SoCal Dive Reports - Let us know about your dive!

[SoCalAngel]

June 22, Montage Beach
15-20 ft vis
10 am, mid way from lo tide growing to High
70F to 25fsw, 64 below thermocline
2-3 ft waves, long lulls and intervals
48 minutes (was with a newbie diver)
32%
Dive #582 since August 4, 2000!

Long A** walk, made it down the stairs with full gear by myself. Into water, through 2-3 ft surf... almost landed on a Bat Ray that was "This BIG" I swear! :blinking:

Saw loads of schooling Senoritas, Sargo, baby Blacksmith, a small school of Black Croaker in a crack, lobsters (all wwwaaaayyyyyy short) , an average size Sheepcrab, several of the purple double tunicates, and a set of lightbulb tunicates.

Dove with SOCDC Girl's Gone Diving Group. So fun swimming in surge...

Exit was easy. Able to make the walk back up the stairs and to the car on my own. Was SOOOO cool. Milestone today... first beach dive with no assistance in 2 years, since I hurt my back. Whoooo HOOOOOOO!!!!!

C U all underwater soon!

 

[horsemen]

Dive Site:Vet Park
Date:July 12 2008 8am
Conditions:Calm
Water Temp:water 64
Visibility:avg 20 feet
Dive Buddys:Wife
Comments:
first dive with new gear so saw the nor lots of stars,a few sand dabs.

one of the stars was kind of odd it was white but the middle had a big pussy looking bubble about 3 in high off the center.

on the way out about 2-3 feet off shore saw about 2ft long shark it was dark brown with black bands not sure what kind it was and about 50 yards off shore about 15 dolphins was playing a couple went right up to a class of about 10 divers well it got with in 5-10 feet of them the wife was so jealous because she loves dolphins.

The dolphins played for about a hr between the pier and the rock break on the left of the park

 

[Teamcasa]

Dive Site: Catalina aboard the King Neptune
Date: Saturday, Sept 13th
Conditions: Perfect weather and seas.
Water Temp: mid to high 60’s
Visibility: 30’ – 45’
Dive Buddys: My wife and a new guy Derrick
Comments:
We had three nice dives. My wife and Derrick got a glimpse of a Black Sea Bass. The dives were just for fun a very relaxing. A special thanks to the best deckhand/DM around, Devin. She is great!

 

[divinman]

Location: Catalina Island/Casino Point
Descent: 10:18am, 2:45pm
Vis: 20-30, sometimes 15
Depth: 94ft and 80ft, average 48ft
Temp: avg temp of 69, min of 64
Time: 69 and 72 mins
Buddies: Mike H.

Album: http://tinyurl.com/6lyghk

Soraya and I headed over to Catalina for the day. Met up with Mike and his good friends Beth and her husband at Dana Point and made the uneventful crossing to Avalon.

Day started out cloudy but cleared nicely in the afternoon which was fine by me cause I was diving wet today. Decided the drysuit was too much work in the shade deprived area that borders the dive park. Two hour long dives later I was a bit chilled but never shivering so all was good.

Soraya and I snorkeled during the surface interval and enjoyed the 70+degree surface temperature and aquarium of fishes that trademarks Casino Point. We all had some lunch at the local eatery and then we were off to dive two.

Highlights were of course the HUGE giant sea bass we found over near the suejack wreck. They were very curious and let us approach to within arms reach. The larger one even considered my strobe as a possible snack and nearly had it had I not moved the camera. Mike snapped a couple of pictures of the 'attack'. Would have been a heck of a ride with the camera securely clipped to my chest.

We all stopped at Big Olaffs for ice cream on the way back and then twiddled our thumbs waiting for the ferry to take us back to Dana Point.

Slept most of the way back and then we went our seperate ways.

Great day on the island. We are already planning on going back.

 

[JMdiver]

Nice shots Terry & yea that would have been an E ticket ride. See that's what happens when you wear that dry suit too much.

John

 

[Teamcasa]

Dive Site: Casino Dive Park
Date: Sunday October 19th
Conditions: Nice and Calm
Water Temp: 66 deg
Visibility: average 50 + feet
Dive Buddys: My lovely bride, Marian
Comments:
Going over on the early ferry where met up with some La Verne Dive Club members Mike scubagoldmc his wife, Sharol and another club member, Steve. Good fun and good conversation.

