. Didn't loose anything so that was good, but I got body slammed pretty good by one wave. Instant sand injection. I am sure someone in the wedding party on shore got a little good video of that exit.

2nd dive at Shaws Cove. 6.09 entry time. Definate twilight dive. Only did 35 minutes, it got cold, water temp at depth was 57 degrees. Waves were not bad only 2 or 3 feet. Easy entry and clean exit. Vis was poor 10 feet or so.

We are going to give it another shot tommorow morning. Probably going to start at Shaws cove at around 8:30am. We have 2 people that have never done a shore dive. You all might want to come out and watch the show [] .

Dove with Jetfixer and Dave.

 

[MyDiveLog]

Date: 10/8/04
Dive Location: Deadman's to Shaw's Cove
Time: 2pm
Bottom Time: 1:06
Max Depth: 45
Vis: 20' @ Deadman's, 10' @ Shaw's
Wave height: 2 - 3' with odd 4-footer sneaking through; odd, since report said no waves!
Temp at depth: 67, but with stiff thermocline at 25'. Forgot my hooded vest; brrrr
Surface Temp: 71
Tide information: N/A
Comments: While it was a pleasure dive, saw some lobster at Deadman's...tried to grab one and got a nasty urchin stick instead....had to go to the ER later and have a quarter inch tip dug out (doh!). 2 eels at Deadmans and 2 @ Shaw's. Saw one of the largest octos I have seen at Deadmans, with suckers about a half inch around. Took about 10 minutes and 500 PSI to make the swim from Deadman's to the W edge of Shaws. Surf building, creating big surge inside the reef, along with a strong current on the outer edge; sanity got the better of valor, so we stayed to the outer edge of the reef rather than taking the shortcut through the notch. "Betty the Bass" not home in her usual hole, nor was the eel that lives near the arch. The sand at Shaw's above 20' was littered with debris; usually indicates rough surface conditions. Waves on exit were 3 - 4 foot, with a decent lull between sets. It appears that the 'perfect conditions' may be over...

 

[Ann Marie]

Okay, I'll post all the other information after I get home from work but, I just had to tell people that would appreciate what I saw last night....

Isthmus Reef, Catalina
Dove night dive with the Bottom Scratcher
Conditions going over were really rough, very big swells.
Viz: 5-10' (15' in a few lucky spots)
Depth: 71'

But--- My buddy and I saw a LEOPARD SHARK!!! I would have to say that it was 4-5 feet (that is after I discounted the 25%+). It was really close. We both just kind of stopped and stared. Then we looked at each other (our eyes were huge) and then continued to watch it until it swam away.

Sure made up for lousy conditions.

 

[whalerkyle]

I think if I saw those vertical stripes, my westuit would be brown. I've never heard of a tiger sighting in cali, too cool.

Kyle

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Okay, I'll post all the other information after I get home from work but, I just had to tell people that would appreciate what I saw last night....

Isthmus Reef, Catalina
Dove night dive with the Bottom Scratcher
Conditions going over were really rough, very big swells.
Viz: 5-10' (15' in a few lucky spots)
Depth: 71'

But--- My buddy and I saw a TIGER SHARK!!! I would have to say that it was 4-5 feet (that is after I discounted the 25%+). It was really close. We both just kind of stopped and stared. Then we looked at each other (our eyes were huge) and then continued to watch it until it swam away.

Sure made up for lousy conditions.

While Leopard sharks are very common at Isthmus Reef, I don't think there's ever been a Tiger shark seen in California before.
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_species/?hOri=1&inhab=207

 

[scottfiji]

Date: 10/9/04
Dive Location: 24434 Malibu Road
Time: 9:30AM
Bottom Time: 1:11
Max Depth: 34
Vis: 4-9 feet, with a strong surge
Wave height: 3-4 feet
Temp at depth: 60
Surface Temp: 62
Tide information: High tide was 8:07AM

Swaw out to the kelp, decided to explore west for a change.. not much there except a lot of sea hares, and a sea pen colony at around 30 feet, which was really cool. Went east until I hit the large pinnacle at 24 feet depth, saw lemon nudibranch, horn shark, giant kelpfish (both color variations), octopus, sheephead, and the usualy suspects. I would have liked better conditions though, these might have been the worst vis/surge I've been in yet. However, exit and entry was easy at this site, as always.

Scott

 

[scottfiji]

While Leopard sharks are very common at Isthmus Reef, I don't think there's ever been a Tiger shark seen in California before.
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_species/?hOri=1&inhab=207

Tiger sharks and leopard sharks look quite different. From what I've read, Tiger sharks have spots that merge into verticle stripes once they reach around 72 cm. After that, the stripes slowly fade as they get older. The heads and tails look fairly different too. Theoretically southern california is in their range, although they are usually found south of here. Ann Marie, I'd be curious to know how you distinguished it as a tiger shark, did it have spots or stripes?
http://images.google.com/images?q="tiger shark"&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N&tab=wi

 

[Scot M]

Date: 10/10/04
Dive Location: Crescent Bay
Time: 7:45 AM
Bottom Time: 0:14
Max Depth: 42
Vis: 12-15 feet, with a strong surge
Wave height: 4-5 feet
Temp at depth: 66
Tide information: High tide

I met a couple of guys at Crescent with the intent of diving Seal Rock. There's that NW swell running, but I didn't expect conditions to be bad inside the coves. Wrong. Surf was a combination of distinct 2-3 ft sets from the SW and 4-6 ft sets from the NW. As a result, there were bad waves, but long breaks between sets. Conditions looked rough but not dangerous, so we decided to give it a try.

One of the guys got stuck in the surf and decided to sit out the dive. The other two of us headed out, keeping well away from the shallows. Seal Rock was getting hammered by the NW swell, with some waves splashing well over the top of the rock. Optimism is eternal, so we swam to about 100 ft east of the rock before we gave in and admitted that we weren't going anywhere near it. Deadman's might have been a good option, but neither of us had been there before and it didn't seem like the day to try finding it.

We decided to drop down and follow the reef back to the beach. Visibility was surprisingly good, at around 15 feet. The surge was another story. It was like being inside of a pinball machine. I burned 1700 psi in 14 minutes, just fighting the surge. After a while, we moved clear of the reef and swam over the sand. As each wave passed overhead, it was like a miniature sandstorm on the bottom. Pretty neat to watch, but not much else to see.