It’s just 11 days until the close of Lobster Season.

Chipper mentioned to me, “At the beginning of the season, all the hunters are so happy, but towards the end of the season, everyone is glad to soon be able to start enjoying day time diving again.”

Yeah, true, even though I haven’t been out much this season.

The Island Diver has been bought by Dive N Surf, but still docks at Rocky Point in Redondo Beach.

This was an $80, light pack lobster boat consisting of Chipper, Nice Bob, the other Jeff and me – with Dive Master Tony and Captain Toros as crew.

Since the Dive N Surf acquisition, the Dive Master no longer does guided underwater tours and actually stays on the boat; everyone gets a buddy to jump off the boat with, too.

The ride out was rough, and besides one tug boat, no other ocean craft were seen outside the break wall.

Some people, who never get sick, got sea sick; luckily, with me being macho, I was not one of them.

We anchored in a secret spot, and we jumped in.

Wanting first grabs, I was the first to submerge, but I had to take my time getting down to the anchor at 85 feet, and someone beat me to the floor.

Logged SCUBA Dive #464

Same Ocean Diving With Chipper, Nice Bob and the other Jeff

Secret Location: 4f 66 66 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 53 70 61 6e 69 73 68 20 52 65 64 20 42 65 61 63 68 2c 20 74 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 20 61 20 66 61 72 6d 20 74 68 61 74 20 67 72 6f 77 73 20 6f 6e 6c 79 20 70 69 70 65 73 2e
Redondo Beach, CA, USA

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 86 feet
Waves: A lot of surface chop, some surge below
Visibility: 10 feet, a lot of silt
Water Temperature: 64 degrees
Air Temperature: 68 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 26 minutes

I didn’t want to go too deep – you can get to more than 140 feet if you aren’t careful – so I went East.

That was a bad mistake.

I ran across some structure and pinned my first lobster on top of the sand.

I didn’t even bother measuring it; it was short, and released unharmed.

At 1600 psi, I turned around, went past the anchor and ran in to one of the main parts of the artificial reef.

I caught three bugs, two were short, the other was just barely legal – I kept the legal one.

There are lobsters, I just went the wrong way on this dive, and now I was almost about to go into decompression mode with 600 psi left.

Fuck it – I headed to the surface, slowly.

I was afraid of being carried by a current, and didn’t know where the anchor line was, so I skipped my safety stop – I don’t like doing that.

When I broke the surface, but before swimming to the boat, I remeasured my lobster – it had shrunk at the surface.

I took the lobster, pointed to the direction of home, and released it, unharmed – but it was probably a little psychologically damaged.

Chipper ended up with one bug, Nice Bob with another – a total of two bugs and four divers on this dive.

Details on our second dive will follow shortly.

February 2, 2014*

We slowly chugged from the Eureka Oil Rig to the Ellen and Ellie Oil Rigs.

We were to dive Ellen after an hour surface interval.

I was one of the first divers over board; I jumped off, into the water and popped back up very buoyant.

I felt around my waist… Fuck, I couldn’t feel my weight belt. I yelled to the Dive Master, that I forgot my belt.

“Where is it, and what does it look like?” the D.M. yelled.

“It’s in the middle of the boat… black weight belt with the frayed edges!”

How could I have forgotten my weight belt?

I wasn’t that rushed.

I made a second feel around my waist, but a little higher… fuck, I was wearing it.

I tried yelling to the Dive Master, but he didn’t hear me.

Four minutes later, he came back empty handed…

I yelled, “You’re going to hate me even more, but yeah, I am wearing it!”

I believe he said a few words of relief, but I couldn’t really hear what he was saying; he waved at me to swim under the rig.

Bringing whole scallops on the boat, and now having him look for a weight belt that I was wearing… yeah, I should tip him at least an asshole fee.

I swam under the rig; the swells were big enough to where you could hit your head on one of the supports if you weren’t being careful.

I submerged.

Logged SCUBA Dive #461

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

Ellen Oil Rig
Between Catalina and San Pedro, CA, USA

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 600 psi
Max depth: 111 feet
Waves: Slightly choppy
Visibility: 40 to 60 feet!
Water Temperature: 59 degrees
Air Temperature: 69 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 22 minutes

This was my first time diving the Ellen Oil Rig, but this rig seems bigger than Eureka rig.

Scallop hunting was over, so now it was camera time…

A seal bomber us for a bit.

Looking up from 50 feet.

It was a nice, 20 minute dive or so.

I made it back to the boat without problems.

I tipped the crew extra for being kind of a pain in the ass and enjoyed some beer and tequila on the short ride back.

*Posting has been delayed due to the Super Bowl, the Super Bowl Party and the needed recovery from the events.