The Pasley "HURRY HOME" April '07 Dive Reports

[HBDiveGirl]

Sunday, April 8, 2007
Leo Carillo North.
Second ReefCheck California survey of this challenging and exposed site.
Max. Depth: 32 fsw
Time: 58 minutes
Temp: 55F
Surf: Yeah :14: , but we got through.
Mel!! Even though we complain, kelp is STILL better than sand!!!


This weekend of surveying was challenging, but the final tally is good: the last two of the required 6 core transects were completed.

Completion of this survey will require the 12 Fish Only Transects (FOTs) and the urchin sizing, April 21/22, 2007

Great Job, TEAM!!!!!

Leo Carillo North is an extremely exposed site.
It's a surf site on days with waves, uh, like this day :shakehead .
Very thick kelp.
Moderately long surface swim.

Satuday morning, Dana, Bryan, and I met at Leo Carillo and grimaced: It was not pretty. Oh, the surfers were happy

.... but the divers were not

. 3+ surf, and choppy surface. We had a good time talking and reviewing ideas for this year of ReefChecking (Thank you, Bryan and Dana, for the life-giving Starbucks and sweet coffee-cake

)
But we would have to survey another day.

Sunday morning... well, it was a whole 'nother morning!
John M., Brian M. and I met in the Leo parking lot... and smiled!

The surface was Glassy and beautiful. Waves were still significant, but less than the day before. Low Tide made the dense kelp forested area appear to be closer shore. Surface swim looked like it would be too bad.

We geared up, and tried not to watch too closely as a couple of recreational divers struggled to get out through the wave sets. We could do this!! (...we were pretty sure....

)

Then we watched a solo diver spend a very long time in the surf zone, before finally getting out to the kelp. Surely... we Could do this, right?

... yeah....yeah, yeah we can....

In spite of my trying to leave my slate/bestfriend in the car, (thank you, Brian, for saving the team on that one!), the three of us determined loonies plowed in. Adrenaline flowed as we timed it, moved fast, ducked under the foaming fun, slapped fins on feet as fast as humanly possible....and.... and.... and we got out.
John said, "Is that it? Are we out? Gee... wasn't so bad!"

Hee hee... grace happens. We were in a relentless mood.

Loooong surface kick (longer then it looked.. odd...), and a few "Are-We-There-Yet" mumblings from the survey captain... and we were there.
Visibility was more than 3 meters, but not much. We rolled through 2 core transects while being rolled about enthusiastically by the surge. Brian and John were Transecting-Machines, while I batted clean-up with UPCs and reeling up the lines.

We ended up deep within the dense kelp area of the reef, and decided to head towards shore underwater to avoid the surface kelp.

We thought we had made sufficient progress when our tank pressure indicated it was time to surface. No problem... surely we were nearly at the shore.

Uh... no.

Heck no.

Not even close

Thus began the single longest surface kelp crawl I hope any of us ever do in our lives. It was like some scene in Lawrence of Arabia... except instead of sand as far as the eye could see, it was kelp. And our progress made cold molasses look fast.

Brian spends hours a week working for kelp reforestation projects with another non-profit org. He adores this ecosystem and works hard on its behalf.
At about the halfway point of our crawl, our suffering silence was broken with his emphatic statement, "I used to love kelp."

Busted us all up in laughter, which was a nice relief from feeling like a mammoth trapped in the tar pits.

I know, I know.... reserve enough air so you can swim out from beneath the canopy. We knew the waves would also demand that we keep sufficient air to exit on scuba. So we chose to kelp crawl and keep the air for the sandy mosh pit. Good call, it turned out.

(In future, we'll all vote for the loooong surface swim around the outside of the kelp... who knew?)

So, we got out. The surf sort of jostled us around, but we all had sufficient air, and came in safely, if roughly, on scuba, with data sheets intact.

Next: Completing the survey with the Fish-Only transects, April 21/22. Watch for the new thread in the disscussion forum at www.reefcheck.org.

