Malaga Cove, Palos Verdes Estates, CA

Free Diving/Kayak Diving With Ed

Max depth: 15 feet
Waves: 1-4 foot rolling swells
Visibility: 5-10 feet, sort of silty
Water Temperature: Cool
Total Ocean Time: 30 minutes or so.

There’s been red tide that’s kept me out of the water of a couple of weeks.

Ed bought a two person inflatable Diveyak that has never been in the water.

It’s been gathering dust for about a year.

I picked Ed up and we split for Malaga.

A lot of divers were there; Long Point is now closed for beach access.

Revered Al, his buddies and a few other divers checked out Ed’s Diveyak.

We put our spears and the rest of the equipment in the kayak, carried it down to the rocks and launched it after a precarious walk over the rocks.

When the Diveyak was in the water, the tubes started to cool and the boat started to sag.

I pumped more air in with the “foot pump,” holding it against my chest.

We paddled out, fighting a surface current that was running parallel to Rossler’s pool – or at least that’s what it used to be called.

I hard a hard time sitting comfortably.

Ed was in the front, I was in the back. The seat was in my way and I actually ended up sitting on top of it.

We dropped anchor.

SCUBA divers were all around.

I thought to myself, “Why did we even take this kayak out here? We could have made it this far from shore.”

I guess we just had to test the diveyak.

We dove over and did our free diving.

I hunted; Ed didn’t buy a fishing license yet, so he just dove.

Fish were scarce, the visibility wasn’t too great.

Once back on the boat, we drifted and paddled to the sandy beach.

I remember when my wetsuit held my beer gut in.

I hoped out in waist deep water; a wave picked up and dumped Ed out of the boat.

Luckily, everything was strapped in.

I had the bright idea of deflating the kayak to make it easier to carry.

Even without air, that thing is heavy and cumbersome for one person.

We eventually made it back up the hill for some beers and a barbecue at Ed’s place.

Long Point, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
(aka The Old Marineland)

Dove with Ron T.

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 1100 psi
Max depth: 40 feet
Waves: 2-3 foot swells
Visibility: 15 feet
Water Temperature: Cool
Total Bottom Time: 35 minutes

I got to Long Point about 8:15 AM.

Ron was scoping the shore out with Reverend Al and the Divevets.

The Point was a little choppy, so the decision was made to go off the cove.

Ron and I walked down to the cove.

Old Marineland looks a lot different now than compared to years back.

It was low tide – which is the main reason not to go off the point.

We saw three divers go off the rocky beach near Pigeon Shit cave.

I walked out and sloppily put my fins on in the surf zone.

I hit a piece of submerged rebar – something that I had been warned about in the area.

Ron and I met outside the surf zone.

We both agreed that we would never go out in that spot again.

We swam to the right, West, and submerged.

Ron kept floating up.

I surfaced and asked what was wrong.

He said, “HUA, that’s a technical term for ‘Head Up Ass.'”

Ron was not weighted for such a shallow dive and had a hard time staying down.

We went closer to shore; Ron dove down and grabbed a few large rocks until he came across one that was perfect.

We continued our dive – Ron looked ridiculous holding a big rock for additional weight.

We still had to go deeper.

As Ron put it later, “It’s easy to go down, but hard to stay down.”

We toured the sandy part to remain deep and came across a field of sea feathers.

Ron was burning a lot of air carrying that rock.

We headed in and made it to shore without incident near friendship rock.

We partied afterwards with beer and Bratwursts on the Barbecue…

We discussed what could have possibly happened to the asphalt that once covered the parking lot.

Group shot,  looking towards the hills.

Another group shot; the Catalina room used to be in the background.