The Pasley July 06 Dive Report Thread

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HBDiveGirl:
P.S. How do you know they're real red heads? Isn't red the first color lost when you get too deep?


Hmmmm, bad personal groomy might make surface id easier but I shutter at the thought.

Anon
 
Penny and I dove the famous "Point Dume Pinnacles", and it was perfect conditions. Sunny, low surf, not too windy, a mild current bringing us to the pinnacles, good vis (up to 30 feet), and the swim back underwater wasn't bad.

Lots of sea life was out, including a massive school of 100 Sargo sailing by over our heads at one point. As you can see, lots of cabezon were out!

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Female Sheephead, with a strange regulator-shaped pattern in her skin

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Gorgonians

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Cabezon, Starfish, Sea Cucumber, Spanish Shawl, Corynactis, Hydroids

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Big Bulldog - "What do you want????"

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Black-n-yellow Rockfish

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Sand Star
 
Date: 7/20/06
Dive Location: Vets Park - Redondo/Hermosa Beach area
Buddy(ies): HBcantwejustdiveChica
Time: 7:30-something PM
Bottom Time: 62 minutes
Max Depth: 110 FSW
Vis: Excellent. At least 15 on top, and 20+ in canyon
Wave height: Knee
Temp at depth: whatever... Drysuit
Surface Temp: Mellow summer
Tide information: 6:30 PM high, receeding on entry
Gas mix: Pneumatic
Comments: This is not Saturday


We dived here Wed with some SoCal DIR types - doing the bi-weekly CK Drill Down. So tonight we were back to just dive. Just dive. No drills, all play.

As I get out and go to the back of the truck, it hits me: I forgot my DS undies. :rolleyes: I call 'Dette, and she assembles an assortment of colorful fleecy tops and bottoms for me to wear under my suit for this dive. Moron boy here is getting to the point in his life where he needs to work from a list. That sucks.


As we were gearing up, there is this rumble of a couple of motorcycles going all fast and furious... I mean revving so loud you could hardly speak. I'm getting a little hacked off and turn to see what these goobers are doing. Turns out they're escorting a Mountain Dew Code Red crew... picture this: In a very small, and very crowded Vets parking lot you now add two street bikes, a full sized custom painted Code Red van with about 7 people in it (van has lights all around it, flashing - speakers bumping some urgent beat), a bobtail reefer truck, also custom painted (to keep the stock cool, no doubt.) and a couple of blond hotties on hoof with insulated bags, going to everyone in the lot, cooing "wanna Code Red?" - passing out cold soda.

OK. Not a great thing for a guy in a drysuit, to be tanking down come MDCR right before the dive. So I take the can from hottie number one and stash it in the truck for an after dive sip.


So we head to the beach... this is NOT last Saturday. None of the Hawaii 5-oh wacky curl action... just the same knee slappers we had the night before on Wed, but with much, MUCH better viz.

Claudette and I have been diving to about 105 - 110 here, recently. Vets is a whole other place below 90. It just changes. We're going to start doing some better planning and start pushing a little deeper... its an amazing place. The last three times we've been below 100 we've seen Red Tipped Dorids. So tonight that was the quest, as this time I was bringing the cam.

It was Octo night... OMG. Everywhere. Last Sat is was Polycera day. Its always something different there... its like there is a theme that carries through the dive.

It was an excellent dive. HBthriftstorechica's undie ensemble was perfect. We got in, got out, life is good.

In the SoCal DIR forum we'll be posting more about the bi-weekly CK Drill Downs.

Here are a few pics. Enjoy.

---
Ken



Red Tipped Dorid at 100 FSW. I miss my Woody's Diopter. This guy was about 1/2"
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Polycera Atra - they are everywhere at Vets right now. This poor guys is missing a rhinophore.
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Octo in some kind of Prop or Toy Coconut at 90FSW. 'Dette saw this and I'm all, "HUH??"
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There's also a flatties invasion going on. We saw two 'buts over 24" on this dive, one had to be about 3 feet. TONS of these guys down there right now.
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Below about 85 or 90 these guys start showing up. These wacky windmill wormy things. They're all over down there. About 3/4" to 1" tall. Love 'em!
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Thornback Rays by the zillions in the shallows.
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This was the most amazing thing. On the way back up, at about 80-ish, there were these two crabs. The one on the right was sort of supervising. The one on the left was rolled over and there was a huge swarm of fry sort of coming off and out of her. I don't know how crab birth their babies - but I've seen them carry around the eggs. Do they carry them around until its time for them all to hatch enmasse? Are the baby crabs swimmers? There are a couple of fry you can see in the pic. It was like a cloud. I watched it until 'dette came over and reminded me we had to get back into reasonable depths. It was amazing.
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Nice shots, Ken! I just missed finally meeting you and Claudette, as you two were headed down the stairs just as I pulled up and joined Dana. :) Ah, well, I'll see HBwillsheeverbedry?DiveGirl on your namesake dive on Sunday... shame you won't be there. I'll have to check some of the deeper areas sometime... usually we keep it not much deeper than 80 or so, but if things are that good down lower, it might be worth getting some Nitrox on board so there's at least some time to check out at least the shallow end of the lower depths. :)
 
