Empty V
Contributor
Awesome pics LLKZ16, I had no idea you could find Chalk Bass and Moorish Idols down south.
Billy
Billy
The Pasley Aug 06 Dive Report Thread
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LLKZ16
Contributor
Empty V:
There is an amazing variety of stuff to see down there. The Sea Horses were very cool. I think I took about 80-100 pictures each dive.
scottfiji
Contributor
nice photos Ken. btw, its a Pacific Staghorn sculpin, not a midshipman.
so no red dorids? (do you mean black dorid, I couldn't find any reference to a red dorid). do you find them in the sand, or on kelp? I'll have to look for them sometime, thanks for the pointer.
Here's a Midshipman from Redondo (they come in 2 species btw, Plainfin and Speckled)
and another....
Scott
so no red dorids? (do you mean black dorid, I couldn't find any reference to a red dorid). do you find them in the sand, or on kelp? I'll have to look for them sometime, thanks for the pointer.
Here's a Midshipman from Redondo (they come in 2 species btw, Plainfin and Speckled)
and another....
Scott
Date: 8/26/06
Dive Location: Malaga
Buddy(ies): Dana, Andy & Kevin from my LA County ADP 2005 class
Time: 13:00 +/- some change
Bottom Time: 56 minutes
Max Depth: 21'
Vis: Easily 25'+
Wave height: Wet ankle, dry knee
Surface Temp: T'wern't cold in my 10 yo wetsuit
Tide: Just past New Moon, tide past its peak and heading out
Entry: Wet ankle-twistin' rocks
Exit: More O' the Same
After a nauseating several-hour-long morning of bobbing on the surface while teaching rescue skills to the LA County ADP 2006 class, we had a pseudo ADP 2005 reunion dive along the reefs. I had never been to Malaga before today, and was curious about the reef I'd heard about for years.
The dive was salt & peppered with juvenile garabaldi all over the place. It seemed that every tiny cubbyhole had a <1" neon blue and orange fish hanging out nearby. For as aggressive and fearless as the adults are, I was surprised how skittish the babes were. Just turn your eye to one without otherwise moving and zip - he is off to his hidey-hole.
Lots of little lobsters, a few octopodes (it's a Greek word, so that's the plural) and a seniorita festival marked this utterly enjoyable dive. For the the puncuation on the dive was to come at the end, however.
I was tail-end charlie in the line of 4 divers heading in, and I noticed the diver in front of me passing right over a good sized octo travelling along the rocky bottom. I stopped over it about 2' up, and looked up to see if I could signal the rest of the divers, but had no luck there. When I looked down again, the octo was gone. As I did a quick survey looking for it, the surprise hit.
I had a great encounter with a moray that caused both of our hearts to skip a beat. He lunged out of his crack in the reef to attack a fish (which got away) and suddenly found himself almost nose-to-nose with a 200+ pound sometimes-aquatic animal that he didn't expect to be there. I can also report that I didn't expect the eel either! After the initial startle on both sides, we looked each other over and both quickly backpedaled and no harm was done. Mutual respect was granted and preserved. I am VERY glad I was wearing my wetsuit, however.
I swear, can you imagine what a moray looks like with a thought balloon over its head that says "Yikes!!". The diver and the moray were sharing that thought balloon at the moment.
All in all a great dive and a nice site. As I said I've not been there before, but others there told me that the great vis is unusual except in the autumn. I guess we're getting close.
Dive Location: Malaga
Buddy(ies): Dana, Andy & Kevin from my LA County ADP 2005 class
Time: 13:00 +/- some change
Bottom Time: 56 minutes
Max Depth: 21'
Vis: Easily 25'+
Wave height: Wet ankle, dry knee
Surface Temp: T'wern't cold in my 10 yo wetsuit
Tide: Just past New Moon, tide past its peak and heading out
Entry: Wet ankle-twistin' rocks
Exit: More O' the Same
After a nauseating several-hour-long morning of bobbing on the surface while teaching rescue skills to the LA County ADP 2006 class, we had a pseudo ADP 2005 reunion dive along the reefs. I had never been to Malaga before today, and was curious about the reef I'd heard about for years.
The dive was salt & peppered with juvenile garabaldi all over the place. It seemed that every tiny cubbyhole had a <1" neon blue and orange fish hanging out nearby. For as aggressive and fearless as the adults are, I was surprised how skittish the babes were. Just turn your eye to one without otherwise moving and zip - he is off to his hidey-hole.
Lots of little lobsters, a few octopodes (it's a Greek word, so that's the plural) and a seniorita festival marked this utterly enjoyable dive. For the the puncuation on the dive was to come at the end, however.
