{"id":647,"date":"2007-07-15T16:59:42","date_gmt":"2007-07-15T23:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=647"},"modified":"2008-02-07T23:27:14","modified_gmt":"2008-02-08T06:27:14","slug":"logged-dive-244-the-palos-verdes-underwater-arch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=647","title":{"rendered":"Logged Dive #244 – The Palos Verdes Underwater Arch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Palos Verdes Underwater Arch off the Island Diver
\nPalos Verdes Peninsula, CA<\/p>\n

Dove With Juan Twenty and Drysuit Greg<\/p>\n

In With: 2200 psi
\nOut With: 900 psi
\nMax depth: 55 feet
\nWaves: Minor chop
\nVisibility: 10-15 feet but pretty silty
\nWater Temperature: About 55 degrees
\nTotal Bottom Time: about 35 minutes<\/p>\n

After a carefully timed surface interval – almost an hour, we were ready to explore the Palos Verdes Underwater Arch.<\/p>\n

It’s located off the shore at the very end of Hawthorne Blvd.<\/p>\n

I had no idea where anything was.<\/p>\n

The Captain pointed toward shore and said, “the arch is over there.”<\/p>\n

I asked Juan if I could follow him.<\/p>\n

Not only because I didn’t know where to go and what to look for, I was also following his dive computer’s profile.<\/p>\n

We all submerged to about 55 feet and followed Juan to the edge of a reef.<\/p>\n

There was a lot of silt in the water, not too much color.<\/p>\n

After a few minutes of maneuvering, we came across the arch.<\/p>\n

If the vis would have been better, I might have been more impressed, but it was a novel place to be.<\/p>\n

I had not even known that this arch existed, and I grew up in this area.<\/p>\n

Juan took a picture of Greg and I going through the arch; I did the same for Juan.<\/p>\n

I would have to estimate that the arch lies in about 50 feet of water at the base and comes up to 30 feet or so at the top.<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/p>\n

Photo By Juan Twenty <\/em><\/p>\n

There’s enough room for three divers to squeeze through at once.<\/p>\n

I wish the visibility was better.<\/p>\n

This is a place that looks pretty pristine.<\/p>\n

Not many divers have been through here compared to Malaga Cove and Long Point.<\/p>\n

We followed Juan through and back around the arch where we saw a sun star — a starfish with many legs.<\/p>\n

I believe that’s the first time I’ve seen one.<\/p>\n

After another trek swimming over sand we all motioned to ascend.<\/p>\n

We sort of blew off the safety stop — we had no location perception, so we didn’t know if we were being swept away by a current.<\/p>\n

Upon surfacing we had a short 20 yard swim back to the boat against mild current.<\/p>\n

I broke open my stash of beer and started handing them out.<\/p>\n

Juan said, “You may be the only one drinking. We’re going to help repair the dock when we get back.”<\/p>\n

I was warned about such an activity beforehand in an email.<\/p>\n

Having dove in a harbor before and remembering how absolutely obnoxious it was – the water was murky and tasted like diesel fuel and swamp water – I made sure to consume as much beer as possible so I could only be deemed capable of shore support.<\/p>\n

\"We<\/p>\n

Photo By Juan Twenty <\/em><\/p>\n

We took a group shot after the dives for insurance purposes.<\/p>\n

The Captain called ahead and had pizza and beer waiting for our return.<\/p>\n

I helped lower buoys and untangle and feed the air lines to the SCUBA crew.<\/p>\n

I also documented the episode with Juan’s camera…<\/p>\n

\"Divers<\/p>\n

Divers wait in nasty harbor water for a float.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The buoys are carefully lowered.<\/p>\n

One of the divers told me, “the pizza and beer are for the people doing the real work.”<\/p>\n

“Great!” I thought.<\/p>\n

I helped myself!<\/p>\n

I stayed until about 5 PM doing what I could to help above the water.<\/p>\n

After a while though, I thought I would be more productive drinking beer and staying out of the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Palos Verdes Underwater Arch off the Island Diver Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA Dove With Juan Twenty and Drysuit Greg In With: 2200 psi Out With: 900 psi Max depth: 55 feet Waves: Minor chop Visibility: 10-15 feet but pretty silty Water Temperature: About 55 degrees Total Bottom Time: about 35 minutes After a carefully […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}