Date: 07/22/06
Dive Location: Byl's rock pile
Buddy(ies): Byl, Denny, and Tom(?)
Time: 0926
Bottom Time: 54 minutes
Max Depth: 82ft
Vis: 10-15
Temp at depth: 55F
Surface Temp: 65F
Swell height: some wind chop and a rolling swell
Gas mix: 21%

Date: 07/22/06
Dive Location: Pipeline
Buddy(ies): Byl, Denny, and Tom(?)
Time: 1144
Bottom Time: 78 minutes
Max Depth: 45ft
Vis: 10-20
Temp at depth: 58F
Surface Temp: 65F
Swell height: more wind chop and bigger rolling swells
Gas mix: 21%

Byl was gracious enough to ask me out on the Harley for a couple dives this morning. THANK YOU BYL! Conditions were nice and the weather was not too hot out on the water. Lots of photo-opts and the fishing was good for those so inclined.

Here are the pictures: http://www.scubapost.net/forums/Scorpionfish/072206/

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fav dive monster Claudette and I went to OML to celebrate her 500th dive. We celebrated mine earlier this year someplace- so now it was her turn.

Flat conditions. We waltzed into the place at the point, at the HBmarinelandsecretentrychica place. Unreal. She went in, I handed off the cam, I went in, no brainer. We dropped and this time we found the rocks. For 82 glorious minutes we played before we popped with about 200 in the cans. We had a healthy surface swim back to cobble beach - with the current (fortunately.) Exited without incident after over 100 minutes in the water. Drysuits rule.

We were on the pinnacles for at least 45 or 50 minutes, then we started back, catching some of the smaller rock and stuff. I've said this a million times - but OML is simply the best shore dive in SoCal. Its so unreal. Today there were tons of fish for some reason. Probably the warm water - it was 57 - 59 most of the dive... even at 64 feet.

We saw and photographed 14 species of Nudi on this dive (not counting the cheaters... like Sea hares, Cukes and other stuff on the Nudi card... :) ) which eclipses my old record of 13. I need to dive this place more

So much to see, so much to live there. Man. I'll let the 'dette fill in the details. Here are some pics. Full sized originals can be found here: http://www.pbase.com/firelogg/marineland

Enjoy.

---
Ken

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Coon-Strip Shrimp (?) This guy was hanging out in hole near some Urchins. Love the wacky chrome eyes on this thing.
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HBeagle-eyechica spotted this abandoned clam shell on the bottom, and it was holding a little Nudi and its eggs. What a find!
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Lots of Nudis still laying eggs down there!
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I see these in red and orange all the time. This was the first time I ever remember seeing them in bright Purple!
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Found this Nudi hoofin’ it through the cup coral on a wall. Not sure what species this one is. It was really the only species we saw ONE of on the entire dive. We saw multiples of everything else.
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I just loved seeing a purple Urchin move into an old bi-valve and take up residence.
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We saw several of these Clown Nudis down there today. They are among my favs!
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This little guy is a mystery to us. Still trying to find out what it is. It was about 3/8” of an inch long. It was traveling solo.
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Pink Dorids are always a crowd pleaser. I love these things.
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What’s any Nudi Safari in SoCal without a pic of a Fed Ex Nudi? This one was all fat and compact – he looked claymation to me.
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HBnudimonster already ID’ed this one for me. I forgot. I think this is a ‘tata… The buff / peachy color is great on these. Digging on the spots, too.
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Monterey Dorid. These things are the PigPen Nudis. I swear, everything sticks to them. HBre-nameeverythingchica calls them the “Dirty Dorid” or “Dusty Dorid”. PigPen Nudi is working for me…
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Obligatory Hermissenda pic. Nowhere in SoCal are the ‘ssendas prettier than at OML. They get so huge, and take on this beautiful cinnamon color. Their blue stripes are way blue… they’re not at all like the “fakeyssendas” we get at Vets. I was looking the whole dive for a big one that I could shoot from the side to capture the thickness of its foot. This was the last one I saw on the dive and I got the shot.
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:wave-smil Congrates on the big 500 Dette


Ken those are amazing pics man
 
Great Shots Ken. I have got to get up there someday.

Terry
 

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