I was tail-end charlie in the line of 4 divers heading in, and I noticed the diver in front of me passing right over a good sized octo travelling along the rocky bottom. I stopped over it about 2' up, and looked up to see if I could signal the rest of the divers, but had no luck there. When I looked down again, the octo was gone. As I did a quick survey looking for it, the surprise hit.
I had a great encounter with a moray that caused both of our hearts to skip a beat. He lunged out of his crack in the reef to attack a fish (which got away) and suddenly found himself almost nose-to-nose with a 200+ pound sometimes-aquatic animal that he didn't expect to be there. I can also report that I didn't expect the eel either! After the initial startle on both sides, we looked each other over and both quickly backpedaled and no harm was done. Mutual respect was granted and preserved. I am VERY glad I was wearing my wetsuit, however.
I swear, can you imagine what a moray looks like with a thought balloon over its head that says "Yikes!!". The diver and the moray were sharing that thought balloon at the moment.
All in all a great dive and a nice site. As I said I've not been there before, but others there told me that the great vis is unusual except in the autumn. I guess we're getting close.
undrwater
Contributor
Shared "Yikes!" thought baloon...I'd have loved to have been there with a cam...
OP
I hope nothing of radinator's looked like the guy in that picture! 'Cause he'd be mighty cold!aphelion:Hey Radinator: did your wetsuit look like this guy's?
Rock on!
Christian
Roughwaterjohn
Contributor
La Jolla Cove 08-27-06
Info:
Cool morning, arrived just prior to sunrise
Swell height 2 or less
Slack tide at 0600 hrs
1.3 high tide at 0630 hrs, increasing on a 1.2 knot flood
Sea surface temperature was 67 degrees
Temperature at max depth was 67 degrees
Moderate but consistent surge at depth
Visibility 8-10 in most spots. Slightly better vertically than horizontally
Max depth 32
Total bottom time 1 hour and 10 minutes
Images:
All photos can be seen here;
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v116/krowsea/LJC 08-27-06/
Movies can be seen here;
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v116/krowsea/LJC 08-27-06/?action=view¤t=P1010004.flv
and here;
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v116/krowsea/LJC 08-27-06/?action=view¤t=P1010005.flv
The Report:
Ive been hearing about the GSB encounters for a couple of weeks now, but this is the first opportunity Ive had to check them out. Its also been too long since Ive been diving at the Cove, so even without sightings, I was looking forward to our dive. I met up with Kim, John L., Rick and his son Brandon at a very unreasonable hour of the morning. We were hoping for good parking, which we found. At that hour, we had enough parking for a Monster Truck rally, but since Im not the complaining type, I wont mention it.
The Cove was fairly flat this morning, not completely calm mind you, but flat enough not to be of any concern. After gearing up and entering the Cove, we kicked to the buoy as oh so many before us have. Actually, there was an entire herd of divers gearing up on the grass, so we were anxious to get underwater before the unwashed masses did. The tide was low, but I was pretty confident, that when all the divers topside entered the water, wed gain another foot or two of water level.
We dropped down at the same depth and general location as all the other GSB dive reports youve been forced to read, then headed in the same directions as all the .well, you get the idea Im sure. Once on site, Kim was first to spot the GSBs, lurking behind giant stalks of kelp, hoping if they didnt see any obnoxious divers, those same obnoxious divers wouldnt see them. They were disappointed this morning Im sorry to say. We hunkered down on the bottom and reveled in the moment, as 5-6 GSB floated or cruised in and out of the kelp. When they realized we were like relatives during the holidays and werent going away, they decided to take themselves out of the picture, departing one by one in various directions.
Each time the GSB came to their senses and realized they no longer wanted to hang around the likes of us, we would head off on a S/E heading through the kelp until we spotted more unwitting victims. We did this 8-10 times, each time finding as few as 2 and as many as 6-7 hovering in the kelp. The visibility wasnt exceptional today, so capturing award winning photographs wasnt in the picture. On another level though, I think it was better to see these giants in just these conditions. Always awesome, I just dont think theyd have the same impact with great visibility. Seeing these great majestic beasts materialize out of the gloom, or seeing 5-6 large silhouettes hanging motionless above, then slowly disappearing in a fade to black that would make any movie director proud, was truly an awesome experience.
On the return trip to the Cove, we saw a ho-hum assortment of Garibaldi, Sheephead, varieties of smaller Bass, a small school of Barracuda, Sargo, Opaleye, Senoritas, baitfish, Lobster and <yawn>, did I mention the Bat Ray? It was pretty boring, but we swam up to a huge Bat Ray hiding in the sand behind a small patch of Eel grass. Yeah, I was able to lay down in front of it less than 2 away and yeah it was kinda sorta interesting to watch it do little pushups with its wings whenever I inched closer, then hunker back down when I flattened out but you know, after the GSB, it just didnt excite me anymore. Well anyway, I gave him a few minutes of my time, before we both floated of the bottom and winged away in our separate directions.
