Dave, I remember those days when blues were very common here. It could also have been a soupfin (see my column) which looks very similar to a blue. They come inshore after mating, although it would be a bit early for them.
SoCal Dive Reports - Let us know about your dive!
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Date: 04/12/2008
Time: 12:03pm
Dive Location: La Jolla
Dive Site: La Jolla Cove/La Jolla Shores (Marine Room)
Viz: 10ish' / ~2-15'
Water Temp: 55-59°f / 50-63°f
Max Depth: 33' / 74'
Bottom time: 71/61 min.
Buddy: RC
Decided to head down to La Jolla for a change of scenary. Due to the nice weather in So Cal this weekend, it appeared that everyone else had the same idea! Headed to LJC for our first dive. As we got suited up there was quite a bit of activity with the car of divers next to us (hint - pay your SD parking tickets or you will be towed!) I stopped by the showers for a quick cool off on the way down to the cove as the thermometer pushed 90°f (a little warm for April...) There were many divers gearing up/down and just hanging out at the top of the stairs. The beach was packed, but the lack of swell and cove protection made for an uneventful entry. We headed out towards the "B buoy" and dropped in at about 18', and kept the same heading once we were underway. There was a lot of life in the cove including many gari', tons of lobster, calico bass etc. I thought I had spotted a Tylodina fungina, but it was hidden way under a rock so it was hard to make out. I did my best to take a couple pics. When I reviewed my pics, I realized it was actually several nudi's in one hiding spot!
Tylodina Fungina
We headed to the shores for our second dive. The parking was horrendous. We made a quick change of entry point plans and ended up next to the Marine Room. There were several other divers there, but parking was still to be had. The waves were also negligible here making for the second super easy entry of the day (yay!). We kicked out quite a ways until we dropped down to 14'. There was a large algae bloom which looked offly red-tidish. Viz was bad between that point and shore, but got better as we got deeper. We noticed several Lewis' Moon snails burrowing through the sand so we stopped for some pics. There were quite a few of these guys. I'm guessing they are common down here, but I thought they were pretty cool and I definately have never seen them in Laguna. We knew we were close to the canyon when we experienced the 9-11°f drop in h2o temp. I found a mantis shrimp hiding in the muck just at the base of the first wall dropping into the canyon and spent some time there. Rob came across a Navanax inermis. There were many of these large nudi's on the small wall, as well as on the floor of the canyon.
Navanax inermis
We found many more creatures on the wall, including shrimp, gobies and a very photogenic blenny!
Combtooth Blenny
Also on the canyon floor we found some remaining unhatched squid eggs (at least I think they appeared to be healthy), many small flounder (rock sole?) and a couple other species of young fish. We took our time getting back to shore, searching through the sand (and low viz!) along the way. I came across a sand covered California armina - a first for me! A couple San Diego dives during an early season heat wave was just what the doctor ordered!
For Video - please visit My Diving Blog
Time: 12:03pm
Dive Location: La Jolla
Dive Site: La Jolla Cove/La Jolla Shores (Marine Room)
Viz: 10ish' / ~2-15'
Water Temp: 55-59°f / 50-63°f
Max Depth: 33' / 74'
Bottom time: 71/61 min.
Buddy: RC
Decided to head down to La Jolla for a change of scenary. Due to the nice weather in So Cal this weekend, it appeared that everyone else had the same idea! Headed to LJC for our first dive. As we got suited up there was quite a bit of activity with the car of divers next to us (hint - pay your SD parking tickets or you will be towed!) I stopped by the showers for a quick cool off on the way down to the cove as the thermometer pushed 90°f (a little warm for April...) There were many divers gearing up/down and just hanging out at the top of the stairs. The beach was packed, but the lack of swell and cove protection made for an uneventful entry. We headed out towards the "B buoy" and dropped in at about 18', and kept the same heading once we were underway. There was a lot of life in the cove including many gari', tons of lobster, calico bass etc. I thought I had spotted a Tylodina fungina, but it was hidden way under a rock so it was hard to make out. I did my best to take a couple pics. When I reviewed my pics, I realized it was actually several nudi's in one hiding spot!
Tylodina Fungina
We headed to the shores for our second dive. The parking was horrendous. We made a quick change of entry point plans and ended up next to the Marine Room. There were several other divers there, but parking was still to be had. The waves were also negligible here making for the second super easy entry of the day (yay!). We kicked out quite a ways until we dropped down to 14'. There was a large algae bloom which looked offly red-tidish. Viz was bad between that point and shore, but got better as we got deeper. We noticed several Lewis' Moon snails burrowing through the sand so we stopped for some pics. There were quite a few of these guys. I'm guessing they are common down here, but I thought they were pretty cool and I definately have never seen them in Laguna. We knew we were close to the canyon when we experienced the 9-11°f drop in h2o temp. I found a mantis shrimp hiding in the muck just at the base of the first wall dropping into the canyon and spent some time there. Rob came across a Navanax inermis. There were many of these large nudi's on the small wall, as well as on the floor of the canyon.
