December 10th urchin dive @Stillwater

[Eric Sedletzky]

Hello Urchin Divers,

The dive is on for Sunday! December 10th, 2023
at Stillwater Cove, Sonoma County.
Yay!
Conditions for Sunday:
SUN
 winds 5 to 10 knots. Wind waves 3 to 4 ft. W swell 5 to 7 ft.
The swell looks to be about maximum for an advanced level beach dive.
No rain and very little wind so I'm going to give it a shot.
Meet time will be 9:00 am at Stillwater Cove picnic tables. If you plan to attend I urge you to please be on time as conditions may begin to deteriorate early on.
If you are a new diver you may want to sit this one out if you do not have surf entry experience. We can always use shore support. At 5'-7' ft. swell there will be a beach break even though a lot of it will be broken down by the time it reaches into the cove at the beach, but it still needs to be respected. There will be surge too so working shallow on the left side may be a challenge.
I will come up with a game plan that morning after seeing it. We can always work the right side and clear zombies if the left looks too hazardous. It will also be high tide in the morning which helps.
Please let me know if you have any questions at all.
Thank you
Eric

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

What a stellar day!
30’ + vis, pretty much flat calm, no wind, and the water was 57 degrees which is about 7 degrees warmer than usual. It felt like bath water to us.
We only had 5 divers total show up but landed about 750 lbs.
A huge thanks to everyone who showed up!

 

[Ken_Kalem]

Pretty new to this, but when you say "landed" do you bring the urchins back in basket? Or do you smash it?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Pretty new to this, but when you say "landed" do you bring the urchins back in basket? Or do you smash it?

We load them in bags and bring them back to shore. We have to do it that way by law. There are only two sites currently in California that allow culling (smashing). One is Caspar Cove in Mendocino County and the other is Tanker’s Reef in Monterey County.
In Sonoma and Mendocino Counties we are allowed to take 40 gallons of whole purple urchins per day per license with no possession limit per DFW rules.
We have people who take all of them for the uni and for compost.

 

[Ken_Kalem]

That's some great information! Thanks for sharing. Maybe I can join you guys after I get my open water certification.

 

[happy-diver]

Thanks for sharing

Yeah how good is that what a great enthusiasm go for it

Now this is how you learn diving, and get real good at it

Respect Dude!

 

[Ken_Kalem]

Yeah how good is that what a great enthusiasm go for it

Now this is how you learn diving, and get real good at it

Respect Dude!

Thanks! I've been wanting to dive my whole life. I'm finally at a point in my life that I can!