SAN DIEGO – Thousands of jumbo flying squid — aggressive 5-foot-long sea monsters with razor-sharp beaks and toothy tentacles — have invaded the shallow waters off San Diego, spooking scuba divers and washing up dead on tourist-packed beaches.

The carnivorous calamari, which can grow up to 100 pounds, came up from the depths last week and swarms of them roughed up unsuspecting divers. Some divers report tentacles enveloping their masks and yanking at their cameras and gear.

Stories of too-close encounters with the alien-like cephalopods have chased many veteran divers out of the water and created a whirlwind of excitement among the rest, who are torn between their personal safety and the once-in-a-lifetime chance to swim with the deep-sea giants.

The so-called Humboldt squid are native to the deep waters off Mexico, where they have been known to attack humans and are nicknamed “red devils” for their rust-red coloring and mean streak. Those who dive with them there chum the water with bait and sometimes get in a metal cage or wear chain mail to avoid being lashed by tentacles.

“I wouldn’t go into the water with them for the same reason I wouldn’t walk into a pride of lions on the Serengeti,” said Mike Bear, a local diver. “For all I know, I’m missing the experience of a lifetime.”

The complete article can be found here.

An MSN video about these squid can be found here.

I’m dealing with some other issues aside from diving, so I’ve been dry for the last couple weeks.

The regular Sunday morning crowd here has been nonexistent the last two weekends.

Apparently there was a birthday party here yesterday, and Father’s Day last weekend might explain it.

It was extremely low tide.

Out of the dozens of regular faces, Military Bob was the only diver that I recognized; he dove the 120 reef solo as nobody else had shown up.

“Eight to ten feet at the very best and the swells are picking up,” was the report.

A few new faces dove Terranea.

Terranea Resort is now offering kayaking from the rocks.

Apparently, Pacific Wilderness will soon be offering “SCUBA Discovery” classes here.

That will be really interesting as the only place at the resort to safely submerge someone who has never been diving would be the pool; the rocks would simply make it too dangerous.

I debriefed with Military Bob for a good hour or more; no hassles so far, but we’ve all kept extremely low key.

Actually, we take better care of this place than the guests; we clean up after ourselves, but the guests leave empty martini glasses and cigar butts all over the property – I guess the “help” is expected to clean up after them.