Fun days. Great teams. Safety first. Data Collected!!!

I love ReefChecking!!
www.reefcheck.org

~~~~~~
Claudette

 

[LLKZ16]

Claudette, it sounds like you guys had one hell of a workout. :doh:

 

[JMdiver]

Perfect description of our great day of diving.

John

 

[pasley]

Claudette,
Thanks again for another "I was almost there" dive description. Really great.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Claudette,
Thanks again for another "I was almost there" dive description. Really great.

It's wonderful to hear from you, Mel. A gift really... I've been thinking strongly about you since Visalia.

I took the family up to wander beneath the Sequoias for a couple of SpringBreak days. We were alternately speechless and gleeful, letting these massive Creature-Trees overwhelm us with beauty.

Tuesday, sitting on a carved bench, (...the benches in the Sequoia groves lean back 30 degrees... Genius!!!,) gazing up at the soft red giants, I thought, "Here's another reason Mel hurrys home in his thoughts everyday. Too bad I can't work Sequoia trees into a dive report on Scubaboard ."

Wednesday, the softly receiving ground was now creaking beneath our feet.... covered in 4 inches of still falling snow! It was dream-quality silent beneath the Parker Group of Sequoias as snow drifted down, sunlit against the red towers of furry bark. Silent... until my son whalloped me with a massive snowball and I passed the favor forward by bulls-eyeing the back of my husband's AussieHat... while he was still wearing it! :14: As the snowballs flew and the hilarity made me laugh so hard my stomach muscles hurt, I thought, "omg, Mel's going to be home by next December and throwing snowballs at his family until he laughs so hard he can't breathe."

Thursday, stopping in Visalia on the way home, you were in my thoughts again as the headlines about the Army extensions stopped me in my tracks.

December it may be, dear friend. The Pasley Dive Report has the legs to go the distance. Everyday, divers in SoCal join your family in thinking of you and wishing you home safely.

I suck at lobster hunting :shakehead , so there will be plenty of bugs on my favorite reefs when you return. And there will be snow on the Sequoias, ready for family and snowballs and laughter. Man, I wish you were home. Be safe.

It's going to be great to have you back.

~~~~~~
Claudette

 

[LLKZ16]

Date: 4/13/07
Dive Location: Vets
Buddy(ies): Jimmy and David
Time: 9:40 am.
Bottom Time: 30 min
Max Depth: 63 fsw
Vis: 1-2 feet 3 feet at 30 fsw
Wave height: 3-5 feet
Temp at depth: 53F
Surface Temp: 62F

I guess we were REALLY hard up for diving today considering how bad the conditions have been over the last few days. I was actually thinking of doing OML 120 reef but the thought of being Maytagged across Cobble Beach made me change my mind. I met up with Jimmy and David on a beautiful, sunny and calm Friday morning. The wind had died down and the water surface was pretty glassy. However, the waves were still a bit BIG. Some sets were 5-6 feet but the normal waves rolling in were 3-4 feet. It looked pretty do-able but then again, any sand bottom is do-able.

Jimmy and I made it out with no issues. David took a bit longer then expected but he made it out with no issues too. Its funny ducking down under large waves with dive gear on. Surfing and body surfing makes sense but with dive gear…..lol

Judging from how the last few days were, I knew the visibility was going to be bad. However, I was not prepared for how bad it actually was. We lined up at the end of the pier and before we dropped, I told everyone to stay close together. I thought we were OK when we hit the bottom at 60 feet but apparently in the inky blackness, we lost David. Oh by the way, when I say we hit the bottom, I really mean we HIT THE BOTTOM. That’s how bad the visibility was. After a few minutes, we went back up to look for him. We found his bubbles and Jimmy went down to get him. Once we re-grouped I again mentioned to stay 1-2 feet from each other. On the way down I grabbed one of David’s fins to make sure he would stick close. I let go before we hit the bottom thinking that all was OK as I looked around but within one second, we lost him again. Jimmy and I waited and then we went on our way tooling around in the mucky pea soup.

