Sep 04 Dive Reports

[divinman]

Just out of curiosity, have you ran the dive planner on these dives? Hard to tell from the pictures times and such. But what group were you in at the end of the 2nd dive.

I have not ran them through the planner but it is interesting that you bring it up. I dive with two computers. Primary is a Uwatec Pro Ultra console and I use a Sherwood Source as a quick reference wrist computer. The Pro Ultra showed me as having a mandatory stop at 10 ft for 1 minute when we turned the dive and started back up the line. The Source was on the last tick mark in the yellow prior to a required stop. In the two minute ascent from 67ft to 32ft, my stop on the Pro Ultra went away. We completed a two minute stop at 30-35ft and then a 4 minute stop at 20ft. Both my computers showed clear to surface with no required stops. Slow 90 second ascent to the surface.

Now my buddy on the other hand is diving a Sunto Cobra and he had an 18minute deco requirement at 10ft.

Thoughts? :06:

Terry

 

[divinman]

You got some wonderful shots Sean. See ya next time.

Terry

 

[wrinkles]

No my buddy on the other hand is diving a Sunto Cobra and he had an 18minute deco requirement at 10ft.

Thoughts? :06:

Terry

Hmm....my thoughts would be that you have a great buddy who is using extreme precaution in his diving and his computer is helping him to do so

 

[wrinkles]

I thought I would/should come to Wrinkles defense on this one... We were given the return heading of 180 degrees when we descended... Then we got seperated from the rest of the group, because of a story I'm going to leave up to Wrinkles to tell... She followed that heading dead on and we hit the same exact spot we entered from... From there we just went around the point and into the Cove to meet up with the others on the shore...

I'll leave my sub-par dive report alone till after Wrinkles posts here accountings of the dives...

Feel free to post your dive report. Don't wait for me to do so or else you will be waiting forever.
I will however tell the story for everyone since you brought it up. Gomers new name on the board should be SawStar.

We all met as a group… Sean, Terry, Roy, Ryan, Gomer and I. Thanks for waiting Terry. :10: I showed up a bit late. I know they wantd to be in the water at seven and I showed up five mintues till 7 so thanks for waiting everyone. Roy split up the group into two man teams. I got buddied up with Gomer and was a little leery since I didn’t know the area and knew he was a newer. However I remember that Gomer was from the area so I kinda overlooked the fact he mentioned he was a newer diver. This is something I should have discussed with my buddy on the way out to the site. It is important looking back at the situation to know the skill level of your buddy.

Anyways as we were heading down I was making a conscious effort to stay near Sean and Terry since I didn’t know the area very well. I have been to Alligators Head once before but still wasn’t completely confident with my navigation skills in a new area. I am use to diving with Sean and he kinda takes care of all that for me. he is a great dive buddy and knows the area well so I am never concerned at checking mycompass when I am with him. Anyway back to the point. So I am staying near Terry and Sean and have my buddy within view as well then I saw that my buddy was trying to point something out to me. I was trying to find out what in the world is he was pointing to and was so excited about. Finally I realized that I have to make an effort to turn around and come closer to see...in doing this I knew that I would lose Sean and Terry. Well it turns out he was excited to see a Seastar. When he pointed it out I knew he was a new diver. So I pointed out two other Seastars that were much bigger than his one hahaha….Anyways I followed the heading I heard on the surface and came up were we entered. Then I checked the status of buddies credentials and realized he was on his 7th dive I believe. So I knew I needed to go around to the cove to exit and now I fully realized my biddies experience and so off we went. We saw lots of stuff on our dive, rays, octopi, lobster and so on so on. It was a very pretty dive and it lasted pretty long since we stayed fairly shallow The dive was about 66 minutes long and deepest depth I believe was 39 feet.

After a long surface interval we decided to do an exploratory dive out of Boomers I think. It was very beautiful I think my favorite dive this weekend. The topography there was absolutely amazing, lots of rocks and crevices which I love. The visibility was great I am thinking at spots maybe even 30 feet. The amount of different things we saw within a small area was also very exciting. We saw octopi, tons and tons of lobsters, guitarfish, a hornshark and so on so on…..it was pretty amazing. Even after we moved away from the rocks there was kelp which also brings different types of critters. This dive I buddied up with Roy. Thanks Roy. Also on this dive was Gomer and Ryan who buddied up.