We arrived at the park we made our first of three dives at 8:30 a.m. Marian’s new (her efforts to find that perfect mask are still going on) mask leaked badly, so as she floated and waited, I clambered back up the stairs, no problem with my flip fins, and retrieved a mask that only leaks a little. Off we go.

The visibility was terrific, no students yet so we decided to swim over the sand flats to video tape the monster calicos I saw the weekend before when, of course, I did not bring the camera. We did see a few big ones but of course, none of the real monster lunkers that TeqP and I saw previously.

One more thing that was missing, kelp. So much of the kelp was simply gone. I guess the combination of warmer water and the Santa Ana winds took its toll on the massive kelp forests. I hope it grows back quickly. On a side note, Jacque Cousteau’s plaque is looking pretty bad, almost all of the lettering is worn off. Maybe it needs to be renewed?

I did get chance to tape several very large schools of jack macs, truly beautiful. (I’ll make a youtube and post it) Oscar was also out looking around.

We made three very nice dives in conditions that were great and really feel lucky that this site is in our back yard.

We had a nice conversation with Dr. Bill, he was not diving but filming the graceful entrances and exits of divers at the stairs.

 

[paradicio]

Hey Dave, sounds like you guys had a blast! I'm so jealous... Hopefully we can all get together and dive again soon!

About the Kelp, maybe Dr. Bill can confirm, but I'd heard that a lot of the kelp was pulled out of the park purposely in an attempt to try to rid it of the invasive macro algae that took over last year.

But I agree, 66 is pretty warm... It was about the same last week when were there. Honestly, I was warmer in the water than out! HA!

Sean

 

[Teamcasa]

Schooling Fish at Casino Dive Park
[vimeo]2023076[/vimeo]

 

[pasley]

Date: 28 Oct 08
Dive Location: Heisler Park, Laguna Beach
Buddy(ies): Jim C.
Time: 4:50 PM
Bottom Time: 55 minutes
Max Depth: 32 feet
Vis: 15 feet
Wave height: 1 foot
Temp at depth: 61 F Suunto degrees
Surface Temp: 70 F
Tide information: Low Tide: 15:50 PDT -0.21 feet High Tide: 22:05 PDT 4.11 feet
Gas mix: 21% regular old air
Comments: Reconnaissance dive for a planed Thursday dive with an incomplete quadriplegic diver. We entered from in front of the ramp onto the beach and waded out past the surf zone. I tried to get Jim to do a handicapped entrance by sitting down at the waters edge and then crawling in (I had a dry suit, he was in the wetsuit), using his elbows, but he declined. Once past the surf zone about 10 feet out. Standing in shoulder deep water, we donned our fins. From that point on I attempted to use my arms only and not my legs to get a feel for the fatigue factor of my diver on Thursday to ensure this was a doable plan. We dropped down about 10 yards out from the surf zone and proceeded due south out to sea to the reef structure then turned west over to divers cover. Saw lots of life including Sargo, Barred Sand Bass, Garibaldi, and of course an octopus. We exited at Divers Cove per the plan.

 

[Ayisha]

What a great trip we had to Catalina Island as well as other parts of California (from Toronto, Canada)! We had warm weather and clear, calm seas. We were planning to go to Farnsworth but half way there, the captain said that the wind was blowing in an uncooperative direction, so we had a change of plans. We had been to Ship Rock from a liveaboard before, but the other 2 sites were new to us, and we enjoyed all of them. Catalina is a pretty little island and it was nice to be able to explore it this time!

It was nice of Dr Bill to meet us at the dive shop and join us for dinner that night and give us a copy of his new DVD. We had an awesome time!

Dive Sites: Ship Rock; Eagle Reef; Hen Rock
Date: October 27th, 2008
Conditions: calm seas
Water Temp: 64 -66 F
Visibility: 50 - 75 feet
Dive Buddys: Joel, Mike, Kari
Comments: Saw dolphins, sea lions and harbor seals from the boat. Saw 2 bat rays, 1 harbor seal, lots of garibaldis, lots of sea stars, sea cucumbers and lots of other fish while diving. There did seem to be a little less kelp than we remember from last year, though it was still plentiful. Great dives!