Shaw's Cove Diving Condition

[dingsand]

Hello Everyone,

Given the current weather condition in LA/OC, I am just wondering if it is worth to drive an hour to dive at Shaw's Cove. I have been "dry" for two weeks and dying to get back to the water. I have paid attention to the diving condition at Shaw for this past week and it seems decent (1-3ft swell and 15-20ft vis). I understand it is not advisable to get in water right after it rains, anyone has any comments? I really concern the condition since it will ruin a dive. Thanks in advance.

Edmond

 

[FrankPro1]

Taken from yesterday:
Location: SHAWS COVE
Date: 1/22/2009
Time: 12:30pm
Surf: 1-3 ft
Surge: Light-Moderate
Visibility: 15-20
Temperature: Temp 57,TIDES LO 12:10am/1:23pm HI 6:27am/8:40pm


Dive Conditions in Laguna Beach California

They usually update every day, but I doubt anyone will be diving in this rain. Conditions have held out through the moderate south swell we were having last week. Things look to be calming down by the end of this coming week. Maybe try then
Its too bad you didnt go last week, conditions were EPIC!
Here's a vid of my dive on the 13th: YouTube - Shaw's Cove Winter Diving 1.13.09

 

[dingsand]

yes, I know I missed out big time about last week. That is why I can't wait to go should the conditions still are decent. So your recommendation would be wait until next weekend?
Side note: Do you use any tools to check the diving conditions at various local sites? Laguna sea sports is the only one I know that provide actual diving condition but only limited to Shaw's Cove. I usually just use SURFLINE.COM | Surfer's Choice for Global Surf and Surfing Features, Information, and Weather Resources and Surf Reports, Surf Forecasts and Surfing Photos for surf condition. If it is good for surf, it is bad for diving, vice versa. Anyone has other tools?
Thank you so much.

Edmond

 

[FrankPro1]

If using surfline make sure to use the LOLA swell model. Specifically the Near Shore Swell Map and the Global Swell Model on the LOLA page. They are the two more accurate swell maps. High surf usually means bad for diving, but low surf doesn't always mean good diving. Other factors such as currents, micro-plankton blooms and wind all contribute to visibility. Surfline is a great site and with a membership it can really help to plan dives, since they give you long term forecasts.

 

[FrankPro1]

Add tidal movements to the factors above for visibility.

A report from yesterday:
Surf: 1-3 ft
Surge: Light-Moderate
Visibility: 10-15 ft

Visibility will atleast stay at this level and increase as the week goes on. Swell is decreasing up until Tuesday. From Wed-Friday we get a slight rise in swell and then from Saturday all the way up until Thrusday "5th of Feb." its looking to be flat as a lake. I'm gonna try to wait until then, but I might go and do a Vets dive "just to get wet".

"All predictions from the LOLA report Global Swell Model"

 

[dingsand]

Hi FrankPro1,

Thanks for the info. How do you get all these info? Do you use surfline to get all these forecast?

Edmond

 

[SPKelpDiver]

Yea he uses surfline for that info. My surfer buddy gave me his premium account info so I could log on to check the conditions, and in turn I gave it to Frank since he is my dive buddy. I can see he has made good use of it, always ready to cast a forecast! lol. From our experience surfline swell models are extremley accurate. Though there is a catch to this, you have to use several different forecasting tools on the site to draw your own conclusion. The surfline surf report is very basic and not specific to any beaches/coves that you would want to dive in. So we basically use the LoLa swell model (through surfline) to look at our area. We factor in the swell direction / tide / size of the swell (obviously). Noaa and some other bouy websites give you similar information, but its really general and usually so far backed out that you can't see the way the swell affects your specific area/cove. With the Lola for example, you can see that we are having a moderate swell from the NNW, however it is at an angle that it passes Marineland by and doesn't break on shore. This might be diveable, with decent visibility and some currents. And you would definitaly want to dive that at high tide. The past two weeks the swell was coming from Hawaii, almost directly west so that slopped everything up as our entire coast take a direct hit, hence the **** conditions. Consider a surfline account, its invaluble to us. We rarely ever get skunked with bad vis unless we know it is sloppy and go out anyway.

 

[dingsand]

HI SPKelpdiver,

Thanks for the input. Can you do me a favor? Can you forecast if this sat (1/31/09) is good to dive at Leo Carillo? It is one of my favourite spots but sometimes the conditions are just horrible. I am planning to do some afternoon/early evening dives there if possible. It looks like it will be 1-2 ft swell...but just want to make sure since I am new to this LOLA thing.

Thanks.

Edmond

 

[SPKelpDiver]

Leo Carillo is going to be nice on 1/31/09. High tide is at 11:48am. If you can get there by then, it should be flat as it can be. I can't speak for the visibility, but I am assuming it is a sandy bottom, so I would be there at high tide or just before so you get minimal water movement and everything settles. Small NW swell and some wind is creeping in on the edge of the map by 4pm according to the Lola, but it doesn't seem to make it all the way into your divesite. Low tide is 5:53pm and the tide drop is only 2 feet, so it looks relatively calm all day, but if I were diving there that day, I would definitely be there before high tide when the wind is low. Hope that helps, have fun out there.

 

[dingsand]

SPKelpdiver,

my buddies and I went to Leo today and it was amazing. There was almost no surf and the vis was at least 30ft. Your forecast is right on the spot. Thanks.

Edmond