On Sunday I ended up joining the Bottom Bunch group and dove off of the shores. John was a great tour guide and a great navigator. The group was wonderful and were very welcoming at their BBQ. The dive was very beautiful. A little hazy at the beginning and then a lot better after the initial drop down. The after dive BBQ was very enjoyable and the weather was perfect.

So that was pretty much my weekend in there LOL.
Ana

 

[Gomer Piles]

Another part of that "SawStar" story is that after she found out how many dives I had we went back under... Knowing my skill level now she was keeping a closer eye on me... But I was using a new regualtor and the mouthpiece tasted horrible so occasionally I was popping out my reg to rinse out my mouth... She turned around one time and saw me, a new diver, without my reg in my mouth just swimming around... I swear I could see her eyes rolling underwater...

Oh and then later while on shore during our SI I was talking to Ryan about the shores and how desolate it is compared to the cove... And at one point I said this "Hell I would rather swim around the cove just f***in around with the baby senoritas"... At that moment a group of people was walking by and overheard this and one of the girls just started laughing... I then realized what it sounded like I was talking about and had to explain that senoritas were a type of fish...

All in all I can say this past weekend has really emphasized the fact that I'm a blithering idiot... Quite the Gomer...

 

[Robert Phillips]

After a long surface interval we decided to do an exploratory dive out of Boomers I think. It was very beautiful I think my favorite dive this weekend. The topography there was absolutely amazing, lots of rocks and crevices which I love. The visibility was great I am thinking at spots maybe even 30 feet. The amount of different things we saw within a small area was also very exciting. We saw octopi, tons and tons of lobsters, guitarfish, a hornshark and so on so on…..it was pretty amazing. Even after we moved away from the rocks there was kelp which also brings different types of critters.

Ana,
Boomers was my very first night/boat/lobster dive when I was just a pup (24 or so) I think I had about 7 or 8 dives under my weightbelt back then. It was a great place for an easy shallow night dive and great bottom structure. I am jealous, but glad you enjoyed it. I need to get back there some day! I am glad you had a good time down in my old 'hood!
When you coming back to O.C.?
See ya!

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Date: 09/14/2004
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores – North Wall
Time: 5:11 PM
Bottom Time: 46:00 minutes
Max Depth: 111 feet
Vis: 20-30
Wave height: 2-4 feet
Temp at depth: 57
Surface Temp: 70
Tide information: low tide
Comments: Paul, Terry and I went out to the North wall. We dropped down and immediately began exploring a ledge at 55-60 feet. We saw a few nudibranchs and a Rockpool Blenny in a hole. After a few mins we headed down to the canyon and were greeted by a huge Sheephead who looked like he had been hooked (poor guy). He was cruising through the canyon checking out anything interesting. We continued on and at our max depth we didn’t find too much interesting stuff. We were a little bummed but started heading up canyon and found an amazing ledge at 75 feet full of brittlestars, blacksmith, rockfish, some zebra gobies, tons of black-eyed gobies. We explored this spot for 10 mins or so and had to move on. We saw your usual suspected on the way which included some rays and pipe fish. I ended up surfacing among the surfers, and my presence in front of one surfer chick didn’t seem to stop her from taking the wave heading straight for me. Fortunately I had my knife (just kidding); I submerged and waiting out the set and headed in. It was a nice dive at a new spot for us. I really look forward to checking out the other side of the North wall.

