Got a dive in with Mudguppy who's visiting for a bit - plans were originally for the North Shore. Unfortunately, the swells came rolling in on Friday afternoon and it was pretty undiveable up there.
Decided to try the west shore, which proved to be diveable, but not by much. Waves were 2-4 feet, the sets coming in every 10-20 seconds. Mudguppy and I sat on a rock and watched a group of divers going in before deciding that we would try one dive and see how it went. We figured once we got past the break point, it would be ok.
Entry was ok, got past the waves pretty well. Problem was that the reef area was still within the breaking point of the waves - we kicked out further, dropped down and were at the outer edge of the reef. Didn't see much - one large turtle munching on coral and a few patches with fish. We were cruising over an expanse of sand, which told me the current had moved us further west. The conditions were just not that great - current, lots of surge, vis was kind of murky. We deciding to head back and surfaced a couple of times to get our bearings (and to see if we had made any headway against the current) - the other groups of divers that went out earlier had headed in already, deeming the conditions to be pretty sorry.
Navigated east of the entry/exit point (hoping to make up for the current) and when we surfaced the last time, found we were quite a bit east of the entry (a few degrees off sure makes a big difference) - but we just laid back, kicked and let the current, then the waves carry us in. Exit went well, considering that I had seen a couple of rogue 5 foot waves going in.
Not a great dive in terms of seeing things, but I liked it as far as giving me more experience with conditions that are less than optimal. However, we decided not to do a second dive. We walked up to the parking area and noticed that the other divers had packed up their stuff and left too.