Father’s Day Dive — Guess Where?

Well, if you guessed Terranea Resort, you were correct!

However, if you are bored with my almost weekly dive reports from basically the same location, I have great news.

My long awaited trip to Albania is officially on!

And scheduled for next month!

Stay tuned about that… so lets get on to today.

Realizing that today is Fathers’ Day, and quite certain there would be a low turn out, and the fact that I was going to my parent’s place for a barbecue, I didn’t bring the ghetto grill.

So, I pulled up to a crowded parking lot, half filled with diver’s cars just a few minutes after 8 AM; nobody was in the parking lot.

Most likely everyone was checking the conditions.

Donna The Hot Biker Chick pulled up as I was walking towards the trail; I waited for her.

Before we could go, all the divers approached the parking lot, giving them the jealous impression that Donna and I arrived together.

Donna quickly dispelled the rumor.

Conditions were reported to be – flat!

Some were even considering exiting The Point.

So, TwinDuct broke out some chicken and tube steaks (a.k.a. hotdogs) to put in my cooler and I explained to him, that I didn’t bring the ghetto grill.

No, I don’t always bring the grill.

I failed again.

There must have been 14 divers in our group, all going off The Point; the entrance could not have been easier.

Logged SCUBA Dive #407

Started the Dive with Donna The Hot Biker Chick and TwinDuct, ended it with Kenneth.

The Point, Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 800 psi
Max depth: 62 feet
Waves: Pretty flat with a few rolling swells
Visibility: Eight to 20 feet
Water Temperature: 65 degrees, colder at depth
Air Temperature: 70 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 45 minutes

Reverend Al dropped us right on the Pennicle – the small statue that has seen many changes throughout the years…

Growth now makes it almost unrecognizable.

I had taken a lot of time equalizing – we dropped in 60 feet of water.

I sort of lost my buddies, everyone pretty much looked the same.

Donna has some holes in the butt of her wetsuit, so I started looking for her; then I realized that she was the only female diver here today.

I really didn’t want to swim around looking at guy’s asses, so I just swam in circles hoping to at least find TwinDuct, who was the only diver to dive without a hood.

Some divers were planning to exit The Point, and after about 10 minutes, I figured that the divers that were there were going to stay there.

I left on my own for The Cove.

On my journey, I felt a tap; I turned and it was Kenneth signaling me to buddy with him.

I agreed.

I can see some of the fish coming back to this reef; hopefully one day, the fish will be abundant, like when I first started diving here.

TwinDuct caught up to us and followed us for a bit.

We made it to The Cove with air to spare; that, and and easy exit along with great visibility, made this a perfect dive.

We warned a couple of fishermen that this area is a marine preserve.

The guy said, “The resort told us it was catch and release…”

That is news to us.

Traditional debriefing followed.

Jordan saved the day by having his grill!

A short video somes up today’s dive…

To view this video on YouYube, click here.

After waiting out some crappy conditions over the last few weeks, all looked good for our traditional Sunday Services dive.

There was one problem – the trail to The Cove was closed for “routine maintenance.”

Reverend Al asked an anonymous Terranea worker if we could at least come up the trail; apparently his response was that we couldn’t “use the trail to go to the beach.”

We looked, it was Sunday and we didn’t see anyone working on the trail.

We all geared up to make a Point entry and exit at the Cove.

I believe we were 12 divers total, and all made it out from the rocky Point – some with more pain than others.

I wasted 400 psi going underneath the kelp to our meeting spot – I hate bitch crawling over the kelp.

Logged SCUBA Dive #406

Dove with Airforce Chris, New Guy With a Nice Camera, Reverend Al and a lot of others.

The Point, Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 400 psi
Max depth: 60 feet
Waves: Pretty flat with a few rolling swells
Visibility: Eight to 15 feet
Water Temperature: 52 degrees, 60 degrees towards the Cove
Air Temperature: 72 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 35 minutes

We dropped down a boat’s anchor line and found the statue.

We stayed together pretty well in what turned out to be a routine and uneventful dive.

Uneventful until all 12 of us exited.

We all walked to the bridge at the Cove that was taped off with yellow “Caution” tape; some guy was standing there and told us the trail was closed and we would have to either walk along the rocky shore or get back in the water and swim to where we came from.

Nice Bob asked, “So you aren’t familiar with this coast line, are you?”

“I’m the one who built this beach,” he replied.

“You mean the beach that keeps washing away every time we have a big rain?”

“Well, yeah.”

“How about we just walk on the side of the trail, that way we don’t interfere with your work?” Nice Bob asked.

He agreed, but was visibly really pissed – so pissed I think he called one of the Terranea suit people, but nobody else said anything to us.

I’m not sure if blocking the trail breaks the California beach access laws, but at least we got our dive in; but that guy was a real asshole if he really thought we were going to walk on the rocks or swim back to the Point.

My long time friend and dive buddy Nick – when he used to dive – showed up with his son Ben and girlfriend Jill for the debrief.

Reverend Al gave Ben a sea urchin shell, which he promptly smashed on the ground.

The group…

An exciting, but short video of today’s events…