The much belated November '07 Dive Reports

[MaxBottomtime]

Date:
Dive Location:
Buddy(ies):
Time:
Bottom Time:
Max Depth:
Vis:
Wave height:
Temp at depth:
Surface Temp:
Tide information:
Gas mix:
Comments:

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date: 11/09/07
Dive Location: Redondo Canyon
Buddy(ies):Merry Passage
Time: 6:49
Bottom Time: 1:10
Max Depth: 59'
Vis: 20'
Wave height: 2'
Temp at depth: 57F
Surface Temp: Cold and windy. It felt better under water.
Tide information: Incoming
Gas mix: Taco Bell
Comments: Tonight was my 100th dive with Merry. We decided to try Redondo Canyon because she saw her first juvenile Giant Seabass on her 100th dive. We didn't find one tonight, but we saw more amazing things than we've seen at Vet's in a long time. Even the post-dive was memorable. We got a parking ticket, despite putting in two hours worth of quarters. We forgot to push the button. Doh!
On the plus side, we got to rescue two Thornback rays. They were caught together by fishing line with multiple hooks. I cut the line between them and one swam off, but the other one was still held down by the lead sinker. I cut it free and he swam off with the hook and lure still stuck in his side.
Among the multitude os animals out tonight were octopus, shrimp, hydroids, hundreds of hermit crabs eating bryozoans and a dead halibut, nudibranchs, including the first Dendronotus frondosus I've seen in months and a tiny fish on a kelp frond, Showy snailfish, Liparis pulchellus.

 

[LLKZ16]

Date: 11/11/07
Dive Location: Vets
Buddy(ies): Angelique
Time: 9:00 am.
Bottom Time: 1 Hour 1 Min
Max Depth: 78 fsw
Vis: 25+ft (Great Vis!!)
Wave height: 1-3 foot soft rollers
Temp at depth: 54F
Surface Temp: 64F

We started our Sunday morning at Malaga Cove. The south swell was rolling in lazily over the kelp. Because this is a shallow dive spot we decided to head towards Vets.

When we got to the lot, we saw a bunch of divers and a class going on. The waves were minimal and the tide was high thus making for a nice easy entry.

We decided to try something new today for a change. The plan was to enter at the bathrooms, go down to the monument and then head south. As usual, we kicked out to the end of the pier and on the way we saw a few sea lions directly out in front of us. When we first dropped we were greeted by a HUGE school of fish. This is the first time in years I have seen such a huge bait ball during the day at Vets. We just sat around at 30 feet admiring the view and stellar vis. At 30 feet, you could see the surface. After a while, we made our way down to the monument. It looks like a new mixer was just placed there based on the look of it. We looked around for a while and noticed a few Coonstripe Shrimp were living there. We also saw a tiny baby Sheephead hiding out in the eel grass on the east side.

After checking things out for a short while, we decided to start to make our way south. At almost 80 feet, there was not much going on so we started moving up to around 60. When we reached 60 we spotted a few Fringeheads and nudis. It was great to see that there was a good amount of life out in the day time.

In the shallows, we came across a bunch of pipefish. These guys are fun to play with. They seem to like divers so we hung out playing with them for a bit. As we started to make our way in, we ran across what looks to be a baby Fringehead or baby Sculpin. I am not quite sure so if anyone can make a proper ID, I would greatly appreciate it.

Overall, a GREAT dive!!!

Below are some highlights from the dive:

 

[MaxBottomtime]

The little fish is a Rockpool blenny. I've never seen one completely out of its hole before. They are expert at changing colors.

 

[TwinDuct]

Date: 11/11/07
Dive Location: La Jolla, San Diego
Buddy(ies):Brother Kevin and Father Ed
Time: 1:55PM
Bottom Time: 46 Min
Max Depth: 20'
Vis: 25'
Wave height: 0-1'
Temp at depth: 60F
Surface Temp: Dunno 70-75F

Comments: Was overcast today with a tiny bit of sporadic rain. Was my first time diving in San Diego and La Jolla was a good pick for a first dive here. My dumb brother didn't do a equipment check when we left the house here in Torrance and forgot his wetsuit. So he borrowed a cousins one but it was for surfing . Mr macho," I'll still dive with this. I won't get cold". Haha sure buddy.

