Sorry again for the delay in this post, but my 486 at home crashed again and I’m trying to repair it – hopefully, without burning the valuable motherboard.

Yes, the headline is correct, so without going in to our boring dive at first, you can read about the skull and the event here, or you can watch the following, on scene coverage…

To watch this video on Youtube, click here.

Logged Dive #349 – Veterans’ Park
Redondo Beach, CA

The Annual Underwater Clean Up

Dove With TwinDuct

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 700 psi
Max depth: 84 feet
Waves: 2 to 5 feet, sporadic
Visibility: 10 to 14 feet, pretty clear
Water Temperature: 55 degrees at depth
Total Bottom Time: About 35 minutes

While volunteers cleaned the beach and surrounding areas, TwinDuct and I geared up and entered just off the pier…

The plan was to clean the trench that is a few dozen yards South of the pier.

That area is basically where all the half dead fish go to die – last year we found a lot of trash and fish skeletons.

If a piece of trash was something’s home, we left it alone.

TwinDuct patrols for trash.

We did such a good job cleaning last year that, aside from a hand full of plastic bags and a bucket, there wasn’t much trash this year.

This was just another typical, uneventful Redondo Beach dive, but looking for trash and not looking at trash.

We had no problem exiting with our heavy bags of debris.

The underwater trash pile was fairly small this year.

The trash was so exciting, some even video taped the collection heap.

During the debriefing, we were told that “Someone found a human skull.”

My brother promptly grabbed his video camera and shot the above footage.

The skull finding was the topic of conversation – “It still had hair and teeth…” “It was wrapped in linen and then in a bag…” “The Divemaster who found it is quite shaken…” “It was probably a mafia hit…”

To ease our trauma, one of the divers showed off her tattoo.

Around noon, the Redondo Beach Police showed up to talk to the Divemaster who found the skull; the Officer did his best to comfort the diver as he gently explained that the skull was made out of plastic!

Some say it may have been part of a ritual, I think it was a practical joke aimed at this event.

After all, all the voodoo rituals I have seen never used plastic props, and apparently the skull was without sea growth, so it had been tossed in the ocean within the last few days.

I pulled in to Terranea Resort around 8:20 AM; it was overcast and a little windy, barely any divers were in the parking lot.

Apparently, condition reports from Saturday did not bring a promise of stellar conditions for today; most of the smart divers stayed home.

Military Bob, Nice Bob and Mike were on the cliff, checking the conditions out.

Foam, waves, heavy but sporadic swells… I called it and so did Military Bob.

The other two had the attitude, “If we aren’t going to get wet here, we aren’t going to get wet.”

Not wanting to waste the morning, Military Bob and I grabbed a soft cooler and headed down to watch the show – that is, the show of the other divers making entrances.

Having been there and done that, there really is no reason to dive is such conditions.

If you’re lucky enough to not get hurt, there usually isn’t anything to see, so why bother?

You can catch most of today’s surface action here.

To watch the video on youtube.com, click here.

Luckily, nobody got severely hurt or killed and reports from the returning divers were, “Five feet, but it opened up to 10 feet in some areas.”

I noticed a group of freedivers didn’t stay in the water long.

I do not regret calling today’s dive.