Malaga Cove, Palos Verdes Estates, CA

Free diving With Ed

Max depth: 15 feet
Waves: 1-2 foot ankle breakers
Visibility: 10-15 feet, sort of silty
Water Temperature: Maybe about 60 degrees.
Total Ocean Time: 30 minutes or so.

Malaga Cove is really shallow and I do enjoy free diving – here more than SCUBA.

I picked up Ed from San Pedro around 8 AM.

We stopped by Long Point (aka Old Marineland) to check out the newly opened public beach access.

Without going in to great detail, it sucks.

The parking lot is very small – 10 cars, maybe? – and the walk down to the beach seems like an endless fence maze.

We arrived at Malaga around 9:30 AM.

I ran in to Jim Molica in the parking lot – he was a “student body supervisor” (the students called them “narks”) when I was going to Palos Verdes High School twenty years ago and hadn’t seen him since.

He said my name sounded familiar — yeah, I bet it did!

We caught up very briefly on what we had been doing in the last 20 years, and talked about how stupid the school administration was in my Junior and Senior year – I almost got suspended for being drunk because they smelled Binaca breath freshener on me and thought it was Vodka.

They also didn’t know the difference between smelling like cigarettes and smelling like pot.

Ed and I suited up and did the pleasant walk down to the water with just our spear guns and free diving equipment.

Compared to lugging SCUBA tanks around, I almost felt naked.

We made an uneventful rock entry and swam out a hundred yards or so, clear of the muddy shoreline.

In 15 feet of water, we could see the bottom.

I loaded my spear gun, checked the safety and trolled for fish.

Maybe a White Sea Bass or Halibut?

No more Sheephead for me!

They’re too easy to shoot.

As the saying goes, “Shooting a sheephead is like shooting your dog.”

After 30 minutes of trolling and diving, neither of us saw anything.

Ed headed in about ten minutes before me.

He complained that his new wet suit was too buoyant.

We rested and headed up, giving a dive report to a group of SCUBA divers walking down.

In the parking lot, we ran in to Tom from the old American Diving; he had collected some Uni (aka Sea Urchins).

Tom couldn’t keep a straight face when he saw us.

He was laughing, “I saw you guys a few weeks ago carrying that kayak down to the water and only making it out to where the shore divers were.”

He continued to laugh, “You guys looked ridiculous hauling that heavy thing down to the water just to anchor right over there.”

Tom was laughing so hard, he could barely stand.

We had some beer in the parking lot while we dried off.

Ed asked if we could drink here.

I said, “Everybody is drinking beer here, they just hide it.”

Veteran’s Park, Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 1100 psi
Max depth: 80 feet
Waves: 1-2 feet
Visibility: 10-15 feet
Water Temperature: 52 degrees over the shelf
Bottom Time: About 30 minutes

In an attempt to be social, I posted on the Divevets that I was diving here at this time and anyone was welcome to show up.

Well, nobody did.

I entered the water a little after 9 AM.

No other divers were around, at least from what I saw.

I made an easy entry, putting my fins on in the water.

The swells were very manageable and would have been easy for even a beginning diver.

I submerged to 20 feet and headed West over the shelf.

There it was, the black darkness over the edge that welcomes every diver here.

I started going down and it got REALLY cold; I had to pee in my wetsuit to enjoy the 15 seconds of spot warmth.

I slowly went North and looked at all the trash and many crabs that were sticking out of the sand.

There’s supposed to be some kind of an artificial reef that the local divers have been assembling brick by brick over the shelf.

I wasn’t able to find it.

Getting cold and sort of bored I headed back up the shelf to warm up and do my safety stop.

I practiced my buoyancy and slowly made my way back in.

Two divers were exiting just ahead of me.

I believe one was a student and the other was an instructor.

They had deco bottles and were wearing dry suits.

I’m assuming that they’re tech divers?

One of them confirmed the temperature over the shelf was 52 degrees.