Date: 09/14/2004
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores – Vallecitos Point
Time: 7:35 PM
Bottom Time: 51:40 minutes
Max Depth: 103 feet
Vis: 5-25
Wave height: 1-2 feet
Temp at depth: 63 (I think it was colder)
Surface Temp: 70
Tide information: higher tide
Comments:
Ryan, Terry, Paul and I kicked out to the bouy at Vallecitos Point. We wanted Paul to have a good look at the octopus in the plastic bouy chain wrapper. He wasn’t there, but was at the bottom of the chain. We played around a little while then headed down to the canyon. The canyon was full of life. We saw several sculpin, about 8 octopus, some rockfish, a Spanish Shawl, a lizardfish, crabs, box jellies, a huge halibut, some funky worms swimming into our lights, one cute litte fish eating the plankton (Paul got him on video). The same baby Thornback I saw Friday, plus a few other Thornbacks, some pipefish, and more. It was an amazing dive full of critters from end to end. Sadly our vis was impaired by some divers who went ahead of us, but such is life! We were all very happy with the dive!

my pics:
http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/shores09142004

Sean

 

[divinman]

Date: 09/14/2004
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores/North Wall
Time:1710
Bottom Time: 54 minutes
Max Depth:108
Vis: 0-20
Wave height: 2-3ft
Temp at depth:58 (Yeah,really)
Surface Temp: 73
Tide information: low tide
Comments: Two things learned.
1) Your buddies finning speed is inversely proportional to how much air he has left.
2) Surfers do not like it when you surface next to them.

Sean Paul and I met at La Jolla Shores for what we hoped would be a nice couple of dives. Turns out, we were right. We geared up and kicked out just north of the lifeguard tower. Once lined up with the end of the pier and the palm tree/cube house we dropped down into 50ft of water and 10-15ft of visibility. A few short kicks west and we hit the edge of the canyon and the draw filled with detritius. We puttered around the little ledge and snapped somes stills while Paul shot video for his upcoming National Geographic special on wooden turtles of the deep. Heading deeper and north we discovered we had misjudged and somehow missed the location we wanted. NDL was ticking so we started back up the sandy slope. Looking up the "hill" we found a large wall looming at 70ft. This would be, by all accounts, the North Wall. It was covered with brittle stars and pocked with holes and small caves. Octopus, fringeheads, bay blennies, gobys of the blue band and zebra variety were. Large coonstriped and red rock shrimp were also in abundance. Lots and lots to see but NDL again drove back in the shallows as we made our way to the exit point. Crossing the sand we found the usual sand dollar beds and California Armina. Paul found a small purple globe crab trying very hard to bury himself in the sand. Pics were taken and we moved on. The water was warm, too warm really for 7mm plus hooded vest. Moving more shallow we spooked the round rays up while a constant north running long shore current made moving south a chore. At 7 ft we found several free range lobsters moving no doubt into the safety of the reserve prior to opening day of the season. When visibility dropped to zero and the rolling surf roared overhead we surfaced see how well we had managed the return navigation. Paul and I were just out side the break, in the midst of the surfers but Sean had decided that he would body surf in and popped up right next to a charming surfer girl who was more than willing to tell him he was in the wrong place. All was well as we exited and headed to the vehicles to swap tanks and wait out SI for the second dive.

Date:09/14/2004
Dive Location: Vallecetos Point/ La Jolla Shores
Time:1933
Bottom Time:1:00
SI: 1:30
Max Depth:102
Vis: 0-20
Wave height: 2-3 out, 3-4 in
Temp at depth: 56
Surface Temp: 72
Tide information: ???
Comments: There is always more stuff to see than air in your tank.
Ryan joined us for the second dive and we dropped in at the bouy. The small octopus was there but I couldnt manage to get a good shot of him. See Pauls up coming NG special, monsters of La Jolla Canyon for exciting footage.

Heading down into the canyon we were greated with silt from other divers ahead of us so we dropped lower and a little west to pass it. Tons of life out tonight including many many red octopus, halibut, rainbow and california scorpion fish, lobster, the biggest fattest pipefish I have ever seen, cusk eels as well as a varitable snow storm of box jellies. It was a great night to dive and we all had a wonderful time exploring and discovering.

A margin visibility dive in the canyon beats a fantastic day at the office any day.

Terry

Images at: http: //photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/LJShores091404/

 

[ShakaZulu]

I love that last Nudi................

 

[divinman]

Great Shots Sean. Thanks for sharing them. Had a great couple of dives for sure. CU next time

divinman