FrankPro1
Contributor
With an outlook of solid conditions for this Saturday, Phil and Merry invited us back for another go at PV boat diving. Our first dive aboard the No Pressure was Hawthorne Reef. This site is located almost half a mile directly out from Neptune's Cove "one of my favorite shore diving spots". Once through a thick green top layer, visibility opened up to epic proportions. Hawthorne reef in 40ft visibility is something every So Cal diver should experience. Jutting pinnacles in 60 odd feet give way to deeper rocky slopes covered in life. Everywhere you look there was something else to see and photograph. Echinoderms, Anemones, Snails, Nudibranchs, Schooling and Bottom Dwelling fish, you name it, its there on Hawthorne reef. It was overwhelming to see the best Palos Verdes diving has to offer on such a pristine reef, in such great visibility. Much like my recent dive at the offshore site White Point Rock, I felt like I had died and gone to diver heaven. While Charlie was played with by a Sea Lion, I inspected the reef for unusual and rare critters to photograph. I found my first Ronquil, but he was quick to flee so I wasn't able to take a decent photograph of him. Coming close to the end of our dive, Phil motioned us over for one more treat, a large LingCod. He was kind enough to stay still long enough for me to fire off a few shots before turning into a crevice. Critter Highlights: Vermilion Rockfish, Rosy Rockfish, Clown Dorids, Juvenile Blue Rockfish, Lingcod, Ronquil, a mischievous Sea Lion, and a couple Cone Snails.
Our second dive was on the wreck of the Avalon. The Avalon is 269ft long and was built in 1891. She started her life as the S.S. Virginia and carried passengers between Chicago and Milwaukee. After the First World War she was bought by William Wrigley Jr. and renamed the Avalon. He too used her as a passenger vessel, this time to make the trip between Catalina and Los Angeles Harbor. By the mid 1960's she had been converted into a salvage vessel. During an operation off the coast of Palos Verdes "possibly to recover the Dominator" a storm hit, her anchor chain broke and she began to sink. As far as conditions go, the Avalon was Hawthorne Reefs polar opposite. Dark green water extended all the way to the bottom @ 75ft. No matter, this was my first "real" wreck dive and I was going to enjoy it! Phil gave us a good description of the wreck itself and we knew its orientation in the water. Charlie took lead and navigated us from the stern to bow. Much of the Avalon's superstructure has fallen apart over time but there is still plenty of debris left to explore. Lots of smaller Lingcod inhabit the Avalon as well as a myriad of schooling fish. After about twenty five minutes we reached the bow of the ship and were glad to see that it was largely intact. It rises up from the bottom about twenty five feet and is inhabited by large numbers of critters. Unfortunately by this time we were getting close to our NDL's and low on air. We opted to do a free ascent to the surface instead of trying to make it back to the anchor line. Charlie and I have completed plenty of deeper dives then the Avalon, but we have never done an ascent from this depth, in such poor visibility "less then 5ft in the water column" without an anchor or mooring line. While not difficult by any means, it was a fun skill to finally do and Charlie and I did it flawlessly. We stayed close together, made a couple short deep stops and did our 3 min safety stop @ 15ft. A small feat, but it certainly made me a more confident diver. "Wreck history taken from cawreckdivers.org"
Charlie and I are first and foremost Palos Verdes shore divers. We have taken trips out to Catalina and Santa Cruz Island, gone south to explore Laguna but keep coming back to our local PV goat trail dive sites because frankly, there's nowhere we've been that matches it. Yes Catalina has nice clear blue water and has massive shoals of fish, but where are the invertebrates? The nutrient rich cold water upwelling we get on the Palos Verde's Peninsula creates reef systems that rival some of the top dive sites on the Northern Channel Islands. This fact is accentuated when you go slightly offshore to some of the more remote PV boat-only dive sites. 40ft visibility, tons of reef critters and an interesting wreck to explore is awesome in itself but when you add knowledgeable, compassionate and like-minded dive buddies to this formula "Phil, Merry and Charlie", you get an unforgettable experience.
With lots to photograph, I should have come back with loads of keepers but with so much to explore it was hard to focus long enough on one given subject. Wanting to soak it all in and see as much as possible I only took a few shots, here's what came out:
Lingcod on the Avalon
Rosy Rockfish
Reef shot @ Hawthorne
Lingcod @ Hawthorne
Common Diaulula nobilis
Sunflower Star
Charlie and I are first and foremost Palos Verdes shore divers. We have taken trips out to Catalina and Santa Cruz Island, gone south to explore Laguna but keep coming back to our local PV goat trail dive sites because frankly, there's nowhere we've been that matches it. Yes Catalina has nice clear blue water and has massive shoals of fish, but where are the invertebrates? The nutrient rich cold water upwelling we get on the Palos Verde's Peninsula creates reef systems that rival some of the top dive sites on the Northern Channel Islands. This fact is accentuated when you go slightly offshore to some of the more remote PV boat-only dive sites. 40ft visibility, tons of reef critters and an interesting wreck to explore is awesome in itself but when you add knowledgeable, compassionate and like-minded dive buddies to this formula "Phil, Merry and Charlie", you get an unforgettable experience.
With lots to photograph, I should have come back with loads of keepers but with so much to explore it was hard to focus long enough on one given subject. Wanting to soak it all in and see as much as possible I only took a few shots, here's what came out:
Lingcod on the Avalon
Rosy Rockfish
Reef shot @ Hawthorne
Lingcod @ Hawthorne
Common Diaulula nobilis
Sunflower Star
If you enjoyed mine, then you'll be blown away by his.
