Sep 04 Dive Reports

[scubainspired]

I went bodyboarding at Manhatten Beach
Date 09/23/04
Time 10 am - 1 pm
Surf .5' to 1.5 feet.
Vis. 20'

Checked out a few other spots... the bottom half of Santa Monica Bay was like a swimming pool. Might be a great weekend to Dive!!!!!!!!!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Ditched work for the first time in many years to go diving.
Vis at Marineland was fairly poor considering the flat seas we've had for a few days. I began my dive on the offshore reefs to the East of the cove, where the vis was 5-8 feet. I spent an hour there before swimming over to the reefs to the West of the cove. Conditions here were a little better, with vis around 12-15 feet. Lots of juvenile Garibaldis darting in and out of the urchins. While taking a picture of one, I had the funny feeling that someone was watching over my shoulder. I turned around just in time to see a large Harbor seal swim away. Surf was 1-2 feet. Temp at 50 feet was 63F.

 

[ryanarcher]

Date: 9/25/2004
Dive Location: La Jolla Cove - Rock Pile
Time: 7:00 AM
Bottom Time: 45 min
Max Depth: 45
Vis: 15-20
Wave height: 0-1 foot
Temp at depth: 55
Surface Temp: 68 Suunto Degrees
Tide information: Close to high
Comments: Met Sam at the cove at 6:30 and we geared up and were in the water a little before 7am. We jumped off at Alligator Head and kicked out to the kelp bed and then decended. We took a 15 degree heading and soon found the rock pile. We saw the usual creatures and nothing of note. We hit our turn around pressure and headed back on a 185 degree heading and exited at Alligator Head. Over all it was a good dive with good viz - at 45 feet I could look up and see the top of the water - but horizontal viz was only about 15-20.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

9/25/04
Chocolate Lobster Dive
Cabrillo Beach, San Pedro
I made search patterns in 0-2 feet of vis(mostly zero) for an hour without ever seeing a single one. Turns out I wasn't alone. There were still over 200 chocolate bugs in the water at the end of the day. There were reports of piles of a dozen or so near the jetty, but I searched over the sand. Oh, well. It was for a good cause.

 

[headhunter]

Date: 9/14/04
Dive Location: Redondo Beach (Veteran's Park)
Time: 8:00 am
Bottom Time: 38 min
Max Depth: 68'
Vis: 25' -30' at below 40', about 15' - 20' above 40'
Wave height: 1' - 2'
Temp at depth: 61 degrees
Surface Temp: 71 degrees
Tide information: High Tide 8:30 am
Comments: I met David (dazedone) at the Veteran's Park parking lot at 7:00 am. We decided to wait for the sun to hit the water at about 7:45 before getting ready to go in. We saw a few very small halibut, a school of "silvery" fish (?), a sculpin hanging out on an old tire in the sand (he swam away before David could get a pic), and a bat ray on our way out. It was a good day for me to work on buoyancy skills. David practiced shooting a bag.

Christian

 

[Aerodog]

9/25/04
Chocolate Lobster Dive
Cabrillo Beach, San Pedro
I made search patterns in 0-2 feet of vis(mostly zero) for an hour without ever seeing a single one. Turns out I wasn't alone. There were still over 200 chocolate bugs in the water at the end of the day. There were reports of piles of a dozen or so near the jetty, but I searched over the sand. Oh, well. It was for a good cause.

Yeah, what Max said, but after getting back from the east coast just yesterday, and with 10 hours of sleep in the past three nights, I was in no mood for diving in the sandstorm washing machine. I was out in 15 minutes. If I do it next year, I'll do it with just a snorkel. Every single person I saw with just a snorkel caught a critter. Final take for the day, 1 hot dog, 2 chicken dogs, one peanut cookie, one fuji apple, one banana, one coke, two bottles of water, and one bag of popcorn. Yep, for a good cause......

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Yeah, what Max said, but after getting back from the east coast just yesterday, and with 10 hours of sleep in the past three nights, I was in no mood for diving in the sandstorm washing machine. I was out in 15 minutes. If I do it next year, I'll do it with just a snorkel. Every single person I saw with just a snorkel caught a critter. Final take for the day, 1 hot dog, 2 chicken dogs, one peanut cookie, one fuji apple, one banana, one coke, two bottles of water, and one bag of popcorn. Yep, for a good cause......

My friend DonS was diving the jetty and said there were at least a dozen in one pile there. I should've stayed out of the sand. It took me an hour to wash my gear when I got home.

 

[divinman]

Date: 09/25/2004
Dive Location: Three Fingers Reef/Pt Loma kelp Beds
Time: 0955
Bottom Time: 46 minutes
Max Depth: 72 ft
Avg. Depth: 50 ft
Vis: 10-20
Wave height: large swell at long intervals
Temp at depth: 55 degrees
Surface Temp: 64 Degrees
Comments: Too much of a good thing….is a good thing
Images: http://photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/3 Fingers 0925/

Date: 09/25/2004
Dive Location: Pt Loma Reef (site unknown)
Time: 12:06p
Bottom Time: 45 minutes
Max Depth: 53 ft
Avg Depth: 39 ft
Vis: 10-20
Wave height: glassy between the swells
Temp at depth: 58 degrees
Surface Temp: 65 degrees
Comments: You always find the big bugs out of season.
Images: http://photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/Pt Loma reef 0925/

Sean, Jim, Tannika and I met at Dana landing for a two tank trip on the Library to Pt Loma’s marvelous kelp beds. Once all the gear was aboard we motored out of the bay and into the open ocean. Clearing the jetty and heading south we encounter large rolling swells that made our ride out “interesting”. Arriving at the first site, 3 Fingers, we geared up and paired off. Sean and I as photo-crew buddied up and Tannika and Jim made up team two. All the final checks done we descended through the kelp to the waiting life below. Visibility up top was tight with plankton blocking the sun from making it to the sea floor. Passing the thermocline the visibility open back up to a nice 10-15ft with the occasional 20ft.

