Malaga Cove, Palos Verdes Estates, CA

Night time lobster hunting with Instructor John and student Ron T as part of an Advanced SCUBA class.

In With: 3400 psi
Out With: 2200 psi
Max depth: 15 feet
Waves: 1 foot, very calm
Visibility: 10 feet but silty
Water Temperature: Cool
Total Bottom Time: 25 minutes
Notable Event: This dive just really sucked!

We met around 6:30 PM, geared up and walked down about 7:10 PM.

I briefed Ron and John about what I knew of the area.

John took us out on the South side of the pool building; that really sucked.

It was extremely low tide and we ended up crawling over 20 yards of shallow rock before being able to sort of float.

Once we were out, we started hunting for bugs.

I was the only one to be able to submerge.

John apparently forgot his weight belt; we found it later on shore.

He wasn’t sure if he accidentally dropped it.

Ron wasn’t properly weighted for such a shallow dive.

Ron and I separated from John for a while.

I caught a few lobsters, but they were all short.

We were only under water about 20 minutes, maybe 25.

Ron and I called the dive and started going in.

John was coming in to look for his weight belt.

We crawled back up over the plain of shallow rocks.

This dive sucked.

This was a jinxed dive.

I discovered the next day that I left my fins down on the rocks!

I went back the next day, 20 hours later, and they were still there!

Phew!

Veteran’s Park
Redondo Beach, CA

Dove with Instructor John and another student Ron T. as part of an Advanced diving class.

This was the navigation dive.

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 1200 psi
Max depth: 40 feet
Waves: 1-3 feet
Visibility: 20 feet plus, fantastic!
Water Temperature: felt warm
Total Bottom Time: 35 minutes

We entered the water around 8:00 AM from the stairs by the showers.

We headed out and hovered over the bucket of cement.

Visibility was great! We could see the bucket in 26 feet of water.

We submerged and performed the task of taking our BCD jackets off and putting them back on.

We then navigated a square.

Ron and I alternated navigating and timing – three minutes North, right turn, three minutes East, right turn, three minutes South, right turn, then three minutes West until we hit the bucket of cement.

We ended up being about 15 feet off.

Ron then went three minutes West and three minutes back to the bucket.

I did the same except going South and then North.

Easy exit for me and John; Ron got tossed a little.