What a night.
We arrived at about 7:00 - and after gearing up and yacking we hit the water at about 8:00 PM.
The place was a complete lake. Unreal. I mean there was no wind, there was almost no surf (like boot slappers) and no surge at all. We walked in without breaking stride through the low tide and immediately stepped off the shelf to chest deep water. It was so mellow we just stopped there, put on our fins, looked around and marveled at the lake and the quietness of it all, and then started the dive.
It was so mellow we scooted on the surface out about 3/4 of the way to the end of the pier. We deflated and zoomed straight down.
Burrrr. Memo to self: When diving wet, drop close to shore and slowly scoot or kick out to depth. Dropping from 0 to 83 feet in 70 seconds eliminates the foreplay of the slow ascent and produces the instant brain freeze.
Although we didn't go deeper than about 90, our average depth over the hour was about 64 feet - that's a lot of time in a very, very old 7mm wetsuit on a scooter in 56 degree water.
But what a night!
We saw a Monterey's Dorid (about the 3rd I've ever seen in hundreds of dives at Vets), squid eggs (on kelp stipes 3 or 5 feet off the bottom... very weird) and squid egg baskets. We even saw A squid. Lots of fish, crabs, lobster and all the usual suspects.
We found a pipe I'd never seen before. Better, a section of pipe, uncovered by the surge from the full moon. It was at about 80 feet, and still half-buried. A HUGE (probably 8 or 10 pound) Barred Sand Bass was on it.
A little later as we were scooting North at about 75 feet we saw another pipe - a very large one on top of the sand. I went over to it cautiously and the lobster on top of it disappeared.
Hmmm....
You can't fall off the side of a pipe. I scooted to the end and it was a transom! This wasn't a pipe - its a wreck. It was a large sail boat that has been there for a long, long time. It had gorgonias all over it and lots of other growth. A large ling cod was in it. A ling cod at Vets? Several large bass, tons of perch and other stuff. This wreck was in the middle of a sandy nothingness - and it was covered with life. So many fish and critters.
I was stunned. So was Claudette. Its about the coolest thing I've ever seen at Vets.
By this time we were pretty frozen, so we took a couple of laps around the thing and turned the dive. I can't wait to go back to it and see what other cool stuff is going on with it.
On the way back I was looking at something - I can't remember now, and I got all tangled up in the kelp. I ran right into one of the 4 or 5 legitimate kelp plants at Vets! I untangled, looked back at Claudette and then BAM... right into another one.
Unreal. You just aren't on kelp patrol at Vets - you're kinda scootering all loose and free. Its still cracking me up that I got all wrapped up twice.
It was an exceptional night. The exit was as calm as the entrance - dead flat calm. It was so quiet on the surface we could hear the sealions barking from the huge harbor buoy a quarter-mile away.
We walked back up to the lot feeling very fortunate that we got in last night before the rain is coming. The good diving in SoCal, the very, very flat conditions we've had for nearly two months is about to come to a close soon I fear. Get out and dive while its still wonderful!
Chica - thank you again for an excellent dive. You make this stuff look so easy.
---
Ken
We arrived at about 7:00 - and after gearing up and yacking we hit the water at about 8:00 PM.
The place was a complete lake. Unreal. I mean there was no wind, there was almost no surf (like boot slappers) and no surge at all. We walked in without breaking stride through the low tide and immediately stepped off the shelf to chest deep water. It was so mellow we just stopped there, put on our fins, looked around and marveled at the lake and the quietness of it all, and then started the dive.
It was so mellow we scooted on the surface out about 3/4 of the way to the end of the pier. We deflated and zoomed straight down.
Burrrr. Memo to self: When diving wet, drop close to shore and slowly scoot or kick out to depth. Dropping from 0 to 83 feet in 70 seconds eliminates the foreplay of the slow ascent and produces the instant brain freeze.
Although we didn't go deeper than about 90, our average depth over the hour was about 64 feet - that's a lot of time in a very, very old 7mm wetsuit on a scooter in 56 degree water.
But what a night!
We saw a Monterey's Dorid (about the 3rd I've ever seen in hundreds of dives at Vets), squid eggs (on kelp stipes 3 or 5 feet off the bottom... very weird) and squid egg baskets. We even saw A squid. Lots of fish, crabs, lobster and all the usual suspects.
We found a pipe I'd never seen before. Better, a section of pipe, uncovered by the surge from the full moon. It was at about 80 feet, and still half-buried. A HUGE (probably 8 or 10 pound) Barred Sand Bass was on it.
A little later as we were scooting North at about 75 feet we saw another pipe - a very large one on top of the sand. I went over to it cautiously and the lobster on top of it disappeared.
Hmmm....
You can't fall off the side of a pipe. I scooted to the end and it was a transom! This wasn't a pipe - its a wreck. It was a large sail boat that has been there for a long, long time. It had gorgonias all over it and lots of other growth. A large ling cod was in it. A ling cod at Vets? Several large bass, tons of perch and other stuff. This wreck was in the middle of a sandy nothingness - and it was covered with life. So many fish and critters.
I was stunned. So was Claudette. Its about the coolest thing I've ever seen at Vets.
By this time we were pretty frozen, so we took a couple of laps around the thing and turned the dive. I can't wait to go back to it and see what other cool stuff is going on with it.
On the way back I was looking at something - I can't remember now, and I got all tangled up in the kelp. I ran right into one of the 4 or 5 legitimate kelp plants at Vets! I untangled, looked back at Claudette and then BAM... right into another one.
Unreal. You just aren't on kelp patrol at Vets - you're kinda scootering all loose and free. Its still cracking me up that I got all wrapped up twice.
It was an exceptional night. The exit was as calm as the entrance - dead flat calm. It was so quiet on the surface we could hear the sealions barking from the huge harbor buoy a quarter-mile away.
We walked back up to the lot feeling very fortunate that we got in last night before the rain is coming. The good diving in SoCal, the very, very flat conditions we've had for nearly two months is about to come to a close soon I fear. Get out and dive while its still wonderful!
Chica - thank you again for an excellent dive. You make this stuff look so easy.
---
Ken
They took us back to the surf zone and made us do a giant stride. We ended up diving the pipe instead, which was cool because we found a dolphin skull at the end of the pipe. That was my first mixed gas dive, and we didn't want to waste the gas diving shallow. 
