Veteran’s Park
Redondo Beach, CA

Dove With Nick

In With: 2700 psi
Out With: 1100 psi
Max depth: 79 feet
Waves: 1 foot slow swells, basically flat as a lake
Visibility: 8-10 feet
Water Temperature: About 55 degrees
Total Bottom Time: about 35 minutes

It’s time to do some time underwater.

Ed and Nick were supposed to come with me, but neither answered my call at 7 AM.

My girlfriend Jane and I made it down to Redondo Beach about 8:45 AM; Nick was there; I didn’t here any word from Ed.

About 15 divers were gearing up in the parking lot; reports were that conditions were “as flat as a lake” and that visibility “had been pretty good in the last few days.”

Nick and I geared up and walked down to the water’s edge.

Nick just walked in; so my debate whether to do a “figure four” on his shoulder or just walk in and put my fins on was already decided.

I defogged my mask with spit and ocean water and walked in to waist deep water where I fumbled with my fins to put them on.

The latches on my fins get stuck and it makes them difficult to just put them on.

We swam out and submerged in 20 feet of water and went West.

The agreed upon dive plan was to go no deeper than 80 feet and head back up the shelf when the first person reached 1500 psi.

At 30 feet we felt the cold lick of the thermalcline, then there it was…

…the darkness over the shelf that tells every diver, “Hey, this darkness means that you’re about to go over the shelf.”

We slowly proceeded down the shelf, the cold shooting through my old wetsuit; too bad I couldn’t pee.

We slowly went to 79 feet, Nick called a “hold here” – my gauge said we had a few more feet to go.

We went North slowly, looking at the small Halibut, occasional starfish and various trash that litter the almost barren Redondo shelf landscape.

We turned around and started heading South.

We came across a fish – Nick thought it was a Moray Eel – that had buried itself up to its neck in sand.

I had never seen that before and thought that it may be a grunion laying eggs?

There’s supposed to be an artificial reef that local divers have been building one cinder block at a time, but we couldn’t find it.

We went up the shelf and I dead reckoned where the hell to go to wind up at the stairs.

We stayed at 30 feet or so to out-gas and do our safety stop.

I started digging in the sand to see what I could find – a muscle shell.

We continued East, back to shore.

We surfaced at 15 feet, swam a little and took our fins off to walk ashore.

There’s a really sandy ledge before you get to shore that most divers trip on.

We cracked a few beers and packed in the parking lot.

I asked Nick if he was interested in deep diving the Palawan next weekend.

He said that without the proper training he doesn’t feel comfortable going that deep and he’s afraid of getting narced.

I asked, “You’ve never been narced?”

“No.”

“I was narced on our first night dive when I started going the wrong way.”

“Thanks for telling me that now; I thought you were just confused,” Nick said.

Ed called me and said that he got a little too preoccupied yesterday taking care of some bar business, but he would meet us down at Quality Seafood.

Beer, crabs, muscles and sea snails later, we left via Palos Verdes.

We stopped by Long Point to checkout the scene.

Dive Bum Don and Drysuit Greg were there enjoying the afternoon with a few beers.

There’s suppose to be a barbecue party here next weekend; I plan to be here.

The Palos Verdes Underwater Arch off the Island Diver
Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA

Dove With Juan Twenty and Drysuit Greg

In With: 2200 psi
Out With: 900 psi
Max depth: 55 feet
Waves: Minor chop
Visibility: 10-15 feet but pretty silty
Water Temperature: About 55 degrees
Total Bottom Time: about 35 minutes

After a carefully timed surface interval – almost an hour, we were ready to explore the Palos Verdes Underwater Arch.

It’s located off the shore at the very end of Hawthorne Blvd.

I had no idea where anything was.

The Captain pointed toward shore and said, “the arch is over there.”

I asked Juan if I could follow him.

Not only because I didn’t know where to go and what to look for, I was also following his dive computer’s profile.

We all submerged to about 55 feet and followed Juan to the edge of a reef.

There was a lot of silt in the water, not too much color.

After a few minutes of maneuvering, we came across the arch.

If the vis would have been better, I might have been more impressed, but it was a novel place to be.

I had not even known that this arch existed, and I grew up in this area.

Juan took a picture of Greg and I going through the arch; I did the same for Juan.

I would have to estimate that the arch lies in about 50 feet of water at the base and comes up to 30 feet or so at the top.

Photo By Juan Twenty

There’s enough room for three divers to squeeze through at once.

I wish the visibility was better.

This is a place that looks pretty pristine.

Not many divers have been through here compared to Malaga Cove and Long Point.

We followed Juan through and back around the arch where we saw a sun star — a starfish with many legs.

I believe that’s the first time I’ve seen one.

After another trek swimming over sand we all motioned to ascend.

We sort of blew off the safety stop — we had no location perception, so we didn’t know if we were being swept away by a current.

Upon surfacing we had a short 20 yard swim back to the boat against mild current.

I broke open my stash of beer and started handing them out.

Juan said, “You may be the only one drinking. We’re going to help repair the dock when we get back.”

I was warned about such an activity beforehand in an email.

Having dove in a harbor before and remembering how absolutely obnoxious it was – the water was murky and tasted like diesel fuel and swamp water – I made sure to consume as much beer as possible so I could only be deemed capable of shore support.

Photo By Juan Twenty

We took a group shot after the dives for insurance purposes.

The Captain called ahead and had pizza and beer waiting for our return.

I helped lower buoys and untangle and feed the air lines to the SCUBA crew.

I also documented the episode with Juan’s camera…

Divers wait in nasty harbor water for a float.

The buoys are carefully lowered.

One of the divers told me, “the pizza and beer are for the people doing the real work.”

“Great!” I thought.

I helped myself!

I stayed until about 5 PM doing what I could to help above the water.

After a while though, I thought I would be more productive drinking beer and staying out of the way.