With about three months of solidly horrid diving conditions and a canceled boat due to a broken prop, The Divevets were back in the water again, to hopefully liberate more lobsters before the end of the season.

The thing is, where are the lobsters?

Usually, as the storms calm down, lobsters go shallower towards the end of the season – but the weather has sucked, up until just recently.

I was loading my gear onto the boat, and as I was stepping off, the boat slightly moved and someone was standing in my crash landing spot on the dock.

I fell, one leg missed the dock, the other one hit the dock and my ass landed right on the boat’s mooring post.

I’ve been told diving is dangerous, but I didn’t know all the hazards until now.

We decided to try a secret location – a place where there’s a bunch of submerged concrete pipes.

I guess the secret is out, as there were hoop netters and a fishing boat in the immediate area.

Eight seasoned lobster liberators hit the water – Dan, Donna The Hot Biker Chick, Mike C., Jester, Mary, Chipper, Reverend Al and myself.

Logged SCUBA Dive #366

Secret Location: 54 68 65 20 66 61 72 6d 20 77 68 65 72 65 20 70 69 70 65 73 20 61 72 65 20 67 72 6f 77 6e 20 6f 66 66 20 74 68 65 20 53 70 61 6e 69 73 68 20 52 65 64 20 62 65 61 63 68 2e, Redondo Beach

SoCal Buddy Diving With Chipper

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 200 psi
Max depth: 85 feet
Waves: Choppy
Visibility: Maybe 15 feet
Water Temperature: About 54 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 20 minutes

We went down the anchor line and immediately hit some structure.

I checked the pipes – a few shorts and a potentially large one out of reach.

We went South; either visibility sucked, or I needed to change my light batteries.

I turned on my auxiliary light – yeah, I needed new batteries.

At 1500 psi, I motioned to Chipper that we should turn around and I swam ahead – that’s when we got separated.

Sticking to the game plan, we continued separately.

I spotted about ten shorts, no keepers.

After a short surface swim, I was the first back to the boat.

Chipper made it back after a long surface swim with one bug; he mistook my signal to turn back for pointing out a bug, which has apparently caught.

Chipper with his huge lobster – it barely fits in the picture’s frame.

The Captain pointed out, “Listen to the people on that fishing boat about 20 yards away; they sound like Cheech and Chong…”

A minute later, I saw one of their fishing poles bend down.

“Odelay homes! You got a big one!”

As he went to reel it in, the line tension dropped.

I was hoping he didn’t catch a diver.

Dan and Donna The Hot Biker Chick got skunked.

Donna practices measuring Reverend Al’s catch.

Mike C. brought up, I believe, two – the boat total for this dive as I remember was three.

Mike C. said that he ran across someone’s baited line and started pulling on it, before letting go.

Ah, ha!

That explains the vatos’ excitement.

After a discussion with the Captain, him and I believe that the lobsters have been pushed even deeper.

They’re probably at 200 to 300 feet – impossible to reach for a recreational diver, unless it’s a one way trip.

We headed towards Palos Verdes to check a spot in 50 feet.

After several days of bad conditions, we’re finally back in the water to rescue more lobsters from their watery hell that they call life.

Instructor John and I loaded the Red October and made a ride out to one of our secret deep lobster spots – about a quarter acre of man made reefs, i.e. dumped heavy construction material.

The wind was barely blowing, but the surface chop was in excess of five feet and steadily rolling; if I wasn’t so macho, I would have gotten sea sick.

We anchored perfectly on target, after trolling with a GPS for ten minutes.

Logged SCUBA Dive #364

SECRET LOCATION: 4a 75 73 74 20 6c 69 6b 65 20 74 68 65 20 6c 61 73 74 2c 20 6f 66 66 20 74 68 65 20 53 70 61 6e 69 73 68 20 52 65 64 20 42 65 61 63 68 2c 20 74 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 20 61 20 66 61 72 6d 20 74 68 61 74 20 67 72 6f 77 73 20 6f 6e 6c 79 20 70 69 70 65 73 2e, Redondo Beach (I think), CA

Solo Diving, SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 80 feet
Waves: Nauseating surface chop with light wind
Visibility: 10-15 feet
Water Temperature: About 58 degrees, slightly colder at depth
Total Bottom Time: About 22 minutes

The water seemed cold, especially after discovering a new ass rip in my wet suit – the consequences of too much underwater peeing.

For the first five minutes, I didn’t see one bug, but as I found structure, I spotted lots of shorts.

I pinned a legal looking bug on the gravel but it turned out to be short – it was released unharmed, along with an apology.

There was a big reef structure in 75 feet of water, lined with monster bugs inside – the big ones are still staying home?

I guess that’s how they got so big.

I could not reach them.

Along the side of a pipe, I spotted a large bug, pinned it and put it in the lobster liberation bag.

Now the anxiety of getting skunked was over.

I came across another large pipe – like a six foot diameter drainage pipe – with bugs underneath the hollows.

One large lobster caught my eye; I shoved my lights at him and he shot back.

I swam over the pipe; he was right there in the open, standing on the gravel.

I moved my light to the side and pinned his silhouette.

Yet another lobster who will soon no longer wallow in misery!

I was down to 1000 psi and decided to troll around until I got to 800 psi.

That last lobster that I liberated was flapping around in my bag really hard and then it went calm.

I checked my bag and only felt one bug.

Where was the second one?

Did he crawl out of my escape-proof, spring-loaded bag?

I felt again; the second bug was right at the top, waiting for me to open it once I rescued another lobster.

I shook him down to the bottom of the bag and started my ascent to the surface.

I came up slowly, but did not do a safety stop in the open water – I didn’t want a potential current to sweep me away from the boat.

I hit the surface and looked for the boat.

Where’s the boat?

I did several 360s in the rolling swells trying to spot the boat – a 14 foot rubber zodiac has a low profile.

Luckily, Instructor John has an extremely bright LED light mounted on board when we’re in the water, and as soon as I was in the right direction and as soon as a swell passed, I got a heading for the boat.

I submerged to 15 feet and swam in that direction.

John came back with one five pound bug – three lobsters total for the night.

We literally surfed back to King Harbor, riding the incoming waves.

No pictures tonight; my batteries died and besides, people tell me that one picture of me holding lobsters looks like all the rest after a while.

Now, remember when I mentioned in my last post that we called the lobster dive Friday night due to high swells and wind?

I found out that a friend of a friend actually went out that night because, “We needed lobsters for a barbecue on Saturday.”

Apparently, visibility sucked, and someone ended up dislocating their shoulder climbing back into the boat.

I hope those were some tasty lobsters, if they caught any at all!

Speaking of bad conditions from last weekend, here again is another lesson on how not to exit Terranea Resort, presented by the famous Max Bottomtime.

To view this video on YouTube, click here.

We may go out Thursday night, conditions permitting.