The Anger Of The Sea Continues!
Thinking that conditions would vastly improve this weekend with the Obama administration in power, I again headed down to the Old Marineland.
Reports from Not So New Chris from Saturday reported that the public parking lot is now closed and that conditions looked sucky.
Sure enough, to the relief of the surrounding community, the public lot is now part of the soon to be nine hole golf course of Terranea Resort.
So, it looks like we access through the main gate now?
The trail was still open, so I parked on the street and checked out the conditions.
Not one other diver was around at 8:20 AM.
The water looked divable, but not that great.
The swell maps from last night showed a pretty hard swell pounding the shore with four to six foot waves.
The cove looked a little muddy, but it was possible to dive.
So where is everyone?
I went to check out Honeymoon Cove where I met up with Not So New Chris.
He said, “Don’t even think about it.”
Honeymoon Cove looked like a surfer’s paradise; definitely Old Marineland would have been the better bet.
I met up with Reverend Al who was looking for the regular crew.
Al said, “I went to the main gate of Terranea Resort, but the guard had no idea that he was suppose to provide beach access.”
It’s the same crap again!
Oh well, I got back in to the mighty Duster and drove to Rebel’s Cocktails in San Pedro for a debrief, and then home, to the ghetto of Long Beach.
Did you go all the way to the bottom of the trail to see if it was unimpeded? I don’t mind if I have to park on the street, but shit things are looking good for diving on Thursday. I don’t want to be kept out because of a closed trail and an uninformed security guard! Thanks for the report, looks like conditions are gettin better but just not quite there yet. Like I said the surfline LOLA nearshore forecast is showing GOOD conditions for Thursday. I’ll be there @ high tide which is at 10:23am. If you are available and wanting to dive with me and SpKelpDiver, you are more then welcome:)
Comment by Frank — January 25, 2009 @ 11:03 pm
No Frank, I didn’t go all the way down. Others have said the trail, as of now, is unimpeded.
It might be different Thursday as things have changed very quickly, but unfortunately, I have to work until Friday.
Comment by admin — January 25, 2009 @ 11:56 pm
Dude, I had to laugh out loud at this “Thinking that conditions would vastly improve this weekend with the Obama administration in power, I again headed down to the Old Marineland.” How true is that! It wouldn’t suprise me if people thought he could control the Earth’s weather, I mean Bush did right? (Katrina)=P LOL!
Yea we are planning to dive Marineland thursday, but this might change things. We went down to Shaws Cove three weeks ago and it was Epic. Maybe we will do that again, or Vets if all else fails. Psycho, you’ve been to Shaws right?
Comment by Charlie (SPkelpdiver) — January 26, 2009 @ 9:44 am
The old trail will remain open, at least until the resort does. Don said his group were allowed in the main gate at 8:00 after a phone call to the guard’s boss. They parked at the hotel, but decided to call the dive. Evil Jeff and I arrived at 9:00 and weren’t allowed in. The two guards told us to use the new public access at the east end of the Pt. Vicente Fishing Access parking lot. That trail leads to the Point, but it’s a long walk.
When I get my cast off I’ll just park on Nantasket and use the old trail, that is if I can bear to look at my wagon again. 🙂
I miss the old days of using our secret combination to the gate and diving at 5:00 a.m.
Jeff did that with me once and couldn’t believe I was serious. It was fun to get out of the water, rinse off with the hose I put there twenty years ago and wave to the “late” crowd arriving at 8:00.
Comment by Phil Garner — January 26, 2009 @ 3:32 pm