After waiting out some crappy conditions over the last few weeks, all looked good for our traditional Sunday Services dive.

There was one problem – the trail to The Cove was closed for “routine maintenance.”

Reverend Al asked an anonymous Terranea worker if we could at least come up the trail; apparently his response was that we couldn’t “use the trail to go to the beach.”

We looked, it was Sunday and we didn’t see anyone working on the trail.

We all geared up to make a Point entry and exit at the Cove.

I believe we were 12 divers total, and all made it out from the rocky Point – some with more pain than others.

I wasted 400 psi going underneath the kelp to our meeting spot – I hate bitch crawling over the kelp.

Logged SCUBA Dive #406

Dove with Airforce Chris, New Guy With a Nice Camera, Reverend Al and a lot of others.

The Point, Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 400 psi
Max depth: 60 feet
Waves: Pretty flat with a few rolling swells
Visibility: Eight to 15 feet
Water Temperature: 52 degrees, 60 degrees towards the Cove
Air Temperature: 72 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 35 minutes

We dropped down a boat’s anchor line and found the statue.

We stayed together pretty well in what turned out to be a routine and uneventful dive.

Uneventful until all 12 of us exited.

We all walked to the bridge at the Cove that was taped off with yellow “Caution” tape; some guy was standing there and told us the trail was closed and we would have to either walk along the rocky shore or get back in the water and swim to where we came from.

Nice Bob asked, “So you aren’t familiar with this coast line, are you?”

“I’m the one who built this beach,” he replied.

“You mean the beach that keeps washing away every time we have a big rain?”

“Well, yeah.”

“How about we just walk on the side of the trail, that way we don’t interfere with your work?” Nice Bob asked.

He agreed, but was visibly really pissed – so pissed I think he called one of the Terranea suit people, but nobody else said anything to us.

I’m not sure if blocking the trail breaks the California beach access laws, but at least we got our dive in; but that guy was a real asshole if he really thought we were going to walk on the rocks or swim back to the Point.

My long time friend and dive buddy Nick – when he used to dive – showed up with his son Ben and girlfriend Jill for the debrief.

Reverend Al gave Ben a sea urchin shell, which he promptly smashed on the ground.

The group…

An exciting, but short video of today’s events…

The wonderful people at CalTrans decided to close the bridge to repaint the highway lines, in addition to closing the transition link between the 405 North and 110 South.

After taking a 35 minute detour from the Long Beach ghetto, Instructor Ed and I arrived at Terranea resort a little after 8 o’clock.

I sensed a bad Omen already.

About nine divers initially showed, including a female who is a fairly new diver, with a little more than 40 dives.

There was a lot of wind chop and the beach looked like mud, with some pretty large swells coming ashore.

The Point was not doable at all, but the Cove seemed like it could be OK, if you timed it right – but what’s the point?

Visibility was going to suck, and even though I may have attempted such a dive in my earlier – and dumber – days, I have a zero pain policy now.

From nine divers, with decades of experience and thousands of dives, the consensus was to call the dive.

Three other divers, who have a reputation for basically diving in any condition, decided to do a dive from the Cove.

The female decided to tag along with that group.

By the time we reached the parking lot, three other divers were gearing up.

It was the “follow the sheep” mentality – they see other divers gearing up, so conditions must be good?

Well, we explained why we weren’t diving, and they ended up calling the dive, too.

With beers in hand, we followed the four divers down to the Cove.

The three veteran divers made it through the swells with little problem.

The female asked me, “When should I go?”

“Fuck, I don’t know, I’m not the one going, you just have to time it – but you can still call the dive,” I said.

She went out, got knocked down by a wave; I thought she lost her fins, so I tried to catch them as they washed ashore.

Fortunately, they were still attached to her, but I ended up getting my shoes and pants soaked.

All made it out, and did a long surface swim to the barge that’s marked with an orange buoy.

The rest of us stood on the beach, watching the surf pick up.

Instructor Ed and I – In June of this year, it will have been 10 years since he taught me how to SCUBA dive.

One of the Dive Masters from Dive N Surf stopped by; he was utterly amazed that there were divers in the water.

It must have been an hour after they left when we heard a scream from the ocean.

We looked – we saw nothing except a few heads bobbing in the water off in the distance; no arm waves of distress.

We found out later, that they had a whale encounter – a whale breached a few yards away from them.

The three veteran divers made it back to shore, one falling due to a receding wave.

The female fell down due to a receding wave and then got slammed against a boulder with an incoming wave, and then slammed again.

I could not do anything, except stand there and video what was happening.

She crawled up an yelled, “Stop fucking video taping!”

The other divers helped her up.

I put the camera in my pocket and carried her tank up to the beach.

“Don’t put that video on YouTube,” she said.

“Well, if you insist, it is entertaining and people will learn from it,” I said.

“Put my tank down! I don’t need your help!” she said.

She then had some kind of emotional breakdown – something that I hadn’t witnessed since the days of my psychopathic-schizophrenic ex-girlfriend.

I wonder if Abraham Zapruder got that much shit for filming the JFK assassination?

I promised her I wouldn’t use it, but the footage wasn’t that great – not even close to viral material; just one of many episodes of people getting thrown around in the surf zone at Terranea Resort.

As one of the spectators said, “Not only could I not tell who it was, I couldn’t even tell it was a woman.”

Anyway, most said that the whale encounter made the dive worth it, even though visibility was only five to 10 feet.

Not only do I have a “No Pain” Policy, I also have a “No Psychopathic Women” Policy.

When Ed and I got back to the parking lot we left, avoiding any more irrational and psychotic female encounters.

Here’s the video that I made:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Since I said that I would leave out the female’s wipe out on exit, I will have to dig in to the Max Bottomtime archives and present the following, from November 29, 2009.

Click here to view on YouTube.