October 26, 2012

It’s been almost a month since Opening Night of Lobster Season.

I was suppose to be on the Island Diver, but there were problems with crew and diver interest, so I was lucky enough to grab a spot on Instructor John’s 14 foot zodiac.

Upon pulling up to park at King Harbor, the parking lot attendant gave me some good advise.

“You go diving? Lobster are shallow – 15 feet, I know…,” he said.

If the parking attendant at the marina doesn’t know where the lobsters are, then who does?

It was me, Crazy Ivan and Instructor John.

The ride out was fast, over the fairly calm ocean, to one of our secret spots off of Palos Verdes.

It was high tide, but due to the kelp getting caught in the prop, we had to anchor in 40 feet of water.

Logged SCUBA Dive #426

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving
Secret Location: 42 79 20 74 68 65 20 68 6f 75 73 65 2c 20 6e 65 61 72 20 74 68 65 20 67 61 74 65 73 20 6f 66 20 4d 61 72 2c 20 77 65 61 72 20 74 68 72 65 65 20 6c 6f 6c 6c 69 70 6f 70 20 74 72 65 65 73 2e, Palos Verdes, CA

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 400 psi
Max depth: 42 feet
Waves: Very slight chop, magnifying towards shore
Visibility: Up to 15 feet
Water Temperature: 62 degrees
Air Temperature: 62 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 40 minutes

I took a heading towards shore and descended.

I headed towards shore, positive that the lobsters were very shallow; but for the first 10 minutes of my dive, I didn’t see any lobsters at all.

I have to say, if I was going to get skunked, the reef structure in this area was quite entertaining.

The water started to get fairly choppy; I was washing back and forth, getting caught on kelp.

I checked my depth gauge – I was at 15 feet.

I put my gauge down, looked down, and there was lobster!

Shit! This my be the difference between me getting skunked and coming home with something.

I moved the light away, so it wouldn’t get spooked, and grabbed for it.

It moved back and I ended up grabbing an antenna, I let go and it flew into my chest.

I grabbed it like a football; it felt like grabbing a beer can – no need the measure this one.

I stuffed it in my bag and went looking for more.

The surge was just too much in 15 feet, I had to go back deeper.

Unfortunately, that one lobster is all I caught.

I almost headed for the wrong boat – the zodiac has such a low profile, you have to look in one direction for a few minutes sometimes just to find it.

All three of us made it back, as usual.

Instructor John caught two – he tried deep, but they are shallow.

Crazy Ivan with his bugs.

Here is me with my monster bug.

I got back too late to get enough sleep to attend the Divevets’ Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest.

I guess it doesn’t matter, my pumpkins have always sucked – I never won anything, except a beach towel for being the worst.

I need to get back into the swing of things.

I need to start diving at least a couple times a week, otherwise I see myself just getting older and withering away.

The sun really didn’t come out this morning, so it was hard to get up, but I was determined.

Not many regulars appeared – Dr. D (aka Dennis G.), Kenneth and a couple others, but mostly new faces; at least new faces to me.

I accompanied Dr. D., with Pinky and New Dry Suit Chris to 120 reef.

Logged SCUBA Dive #425

Dove with Dr. D, and “Pinky” and New Dry Suit Chris
Terranea Resort. Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 900 psi
Max depth: 43 feet
Waves: Pretty flat, maybe two foot swells
Visibility: Up to 20 feet
Water Temperature: 64 degrees
Air Temperature: 65 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 39 minutes

For whatever reason, I had a hard time keeping my footing on entry.

Visibility sucked in the cove, but cleared to 20 feet of visibility further out; we could see the bottom.

We swam to the rocky finger outside of pigeon shit cave and descended.

We followed Dr. D. who lead us to places of 120 Reef that I forgot existed.

This was a pretty routine, uneventful dive.

The other two divers apparently had only a dozen dives after certification, but did extremely well.

A perfect dive with a perfect exit, too – no casualties!

Debriefing was with Budweiser and ghetto grill cooked spicy sausages.

I was talking to yet another Bob about the differences between Divets and the now defunct “Sandeaters” dive club.

“The Sandeaters would meet once a week at a different location, but nobody knew who was part of the club… different people would show up and some you would never see again…”

“…and as soon as the dive ended, people would get in their cars and leave; you never got to debrief or get to know anybody.”

If it wasn’t for the post dive debriefing, I probably would just dive solo.

Dr. D and Pinky were so macho, they did a second dive.