It was an easy swim in as we beelined right down the center of the Cove, coming up into 4 right at the beach. We did swim under several swimmers, but rising above the challenge, I refused to tickle a few bellies, although it was tempting on the larger versions that hung down much closer to me. It was an easy exit, with the toughest part of the dive being that giant step onto the first landing of the stairs. Overall, Id say we had a pretty good time, and I could probably be talked into doing it again sometime.
John A.
Info:
Cool morning, arrived just prior to sunrise
Swell height 2 or less
Slack tide at 0600 hrs
1.3 high tide at 0630 hrs, increasing on a 1.2 knot flood
Sea surface temperature was 67 degrees
Temperature at max depth was 67 degrees
Moderate but consistent surge at depth
Visibility 8-10 in most spots. Slightly better vertically than horizontally
Max depth 32
Total bottom time 1 hour and 10 minutes
Images:
All photos can be seen here;
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v116/krowsea/LJC 08-27-06/
Movies can be seen here;
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v116/krowsea/LJC 08-27-06/?action=view¤t=P1010004.flv
and here;
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v116/krowsea/LJC 08-27-06/?action=view¤t=P1010005.flv
The Report:
Ive been hearing about the GSB encounters for a couple of weeks now, but this is the first opportunity Ive had to check them out. Its also been too long since Ive been diving at the Cove, so even without sightings, I was looking forward to our dive. I met up with Kim, John L., Rick and his son Brandon at a very unreasonable hour of the morning. We were hoping for good parking, which we found. At that hour, we had enough parking for a Monster Truck rally, but since Im not the complaining type, I wont mention it.
The Cove was fairly flat this morning, not completely calm mind you, but flat enough not to be of any concern. After gearing up and entering the Cove, we kicked to the buoy as oh so many before us have. Actually, there was an entire herd of divers gearing up on the grass, so we were anxious to get underwater before the unwashed masses did. The tide was low, but I was pretty confident, that when all the divers topside entered the water, wed gain another foot or two of water level.
We dropped down at the same depth and general location as all the other GSB dive reports youve been forced to read, then headed in the same directions as all the .well, you get the idea Im sure. Once on site, Kim was first to spot the GSBs, lurking behind giant stalks of kelp, hoping if they didnt see any obnoxious divers, those same obnoxious divers wouldnt see them. They were disappointed this morning Im sorry to say. We hunkered down on the bottom and reveled in the moment, as 5-6 GSB floated or cruised in and out of the kelp. When they realized we were like relatives during the holidays and werent going away, they decided to take themselves out of the picture, departing one by one in various directions.
Each time the GSB came to their senses and realized they no longer wanted to hang around the likes of us, we would head off on a S/E heading through the kelp until we spotted more unwitting victims. We did this 8-10 times, each time finding as few as 2 and as many as 6-7 hovering in the kelp. The visibility wasnt exceptional today, so capturing award winning photographs wasnt in the picture. On another level though, I think it was better to see these giants in just these conditions. Always awesome, I just dont think theyd have the same impact with great visibility. Seeing these great majestic beasts materialize out of the gloom, or seeing 5-6 large silhouettes hanging motionless above, then slowly disappearing in a fade to black that would make any movie director proud, was truly an awesome experience.
On the return trip to the Cove, we saw a ho-hum assortment of Garibaldi, Sheephead, varieties of smaller Bass, a small school of Barracuda, Sargo, Opaleye, Senoritas, baitfish, Lobster and <yawn>, did I mention the Bat Ray? It was pretty boring, but we swam up to a huge Bat Ray hiding in the sand behind a small patch of Eel grass. Yeah, I was able to lay down in front of it less than 2 away and yeah it was kinda sorta interesting to watch it do little pushups with its wings whenever I inched closer, then hunker back down when I flattened out but you know, after the GSB, it just didnt excite me anymore. Well anyway, I gave him a few minutes of my time, before we both floated of the bottom and winged away in our separate directions.
It was an easy swim in as we beelined right down the center of the Cove, coming up into 4 right at the beach. We did swim under several swimmers, but rising above the challenge, I refused to tickle a few bellies, although it was tempting on the larger versions that hung down much closer to me. It was an easy exit, with the toughest part of the dive being that giant step onto the first landing of the stairs. Overall, Id say we had a pretty good time, and I could probably be talked into doing it again sometime.
John A.
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