Logged SCUBA Dive #328

Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Dove with Not So New Chris and Chris From Michigan

In With: 3200 psi
Out With: 600 psi
Max depth: 45 feet
Waves: Minor swells, but pretty darn flat
Visibility: 10 feet+
Temperature: 55 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 60 minutes

Still a little hung over from attending the Monster Truck event at Anaheim Stadium last night,  I headed to Old Marineland for my traditional Sunday morning dive.

Arriving fashionably late,  I geared up and joined Not So New Chris and Chris From Michigan on a dive to 120 reef.

A lot of the regulars were out of town, on boats, or chained to their wives.

Some how, some way, the nice, flat and fairly sandy portions of the cove are now rock piles.

The coast changes every time there’s a storm, but there hasn’t been one for weeks.

Chris and Chris off of Terranea Resort.

Vis was crystal clear in the cove, but dropped to 10 feet at 120 reef.

A Sunstar crawls along the sand, looking for a home.

We followed not so new Chris on his photo hunt.

A Lingcod?

Yeah, I think so.

A starfish assaults a group of sea urchins.

A Green anemone next to a sea urchin.

Every time I dive here, I always run across a reef formation that I’ve never seen before.

We ran across the small arch.

Heading back in, we lost New So New Chris, but he surfaced shortly after we did.

Even though the beach is a lot rockier than previously, we all made uneventful exits.

After all the walking I did yesterday, I fell behind in the walk up.

The debriefing crew was light today.

Logged SCUBA Dive #327

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

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 2700 psi
Out With: 300 psi
Max depth: 60 feet
Waves: Minor swell chop
Visibility: 15 feet+
Temperature: 52 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 25 minutes

After a jinxed attempt at lobster hunting last Tuesday, Instructor John and I tried it again – this time in a different location!

The ride out in the zodiac was fairly flat; a DFG boat had pulled over a private boat entering the harbor as we were leaving.

We anchored in 60 feet of water and both of us descended around 7:45 PM.

I headed towards shore, hoping to liberate some lobsters in shallower waters.

Micro lobsters covered the rocks along with some shorts.

Visibility was pretty damn good – 15 feet or more and very clear; there was a slight underwater surge.

My secondary light went out, but I continued with my primary light.

About 10 minutes into the dive I was at 45 feet and wondered if I was going to get skunked – I hadn’t seen any lobsters worth grabbing for, and even the small ones were sparse.

My light waved passed a large bug, I moved my light to the side and my frozen hand of liberation made the pounce!

The lobster shot backwards and I ended up tearing off one of its antennas; I chased it, and in the process, I came across an even bigger lobster that I pinned against the ocean floor and bagged.

It was like grabbing a can of motor oil – no need to measure that one!

Five feet away, I spotted the original lobster – or at least another lobster that only had one antennae.

That lobster had no fight left in it and practically crawled into my bag.

Both these monsters were caught in 45 feet of water.

At 1500 psi, I turned around and headed back towards the zodiac.

In 50 feet of water, I pinned three more lobsters, but only one was legal, and just by a few millimeters.

I slowly surfaced with 500 psi of air, fairly close to the boat before submerging again to swim at 10 feet under the kelp to reach the faithful zodiac.

Instructor John followed a few minutes later.

John’s catch of the night was three lobsters; he went deep at first, to 70 feet, but didn’t see any so he went shallow and caught his stash at 45 to 50 feet.

Do I look macho holding my lobsters, or what?

My share of the gas was $15, so $5 per bug sure the hell beats the retail market price that would probably be close to $100.

The ride back was cold and choppy as the wind was picking up.

With a little more than two months to go in the season, I’m going to try and get out at least once a week.