Logged SCUBA Dive #322

Secret Location:  53 6f 75 74 68 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 6f 6c 64 2c 20 6f 72 69 67 69 6e 61 6c 20 66 61 72 6d 20 74 68 61 74 20 6f 6e 6c 79 20 67 72 6f 77 73 20 70 69 70 65 73 2e, Redondo Beach

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 100 feet
Waves: Mild chop with a steady current going North
Visibility: 15+ feet!
Temperature: 56 degrees at depth
Total Bottom Time: About 20 minutes

After out-gassing for a little over an hour, we “moved the boat closer.”

Again, I was the first one overboard and the second diver to reach the ocean floor at 80 feet.

I checked the anchor line, as I always do, but had no luck.

I proceeded South to the edge of Redondo Beach’s submarine canyon.

Lobsters were all over!

They weren’t huge, but they looked legal.

I decided to stuff my bag and measure them at the surface before swimming back to the boat;  I was deeper than I had planned (at 100 feet)  and didn’t want to waste time at the bottom.

With five lobsters in my bag I headed towards the boat and did a long and slow free ascent to the surface, praying that the current wasn’t dragging me to Santa Monica.

I surface a few minutes later about 60 yards from the boat, up current.

I measured my catch in the water and ended up throwing back four of the five.

I pose with my catch of the night – a REALLY expensive lobster… That’s right, hold it as close to the camera as possible to try and make it look bigger.

I had to remeasure my lobster three more times to stem off criticism from the other divers that “There is no way that bug is legal.”

Mirek caught one more, Bob I believe caught one or two more while the rest got skunked.

So, seven divers after two dives each caught a total of 11 or 12 lobsters.

Yeah, this season stinks!

The trip back was thankfully brief as we had to listen to Dan gloat about his five lobsters while half the boat got skunked.

Debriefing continued in the parking lot until about 11:30 PM; this being a stag boat, no conversations were off limits.