October 04 Dive Reports

[scubacalifornia]

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.

My two buddies and I ran into you this morning at Crescent as you were coming out of the water, and we decided not to go in despite being geared up and ready. Conditions deteriorated very quickly after our first look at the water. We decided to try Shaw's as a last ditch, figuring it wouldn't be much better. Surprisingly, the surf was moderate, and though the surge was hefty, the viz was 15' at times. Just when you think you won't get wet, the dive gods start smiling.
Kevin

 

[Ann Marie]

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

Ahhhh shoot....my mistake. It wasn't a Tiger Shark! It was a LEOPARD Shark. Oops Just chalk it up to lack of sleep. I knew it was a Leopard Shark and even wrote that down in my log book. I guess that when I was posting, I mixed up the cats, aaahhh I mean sharks. :11:

Date: 10/09/04
Dive Location: Isthmus Reef
Time: 10:08 PM
Bottom Time: 48 min
Max Depth: 74'
Vis: 5-10'
Wave height: none, out on the Bottom Scratcher. Large swell between the coast and Catalina, and about a 2' surge
Surface Temp: 66

Comments: Wouldn't have been a fun dive if we hadn't have seen a Leopard Shark, Bat Rays, and Horned Shark. I did see a small lobster walking out in the open and I almost got up the nerve to try and grab it but just couldn't.

 

[Scot M]

Scubacalifornia, you didn't miss much at Crescent. I'm glad things were better at Shaw's. We should have tried that.

We ran into a couple of sets of people on the way out. Were you with the SCDCIE folks?

 

[scubacalifornia]

Scubacalifornia, you didn't miss much at Crescent. I'm glad things were better at Shaw's. We should have tried that.

We ran into a couple of sets of people on the way out. Were you with the SCDCIE folks?

SCDCIE? Not sure what that stands for, but we did run into the South Coast Divers group at Shaw's. When we got to the end of the reef, I realized there were four of us instead of the three we started with. Turns out that about halfway down the reef, we picked up somebody that was left behind by that group and he was tagging along with us. When we got out of the water, I realized it was somebody I dove with quite a while back. Small world.
Kevin

 

[PnL]

SITE: La Jolla Shores, Vallecitos
MAX DEPTH: 95 fsw
AVE DEPTH: 53 fsw
BOTTOM TIME: 37 min
SURFACE TEMP: 70 ºF (Suunto)
BOTTOM TEMP: 64 ºF (Suunto)
VERTICAL VIS: 30' +
HORIZONTAL VIS: 20-25'

Met up with John-Boy at Vallecitos at 6:30 AM and made a dive plan. A pair of divers had come out earlier and reported lots of surge and poor visibility. Nonetheless, John and I geared up and headed into the surf which came in quick sets and ranged from 2-4'. From our drop point at the edge of the canyon we could clearly see the bottom (~30 fsw) - this was going to be a good dive! We dropped in and descended into the canyon, passing a thermocline at about 40 fsw, and made a left to explore the south end when a cormorant suddenly appeared in front of us chasing what looked to be a surf perch. The surf perch quickly ducked into a hole at the top of the wall with the cormorant in full pursuit - the cormorant aggressively hunted the fish in the hole until it got a good grip and then headed back up to the surface. Upon looking at our computers we realized we were at 80 fsw! I've heard of them diving that deep before, but to see it happen right in front of your eyes was something special! We continued south along the walls, saw a very large male Sheephead, some large females, many bass (Kelp and Sandbarred), a school of juvenile Senoritas, a large Ocean Whitefish along with some smaller ones, Blacksmiths, etc. At our turnaround we headed up the canyon slope and worked our way northeast to hit our exit point. At 57 fsw I looked up and I could clearly see the sun playing in the ripples on the surface - vertical visibility was great. As we headed closer to shore the surge did pick up although the visibility never really dropped to the 5' that I had heard about prior to the dive. We surfaced when we hit 5 fsw, ducked under a few waves, removed our fins and leisurely walked back to the Vallecitos restrooms to rinse off. All in all a great dive, especially to start the day (when isn't a dive a good way to start a day?).

 

[mccabejc]

SCDCIE is the Southern California Dive Club of the Inland Empire. A club that meets in Pomona.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Ahhhh shoot....my mistake. It wasn't a Tiger Shark! It was a LEOPARD Shark. Oops Just chalk it up to lack of sleep. I knew it was a Leopard Shark and even wrote that down in my log book. I guess that when I was posting, I mixed up the cats, aaahhh I mean sharks. :11:

That's Okay. One of my buddies claims to have seen Hammerheads along the L.A. breakwall many times.

 

[ICY ICE]

Date: 10/10/04
Dive Location: Marineland
Time: 9:22 am
Bottom Time: 45
Max Depth: 49
Vis: 15-30
Wave height: 2ft max
Temp at depth: 65
Surface Temp: 75
Tide information: NW swell
Comments:

Hermosadiver, Sean S., Greg A. and I headed 120 degrees to the southern reef, the usual anemones, starfishes, urchins and cucumber. Got to see a very big octopi and a few spanish shawl’s. About 50 yard from there, Greg and I saw an empty lobster cage, I guess I’m not the only one getting skunked this season.


ICE

 

[Robert Phillips]

Date:10/11
Dive Location:Treasure Island
Time:8:00 A.M.
Bottom Time:25 minutes
Max Depth:28'
Vis:0-10'
Wave height:
Temp at depth:65
Surface Temp:68
Tide information:High but you couldn't tell with the hight of the surf
Comments: Drove down to Crescent at 6:00 A.M. to do my regularly scheduled, every other Sunday, dive but all my buddies stayed home either from illness or fatigue so I met some other buddies at Treasure Island. The conditions at Crescent were do-able but the surf was big and increasing. The conditions at Treasure were not much better and maybe a little worse. We walked out onto the reef to attempt a rock entry but the waves were 4' above the reef on the outside, so buddy and I elected to do a beach entry as the reef was sheltering most of the big stuff. After swimming out a ways against a strong current we dropped down to the sand at 22' and 5' of vis. Taking a compass bearing and heading to the reef at 25' we could see maybe 10' in some spots but most of the dive was spent fighting the surge and trying to see 2' in front of us. 12 minutes into the dive I gave the f-this sign and we turned and headed back to the beach. We surfaced in 8' of water and fought the surf back in to the beach. I almost got knocked down... Man that surf was BIG!
Was it worth it? I still have to rinse off my gear!
Dive safe, dive on Scuba Board!
Robert

 

[scubapro5]

Date:10-09-04
Dive Location:Redondo and Palos Verdes (boat dive)
Time:5-8pm
Bottom Time:3 divers 2 dives each
Max Depth:55
Vis:5-10ft
Wave height:3-4
Temp at depth:56
Surface Temp:63
Comments:The bugs are up shallow in 20ft or less. We ended up with 20 lobster for 3 divers.