Navanax inermis
We found many more creatures on the wall, including shrimp, gobies and a very photogenic blenny!
Combtooth Blenny
Also on the canyon floor we found some remaining unhatched squid eggs (at least I think they appeared to be healthy), many small flounder (rock sole?) and a couple other species of young fish. We took our time getting back to shore, searching through the sand (and low viz!) along the way. I came across a sand covered California armina - a first for me! A couple San Diego dives during an early season heat wave was just what the doctor ordered!
For Video - please visit My Diving Blog
paradicio
Contributor
Excellent report ScubaBob, I love your shots of those nudis!
The swell shark, horn shark, and leopard shark all have very distinctive patterns that would be hard to miss by the light of our dive torches... The blue and soupfin have pointed snouts that this shark did not have, it was more blunt like the picture I linked from Wikipedia... I really do wish I could have taken a picture.
Is it possible it was a swell shark or horn shark just without the pattern?
I really didn't mean to derail the thread... Sorry everyone!
The swell shark, horn shark, and leopard shark all have very distinctive patterns that would be hard to miss by the light of our dive torches... The blue and soupfin have pointed snouts that this shark did not have, it was more blunt like the picture I linked from Wikipedia... I really do wish I could have taken a picture.
Is it possible it was a swell shark or horn shark just without the pattern?
I really didn't mean to derail the thread... Sorry everyone!
shoupart
Contributor
Was it anything like this?
VERY possible. Adult horn sharks often are just dark in color and the pattern so obvious in the younger ones is not readily visible in these older, larger individuals.
paradicio
Contributor
Thanks paradicio!
It seems as if every time I take a week off work, the dive conditions turn horrible. The past two days were no exception. I stopped by Vet's only to see the waves were much higher than yesterday. I drove around to Marineland thinking it would be another dry vacation day. To my surprise, there were only a few small waves in the cove, and the dirty water was contained there. Not planning a Marineland dive, I left my shower and wagon home. It was a nice, very warm day for walking .6 miles in a drysuit with a 119 cu ft tank on my back. To make matters worse, I dropped a glove along the trail and didn't notice it was missing until I was halfway down the hill. I turned back and found it...near the top of the trail. By the time I got to the water I was already drenched. I put on my new dry gloves and crossed my fingers. For the first time they actually stayed connected to my drysuit after two wet dives.
I dropped in the area we've come to call Rainbow Nudi Bank. I immediately found several who seemed to be napping. The only movement I saw was out of the corner of my eye when one came by, swimming in mid water. I took one quick shot before he settled on the bottom.
I had at least twelve feet of visibility all the way back to the edge of the cove, where it went to less than a foot. I swam in to six feet, right in front of my exit point. I love familiar surroundings. The water temperature was colder than I've seen it in over a year at 47.8F, but with my gloves staying on I didn't notice.
I dropped in the area we've come to call Rainbow Nudi Bank. I immediately found several who seemed to be napping. The only movement I saw was out of the corner of my eye when one came by, swimming in mid water. I took one quick shot before he settled on the bottom.
I had at least twelve feet of visibility all the way back to the edge of the cove, where it went to less than a foot. I swam in to six feet, right in front of my exit point. I love familiar surroundings. The water temperature was colder than I've seen it in over a year at 47.8F, but with my gloves staying on I didn't notice.
So that's why the vis is crap lately. 
John
John
OP
Dive Site: Casino Dive Park, Avalon Catalina Island
Date: 5/18/2008
Conditions: Mild seas Warm to Hot on the surface interval
Water Temp:65 surface 55 depth
Visibility: 20 Hazy
Dive Buddys: My lovely bride, paradicio and his lively bride Tina and finally with DrBill
My wife and I planed on 3 or 4 dives Saturday to continue testing the new drysuits and planed on joining Sean and Tina for additional dives later in the morning.
First Dive:
My wife and I splashed at 9:15 for a leisurely 40 min test dive on her new Fusion and my 2nd dive in the Whites Catalyst 360. After some basic skill drills at 20 we descended to 60fsw. The vis was 15-20 but all was still going fine. My wife complained about her mask fit and that she was uncomfortable with the drysuit squeeze feeling. About half way through, I noticed the neck seal was beginning to leak and I could feel the 55 water beginning to work its way down my chest. I also felt the weighting was still light despite adding a few extra pounds over my 1 piece 7mm wetsuit weighting. We surfaced before we hit 1000 psi so a true buoyancy test would have to wait.
