Video: Blue water at Lobos

[kathydee]

Hi Kenn,

Nice music, Enya? Thanks to your navigation tips, Erik and I swam out to Hole in the Wall and hit it with ease 10 minutes into the dive (first time I ever tried to find it ;-). A nice relaxing glide through the 20+ vis kelp to 64ft then back to the shallows. Vis opened up to 35-40 ft and was quite beautiful with all the little jellies - what are they called?

We wandered back through middle reef nudi hunting and found lots of cool critters. Now thanks to Clinton, I can ID the "Peltodris Nobilis" Nudi (at least I think I can) - just trying to learn one of these long Latin names at a time ;-) http://www.baue.org/images/galleries/v/FieldGuide/Opisthobranchs/?g2_page=1. Found another cool nudi white with redish/orange spots that I need to look up later today, then spotted a beautiful 3' leopard shark near the worm mound.

Stopped @ 20ft for a little practice of some of the new cool Essentials skills, then eventually made it into the more adventurous shallow 1' viz water deeper in the cove - which I love! When we could barely see our gauges, at 84 minutes BT and 700psi, it was time to give the dive the thumb and we surfaced from 10ft ;-).

It was great to see you, Mike and Doc and thanks Erik for such an enjoyable dive! Let's do it again soon! Don, sorry you couldn't make it, hope you feel better.

 

[Gombessa]

Sunday was very impressive too...in another kind of way, with the swells busting big onshore.

Nice! What was the vis? Sunday definitely had a bit more swell than I had anticipated, but that means the water comes up maybe 2ft more up the boat ramp than usual

Wow. That is such a cool reef. Keep hearing so much about Lobos and have never dove it, so it's nice to see video from there. Thanks!

Ken, we regularly have visitors from SoCal. You gotta jump on board And for the tech-inclined, a lot of guys and gals here offer regular scooter tours for our esteemed visitors.

Nice music, Enya? Thanks to your navigation tips, Erik and I swam out to Hole in the Wall and hit it with ease 10 minutes into the dive (first time I ever tried to find it ;-). A nice relaxing glide through the 20+ vis kelp to 64ft then back to the shallows. Vis opened up to 35-40 ft and was quite beautiful with all the little jellies - what are they called?

Yep, I think it's Enya, and I'm glad you had an easy time finding HITW! We took a slightly different route, but that led to some really fun structure that I want to see again.

I have no idea what all those little jellies are, I searched around last night and couldn't find them in the BAUE field guide or on Ildiko's site. They were littered throughout the top 10ft of the water column and were very beautiful. Better'n'nettles, that's for sure.

When we could barely see our gauges, at 84 minutes BT and 700psi, it was time to give the dive the thumb and we surfaced from 10ft ;-).

Wow, that's an impressively long dive on single tanks, were you on your HP100s? It was nice to see you there and meet Eric, and I'll keep a lookout near the ramp next time I'm out

 

[micboucher]

Paula and I did a couple great dives in Carmel (Butterfly House and East Pinnacle), off the Sanctuary. The sun was shining, the water was beautiful blue, and we had at least 40ft horizontal vis at both sites. Here's a video from the surface while swimming back to the boat. The nettles were thick from 30ft to the surface...makes for a real interesting safety stop.
YouTube - Sea Nettles

We also saw a couple pods of dolphins on the way down to Carmel. One had Rissos, Pacific White Sides and Right Whale dolphins all together. My first time seeing Right Whales...it was odd to see dolphins with no dorsal fin.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Ken,

Interesting that you talk about the upwelling that brought in great viz at Lobos. I dove Monastery on Saturday with a group of friends and it was one of my best dives I've ever had.

I had 50+ viz on the South side and as we entered I felt as if I was in the Monterey Bay Aqaurium diving. The water was so crystal clear I could see all the detail on my partners gear.

We dove twice and although the entrance was a little hard, there were some waves breaking large towards the North side, we stayed clear of that and entered on the South side.

We placed all of our gear on and walked in, taking no chances on losing fins or a mask.

I didn't take out my camera because it was a new site for me, but wish I had to share, you would've have been amazed. I still cannot believe how much life is on the South side, more stuff than I can possibly count.

Every corner every fin kick, fish were jumping out and greeting me....

Just a killer dive that I will not soon forget... :O

MG

 

[kathydee]

Wow, that's an impressively long dive on single tanks, were you on your HP100s? It was nice to see you there and meet Eric, and I'll keep a lookout near the ramp next time I'm out

84 min's does seem long on a single HP 100, Erik had a HP130 - although I’ve done much longer on a single AL80 in warm water ;-).

The cold water & new gear shocked my sac rate for a while, but it finally seems to be recovering. Followed our dive time up to 25 ft on this dive - 65+ min, we has plenty of gas left- decided to pratice a while with the left over, so from that point watched gas more than time.

I did a bit of a double take when I just checked my computer, but the long BT makes sense, 'cause lots of dive was 45ft or shallower around middle reef- curious what Erik's computer says – it’s possible some of the time on my computer included the short swim in & our futile attempt to free the tec guys stuck scooter anchor .

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Wow. That is such a cool reef. Keep hearing so much about Lobos and have never dove it, so it's nice to see video from there. Thanks!

Ken, we regularly have visitors from SoCal. You gotta jump on board And for the tech-inclined, a lot of guys and gals here offer regular scooter tours for our esteemed visitors.

As soon as SOMEbody gets into some drygloves... MoCal is on the schedule. ;-)

Thanks for the happy reports from the beautiful water!

~~~
Claudette

 

[pacificgal]

You still did your safety stop in those? You're a brave, brave girl...

 

[TSandM]

Love that first sequence with the jellies, but I had to laugh when the later one came at the camera. I love the water jellies, and tend to watch them come toward me until I go crosseyed and realize I'm almost straight head-down in the water

Gotta get back to Monterey next year, and hope for an upwelling like that. Last time I was down there, we hit one, and we had ambient light on Beto's Reef.

 

[mikemill]

Love that first sequence with the jellies, but I had to laugh when the later one came at the camera. I love the water jellies, and tend to watch them come toward me until I go crosseyed and realize I'm almost straight head-down in the water

Gotta get back to Monterey next year, and hope for an upwelling like that. Last time I was down there, we hit one, and we had ambient light on Beto's Reef.

After that shot both Kenn and I wondered if we shallowed any jellies while being battered around on the surface.

 

[liuk3]

Thanks. Definitely will make it up to Lobos one of these days. Would be great to meet up with you and the great dive community up there. Keep up the videos!

We'll see how long I last in wet gloves...