divekim
Contributor
Top Reason Pasley should hurry home: Firsts are to be shared with friends.
Location: Marine Room Reefs
Time: 7:00am descent
Temp: 57-58 most of the dive
Vis: 10 at the surgy areas 25 at its best
Max Depth: 22 feet
Bottom Time: 81 mins
Buddies: The Incomparable Adonis (you may know him as RoughwaterJohn)
Having no other plans set for today and putting out the call I couldn't have been happier than to have my buddy John grace me with his presence for a repeat of us diving alone together. This doesn't happen very often and you must take advantage of these opportunities. We surveyed the conditions before donning our gear and with a rising tide and no surf breaking on the reefs we concurred this was a go.
I've never dove the reefs at Marine Room so this was a treat for me. We had a pretty interesting entry, the waves sucking back out at the same time they were coming in made for a topsy turvy push you back and forth while putting on fins, but there was no maytaging today, it was more comical than anything. I followed John as he is the master of this domain and I was in virgin territory.
Dropped in about 15feet of water and never went deeper than 22feet, though my computer thinks I descended to 70feet for 1 minute and went into decompression time. Most of our dive did contain surge which made taking photos a challenge but was quite manageable. Tons and tons of life out here, right after descending I found a very large Abalone on the side of a rock, I've never seen one this big and was utterly amazed.
Many schools of fish out this morning, from Senoritas in every stage, Rock Wrasse in all the different phases, Kelp Bass were everywhere and very friendly. We either had a school of them follow us the entire dive or there are just that many of them out here. These Kelp Bass are very curious, I had a couple of quiet moments with them, I swear one of them would have kissed me if I had stayed still long enough. Lots of Perch, Sheephead, Garibaldi and baby Garibaldi, Blacksmith, Sargo, schools of Baitfish at the surface, and Lobster, did anyone mention Lobster, everywhere in every size. Yes, skills were tested and yes we have them. On the swim in John found a beautiful Horn Shark, maybe 2 feet. At first I was disappointed because as he was taking photos it swam away, ah, but not far and it ended up setting out in the open in the sand, beautiful. John also spotted 2 very large Abalone, one probably the size of, oh yeah, a hubcap.
We surfaced and swam the rest of the way to shore, this was a good thing as we were able to position ourselves properly for the least amount of whirlpooling possible, the tide had risen and the waves were smacking the walls pretty good. Just as we were making our final kick in a Harbor Seal pops up and I swear he was headed right for Johns lap and then suddenly turned and disappeared. Very cute. Our final exit was interesting, but again, no maytaging, a quick take off your fins and run for the path.
This was an awesome dive I would definitely repeat. Would be even better with no surge. Thank you Adonis for joining me on this wonderful day and providing me another first in my diving adventures.
Kim
Location: Marine Room Reefs
Time: 7:00am descent
Temp: 57-58 most of the dive
Vis: 10 at the surgy areas 25 at its best
Max Depth: 22 feet
Bottom Time: 81 mins
Buddies: The Incomparable Adonis (you may know him as RoughwaterJohn)
Having no other plans set for today and putting out the call I couldn't have been happier than to have my buddy John grace me with his presence for a repeat of us diving alone together. This doesn't happen very often and you must take advantage of these opportunities. We surveyed the conditions before donning our gear and with a rising tide and no surf breaking on the reefs we concurred this was a go.
I've never dove the reefs at Marine Room so this was a treat for me. We had a pretty interesting entry, the waves sucking back out at the same time they were coming in made for a topsy turvy push you back and forth while putting on fins, but there was no maytaging today, it was more comical than anything. I followed John as he is the master of this domain and I was in virgin territory.
Dropped in about 15feet of water and never went deeper than 22feet, though my computer thinks I descended to 70feet for 1 minute and went into decompression time. Most of our dive did contain surge which made taking photos a challenge but was quite manageable. Tons and tons of life out here, right after descending I found a very large Abalone on the side of a rock, I've never seen one this big and was utterly amazed.
Many schools of fish out this morning, from Senoritas in every stage, Rock Wrasse in all the different phases, Kelp Bass were everywhere and very friendly. We either had a school of them follow us the entire dive or there are just that many of them out here. These Kelp Bass are very curious, I had a couple of quiet moments with them, I swear one of them would have kissed me if I had stayed still long enough. Lots of Perch, Sheephead, Garibaldi and baby Garibaldi, Blacksmith, Sargo, schools of Baitfish at the surface, and Lobster, did anyone mention Lobster, everywhere in every size. Yes, skills were tested and yes we have them. On the swim in John found a beautiful Horn Shark, maybe 2 feet. At first I was disappointed because as he was taking photos it swam away, ah, but not far and it ended up setting out in the open in the sand, beautiful. John also spotted 2 very large Abalone, one probably the size of, oh yeah, a hubcap.
We surfaced and swam the rest of the way to shore, this was a good thing as we were able to position ourselves properly for the least amount of whirlpooling possible, the tide had risen and the waves were smacking the walls pretty good. Just as we were making our final kick in a Harbor Seal pops up and I swear he was headed right for Johns lap and then suddenly turned and disappeared. Very cute. Our final exit was interesting, but again, no maytaging, a quick take off your fins and run for the path.
This was an awesome dive I would definitely repeat. Would be even better with no surge. Thank you Adonis for joining me on this wonderful day and providing me another first in my diving adventures.
Kim
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