As we reached 30 feet, it opened up a little but the surge was pretty crazy. We were greeted by a playful lobster and a few Hermit Crabs. After hanging around for a while relaxing and just checking things out, we decided to surface.

The waves were still pretty big when we surfaced. We looked toward the shore and saw David making his way through the surf. As Jimmy and I kicked in a huge swell came our way. Luckily, we were just outside the surf zone so we did not get out asses handed to us…lol. Once the set passed we made it in with little issue.

In the end, I think I snapped 8 pictures in total and David is now minus one mask.

Here are some highlights from the dive.

 

[Roughwaterjohn]

La Jolla Shores – South Wall 04-14-07

Info:
Cold, clear morning, warming up later
Surf 3’-4’ sets, with 5’+ when you weren’t looking
5’-6’ swells at 14 second intervals
5.1’ tide on a 1.6 knot flood on entry, slack at 8:00AM, then 2.2 knot ebb
Air temperature was 47 degrees on arrival, warmer later
Temperature at depth stayed at 50 degrees.
Mild but consistent surge
There was no average visibility, as it changed drunkenly from 0’-5’ as it pleased
Max depth 75’
Total bottom time 43 minutes

Buddies: Steve & Laura, Spencer & Matt, Allison & Calvin

The Report:

I arrived at the Shores shortly after 6:00AM, to find Steve already there and waiting patiently, probably since sunset the night before. We hung out, swapping lies and getting a feel for the sea for about 40 minutes before the other team members started arriving. Once everyone arrived, introductions were done as needed, followed by more lies then everyone went to their respective vehicles and suited up.

The surf was quite large at the north end of the park, getting progressively smaller as it went south. Surfers were enjoying their surface bound fun as far south as the foot of Vallecitos St. That area also appeared to be the easiest entry point, so we trudged down the boardwalk to enter there. The high tide left us with only a narrow band of beach to traverse, but the sea showed its aquatic humor by covering it with a forest of dry and stinking kelp. To all outward appearances we were dressed in traditional dive gear. In our minds though, we wore khaki, pith helmets and swung machetes to fend our way through this jungle.

We took our time getting through the surf zone, moving forward, waiting for lulls, moving again (wash, rinse, repeat), until everyone was passed the breaking waves and rising swells. This put us virtually on top of our drop point. A few lackluster kicks as we donned masks and adjusted straps, then we left the world of free air. We ended up descending about 1’ west of the canyon edge, which we found in 45’ of water. That was certainly fortuitous, for if we had been another foot west, we would not have been able to see the wall, and would likely have embedded ourselves in the clay upon arrival. The visibility dropped from there.

Allison and Calvin chose to dive in the same direction as the rest of us, but decided to stay back quite a bit because of the number of divers. They said they had decent visibility for their dive, which we obviously weren’t privy to. I assume they brought along a big container of Trident’s Bucket ‘o’ Vis, which the rest of us failed to purchase. We were unfortunately left with whatever the sea offered. Our visibility was often 6” or less, occasionally 2’-3’ and once or twice an astounding 5’-6’. Whenever the sand storm subsided, we saw packs of Lobster, quite a few large Scorpionfish, a baby Hornshark, a baby Scorpionfish, and lots of Gobies, some with black eyes and some with blue bands. We even saw a couple of Cancer Crabs nestled back into the muck, watching warily as we passed.

Even though we were officially a dive group, that only happened occasionally and by accident. I was the lead locomotive, so I continually looked back, up, down and wherever to locate, then wait for the others. More often than not, there wouldn’t be anyone visible in any direction, so I would wait patiently, shining my HID into the murk in every direction. I was attempting to give the others a beacon to home in on. Every 20’ or so, it looked like another small town in Kansas was celebrating the opening of a new mall, as my light swung up and around in every direction, trying to temp the others into range. It worked, usually.

