If you recall, P&L were here for some SoCal diving. Claudette and I played surrogate host and coordinators while we leveraged the kindness of Ross O and some others for some great diving - which included:
Tuesday - Early call to the Orion III. Ross Overstreet stepped up and planned an excellent day at Catalina. We rolled over in mildly agitated seas and had two-and-a-half excellent dives. Ship Rock (formerly my fav dive at Catalina) where Peter was my Nudi spotter / flyer (we found a new Nudi for me!), Italian Gardens (a silty mess with no Giant Sea Bass) and Bird Rock (which has usurped Ship Rock as my fav Catalina dive.) The report and images from this dive are here: Linkage
Wednesday - Early drive to the Spectre in Ventura. 3 more great dives, lots of DMX friends, excellent hang. Post dive dinner at CPK (a tradition now) where the fun continued to roll.
Thursday - Slept in and woke at the sumptuously late hour of 6:45 AM. Took the Express to Catalina where we were met with a rising tide for brainless exits and entries. Dived the Valiant dive one (Lynne was my Nudi spotter... great work, Lynne) and did the grand circuit for dive two.
Images from these two dives are below.
Enjoy.
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Ken
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Wednesday On the Spectre (Anacapa)
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Mega Nax. There was a Navanax explosion on Anacapa while we were there. This guy was just a phatty, looking for a nudi sandwich.
Sponge Detail - I love sponges. Check the pores on the skin. They're perfectly formed 6-pointed stars. Who knew?!?!?!
Red Fish - I have no idea what this is. Maybe a baby Cabezon? It was perfectly matched to the red algae is was hiding under. There was lots of surge on this dive, and the red algae was flapping - revealing this red fish. He was so confident in his camouflage that in the moments when the red algae flapped away, he didn't move - convinced I couldn't see him! I wish I could have captured a better image, but the surge was rocking the place, and his color match was so perfect the camera had a very hard time focusing as there wasn't enough contrast.
Muh, muh, muh my Cuthona - Nudi on eggs. These are ascending to become my fav SoCal nudis. So beautiful, so elegant. I love them.
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Thursday On Catalina (the dive park)
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Snail Eggs - DrB told me which non-discript snail lays these, but I forgot. I just love them as they are perfect hearts.
Salvadore Dali Fed Ex - there are nearly always Fed Ex hanging out on the top swim-through on the SueJac wreck in the park. This guy caught the current and blew back his moustache.
Valiant Flowers. Yellow Zoanthid. These were on the top of the Valiant, and they are beautiful. You don't mess with the Zoanthid....
Valiant Clownie - After a few moments of looking on the hull of the Valiant, Lynne got in the groove and started spotting Nudi after Nudi. She pointed out more Clown nudis than I could shoot on any three dives!
Mexi Lovin on the Valiant. Lynne pointed out a commune of group Mexichromis love at the top of the hull. I isolated this pair for a top-down shot to illustrate the wacky way these things hand off.
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Tuesday - Early call to the Orion III. Ross Overstreet stepped up and planned an excellent day at Catalina. We rolled over in mildly agitated seas and had two-and-a-half excellent dives. Ship Rock (formerly my fav dive at Catalina) where Peter was my Nudi spotter / flyer (we found a new Nudi for me!), Italian Gardens (a silty mess with no Giant Sea Bass) and Bird Rock (which has usurped Ship Rock as my fav Catalina dive.) The report and images from this dive are here: Linkage
Wednesday - Early drive to the Spectre in Ventura. 3 more great dives, lots of DMX friends, excellent hang. Post dive dinner at CPK (a tradition now) where the fun continued to roll.
Thursday - Slept in and woke at the sumptuously late hour of 6:45 AM. Took the Express to Catalina where we were met with a rising tide for brainless exits and entries. Dived the Valiant dive one (Lynne was my Nudi spotter... great work, Lynne) and did the grand circuit for dive two.
Images from these two dives are below.
Enjoy.
---
Ken
=================================
Wednesday On the Spectre (Anacapa)
=================================
Mega Nax. There was a Navanax explosion on Anacapa while we were there. This guy was just a phatty, looking for a nudi sandwich.
Sponge Detail - I love sponges. Check the pores on the skin. They're perfectly formed 6-pointed stars. Who knew?!?!?!
Red Fish - I have no idea what this is. Maybe a baby Cabezon? It was perfectly matched to the red algae is was hiding under. There was lots of surge on this dive, and the red algae was flapping - revealing this red fish. He was so confident in his camouflage that in the moments when the red algae flapped away, he didn't move - convinced I couldn't see him! I wish I could have captured a better image, but the surge was rocking the place, and his color match was so perfect the camera had a very hard time focusing as there wasn't enough contrast.
Muh, muh, muh my Cuthona - Nudi on eggs. These are ascending to become my fav SoCal nudis. So beautiful, so elegant. I love them.
.
.
.
.
.
=================================
Thursday On Catalina (the dive park)
=================================
Snail Eggs - DrB told me which non-discript snail lays these, but I forgot. I just love them as they are perfect hearts.
Salvadore Dali Fed Ex - there are nearly always Fed Ex hanging out on the top swim-through on the SueJac wreck in the park. This guy caught the current and blew back his moustache.
Valiant Flowers. Yellow Zoanthid. These were on the top of the Valiant, and they are beautiful. You don't mess with the Zoanthid....
Valiant Clownie - After a few moments of looking on the hull of the Valiant, Lynne got in the groove and started spotting Nudi after Nudi. She pointed out more Clown nudis than I could shoot on any three dives!
Mexi Lovin on the Valiant. Lynne pointed out a commune of group Mexichromis love at the top of the hull. I isolated this pair for a top-down shot to illustrate the wacky way these things hand off.
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