Special Thanks to the SoCal Crew!

[ucfdiver]

So this last weekend, I decided to head out Friday night to do some diving with the Socal folk. Blackwood was kind enough to pick me up from LGB airport, where we headed to dinner and then to the Spectre, which was one of the finest dive boats I've been on (more on that later). We arrived at the dock somewhat late, where the rest of the group was already unloading, having a few beers and talking diving. One neat thing about Socal is it's not brutally hot this time of year like Florida, so we could sleep on the dive boat to save hotel $$$ or waking up early.

Before I get to far, a very special thank you to Marc (blackwood) and Chris (rainer) for helping me get gear, setup the charter, and provide transportation.

On the way out, we had a few special guests decide to play along side the boat

The site we dove this weekend were-

• Lighthouse
• garden spot
• Coral reef
• Portuguese bend

Lighthouse was filled with sea lions. If you haven't dove with sea lions, DO IT. Well worth flying completely across the country just for this one dive.

Video-

Marc and I

Garden spot was my first experience with Coral, and frankly I wasn't terribly fond of this dive. We didn't scooter (I hate swimming), and the sun wasn't out, so the kelp wasn't in it's full glory. Never the less, it was a new experience.

After this, the Spectre had lunch ready, with a grill on the boat and excellent food! For those crazy enough to dive wet in water below 60 degrees, they even had a hot tub that you could hop in!

Coral Reef was my 2nd favorite dive of the trip, where we saw a few giant sea bass and various other creatures. I'll let the others post photos from that dive...the hilight for me was a sea lion that kept following us each time we'd get on the trigger. Not sure why, but sea lions really like scooters

Finally, the last dive of the day. I was getting a little chilly and had to turn this one early, but Rainer was nice enough to find me a cave like swim through (thanks).

All in all a good experience. In summary-

• Spectre has amazing food.
• Dry gloves aren't as bad as I had imagined.
• Sea Lions are the coolest OW dive I've done to date.
• SoCal crew went WAY out of their way to make this trip a success for me!

I flew out the next day, losing 3 hours in time while flying >2000 miles and having to be at work by 8am the next morning. Not the best idea, but a fun time!

 

[ScubaSam]

James - Sounds like a great trip.

I've been meaning to get out west to dive with Chris, Jen, Nicole and Marc. They are always so welcoming and warm to me online so am not surprise that you had a good time with them.

The sea lions are so freakin' adorable. Thanks for posting the report and the video.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

James - Sounds like a great trip.

I've been meaning to get out west to dive with Chris, Jen, Nicole and Marc. They are always so welcoming and warm to me online so am not surprise that you had a good time with them.

The sea lions are so freakin' adorable. Thanks for posting the report and the video.

... you should also consider heading north to dive with Bob while you're out here ... :blinking:

I can't promise you sea lions ... you'll have to settle for giant Pacific octopus and wolf eels.

Sounds like a nice trip, James ... can you ID the folks in the pic? It's always nice to put faces to names ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ScubaSam]

Yes, heading to Seattle to meet and dive with you, Lynne and Laura are on my west coast bucket list.

Enough hijacking of James' wonderful thread about diving with the SoCal crew....back to the sea lions.

 

[blue steal]

Cool pictures, thanks for sharing.
Glad you had a good time out here in our "cold" CA waters

 

[kathydee]

Sounds like a great trip! Thanks for sharing!

So glad you enjoyed the sea lions, kelp & the So Cal gang !

 

[jenth]

James, glad you made it out here and that we were able to stop by the sea lion rookery. That is one of my favorite dives to do! Definitely had some great times and interesting conversations on the boat (what's said on the boat, stays on the boat!). Hope you're able to catch another flight over here at some point...there's plenty of great diving to do here in SoCal. And we'll try to make sure the sun comes out next time.

In the last photo, from right to left is: James, Marc (blackwood), Eric (?), Jen (me), Chris (rainer)...and Nicole (ligersandtions) and Stephen (xstephenx) are back there somewhere!

 

[ligersandtions]

James, we're all glad that you had a good time and that we were able to find you some sea lions! Do let us know if you need another sea lion fix....I'm sure we can arrange it

In the last photo, from right to left is: James, Marc (blackwood), Eric (?), Jen (me), Chris (rainer)...and Nicole (ligersandtions) and Stephen (xstephenx) are back there somewhere!

Apparently Stephen and I had no idea we were taking a picture! It appears we are too busy pulling our suits over our heads.

 

[gsk3]

I'm glad (but unsurprised) to find you had a great time with the SoCal crew. I've not found a nicer, more generous bunch of folks anywhere than the West Coast DIR and DIRish D) crew.

 

[mselenaous]

SoCal SBers are the best dive peeps :grouphug: , everyone is so welcoming...I miss the folks, the kelp forrests, and the sealions too. (OK don't miss the water temps)

Glad you had a fun dive trip James. Hope to see you again at Ginnie Springs for Megadive in a few weeks!