It’s a tradition – Opening Night of California Lobster Season.

This is the night where most first time lobster divers, and even experienced lobster divers, all meet to try and get their one night a year fill of bug catching.

I had a spot on the same boat as I did in a couple of previous years…

The Asante – a 40 foot 12 pack diving boat out of Ports O’ Call in San Pedro.

The boat had nine experienced divers on board – Yours Truly, Tim, Eric F., Donna The Hot Biker Chick, Reverend Al, Chris I, Chris II, Nice Bob and Chipper.

Like all previous Opening Nights, this was a “You better know what the fuck you’re doing, because there’s going to be nobody around to help you” type of dive – unless you can manage to make it to the surface on your own.

You could feel the machismo in the air.

Donna finds out that I am on the boat.

The Captain gave a briefing – the problem was, the swells were up.

He would try and make it to Catalina, but if it was too rough, he would turn back and we would dive Palos Verdes.

With the massive swells that have rearranged the rocky coast of Palos Verdes, I doubted that the lobsters would be shallow at the beginning of this season and I couldn’t see us getting that deep there.

I was prepared to get skunked – I had already packed my Harakiri sword.

We set off a little after nine o’clock in the evening.

It was a rough ride after leaving the harbor, but we kept going.

We didn’t get soaking wet like previous years, but the ride made us hang on for dear life – we kept going all the way to the island.

Shortly after midnight, the Asante anchored in a secret location in 45 feet of water.

I was the first one off the boat – I think.

I swam to the anchor line and submerged.

Logged SCUBA Dive #474

Solo Diving

Secret Location: 54 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 20 61 20 63 6f 76 65 20 74 68 61 74 20 62 65 6c 6f 6e 67 73 20 74 6f 20 57 68 69 74 65 79 2e – Catalina Island

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 200 psi
Max depth: 102 feet
Waves: Pretty flat once we were there
Visibility: 10 to 15 feet
Water Temperature: 68 degrees with a thermocline at 80 feet
Air Temperature: 70 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 26 minutes

I decided to swim towards the island and check bug population.

That was a big mistake- sand, more sand and a few lobsters the size of shrimp.

I went deeper, to 60 feet and found some sea grass.

I looked and looked – nothing.

I continued on, and at 80 feet I felt the water temperature drop about 10 degrees and came upon a piece of wreckage.

I have no idea what the wreckage was, I just cared that there were bugs on it.

I spotted three terrorist lobsters and went to pin the biggest one – BAM!

Got it!

Finally, I am not going to get skunked!

I could barely fit my hand around the carapace, so there was no need to measure; I dropped my light that was in my other hand to open my bag, and the terrorist lobster began flapping its tail and flew out of my hand!

FUCK! REALLY?

I went deeper and started to see a lot of shorts around some giant kelp.

I spotted two nice sized lobsters at 90 feet, but they were hiding under some debris.

Hmmm… I examined the debris and noticed it was just some sort of thin metal sheet.

Using my white belt Jiu Jitsu skills, I lifted the metal sheet up to the amazement of the stunned bugs.

Before they could react, I pinned the biggest one and bagged it.

I looked for the other one, but it did not stick around.

By this time, I had 600 psi left and was at 100 feet – I was not into deco, so I headed towards the surface aiming for the direction of the boat – slowly, but with no safety stop.

I was pretty close to the boat and made a short swim back.

When the Captain went to refill my tank, he mentioned, “You know how close you came to running out of air?”

“Yes, that’s why I came back,” I said.

Most got skunked – out of nine divers, three had a total of six lobsters.

My first bug of the season!

Reverend Al comforted Donna when she started to get sea sick.

Details of Dives two and three will be posted after I get some sleep – STAY TUNED!

My apologies to my four loyal readers – I had been sick with congestion and some kind of weird lung infection for about a month; obviously, I’ve had to stay out of the water.

But, with my recovery and the first day of Summer, I had decided to get back in the water at Terranea with a barbecue afterwards.

I posted on Divevets that I would be bringing the ghetto grill and some tube steaks – yeah, times are hard for me right now.

I pulled in to the public lot at Terranea Resort to find the lot packed with cars – I have never seen anything like it.

I was lucky enough to have scored a spot – other divers had to park on the street near the old public access lot.

I geared up and started the walk to the Point with Mean Bob and the other Dennis.

An ultralight aircraft buzzed by the coast on our way down to the shore.

I don’t know what it is – I always get nervous when entering off the Point.

There’s big boulders that you have to climb over and you have to time it right so you ride a swell out; any mistake means you could get beached on a rock, or slammed against the boulders by an incoming wave.

Luckily, the swells were gentile, and I entered without issues.

However, once I swam out, I was with Reverend Al and his group – Mean Bob was nowhere to be found.

The kelp was leaning in the opposite direction of the Cove – our exit point.

I told Al that I would follow his group, but I would leave early to fight the current back, and not to worry.

We descended.

Logged SCUBA Dive #467

Dove with: Reverend Al, Chipper and others, solo the second half

Terranea Resort (a.k.a. Old Marineland)
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, USA

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 61 feet
Waves: Pretty calm, gentle, rolling swells
Visibility: 10 feet
Water Temperature: 72 degrees
Air Temperature: 81 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 43 minutes

Visibility sort of sucked.

A Cabezon, I think?

At 1500 psi I cut from the group and headed towards the Cove.

The highlight of my dive…

A Bat Ray!

Either this Bat Ray made the rounds, or there were many in the water at the time, but over debriefing, most divers saw at least one Bat Ray.

The light and visibility got better once I got shallower.

Something must have really been hungry to take a bite out of a Starfish!

I surfaced at 500 psi, about 150 yards from my exit.

I surface swam to the Cove.

I passed over a Sheep Crab.

Paddle Boarders

I made an easy exit to the watchful eyes of the Pacific Wilderness Dive Club.

Perfect conditions to exit!

Traditional debriefing started – announce that you are bringing a grill…

…and food starts showing up from all over the place.

Today’s group.

Tube steaks.

The buffet – Tube steaks, mustard, buns, potato chips, fruit salad, macaroni salad, pie and chocolate brownies.

Nothing like burning 800 calories beach diving to consume 1000 calories at the debriefing!

An excellent day back in the water – I am hoping this Summer will be full of diving!