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

Night Diving, Solo Diving, Lobster Hunting – So Cal Buddy Diving with the Divevets off of the Island Diver boat

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 90 feet or so
Waves: Pretty Flat
Visibility: 15 feet, but dive bombing sea lions stirred the bottom
Water Temperature: Cold
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes
Lobsters caught: 3

The boat a couple weeks ago was canceled due to conditions; but another boat that went out a few days before came back full of lobsters.

We pulled out of the deck a little after 7 PM.

While slowly moving through the wake free zone of the harbor, the Captain spotted a HUGE fish floating on the surface.

He turned around and his deck hand gaffed it and dragged it aboard.

It was a 110 pound Grupper.

I asked the deckhand, “What are you going to do with it?”

“It’s still breathing, so we’re going to fillet it,” he said.

“Isn’t that like eating road kill?” I responded.

“No, he’s still alive, a boat probably just hit him,” he responded.

The divers were wondering if we should throw it overboard to attract lobsters during our surface interval; but we were just joking.

I was the first one off and cried as the 54 degree water ran into my wetsuit.

I slowly went down the anchor line and went South; I stayed mostly in 80 feet of water.

After five minutes I had caught two lobsters and thought I wouldn’t have a problem limiting on this dive.

At 10 minutes I turned around and went back over the barren sand and pipes and caught my third one of the night.

I surfaced slowly, making a three minute safety stop at 20 feet.

When I broke surface, I could not see the boat, but I soon realized that a current had taken me further South when I was surfacing and the boat lights blended with the city lights on shore.

I had a nice 80 yard surface swim back to the boat.

A group of sea lions circled and bombed the divers.

The rest of the divers followed in with a moderate amount of small, but legal lobsters.

Veteran’s Park
Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 90 feet
Waves: Flat!
Visibility: 20 feet, some silt
Water Temperature: Sort of cold
Total Bottom Time: 45 minutes

Nothing like a nice exercise dive in December water.

Dive N Surf and Divevets were having their annual Christmas tree dive and toy run.

Since I didn’t sign their waiver and didn’t know a lot of people there, I decided to not “officially” be part of the group.

I just wanted to dive and observe.

I entered the water a few minutes ahead of the Christmas group and dove down to 20 feet heading West.

I came across the Christmas tree that they had anchored earlier and preceded down the shelf to water that was only slightly chillier.

My ancient console served me faithfully.

I headed West slowly making it down to 85 feet; I turned around after reaching 1800 psi.

I navigated to the “monument” or “blocks” that rest at 65 feet just over the shelf.

Every time I see this place, more junk has been added.

Some kind of sound board was the newest edition.

Back up the shelf I went and ran in to….

…The orange traffic cone!

I was so excited!

I trolled North a ways and then ran back in to the underwater Christmas party which was in full swing.

Divers decorate the underwater Christmas tree.

The photographer and crew get ready for pictures with Santa.

Last minute decorations…

Santa adjusts his garb.

Divers pose with Santa.

I exited just off the stairs and quickly packed up.

For some reason I didn’t stick around… maybe because of the lack of faces that I’m used to talking to.

Next time I’ll have a few beers before heading over.

A van parked behind me with a bumper sticker that really has more truth than most people want to admit…