This is a wonderful sight! Macro is the word of the day here and we spotted nudibranchs in many shapes, sizes and varieties. Cabezon and ling cod were here as well. Rockfish and lobster peaked out of nooks and crannies while greenlings held their ground and insisted they were invisible. Sean I and continued the adventure; swimming up and down the walls and through the cracks while schooling baitfish flickered in the beams of our flashlights. In one valley we found a large 2 foot diameter sun star creeping along on its many legs.

All too soon it was time to head back up. With the chilly 55 degrees at the bottom, neither Sean nor I were arguing with our computers on this one. Making our stop we watched the schools of mackerel and blacksmiths dance in the defused light. Soon enough we were back on the boat and into some dry clothes to start our surface interval.

After our 1 hour 25 minute surface interval and travel to the new site we again geared up. Jim opted to stay on board and “guard the boat” i.e. Nap, while we went down. Another dive operation was at this sight and Woody shouted over the sight name but I didn’t get is so this will remain as just Pt Loma Reef for now.

Sean, Tannika and I dropped down to the bottom and headed northwest. At first the bottom was just a blanket of short palm kelp and I was beginning to think I was leading the group the wrong way when out of the gloom a boulder appeared… and another and another and more and larger ones still. Large overhangs and crevices waiting exploring and we got right to it. Again this was macro heaven with even more Nudis and small stuff to seek and find. I found a new one for my book. Acanthodoris rhodeoceras. Breaking the curse of never getting a good shot of new find I manage to snap a couple keepers and we moved on. Scorpion fish were here and as I was taking a quick snapshot one one fine fellow I noticed a large garibaldi nest guarded by a dinner plate sized papa. Not wanting to disturb him we moved on. So much too see that words can not hope to describe. The chill and NDL drove us back to the boat and before long we were again shedding the wet neoprene for warm jackets and hats. The sun soon purge us of our chill and we headed back to the dock and then on to lunch and a frosty beverage while we recounted our dive and looked at pictures.

Good dive, good divers, great day.

Terry

 

[Peter McGuinness]

A group of us avoided the crush at the shores and dived Scripps canyon today. Good vis; 15 - 20 ft in places, and the usual spectacular diving in the Sumner branch.

I took my trusty canon along - in point and shoot mode only. I got a tray and strobe this week but I want to try it out somewhere that has a bottom before using it in the canyon.

The photos are on my website

100 ft
38 mins


Peter

http://www.mcguinness-family.net/albums/diving/SanDiego/ScrippsCanyon_3/

home page:

http://www.mcguinness-family.net/

 

[mccabejc]

Date: 9/26/2004
Dive Location: Malaga Cove - Palos Verdes
Time: 9:28 AM
Bottom Time: 36:20 min
Max Depth: 34
Vis: 10-15
Wave height: 1-2 foot
Temp at depth: 64
Surface Temp: 68 Suunto Degrees
Tide information: Close to high
Comments: Me and my buddy met up with hermosadive Roland and a group of his buddies. After checking the conditions from the gazebo, Roland and the gang decided to head down to Marineland. My buddy and I decided to stay and give Malaga a try. So we suited up, then hiked down to the rocky entry right near the storm drain near the club. Surf was only 1-2 feet, and tide was somewhere near high, so the entry was pretty smooth. We kicked out until the visibility started to improve, lined up with the west end of the building at the club, and dropped down into 5-10 ft. visibility. We turned to a heading of about 260, toward Haggerty's, and soon were over a sand bottom. Visibility began to improve to around 10-15 feet, which was a nice surprise. I turned more towards shore hoping to hit some more reef. After a bit we found the reef, and my buddy yanked on me to show me a 3 ft. horn shark. We hovered above it, and for the first time I understood why they are called horn sharks. They've got, like, horns. After a check of air, my buddy was running at only 1000psi, so I turned and headed back east. Saw lots of seniorita fish, some blue banded gobys, and schools of anchovies (?). We then rode the surge thru the thick kelp beds, and I headed towards the shallows so we could do a running safety stop since he was using a lot of air. He wasn't enjoying the kelp, so he thumbed the dive. I should have told him before the dive that it thins out after a bit....

Anyway, we ascended to find that we had a VERY long surface swim back to the club. And that his tank had apparently gotten hooked by some kelp on the way up and came loose. I turned him around, strapped it in, and we headed back. The exit was pretty easy, since I landed at the same spot that Pasley and I landed when we dove there a few weeks ago (right in front of the pool at the club). It has more gravel and small stones that you can walk on, compared to the large slippery rocks to the east. We had planned on a second dive, but after the long swim back my buddy decided he'd had enough exercise for the day. So I spent the rest of the time with Myrna and the kids, trying to squeeze some boogie board rides from the small waves.

All in all, it was a surprisingly good dive, considering we didn't have high expectations going in. Also, a lesson learned: while maneuvering thru the kelp I reached around to unhook some kelp from my flipper strap, and later realized I held my breath while I was straining to reach my fin :11: . And with full lungs I started to ascend. Probably not a good idea. Next time: breathe while doing stuff like that. Also, I need to buckle my fin straps so they don't dangle and catch kelp.