Logged SCUBA Dive #318

Secret Location: 4f 6e 20 6f 72 20 76 65 72 79 20 63 6c 6f 73 65 20 74 6f 20 74 68 65 20 66 61 72 6d 20 74 68 61 74 20 67 72 6f 77 73 20 70 69 70 65 73, Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 600 psi
Max depth: 80 feet
Waves: Pretty flat
Visibility: 15-20 feet
Temperature: Maybe 60 degrees or so
Total Bottom Time: About 25 minutes minutes

Instructor John was unable to dive during the week, so I’ve been dry for over seven days   now.

My dive computer needs batteries and I stripped the screw hole trying to open the battery compartment; it’s back to diving with the tables until I can figure out how to repair it.

We left the dock a little after 7 PM; it was a stag boat, with eight divers plus the Captain.

We anchored at one of our secret spots that should provide us with a mega supply of bugs this time of year.

I was one of the first ones overboard and under.

I descended down the anchor chain and noticed that the anchor was actually dangling 10 feet above the ocean floor; there was no current, but I was wondering if this would be an impromptu drift dive.

I found out later that the Captain gave the anchor more line after a while.

I had about 20 minutes of bottom time and searched as fast as I could for as many lobsters as I could.

I missed grabbing a pretty large bug that was hiding in a pipe; I continued on …

My light hit a HUGE lobster at 80 feet, just crawling along the bottom!

I angled my light away, approached it and pinned it!

I couldn’t get a grip on it with just one hand, so I dropped my light and put the bug in a Jiu Jitsu style choke hold with my other arm, it’s tail flailed and hit me in the nuts.

I was able to wrap my other arm around it’s torso and hold it close to my chest while I opened my spring loaded lobster liberation bag.

After a brief struggle, the lobster tired and crawled into my bag, accepting the fate that awaited him.

At 1200 psi I started heading back, seeing only shorts after that.

I surfaced fairly close to the boat and was the second one back.

Mirek did a five minute dive before calling it; he said, “I didn’t like what I saw, so I headed back to not waste time.”

I worked my upper body strength by doing lobster curls.

The rest of the divers trickled in; Dan caught two legal bugs while everyone else got skunked.

Dan weighed my monster bug in at 5.3 pounds.

It’s on to our second spot…

Logged Dive #316

Secret Location: 53 6f 6d 65 77 68 65 72 65 20 6e 65 61 72 20 74 68 65 20 66 61 72 6d 20 74 68 61 74 20 6f 6e 6c 79 20 72 61 69 73 65 73 20 70 69 70 65 73 2e, Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 700 psi
Max depth: 90 feet
Waves: Pretty flat
Visibility: 20 feet
Temperature: Getting Pretty Cold!
Total Bottom Time: About 20 minutes

Having secretly bribed a boat captain for these GPS coordinates, Instructor John and I took the mighty zodiac to check out a secret deep lobster hunting spot off of Redondo Beach.

It took us 15 minutes to get to the approximate spot and 20 minutes trolling around to find the exact spot; life was easier after Instructor John figured out he was accidentally in reverse for a while.

We dropped anchor in 85 feet of water; I briefed him on where it gets really deep, really fast.

But, I also said, “We are here at the exact coordinates according to your GPS, but we won’t really know if we’re here until we descend.”

We both submerged at the same time, but I had to take my time equalizing; by the time I made it to the ocean floor at 85 feet, John had already taken off to the East, I went West.

I looked at my computer and it was off.

I turned it back on and it wouldn’t turn on; maybe the batteries?

OK, back to “time approximation” and using the dive tables.

The ground looked familiar as far as the contour, but I never ran across some of the landmark pipes and concrete boxes; if we weren’t at the exact spot, we were close.

I saw one short lobster in 85 feet of water; other than that, it was a pretty bland and uneventful dive.

There was no current, the swells were flat and the visibility was good; I surfaced pretty close to the zodiac and boarded empty handed.

I spotted John in the distance making a long surface swim back.

Once he climbed on board, he said, “My computer is screwed up, it still thinks I’m at 15 feet.”

Two computers broken on the same dive?

Is this some sort of “Dive Computer Burmuda Triangle?”

Instructor John caught three lobsters in 110 feet of water – at least that’s what his screwed up computer told him; I would guess he didn’t get deeper than 90, maybe 100.

We pulled anchor and tried another secret spot off of Palos Verdes.