The entry was a piece of cake with barely any surf. We got down around 20 Feet and the vis was great. My highlight for the dive was seeing a eel for the first time. Don't have a clue what species but it was awsome seeing it. My father saw a shark but I didn't see it in time so I can't verify this

So about 40 min into the dive of course my brother gives us the shivering sign:11::classic:

So we headed back and make a beautiful exit with about 1300psi left
Well I got to say i'm surprised my brother lasted that long with a skimpy 4mil wetsuit.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date:
Dive Location: Shaw's Cove
Buddy(ies): Merry
Time: 8:24
Bottom Time: 1:25
Max Depth: 48'
Vis: 30'
Wave height: HA!!!! Lago Pacifico
Temp at depth: 61F
Surface Temp: 63F
Comments: Merry and I got up early to find parking at Shaw's Cove in Laguna Beach this morning. Yesterday's reports of forty feet vis and small surf made me think we had a chance to not ruin the conditions just by showing up. Although the vis was more like thirty feet, it was still spectacular and there were absolutely no waves. It was as easy as a boat dive.
Every time I stopped to frame a shot I would feel pecking on my drysuit. When I looked up, Garibaldis were all over me. They get really agressive when you aren't there to feed them. We didn't find the large number of nudibranchs as usual, but I found a Triopha catalinae in Laguna for the first time. Merry pointed out two Tylodina fungina, including one exposing its gills.
Just as we walked out of the water the Sun decided to show up and make it a beautiful day. A perfect day to not be at work.

Blue water and spires makes me wish I had brought along two tanks

Up close and personal with sandcastle worms

I don't know if this is a worm being eaten by a cup coral, or the other way around.

Hopkin's Rose convention

The clown was out for the Thanksgiving Day parade

Tylodina fungina showing off its gills

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date: November 24, 2007
Dive Location: Long Wharf, Pacific Palisades
Buddy(ies): Merry Passage
Time: 9:49
Bottom Time: 86 minutes
Max Depth: 23'
Vis: 5'
Wave height: 2'
Temp at depth: 59.4F
Comments: We had the best dive at Long Wharf yet, despite the poor water conditions from earlier in the week. The waves were small and we could actually see our fins! Everyone seemed to come back with a prize today. Robert Prieto found some brass, as did I. Merry found some new shells, Carol Gross found a pottery shard and almost everyone else had at least one lump of coal. My find was a gas tank from a British Seagull outboard. It was identified quickly by Patrick Smith. It was originally painted black over the brass about fifty years ago. The amazing thing was when I opened it to dump the sand and salt water, only to find a fuel tank of gas! I'll clean it up before donating it to a worthy cause.
Merry and I spotted two decorator crabs, several nudibranchs, a navanax and dozens of hungry sandbass. One piling had an octopus in it, but the rest were home to yellow crabs.
We were serenaded by the sirens of dozens of fire trucks on their way to Malibu once again. Oh, and Carol Gross' best find...a buff, chisled lifeguard.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date:
Dive Location: Redondo Canyon
Buddy(ies): Merry Passage and Jeff Shaw
Time: 8:44
Bottom Time: 1:15
Max Depth: 48'
Vis: 20'+
Wave height: 1-2'
Temp at depth: 56F
Surface Temp: 59F
Tide information: High, 7'+
Comments:
Watching grass grow. Reading War and Peace in one sitting. Attending an Amway lecture. These are all things that are more fun than diving Redondo Canyon during the day. For some unexplained reason, today was different. The water was cold, 55F. There was a level of red tide down to 27 feet. Below that, the visibility opened up to more than 20 feet and every clump of algae seemed to hold enough marine life to keep my interest. Small red octopus, squid eggs, feather duster worms, several species of nudibranchs and hydroids were showing off for us. Jeff Shaw found four octopus while I had my head buried in Nudi Land. Merry lifted a large dead halibut to see what it looked like on the bottom.
It turned out to be Jeff's longest dive at 75 minutes. I could have stayed down forever if it weren't for the cold, and the fact that we weren't moving much. I'll never say anything derogatory about Vet's in the daytime again.