Second Dive:
I figured out that the neck seal was operator error. I had it folded funny I guess. After I dried the undergarment (thanks to a lovely and very warm day), we were joined by Sean and Tina. We decided to make a loop out to the swim platform buoy, drop there explore the platform and swing back to the Kismet, them back to the steps. At 11:30 we splashed in and surface swam to the buoy, dropped to the anchor of the buoy but the vis was so bad we never saw the platform. Fine, lets go over to the Kismet. Taking a heading of roughly ESE we followed the cable to the second buoy anchor but again, the vis did not allow us to really locate the Kismet. I did see a seal flash in front of me for a brief second before darting off into the haze. At that point we headed in for our safety stops.
My wife had a little air trapped in her suit arm and had difficulty holding a decent stop. My suit had no air and the BC was flat but after reaching 10 I too popped up. More weight was needed. Neck seal did not leak but I was getting chaffed around the neck from the seal.
Third Dive:
My wife was not ready to take a third dive but we filled out our foursome with the famous Dr.Bill! Sean, Tina, DrBill and I agreed on a shallow 30-40 dive around the Eastern side of the Park. We had a real nice leisurely dive where we saw 2 very nice sized White Sea Bass. Sean spotted a little Horn Shark Egg sack and a few other goodies. I was happy because I added a few pounds and the suit performed great. I could hold any depth I desired. It was a good dive and I had a great time diving with Sean, Tina and DrBill.
Comments:
Overall, I think I like diving in my wetsuit better unless the water gets much colder. The added weight, added drag and reduced flexibility did not offset wetsuit diving in my opinion. It may be worth it in the winter when the surface is much colder, we shall see. Visiting and diving with DrBill was also good fun. Spending time visiting and diving with new dive buddies Sean and Tina was also pretty groovy and we are planning to dive together again in a few weeks.
Finally, we should take up a collection to buy Dr.Bill and new wetsuit!
Date: 5/18/2008
Conditions: Mild seas Warm to Hot on the surface interval
Water Temp:65 surface 55 depth
Visibility: 20 Hazy
Dive Buddys: My lovely bride, paradicio and his lively bride Tina and finally with DrBill
My wife and I planed on 3 or 4 dives Saturday to continue testing the new drysuits and planed on joining Sean and Tina for additional dives later in the morning.
First Dive:
My wife and I splashed at 9:15 for a leisurely 40 min test dive on her new Fusion and my 2nd dive in the Whites Catalyst 360. After some basic skill drills at 20 we descended to 60fsw. The vis was 15-20 but all was still going fine. My wife complained about her mask fit and that she was uncomfortable with the drysuit squeeze feeling. About half way through, I noticed the neck seal was beginning to leak and I could feel the 55 water beginning to work its way down my chest. I also felt the weighting was still light despite adding a few extra pounds over my 1 piece 7mm wetsuit weighting. We surfaced before we hit 1000 psi so a true buoyancy test would have to wait.
Second Dive:
I figured out that the neck seal was operator error. I had it folded funny I guess. After I dried the undergarment (thanks to a lovely and very warm day), we were joined by Sean and Tina. We decided to make a loop out to the swim platform buoy, drop there explore the platform and swing back to the Kismet, them back to the steps. At 11:30 we splashed in and surface swam to the buoy, dropped to the anchor of the buoy but the vis was so bad we never saw the platform. Fine, lets go over to the Kismet. Taking a heading of roughly ESE we followed the cable to the second buoy anchor but again, the vis did not allow us to really locate the Kismet. I did see a seal flash in front of me for a brief second before darting off into the haze. At that point we headed in for our safety stops.
My wife had a little air trapped in her suit arm and had difficulty holding a decent stop. My suit had no air and the BC was flat but after reaching 10 I too popped up. More weight was needed. Neck seal did not leak but I was getting chaffed around the neck from the seal.
Third Dive:
My wife was not ready to take a third dive but we filled out our foursome with the famous Dr.Bill! Sean, Tina, DrBill and I agreed on a shallow 30-40 dive around the Eastern side of the Park. We had a real nice leisurely dive where we saw 2 very nice sized White Sea Bass. Sean spotted a little Horn Shark Egg sack and a few other goodies. I was happy because I added a few pounds and the suit performed great. I could hold any depth I desired. It was a good dive and I had a great time diving with Sean, Tina and DrBill.
Comments:
Overall, I think I like diving in my wetsuit better unless the water gets much colder. The added weight, added drag and reduced flexibility did not offset wetsuit diving in my opinion. It may be worth it in the winter when the surface is much colder, we shall see. Visiting and diving with DrBill was also good fun. Spending time visiting and diving with new dive buddies Sean and Tina was also pretty groovy and we are planning to dive together again in a few weeks.
Finally, we should take up a collection to buy Dr.Bill and new wetsuit!
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