Logged SCUBA Dive #332

Old Marineland, aka Terranea Resort

Dove With Not So New Chris

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 1400 psi
Max depth: 42 feet
Waves: Choppy at the shore, but very manageable
Visibility: 5 to 10 feet
Temperature: 57 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 40 minutes

I was going to call today, based on the dive report from yesterday, but waking up at 6 AM, I thought, “I have nothing better to do than to check the conditions out, at least.”

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX BOTTOMTIME!

Max has shown how diving can make a 50 year old person look as though he is only 49!

Just kidding!

He looks a lot younger!

Anyway, from the coast it looked pretty calm, so Chris and I went to the main gate of Terranea resort.

The Security Guard scoped us out and gave us the standard lecture, “You guys can go down and dive, but have to go straight down to the beach… you can’t drive around the property or walk around the buildings and any trash you make, you have to take out with you.”

We agreed.

Turn out was extremely low – Me, Not So New Chris, Todd and “Moderate Bob.”

Chris and I went off the cove and swam towards 120 reef and submerged.

The vis was actually a lot better than I had expected – five to 10 feet…

My camera was having problems – it froze and stuck on certain settings that made the menu loop.

After fixing the stuck button with my knife, I started to have some kind of weird problem where my camera kept freezing – that was the bad news.

The good news – there wasn’t anything spectacular to take a picture of.

My camera stopped working after this great looking picture.

I probably need to lubricate the camera housing and change the batteries.

Chris and I toured 120 reef, spotting a few short lobsters, Sunstars, Sheephead and Garibaldi.

We never lost one another and it was an enjoyable and uneventful dive; we headed in after 40 minutes to an easy exit.

We had managed to park down by the pool at the sea side.

Debriefing was purely of the liquid kind and lasted a couple of hours – there weren’t enough people to warrant breaking out the grill.

Logged SCUBA Dive #328

Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Dove with Not So New Chris and Chris From Michigan

In With: 3200 psi
Out With: 600 psi
Max depth: 45 feet
Waves: Minor swells, but pretty darn flat
Visibility: 10 feet+
Temperature: 55 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 60 minutes

Still a little hung over from attending the Monster Truck event at Anaheim Stadium last night,  I headed to Old Marineland for my traditional Sunday morning dive.

Arriving fashionably late,  I geared up and joined Not So New Chris and Chris From Michigan on a dive to 120 reef.

A lot of the regulars were out of town, on boats, or chained to their wives.

Some how, some way, the nice, flat and fairly sandy portions of the cove are now rock piles.

The coast changes every time there’s a storm, but there hasn’t been one for weeks.

Chris and Chris off of Terranea Resort.

Vis was crystal clear in the cove, but dropped to 10 feet at 120 reef.

A Sunstar crawls along the sand, looking for a home.

We followed not so new Chris on his photo hunt.

A Lingcod?

Yeah, I think so.

A starfish assaults a group of sea urchins.

A Green anemone next to a sea urchin.

Every time I dive here, I always run across a reef formation that I’ve never seen before.

We ran across the small arch.

Heading back in, we lost New So New Chris, but he surfaced shortly after we did.

Even though the beach is a lot rockier than previously, we all made uneventful exits.

After all the walking I did yesterday, I fell behind in the walk up.

The debriefing crew was light today.