Here again is my once a year opportunity to dive underneath the Redondo Beach Pier and collect what people have dropped over the side for the last 12 months.

For a few hours, they prohibit fishing off the pier and let SCUBA divers clean the “garbage” underneath.

I arrived a little late, so my dive buddy TwinDuct and I were one of the last divers to enter the water and head for the pier.

Upon entry, a wave knocked me flat on my ass, and to make things worse, I couldn’t get up – a wave would hit me, and I would try and get up, or at least try and float out to waist level water, but I ended up flailing in the surf zone until TwinDuct and my arch Divevets rival Airborne helped me to my feet.

Thank God there were no witnesses or pictures, as I did not look very macho.

We swam out and headed for the pier.

We descended and went towards the pier.

Logged SCUBA Dive #389

Dove with TwinDuct
Off of and Under Redondo Pier, Redondo Beach, CA

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 800 psi
Max depth: 70 feet
Waves: Big in the surf zone, calm once out
Visibility: 15 feet at best
Water Temperature: 62 degrees, colder at depth
Total Bottom Time: About 40 minutes

We passed over a community of sand dollars; I’ve always wondered, where the hell do sand dollars come from and what is their purpose in the ecology, anyway?

It looked like all the good stuff was already picked up – in previous years, guns, hoop nets, a skull and a variety of weird stuff has been found.

All around the pier, the remains of dead sea creatures litter the ocean floor.

We headed South and then down the canyon – there’s usually trash there.

We came across a baby electric ray.

TwinDuct found a cool snorkel; I found a fishing knife and nice diving mask.

I thought I was narced or something, but TwinDuct confirmed what I saw – a duck, swimming around our area at 70 feet underwater.

I couldn’t turn my camera on quick enough to catch a picture of the duck.

We went back up the canyon and did one last pass under the pier before heading in.

I made a perfect exit, except for tripping on my bag in six inches of water.

After being told to crawl by a DM, I just got up and walked ashore – now that is macho.

TwinDuct and I display our bags of trash.

Less trash was collected than ever before, and nothing super cool was pulled up either.

What amazed me, was what was given to the people who cleaned the surface of the beach…

Everyone got a plastic bag to put trash in – the liberals hate plastic bags so much, they’ve pretty much banned them all over the South Bay and Long Beach area – but they give the clean up crew evil plastic bags?

Amazing! What a double standard!

My thanks goes to Heal and Bay and Dive N Surf for this event.

Instructor Ed is back in town from his cross country trucking career!

Sitting in a truck for weeks at a time makes it hard to fit back into his wetsuit.

Ed met a couple of his friends to go free diving.

The water looked a little rough – some chose The Point, a few others, including myself, chose to dive The Cove.

Logged SCUBA Dive #388

Dove with Air Force Chris and Dennis G.
Off the Cove, Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 700 psi
Max depth: 40 feet
Waves: Slightly surgy
Visibility: 2-12 feet at best
Water Temperature: 54 degrees
Air Temperature: 75 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 45 minutes

Dennis G. and Not New Chris (from now on referred to as “Air Force Chris”) and I, made an easy entrance into the water.

Instructor Ed and his two friends went off on their own to free dive; I told them, “Don’t shoot the big fish with the bubbles coming out of it.”

We swam to the edge of 120 reef and descended.

I was 10 feet away from Chris and Dennis, but by the time I reached the bottom, they were nowhere to be found.

I looked around… I did a full 360…the visibility absolutely sucked.

I surfaced to look for their bubbles, but looking for the bubbles of two experienced divers can be challenging; it was a futile effort.

I re-submerged and went towards 120 reef; sure enough, through the absolutely crappy visibility, I found them…

I made it a point to just follow Chris, that way if I got lost, I could blame him.

At best, we reached pockets of 12 feet of clarity; at worst it was a total silt out.

But, when the visibility is low, you just need to go macro…

After about 30 minutes, Chris surfaced to get a bearing…

Dennis and I waited… and waited… we surfaced.

Chris had descended, but couldn’t relocate us; we all met at the surface.

“This vis sucks,” Chis said.

Nobody argued.

We re-submerged and swam to the “Garden.”

Visibility got worse; we eventually surface swam to our destination and then descended again.

The “Garden” as it is known, is to the right of the cove, facing the ocean.

Visibility wasn’t that much better there either; we ran in to the group coming from The Point.

Everyone made a perfect and professional exit.

Visibility coming from The Point was reported to be 15 feet at maximum.

From left to right – Instructor Ed, Moo, Shawn and me.

Moo is the person, 20 plus years ago, who got instructor Ed into SCUBA diving.

Ed gave me some of the gear that I still use, but I found out that Moo gave Ed some of that equipment.

Apparently, my console was originally Moo’s – he bought it new in the late 1970s and was amazed it is still around and that I am still using it.

Debriefing was traditional – hot dogs, garlic bread, mango, chips and the King Of Beer!