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Night Diving, Solo Diving, Lobster Hunting – So Cal Buddy Diving with the Divevets off of the Island Diver boat

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 90 feet or so
Waves: Pretty Flat
Visibility: 15 feet, but dive bombing sea lions stirred the bottom
Water Temperature: Cold
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes
Lobsters caught: 3

The boat a couple weeks ago was canceled due to conditions; but another boat that went out a few days before came back full of lobsters.

We pulled out of the deck a little after 7 PM.

While slowly moving through the wake free zone of the harbor, the Captain spotted a HUGE fish floating on the surface.

He turned around and his deck hand gaffed it and dragged it aboard.

It was a 110 pound Grupper.

I asked the deckhand, “What are you going to do with it?”

“It’s still breathing, so we’re going to fillet it,” he said.

“Isn’t that like eating road kill?” I responded.

“No, he’s still alive, a boat probably just hit him,” he responded.

The divers were wondering if we should throw it overboard to attract lobsters during our surface interval; but we were just joking.

I was the first one off and cried as the 54 degree water ran into my wetsuit.

I slowly went down the anchor line and went South; I stayed mostly in 80 feet of water.

After five minutes I had caught two lobsters and thought I wouldn’t have a problem limiting on this dive.

At 10 minutes I turned around and went back over the barren sand and pipes and caught my third one of the night.

I surfaced slowly, making a three minute safety stop at 20 feet.

When I broke surface, I could not see the boat, but I soon realized that a current had taken me further South when I was surfacing and the boat lights blended with the city lights on shore.

I had a nice 80 yard surface swim back to the boat.

A group of sea lions circled and bombed the divers.

The rest of the divers followed in with a moderate amount of small, but legal lobsters.

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Night Diving, Dove with Rafael from the Divevets off of the Island Diver boat

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 900 psi
Max depth: 99 feet
Waves: Sort of Challenging Chop
Visibility: 15 feet
Water Temperature: Getting cold
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes
Lobsters caught: 1

With Dan out of commission, I took his buddy Rafael.

We did a surface interval that was at least an hour and went over each other’s equipment, hand signals and the dive plan.

I jumped overboard early because I had to take a piss; I waited for Rafael at the anchor line.

We submerged down the anchor line to 99 feet and went East to shallower areas.

Rafael stayed close by; almost too close as we bumped into each other several times.

We ran across a shrimpy lobster that Rafael caught and later threw back as being so small it was an embarrassment.

We then came by another one that Rafael grabbed and bagged – his first legal lobster!

I spotted a lobster shortly thereafter and grabbed for it before Rafael – I have always forewarned people how shitty of a buddy I am when it comes to lobster hunting.

We started heading back half way in to the dive.

I have no idea where the sound was coming from, but during the entire dive I heard a “thump-thump… thump-thump.”

Sort of like a heart beat; maybe it was Rafael’s computer?

Rafael motioned to go up; we were both following his dive profile.

We slowly swam to the surface doing our safety stop for several minutes; he didn’t seem concerned about current, but I would take the long swim if need be.

Back on the boat, the lobsters were more lucrative for the other divers than the last spot.

Bob used his scooter and expensive lights to cover a huge area and come back with a bag stuffed with lobsters.

This trip netted me three legal lobsters.

Rafael shows off his first legal sized lobster!

Bob shows off his monster bug!

What a difference equipment can make!