Hearing that Redondo Beach had four to six foot swells and that there was some storm front coming in, I headed down to Terranea Resort hoping more for dive camaraderie and debriefing than in hopes of getting in the water.

There was a low diver turn out; having arrived at 8:07 AM, I saw a few cars of dive friends, but nobody setting up their gear.

Reverend Al, Not New Chris and Crazy Ivan were at The Point, watching conditions; Richard The Brit joined us soon after.

Entrance from The Point was pretty much ruled out from the beginning.

We walked towards the beach where we checked The Cove conditions.

Yes, us divers do spend money at Terranea Resort.

After gawking from the cliffs above, we actually walked down to see the conditions first hand.

There were constant swells with an occasional, “Holy crap! I’m glad I wasn’t in the surf zone on that one” wave.

It was possible, but I decided to call it; so did Crazy Ivan.

Reverend Al, Not New Chris and Richard The Brit decided to test their luck with a dive off The Cove.

All made expert entrances with no problems and submerged around 120 reef.

Professional Debriefer Paul showed up to join Crazy Ivan and me for some sea side beer drinking and wave watching.

The waves started to get larger and stronger when the divers were under.

A kayaker made it out in between sets.

About an hour later, the three returned and made an uneventful exit during a lull in the swells – either God was watching them, or the CIA’s weather machine was rebooting.

A Japanese tourist asked Not New Chris and Reverend Al if they would pose with her son for a picture…

How could anyone refuse such a request?

The dive report was, “Some places were 20 feet, other places it was only a few feet with lots of silt; there was also constant surge that you had to fight.”

Nobody who dove regretted getting in, and nobody that called the dive regretted staying dry.

The public toilet was locked on Discover Trails; I was about to relieve myself on the door until a woman came by and called the resort to complain.

We debriefed in a different area in Palos Verdes, that was more barbecue friendly than Terranea’s hotel parking lot.

Chris had hot dogs and Crazy Ivan brought some kind of vegetarian Bratwursts, which weren’t bad tasting, but could never be mistaken for meat.

As I am writing this, I have just found out that our lobster trip for Monday night has been postponed until at least Wednesday.

With a full moon out and yesterday’s diving conditions reported as being good to excellent, Instructor John, Instructor Ron and I, took the mighty zodiac out to try another secret lobster hunting location.

We left King Harbor around 8:30 PM and took an extremely bumpy ride out; if I wasn’t so damn macho, I would have been sea sick and throwing up.

We anchored in 35 feet of water.

The lobsters, I’m thinking, are deeper now.

Ron and I went in our separate directions and swam deeper; John was still at the boat when I submerged.

Logged SCUBA Dive #361

SECRET LOCATION: 4f 66 66 20 74 68 65 20 67 61 74 65 73 20 6f 66 20 4d 61 72 2c 20 6e 65 61 72 20 74 68 72 65 65 20 63 68 69 6d 6e 65 79 73 2c 20 74 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 20 61 20 68 6f 75 73 65 20 77 69 74 68 20 74 68 72 65 65 20 61 72 63 68 65 64 20 77 69 6e 64 6f 77 73 2e, Palos Verdes, CA

Solo Diving, SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 300 psi
Max depth: 55 feet
Waves: Wind chop on the surface, fairly calm under
Visibility: 15 to 20 feet
Water Temperature: About 60 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 40 minutes

Visibility was rather good – not too much silt and the water was extremely calm compared to the surface.

I saw a few shorts on my way to 50 feet and pinned a couple of obviously looking legal bugs – that is until I measured them.

As Maxwell Smart says, “Missed it by that much.”

I came across some really interesting reef structure – it looked like a wall of boulders that someone had dropped in 50 feet of water.

Antennae after antennae were sticking out of the holes and crevices, but the lobsters were out of reach; once my light hit them, they fled deeper.

When they’re hiding in the rocks, it’s really impossible to grab the lobster’s carapace without first touching the protruding and constantly probing antennas, and once touched, they take off deeper into the hole.

The lobsters tonight were generally spooked; even the ones crawling around on the ground immediately fled backwards as soon as my light hit them.

I have heard, that a full moon is a bad night to lobster hunt as the lunar reflection keeps the bugs in their holes.

Having caught six monster bugs on Opening Night, which was also a full moon, I thought that was just a myth; now, I think there’s some truth to the saying.

I tried my hand at digging some bugs out, but I had no success.

Yes, there’s some big ones in 50 feet, but they stayed home tonight.

I made it back to the boat where I tried to take my weight belt off and throw it on the deck.

My weight belt was caught on something – it was snagged somehow on my BC jacket.

Ron had just climbed aboard and I asked him for assistance; he lifted my BC, tank and weight belt into the boat.

With a little difficulty, I followed.

Somehow, one of the clips that holds my weights in place got hooked onto a D-ring on my jacket – I’m glad that I didn’t have to ditch my weight belt in an emergency!

Ron had one bug and demonstrated the “official DFG way the measure lobsters.”

I have been taking the gauge, hooking the front near the eyes and lowering the other end over the back.

The DFG does it the opposite way – they start at the back and lower the gauge to the head.

“If you can make the eyes move, it’s a short bug,” Ron said.

No matter how long you’ve been diving or hunting, you can learn something new every day.

John made it back shortly thereafter with one bug that he caught in 20 feet.

John reported that he almost got stung by a Pacific Electric Ray.

“There was some dark disk following me on the side, I stopped and almost grabbed it until I saw what it was and thought ‘Holy Shit,'” he said.

I pose with my catch for the night.

One of my neighbors, who is on my lobster ration list, asked me, “Your two buddies got one each, why didn’t you get any?”

I answered a question with another question, “Um, every been to Las Vegas?”

I’m so glad I don’t have to clean any lobsters tonight!