Secret Location:
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Solo Diving, So Cal Buddy Diving, night Diving, off of John’s Zodiac

In With: 3100 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 35 feet
Waves: 1-4 foot rolling swells,
Visibility: 10 feet, pretty silty
Water Temperature: Cool, getting colder
Total Bottom Time: About 45 minutes

We met at King Harbor at 8 PM and sped off to our secret spot fairly quickly.

There were a lot of red lights at the top of a hill in Palos Verdes, along the drive above the cliffs.

A few minutes later, about four helicopters and a Police boat were combing the cliff and water with searchlights.

According to a later post on divevets.com by Max Bottomtime, the Police were chasing a vehicle that flew off the cliff and plunged 100 feet down towards the water.

One person was thrown from the vehicle and died.

The Police were looking for others but didn’t find anyone else.

Anyway, back to the dive.

The swells were a little rough; John let plenty of anchor line out.

It was low tide and we had a difficult time in the kelp.

Once we were all in the water, I spent about 10 minutes untangling kelp from me and my rig, but kept getting retangled.

I ended up descending wrapped in kelp and freed myself on the ocean floor.

I figured that was the only way to do it, since the kelp floats and I kept retangling myself on the surface.

All during the dive I would brush up against kelp, get a strand caught somewhere on my person and think that someone or something was grabbing me because the kelp would move in a rhythm with the swells.

I searched and search and finally came across a fairly large bug that was distracted eating – it was an easy grab, like grabbing a football.

It fought with vigor as I put it in my bag.

Half the time during this dive, I spent freeing myself from kelp.

I grabbed two more lobsters, but they were both short.

I surfaced very close to the boat.

None of us had strayed too far because it was difficult to navigate through the exceptionally thick kelp.

It was also difficult for us to climb back in the Zodiac – everyone was literally covered in kelp, which we had to clear.

We all decided not to continue the night with a second dive.