Logged SCUBA Dive #318

Secret Location: 4f 6e 20 6f 72 20 76 65 72 79 20 63 6c 6f 73 65 20 74 6f 20 74 68 65 20 66 61 72 6d 20 74 68 61 74 20 67 72 6f 77 73 20 70 69 70 65 73, Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 600 psi
Max depth: 80 feet
Waves: Pretty flat
Visibility: 15-20 feet
Temperature: Maybe 60 degrees or so
Total Bottom Time: About 25 minutes minutes

Instructor John was unable to dive during the week, so I’ve been dry for over seven days   now.

My dive computer needs batteries and I stripped the screw hole trying to open the battery compartment; it’s back to diving with the tables until I can figure out how to repair it.

We left the dock a little after 7 PM; it was a stag boat, with eight divers plus the Captain.

We anchored at one of our secret spots that should provide us with a mega supply of bugs this time of year.

I was one of the first ones overboard and under.

I descended down the anchor chain and noticed that the anchor was actually dangling 10 feet above the ocean floor; there was no current, but I was wondering if this would be an impromptu drift dive.

I found out later that the Captain gave the anchor more line after a while.

I had about 20 minutes of bottom time and searched as fast as I could for as many lobsters as I could.

I missed grabbing a pretty large bug that was hiding in a pipe; I continued on …

My light hit a HUGE lobster at 80 feet, just crawling along the bottom!

I angled my light away, approached it and pinned it!

I couldn’t get a grip on it with just one hand, so I dropped my light and put the bug in a Jiu Jitsu style choke hold with my other arm, it’s tail flailed and hit me in the nuts.

I was able to wrap my other arm around it’s torso and hold it close to my chest while I opened my spring loaded lobster liberation bag.

After a brief struggle, the lobster tired and crawled into my bag, accepting the fate that awaited him.

At 1200 psi I started heading back, seeing only shorts after that.

I surfaced fairly close to the boat and was the second one back.

Mirek did a five minute dive before calling it; he said, “I didn’t like what I saw, so I headed back to not waste time.”

I worked my upper body strength by doing lobster curls.

The rest of the divers trickled in; Dan caught two legal bugs while everyone else got skunked.

Dan weighed my monster bug in at 5.3 pounds.

It’s on to our second spot…

Logged SCUBA Dive #317

Secret Location: 4a 75 73 74 20 61 20 73 70 6f 74 20 6f 66 66 20 74 68 65 20 47 61 74 65 73 20 4f 66 20 4d 61 72 2c 20 6e 65 61 72 20 74 68 65 20 70 69 70 65 2c 20 63 6c 6f 73 65 20 74 6f 20 74 68 65 20 65 64 67 65 2e, Palos Verdes, CA

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 60 feet
Waves: Pretty flat
Visibility: 20 feet
Temperature: Getting Pretty Cold!
Total Bottom Time: About 40 minutes minutes

We motored over to Palos Verdes for a second lobster dive of the night; hopefully I won’t get skunked!

Having no watch and a computer that wouldn’t turn on, I had to make an educated guess as to when and how long my next dive would be.

Off the zodiac, we submerged and soon went our our separate ways.

This was an interesting dive with sparse kelp at the ocean floor, complex reef structure and an abundance of a wide variety of sea life.

A was combing the bottom with my light and came upon a five foot sand shark taking a nap on the ocean floor; I almost swallowed my regulator as I was not expecting to run across a shark.

I swam away, luckily for the shark, as I am certain I would’ve kicked it’s ass.

I approached a huge lobster and pinned it… it was like grabbing a Foster’s “oil can” of beer; that was all the measuring I needed and I bagged it.

I was in 50 to 60 feet of water.

I caught two more, but they were short and were released unharmed.

Getting down to 500 psi, I headed towards the boat and grabbed onto it’s side.

I unhooked my game bag, threw it on the zodiac… I unhooked my weight belt and threw it on the zodiac… I unhooked my BCD and tied it to the side… grabbing the rope that circles the boat, I did a muscle up and pulled myself in; kelp was dragging.

I sat on the floor of the zodiac, took one fin off and then… “Where the fuck is my other fin?”

I know I had it when I got to the boat, I would have noticed if I was swimming with only one fin.

It must have fallen off as I was lifting myself up through the kelp; that is a downside to having spring loaded fin straps.

Sometimes, they come off too easily!

Luckily, Instructor John made it back to the boat and was able to descend and retrieve my lost fin at the anchor line.

I said, “Thank you John, if I had seven lobsters, I would give you one.”

John pulled himself onto the boat and said, “I couldn’t take it anyways, I limited tonight.”

John caught four more bugs on the second dive.

A beer in one hand and a three pound bug in the other – do I look macho, or what?

I swim slowly, looking under the kelp and on top of the reefs; John tends to cover as much ground as possible as fast as possible – tonight, John’s technique paid off, in addition to being lucky.

We pulled anchor and made a nice and pretty flat voyage back to the harbor.