When we had initially dropped, I noticed my primary SPG was leaking fairly steadily from the rubber encased connection to the HP hose. I monitored it as we dove, continuing to dive until I got to approximately 1500lbs. Assuming the SPG would leak as much on the way out as it did on the return, I thought that would be a good turning point. When half my tank had bled out into the sea, we turned and headed in.

We actually started back together, but like a host bar at a friend’s reception, I knew it wouldn’t last. My fellow divers were there most of the times I looked back, but eventually at about 30’, they disappeared, never to be seen again below the surface. I found out later each two person team had also eventually separated. This meant we all finished our dives at different times, they with their team member, and me with rambling thoughts for company.

I amused myself by futilely attempting to fight the south running long shore current, while watching sand swirl between me and my compass. The bottom came into view a few times, which was always pleasant, if infrequent. I surfaced early, to give myself an opportunity to fight the south current on the surface also, wanting balance in all things. I surfaced just slightly north of the boat launch, despite my underwater efforts. I continued my topside efforts until my legs felt like they were little stubs, which brought me to just north of the boat launch.

I headed east onto the beach, joining my fellow team members so we could trudge back up the beach and the boardwalk. We removed our gear quickly, as their was a fabulous breakfast awaiting us. It was another wonderful morning of diving with great buddies in the sea we love.

That south swell was brutal on my poor legs.

 

[SeaDana]

A little late to post, but better than never!

Date: 4/7/07
Dive Locations: Anacapa Island (aboard Spectre): Cathedral Cove & Goldfish Bowl
Buddies: Bryan (birthday boy ) & Robert (friend & fellow Reef Checker:goldfish
Times: 9:59, 11:58, & 1:52
Bottom Time: 46, 45, & 39 minutes
Max Depth: 40 ft.
Vis: 15-20 ft.
Temp at depth: 56F
Top reason Pasley should hurry home: To dive with CA Sea Lions
Comments:

I posted to follow-up to the "Spectre on Good Friday" thread ...

Bryan and I played hookie for his Birthday on the 7th, and went out on the Spectre, where we met up with Robert A. (a fellow volunteer diver with Reef Check). Keep in mind, I have a pretty simple camera, no strobe, etc. so please don't hate on my pictures! :iconeutra

2 "Divers" doing a buddy check

Robert staring down a Sea Lion

Robert spinning with a group of 7-8 Sea Lions

Immersed in a school of Blacksmith

Sea Fans in the Goldfish Bowl

Sea Lions chasing in circles

Hello little Spanish Shawl!

Huge Sheephead abound at Cathedral Cove!

Always love diving!!

Hope you enjoyed your birthday dives, Bryan!

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Dates: Saturday/Sunday, April 14/15, 2007
Location: Santa Cruz Island, Fry's Cove and Pelican Anchorage
6 dives
Depths to 49fsw
Total UW time: 5 hours and 35 minutes
Water temp: 54F
Air: Coooold wind... but at least there were no kelp flies.
Viz: 12-15 feet

Mel will love coming home to California because: Rocky Underwater Reefs are more fun to measure than desert sand.
_______________

One year ago, the first Los Angeles ReefCheck class finished their skills check-out dives, and launched into the first ever All-Volunteer ReefCheck Site Survey: Pelican Anchorage at Santa Cruz Island. Reef 001.

This past weekend, the third generation of L.A. ReefCheckers polished their skills and finished their certifications at the same site.
Congratulations, (and welcome!) to Simon, Laila, Ken, Walt, Tevis, Dirk, Christen, Jeanne and Tom. :luxhello:
You all worked so hard and will be strong and fun assets to the team.

It was a successful mission in the midst of horrendous conditions: Being tough enough seems to be a recurring theme in California ReefChecking :14: . The Peace boat managed a safe crossing in wild conditions, planting us first at Fry's Cove at Santa Cruz Island, and then moving us to Pelican Anchorage. Students, instructors, and assistants completed up to 7 dives in two days, working around 54F water (many in wetsuits), with 12-15 foot visibility, and frisky surge. All the while, we could see the ocean outside our protected bays whipped into a violent frenzy by the increasing winds. The Peace did an incredible job of making our training weekend successful.

