SCUBA Diving Terranea Resort

Diving With TwinDuct, Dennis G., New Chris, and newly certified diver Steve.

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 1000 psi
Max depth: 42 feet
Waves: one to two foot maneagable swells
Visibility: 5 to 8 feet at best
Water Temperature: 62 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 35 minutes

The cove looked sort of “milky” from the top of the cliffs; waves occasionally crashed against the rocks towards the Point.

Not in the mood for a long swim or getting killed off the Point, I decided to dive 120 reef from the cove.

Dennis G. brought a recently certified diver named Steve; this was his third dive after certification.

The lot was full of divers – the regular Sunday crew, along with fish counters from Reef Check.

Dennis, Steve, New Chris, TwinDuct and I decided to stay as a group; that way, if something happened to the new guy, we could all help drag his body out of the water.

Dennis was to spear fish, we were to follow; apparently, one of Dennis’ friends shot a 30 pound Halibut off of Redondo the morning.

The long walk from the public access lot to the beach begins…

Following the narrow, fenced off trail, I get a feeling of being a steer getting lead to slaughter.

One of the fish counters was a hot chick who didn’t have a problem navigating the trail.

We’re almost there!

Tide was a little low, so the rocks were slimmy; entry was uneventful for the whole gang.

We rested for a bit before submerging to follow Dennis.

Dennis on the hunt.

Vis pretty much sucked a lot of the time, especially when divers in front are kicking up silt.

Dennis passed up shooting a Sunstar…

…before spearing this monster.

Light was better in the shallows.

TwinDuct smiles for the camera; diving in short sleeves, he’s either really cold or really immune to hypotheria.

OK, dude!

Find your regulator before you drown!

We started to follow Dennis back after new diver Steve was running low on air.

New Chris spent a little too much time admiring a Spanish Shawl; he got separated, but I met him on the surface, while the others continued in.

Submerging again, we headed a little off course and surfaced West of our exit point.

TwinDuct surfaced about twenty yards from us, then out of nowhere, new diver Steve surfaced between me and Chris.

“Where the hell did you come from?” I asked.

We all headed in to an amazingly easy exit; for a dive at this level, Steve did great for his third post-certification dive.

Let the debriefing begin!

Bratwurst and Louisiana spicy links are on the menu today.

Cyber The Attack Dog patrols the crowd to make sure nobody gets out of hand.

In honor of Reverend Al’s return from a three week stay in Pennsylvania, Bob W. makes margaritas.

Supposedly, when Terranea Resort opens, there will be public access to the shore, hot showers, a picnic area and a beach side bar.

I’m thinking about selling my condominium and buying a motor home so I can just live here.

The Department of Fish and Game pulled up and questioned us about the area and fishing here.

She had no idea this was the Old Marineland access point; we gave her a tour of the area and offered her a beer.

She declined the beer, but we invited her back to dive with us when she isn’t working.

Public beach access at Old Marineland (aka Long Point, Terranea resort) is closed “temporarily for 30 days” while construction near the coast takes place.

The last time Old Marineland was closed for 30 days, we didn’t have beach access for almost three months.

Diving has really sucked for the last one or two weeks; cold water (52 degrees), swells, and shitty vis (0-3 feet) has been reported in all the areas around Palos Verdes and Redondo Beach.

With that being said, I finally sat down and compiled my “Lobster Hunting Recap For The 2007 Season.”

Number of Lobster Hunting Dives: 25
Total Number Of Lobsters Caught: 37
Number of Trips that I limited on: 1
Number of trips I got skunked: 1
Average lobsters caught per dive: 1.48

All during lobster season, I always took a bag with me in hopes of maybe running across a lobster.

However, I only considered a “lobster dive” if it was at night and I went just to look for lobster; I never was lucky enough to catch a lobster during a casual dive.

As far as the quantity of lobsters caught this season?

It was not as plentiful as in previous years.

I’ve heard that the hoop netters caught most of the lobsters, not leaving many for the divers.

I find that hard to believe

In talking to some friends who work at Quality Seafood at the Redondo Beach Pier, even the commercial lobster trappers had a hard time this season.

At the beginning of the season, lobsters are pretty shallow – 15 to 40 feet.

As the storms and swells approach at the end of the year, the lobsters move deeper.

For a while this season, it didn’t seem that there were any lobsters off shore at all.

A tech diver told us that the lobsters were all at 270 feet when he dove the Sacramento wreck – a depth that hoop netters and recreational divers can’t safely reach.

I think with the bugs that deep, it gave us the impression that the lobsters were scarce.

Late season storms, I think, drove the lobsters back deeper again.

Next year, in addition to a fishing license and ocean enhancement stamp, we will be required to carry a “lobster report card.”

But, I have good hopes for next season.

The bugs were scarce this season, but by next year, the “almost legals” will be legal and the ones hiding deep hopefully will come back shallower.