To finish Donna The Hot Biker Chick’s DM class, she needs to draw a map of a dive site, so I volunteered to go along with her and assist.

Holly and Mike decided to tag along with us, even though they were warned, “We are going to go at an awfully slow pace.”

Donna is ready with her float, GPS, measuring stick and drawing board.

On entrance, I fell in about three feet of water and rode a receding wave out.

Logged SCUBA Dive #437

Dove With Donna The Hot Biker Chick, Holly and Mike
120 Reef, Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, California, USA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 2000 psi
Max depth: 40 feet
Waves: Some rollers on shore, choppy
Visibility: Six feet
Water Temperature: 62 degrees
Air Temperature: 74 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 22 minutes or so

Conditions were a bit choppy.

We swam to the rocky finger just outside Pigeon Shit Cave where Donna inflated the surface bouy to hold her GPS.

By the time she inflated it, the current had pushed us West, way off course.

We decided to descend and swim to 120 reef.

I lost Mike and Donna and wound up with Holly – we just started heading toward the direction of 120 reef.

Visibility absolutely sucked ass.

After kicking for ten minutes and not knowing where we were, we surfaced to get a bearing.

We had not moved one inch and were still far away from 120 reef, and to make matters worse, Donna’s surface marker indicated that she was even further off course, but was catching up to us.

We submerged and followed a heading that would hopefully intersect Donna’s path.

After another ten minutes or so of underwater aerobics and still not reaching 120 reef, we surfaced to find that we still had not moved very far, but Donna’s marker was floating away from 120 reef.

Apparently, Donna and Mike were able to make it to the edge of the reef before being pushed back again.

“This current sucks ass, let’s head in,” I said.

Holly agreed.

I slowly took my time to make the perfect exit, but still managed to get rolled on the rocks by an unexpected wave.

Everyone made it back, even the divers who went off the Point and fought the current the other way.

We hired a Terranea employee to transport or gear to the parking lot – well, he volunteered, but was tipped accordingly.

Let the debriefing begin!

Today’s Group of Divers.

Donna The Hot Biker Chick displays one casualty of this dive – her tangled reel.

CIA drones, disguised as birds, patrol the airspace above Palos Verdes.

All agreed, that today was one of the worst dives here, ever!

At least nobody was injured and all are alive to make another dive.

I’ve had a rather bad cold for a week, and honestly I have no clue as to how I got it, however some have speculated that since I have quit drinking draft beer, the cold may be just symptoms of withdrawals.

I arrived at Terranea Resort at 8:15 AM to an almost full parking lot with about 40 divers gearing up.

I believe more than three diving clubs were there, including one group that wheeled their gear down to the beach in baby strollers, where their shore support set up camp.

I decided to go it alone; I was still slightly congested, but not to the point that I couldn’t get down – I just didn’t need a dive buddy, in case I was wrong and had to call the dive just after entry.

The ocean was literally as flat as a lake and entry was extremely easy.

Logged SCUBA Dive #436

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving
120 Reef, Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, California, USA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 750 psi
Max depth: 40 feet
Waves: No waves, flat as a lake
Visibility: 10-15 feet
Water Temperature: 62 degrees
Air Temperature: 72 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 43 minutes or so

I kicked out to the rocky finger just outside of Pigeon Shit cave and submerged.

Visibility was good, however a little green – nothing that Photoshop can’t handle.

Star Fish make their home on a reef.

A passing Sun Star.

I passed by some stirring sand; as I approached, I noticed it was a huge Bat Ray burying itself in the sand for a probable nap.

The Bat Ray took off as soon as it spotted me.

I am going to apply for a $2 million government grant to study why sea urchins climb sticks.

After about 30 minutes I headed back in, surfacing twice to get a bearing.

The exit was extremely easy.

I noticed that there are still fishermen here, even though this area has been declared a marine preserve almost two years ago.

I had some kids who were interested in what was off the coast; “Fish, Bat Rays… I was hoping to find some sunken treasure, ” I said.

Coming from my dive, still wet and geared up, I was walking to my truck in the parking lot when a car pulls up along side of me.

“Are you leaving?” the driver asked.

Really? This guy thinks I’m going to throw my tank in the back of my truck and speed away still wearing my weight belt and wetsuit?

“Uh, no,” I responded.

Reverend Al found an extremely rare something – nobody knew what it is; someone guessed it might be the inside of a conch.

I called it “God’s cork screw.”

The debriefing starts!

Today’s group of divers and support crew, minus the other 20 divers who were there.

I had to cut the debriefing short and go visit my father.