Tips for navigating Vet's Park in Redondo?

[orch1ds]

Hello...

I'm going to be "leading" the navigation for the first time at Vet's Park in Redondo Beach. Its just myself and my buddy so I won't be getting too many people lost! Does anyone have a full proof way to NOT get lost and still get to enjoy some of the views down there?

I know that East is pointing to the stairs and West is directly out to the ocean. I've done the dive a couple of times but with an instructor so never really did any navigating per se. I've only done some navigating skills from a boat dive off in Catalina.

Note: My buddy is testing out some new gear so we are probably not going too deep.

Thanks!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

If you go straight out from the stairs and swim to the end of the pier before dropping you'll be close to the edge of the canyon. It drops to about 60 feet there. Head south and you will come across lines leading to deeper water and some lead uphill to the cinder blocks, a Redondo version of an artificial reef. If you head north you'll come across the salad bowl, an area with lots of algae on the sand. Look closely for nudibranchs, skeleton shrimp and octopus/sarcastic fringeheads inside the shells. My buddy Ross made this map, which will help your navigation.
http://www.rossoverstreet.org/scuba/GIS/Veterans%20Park%20Dive%20Map%20Rev%2031.jpg

 

[nannymouse]

Choose a depth. Head west until you reach that depth. Choose left or right. Keep your depth until you reach turn-around pressure (1500 or what have you). Head east until you run out of water.

If you come upon pilings or a bunch of fishing lines, reverse course.

Works for me...

 

[DiveNav]

Hello...

I'm going to be "leading" the navigation for the first time at Vet's Park in Redondo Beach. ........................................... Does anyone have a full proof way to NOT get lost and still get to enjoy some of the views down there?

Orch1ds,
with the eDiving simulator when you press "M" a window will open with a detailed map of the canyon.
If you then press the space bar and move your mouse over the map, you will notice that on the top of the window there will be numbers indicating distance and heading ... those are the distance and heading FROM the location of the diver to wherever the mouse is. The location of the diver is also identified by the GPS coordinates written on the bottom of the screen (at the start the diver is a couple of hundred yards west of the stairs).
Basically with this feature you can pick a point you want to visit and use the simulator to tell you heading and distance.

Tip for a safe virtual descent:
a) position the virtual diver vertically in the water column (using the pitch control - mouse's wheel),
b) deflate BC (mouse's right button),
c) as soon as the diver is below the surface, position the diver horizontally in the water column
d) inflate BC very slowly (short burst of mouse's left button) to control rate of descent
e) once you reach your target depth and have achieved neutral buoyancy, begin swimming ("W" key or "Shift" + "W" for faster kicking). As in real life, you should be able to change your depth (within a certain range) by simply changing the pitch of the diver and without having to adjust air in the BC.

Try and let me know if you can find the "monument".

Feel free to contact me on the eDiving network (userID = eDiver) if you have any question.

Best Regards,

AM

 

[redrover]

AM beat me to it, thought the edive might be a great try before dive.

 

[ChrisM]

It doesn't get much easier. Straight west from stairs to desired depth. Straight north or south, depending. If you headed south, at pre agreed turn pressure, head northeast. If you went north, head southeast.

Either way you will do a slow offgas as you ascend on that northeast/southeast course. If you do this I guarantee you will not get lost. You may not ascend directly at the stairs, but you won't be lost

 

[orch1ds]

Thanks everyone. The navigation was much easier than I had anticipated. I guess Vet's Park is hard to get it wrong. The vis was great starting around 35 ft. I did see lots of camouflaged fishes, nudibranch and I guess a sea cucumber looking thing? It was huge and almost scary! Sorry I don't know the official names of most of what I see so far...

But it was fun lots of fun. Waves were very small... about 2ft.