Surprise Guests At Marineland This Afternoon

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

MaxBottomtime

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
10,618
Reaction score
13,001
Location
Torrance, CA
# of dives
2500 - 4999
I got off work at 9:00 this morning and rushed home to pack gear. We headed to Marineland, where good conditions were reported yesterday. I hauled two sets of gear plus two cameras in the Bottomtime Buggy and rolled down to the beach, then transfered everything to Jeff's Rock for staging. While locking the wagon I noticed Merry walking over to me. She asked me where her regulator was. Hmm...where is her reg, where is her reg...? I know! It's still hanging in the garage.
She was less than pleased, but told me to dive anyway. If the conditions were still good we could go home for another tank and reg.
I fought a surface current for more than thirty minutes but finally reached the point. Within a minute of dropping I saw a three foot Giant Sea Bass. I knew Merry would be really mad now. Later in the dive I saw a larger one. I wanted to enjoy the experience, but I knew I had a butt-whuppin' when I got back to the beach.
I made my way back toward the cove, noticing that the visibility was worsening and surge was picking up. By the time I reached the cove, sand was stirred up and it was difficult to remain in one spot.
While Merry waited on the beach, divers and snorkelers told her how nice it was. I don't know if the steam I saw was rising from her or her coffee.
I told her we would glue her regulator to her drysuit when we got home.
The visibility was nice at the beginning of the dive, but dropped to ten to fifteen feet by the end. The water felt warmer than the 57F my computer recorded.
Pictures can be viewed at http://www.photoshop.com/user/Pacificcoast101/?trackingid=BTAGC&wf=share&galleryid=f16ca97c921641c4857f489da372e27b
 
Awesome Shots! You have the wide angle lens on today?
Introduced my buddy Paul to Palos Verdes diving. We made our entry at Long Point sometime during your dive. I ran into Merry before suiting up. What a bummer about her regulator. The visibility had definitely dropped down since yesterday but was still quite nice. We entered/exited at the point and spent 40 minutes down by the Lady of the Garden and her surrounding pinnacles. Lots of large Cabazon and Male Sheephead sightings, but no GBS for us. I agree about the warm water as well. I felt quite toasty the whole time. At about 40ft there was a significantly visual thermocline. I've never seen the "wavy" visuals so distinct before.
 
The first GSB was within twenty feet of Ted's Pinnacle (where the statue is) and the second one was about 100 feet away. I didn't want to chase them, as they leave when you do that, but I couldn't get a good shot of the first one.
The predictions are for increasing surf the next two days, but if the forecasts are wrong we'll be back Sunday morning...with two regs. :)
 
Ouch... I want to see the "after" pix. You know, the ones after Merry thumps your butt! Nice that you're seeing the GSBs there... it's been ages since I've seen one here in the park (but I did catch morays and kelp bass feeding on the blacksmith again last night).
 
Nice shots! I hope you can see clearly with that black eye this morning! ;)
 
Here's two of yesterdays Long Point highlights:
Cabazon1.jpg

Cucumber.jpg
 
Last edited:

Back
Top Bottom