Happy New Year!

I woke up sort of late, from trying to sleep through the New Year’s gunshots in the Long Beach Ghetto.

I arrived about 8:30 AM, and instead of taking a look at the conditions myself, I relied on the judgement of the experts.

Apparently, it was a little surgy in The Cove and a little rough but “doable” at The Point.

I decided to head off The Cove with Dennis G. and go right.

Logged SCUBA Dive #399

Dove with Dennis G.
Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA USA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 1000 psi
Max depth: 47 feet
Waves: Surgy in the surf zone
Visibility: 10 feet to shitty
Water Temperature: 54 degrees
Air Temperature: 74 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 45 minutes

The entrance was easy.

I followed Dennis, surface swimming to about half way to The Point.

I wondered why we didn’t enter off The Point, if we were going to swim all that way?

We submerged in about 20 feet of water and swam for about 15 minutes in the direction of The Point, making it down to 47 feet at the deepest.

Visibility was shit – 10 feet at the best, but I’ll take 10 feet over 5 feet, any day.

The only decent picture that turned out was of Dennis…

However, I must say, it was a nice, but green, dive!

We turned back and made an uneventful exit at The Cove.

We saw a few fisherman – they probably have no idea that this part of Palos Verdes is a fishing preserve.

I’ve been trying to find out exactly where the fishing preserve begins and ends – from what I’ve heard it’s from Point Fermin to the Light House at Palos Verdes.

I’m not an environmental nazi, but having seen the fish decline over ten years of diving here, I can’t really object to the fishing ban.

I haven’t even bothered to spear fish for the last several years here, because there’s nothing to shoot.

Making it back to the parking lot, two dry divers inquired about the conditions – they each had lost one fin upon entry, while getting pounded at The Point.

Apparently, some in the group made some pretty hairy entrances – I think Dennis had our dive plan right.

And for all the bravery that it took to enter off The Point, the reward was visibility that was worse than our dive – 8 feet was the report.

I broke in our new ghetto grill by turning the heat all the way up, to burn off the Lead based Chinese paint.

I filled the new grill with the old lava rocks from the previous ghetto grill, to keep the flavor consistent.

Beer Brats, Beer, Jello Shots and a New Year’s Champagne toast ended the debriefing.

May 2012 be a great year for everyone!

To watch this video on YouTube, click here.

This is my first Pagan dive in many years.

So, what is a Pagan Dive?

It is an excuse for anyone who dives, but doesn’t have anything to do on Christmas morning.

In this case, it’s our regularly scheduled Sunday Services dive, just disguised as the Pagan Dive.

I got to the dive site a little early and Mirek and I scoped the conditions out.

They looked fine, except for a few breaking waves at shore.

At 9 AM, the rest of the group showed up, minus Donna the Hot Biker Chick, who had a scheduled appearance this morning.

After Reverend Al checked The Point, he decided to be safe and enter off The Cove – the waves were picking up.

Our group made an uneventful entrance.

Logged SCUBA Dive #398

Sort of Dove with TwinDuct, Dennis G., Richard The Brit, Reverend Al and Son
Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA USA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 1500 psi
Max depth: 42 feet
Waves: Choppy and the shore line with a few surprises
Visibility: 8 feet of shit
Water Temperature: 57 degrees
Air Temperature: 74 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 23 minutes

This is my first beach dive with my new camera – I was a little nervous that it would get lost or smashed on entry or exit, even though I had it on a leash.

We kicked out through the silt in The Cove, and it looked like it would clear a little.

We all dropped at the tip of the finger, outside Pigeon Shit cave.

Visibility sucked!

I tried following the group, but was messing around with my camera and lost them in the silt soup fairly early in the dive.

I trolled around, but decided to head back in after 20 minutes.

TwinDuct and Richard The Brit were already on shore.

The waves were picking up, but I thought I waited long enough.

I took my fins off – a wave pushed me towards shore – I stood up and began walking – then another wave hit.

No problems, until the wave started to recede and I lost my footing.

I fell, and another wave came in and I got tossed, losing a fin in the process as I reached for my camera that had gotten scraped against the rocks, along with everything else.

I also had an audience watching me from shore – luckily PDP with his video camera was not there, nor any other diver.

I regained my footing and made it to the dry rocks.

I looked back and thought, “Well, this is the first time I ever lost a fin in almost 400 dives, 280 of them beach dives.”

The tips are starting to crack, so I guess this is God telling me to get a newer pair of fins.

I looked back at the surf zone – a big wave crashed against the shore, and as it receded, there was my lost fin, stranded in a formation of rocks!

I quickly launched a successful rescue operation before the next wave came in.

Now on to the debrief…

Richard the Brit brought some kind of flaming cake – flam-bay (something like that) that was a bitch to light.

Mirek brought some Tequila; I asked him, “I thought Poles drank Vodka, not Tequila?”

“We are closer to Mexico here,” Mirek said.

I broke out the ghetto grill for barbecued hot dogs and pineapple.

This is the last time we’re using the ghetto grill, before replacing it – the rusted grill has one huge flame in the middle, with no heat around it.

Yet another fun day of diving and debriefing has all been captured again with the following video.

It is in 3D – if you don’t have the glasses or hate 3D, you can turn the 3D off using the controls at the lower right.

If you have anaglyphic glasses, you can chose the color settings using the 3D icon, also.

To view this video on YouTube, click here.