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.

Logged Dive #316

Secret Location: 53 6f 6d 65 77 68 65 72 65 20 6e 65 61 72 20 74 68 65 20 66 61 72 6d 20 74 68 61 74 20 6f 6e 6c 79 20 72 61 69 73 65 73 20 70 69 70 65 73 2e, Redondo Beach, CA

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 700 psi
Max depth: 90 feet
Waves: Pretty flat
Visibility: 20 feet
Temperature: Getting Pretty Cold!
Total Bottom Time: About 20 minutes

Having secretly bribed a boat captain for these GPS coordinates, Instructor John and I took the mighty zodiac to check out a secret deep lobster hunting spot off of Redondo Beach.

It took us 15 minutes to get to the approximate spot and 20 minutes trolling around to find the exact spot; life was easier after Instructor John figured out he was accidentally in reverse for a while.

We dropped anchor in 85 feet of water; I briefed him on where it gets really deep, really fast.

But, I also said, “We are here at the exact coordinates according to your GPS, but we won’t really know if we’re here until we descend.”

We both submerged at the same time, but I had to take my time equalizing; by the time I made it to the ocean floor at 85 feet, John had already taken off to the East, I went West.

I looked at my computer and it was off.

I turned it back on and it wouldn’t turn on; maybe the batteries?

OK, back to “time approximation” and using the dive tables.

The ground looked familiar as far as the contour, but I never ran across some of the landmark pipes and concrete boxes; if we weren’t at the exact spot, we were close.

I saw one short lobster in 85 feet of water; other than that, it was a pretty bland and uneventful dive.

There was no current, the swells were flat and the visibility was good; I surfaced pretty close to the zodiac and boarded empty handed.

I spotted John in the distance making a long surface swim back.

Once he climbed on board, he said, “My computer is screwed up, it still thinks I’m at 15 feet.”

Two computers broken on the same dive?

Is this some sort of “Dive Computer Burmuda Triangle?”

Instructor John caught three lobsters in 110 feet of water – at least that’s what his screwed up computer told him; I would guess he didn’t get deeper than 90, maybe 100.

We pulled anchor and tried another secret spot off of Palos Verdes.