With high surf advisories and the forecast for more rain later in the week, turnout for Sunday Services was low.

Amazingly, I arrived right at 8 AM with a few other divers in the lot.

I was greeted with, “Don’t even bother, break the beer out.”

Malaga Cove, Honeymoon Cove, Christmas Tree Cove and apparently Terranea was completely blown out.

Conditions at Vet’s Park were reported as, “Surf at the shoreline with five to 10 feet silty visibility.”

Not New Chris apparently has shipped off to Afghanistan – we were going to throw him a going away party, but I guess we’ll have to double our efforts on the welcome home bash.

We made our way down to the Cove, carrying our breakfast.

It was high tide, but it was obvious that the strong rains had rearranged our familiar rocks.

There were strong waves crashing against the beach; the water looked pretty muddy.

We made our way to the Point.

The regular crew stood around, trying to get someone to gear up so we would have something to watch.

Not even the most dim-witted diver would dare an entry at the Point; we were satisfied with just watching the surf pound the boulders.

And yes, the storms did quite a job rearraging the boulders here, too.

Even the pelicans stayed out of the water.

Crazy Ivan, Me and Military Bob toasted to better diving times.

In the distance, it looks as if the cliff was shortened by the rain.

Some portions of the trail are still closed – we couldn’t figure out which parts.

We debriefed in the parking lot for a bit with a new Divevets member, Chipper.

Chipper drove all the way from Hesperia to do a short dive at Vets and then debrief with us – now that’s dedication!

When we drank all of his beer in 15 minutes, and when he didn’t complain, we knew he had passed initiation.

They must offer some sort of martial arts class here at Terranea?

We will have to see what this week brings – I can’t lobster dive again until I get a new license; something that’s impossible for me to do until this Friday.

Professional Debriefer Paul documents the conditions here:

To view this video on YouTube, click here.

There is suppose to be three storm fronts moving in, which probably accounted for the light diver turnout at Terranea Resort.

The water looked a little green and the surf zone had three to four foot swells between the calms.

“It’s rough but doable,” I was told.

Rather than prove that I can make it in and make it out alive, and hopefully not hurt, for a dive that was sure to be low vis, I decided to start debriefing early.

Seven divers, in three teams made it out of The Cove.

Instructor Ed and Crazy Ivan joined me at the Cove for a red cup breakfast.

The first divers emerged, reporting seven to ten feet of visibility.

A couple of free divers entered during our debriefing period.

The tourists felt safe, since I wore my German Police shirt.

The second group emerged from SCUBA diving – “You didn’t miss much, I would say five to seven feet at best..”

There was a skeleton debriefing crew – Crazy Ivan, Instructor Ed, TwinDuct, Eric and me.

We broke out the ghetto grill to cook some spicy sausages, but nobody had any matches.

After 20 minutes of trying to flame tissue paper with a car lighter and rubbing two sticks together, it looked like we were going to go hungry.

I dug down to the third layer of treasures in the Duster’s trunk, and found a book with four matches still in it.

I split them in half giving us eight.

We barbecued at a secret, undisclosed location.

Debriefing wrapped up a little afternoon.

Instructor Ed suggested that we go to the best and friendliest bar in San Pedro – Rebel’s Cocktails.

Instructor Ed tells Eric and TwinDuct how fat I was before he taught me to dive and made them both promise to never quit SCUBA diving.

It is suppose to be stormy all this week – massive rain, thunder and lightning.

It doesn’t sound like I will be getting in much lobster hunting in this month, but I hope to hit the end of the season hard.

The thing is, after all these storms, where are the lobsters going to be?

Deeper, I know, but how deep?