Saturday was a steady rotation of new and familiar skills:

• Laying transect lines,
• ID'ing, counting, and sizing 30 species of fish in the correct 2x2x2 meter window
• ID'ing and counting 24 species of invertebrates on the 2x30 meter transect belt.
• ID'ing and counting 6 species of algae on the same belt.
• Describing the substrate characteristics of the belt: Rugosity, size of rocks, and growth covering the rocks
• Measuring the size distribution of a sample population of red and purple urchins:11: (careful, there!)

Craig Shuman and Chris Knight taught and coached and organized all day, buoyed by the energetic enthusiasm of the newest ReefCheck Students.
Reef Surveying is the art of balancing a variety of tasks:

• safe diving,
• accurate data collection (species ID, sizing, counting)
• mechanical skill mastery of the survey tools (UW slates & data sheets, combative transect tapes, calipers)
• while recording start&end time points, compass headings, start&end depths, and the location and number of each transect completed. Whew!!!

And did I mention the urchins? :light: (The ones I secretly vowed to never count again, hoping to always encourage a new ReefCheck volunteer to take this foul task??)

By Saturday night, most of the divers were happy to pop open beers whilst soaking in the jacuzzi... except of course for Ken, Simon, Tevis and me, who leapt at the chance to leap off the deck again and go play in the dark. We played hard after a hard day of counting, enjoying octopuses, coffee bean gastropods, rushing sealions, and light-dazzled rock kelpfish. It was a beautiful hour of night-diving, exploring the habitat we spent all day measuring. I can't count "Pretty", but I sure know it (and love it!) when I see it.

Sunday morning, while the new ReefCheckers finished their final validation/calibration skills dives, 8 divers assembled to do an actual Site Survey: The second survey of this original site from a year ago. (It's a major goal of ReefCheck to compile annual surveys of each site, and twice-a-year surveys when possible to look at seasonal variations in organism variety and frequency)

In a flurry of team and task assignements, we were off and kicking.
The glorious Peace crew ferried us to the site with the inflatable skiff, in the face of churlish water and biting wind. We looked like Navy Seals invading the beach head ("We count more before 9AM than most people count all day...") ... but we all back-rolled off on command and went right to work surveying. In two action-packed dives, we completed at total of 36 transects, recording the data on 25 sheets of water-proof plastic "paper". We deployed and reeled up our 30-meter transect lines 18 times, in depths from 18 to 38fsw.

(One last joke was on me. After I had cleverly made assignments for another buddy pair to do the urchin sizing, ("Woo-hooo.. :musical_n I'm not doing urchins..." :59, that particular pair of divers was re-commandeered by instructors Craig and Chris. They were needed for check-off dives. Suddenly, their tasks needed to be reassigned... and..... and..... Dirk and I were the obvious choice. Hoist with my own petard... again... I settled gracelessly into this prickly task. (Don't know how Dirk remained patient: Urchins are evil. :light: )

All the data will go into the ReefCheck data base, accessible to all stakeholders in the health, productivity and diversity of California's Rocky Reefs.

Goal: Sound decision-making based on sound science.

Meanwhile, the newest ReefCheckers proved their stuff to the scientific instructors. Once all the tests have been passed, each of these new volunteers will join survey teams to gather valid data to be used in guiding statewide management and policy.

Congratulations AGAIN to our newest ReefCheck teammates:
:balloon
Laila, Ken, Dirk, Walt, Tevis,
Christen, Jeanne, Simon, and Tom.
:balloon ​

You Rule the Reef!!!​

Thanks to Program directors Craig and Chris, who put the scientific skills into our hands. Combined with committed volunteers, ReefCheck California continues to build steam and garner support and respect for its mission.

The next LA class will be in August, 2007.
See the www.ReefCheck.org website for more information.


~~~~~~
Claudette

 

[SeaDana]

Wow, what a pitch, Claudette!!

Of course, I'm biased when it comes to Reef Check