scottfiji
Contributor
Penny and I set out yesterday to fully explore 2 sites I have never dove, Deer Creek and Staircase. When I heard the lifeguard for Malibu was "flat", I knew this was a good day to try it.
The essential statistics:
Deer Creek: 38ft max depth, 68 minutes, 63 degrees, 23ft ave depth, 20-30ft vis
Staircase: 43ft max depth, 85 minutes, 57 degrees, 21ft ave depth, 15-25ft vis
Gorgonian City: 38ft max depth, 59 minutes, 59 degrees, 29ft ave depth, 10-15ft vis
First dive: Deer Creek. We dropped into 6ft of water, and the reef started immediately. We immediately spotted a spotted kelpfish (no pun intented), who darted under some red kelp. A good sign. We then saw a large lobster in the eel grass.
This is a very large dive site, with lots of rocks, structure, and kelp. Its quite shallow for a while, and the kelp is between 10 and 24ft depth. Rocky reef continues to 38ft, then peters out. We explore to the right of the staircase (west), which looked like it had better promise.
Parking is easy, access is simple, and entry is easy and sandy. Due to the shallow depths and exposure, I would not dive this site unless conditions were extremely flat. The kelp is nice.
As we moved into the kelp, sheep crabs appeared everywhere. We saw about a dozen large ones.
Harbor Seal. This seal kept spying on us for about 10 minutes.
Maybe a CO-SOle
Kelp Rockfish
Free-swimming spanish shawl, we were surprised to see him! This was on the way to the rocky reefs (no kelp out here).
at the rocky reefs, gorgonians and tube anemones started appearing. And lots of urchins!
scorpionfish
Guitarfish. We saw a couple guitarfish on this dive.
Rubberlip Perch
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The second dive was at staircase, just north of Leo Carillo. Parking was $6. Access was a decent hike down a gently-sloping trail (switchbacks). Entry was sandy and easy. This reef is very large and has lots of kelp and structure. kelp is from 15ft - 26ft. we followed a rocky reef out to at least 43ft, and it may have kept going even further. We saw a harbor seal here also, a couple of huge Bat Rays in the sand, and a couple guitarfish. The kelp here was tall and beautiful. We liked deer creek and staircase equally well.
As soon as we dropped down, a school of yellowfin croakers swam by us, what a nice start!
There is lots of beautiful eel grass in the shallow area of this site.
Again, here we dove to the right (west). There also seemed to be a reef to the east.
Even though waves were tiny, there was still decent surge at both dive sites, to our dismay.
Peering through the kelp forest
The sun bursts through the kelp
Black-n-yellow Rockfish. We found a family of 6 black-n-yellows together, how nice!
Limacia Cockerelli Nudibranch, very tiny! We also saw lemon nudibranchs, a san diego dorid, and many Doriopsilla Albopunctata.
Blacksmith
School of Rubberlip Perch
A giant kelpfish winds its way through the kelp
A baby spotted or crevice kelpfish comes out of its hole
The essential statistics:
Deer Creek: 38ft max depth, 68 minutes, 63 degrees, 23ft ave depth, 20-30ft vis
Staircase: 43ft max depth, 85 minutes, 57 degrees, 21ft ave depth, 15-25ft vis
Gorgonian City: 38ft max depth, 59 minutes, 59 degrees, 29ft ave depth, 10-15ft vis
First dive: Deer Creek. We dropped into 6ft of water, and the reef started immediately. We immediately spotted a spotted kelpfish (no pun intented), who darted under some red kelp. A good sign. We then saw a large lobster in the eel grass.
This is a very large dive site, with lots of rocks, structure, and kelp. Its quite shallow for a while, and the kelp is between 10 and 24ft depth. Rocky reef continues to 38ft, then peters out. We explore to the right of the staircase (west), which looked like it had better promise.
Parking is easy, access is simple, and entry is easy and sandy. Due to the shallow depths and exposure, I would not dive this site unless conditions were extremely flat. The kelp is nice.
As we moved into the kelp, sheep crabs appeared everywhere. We saw about a dozen large ones.
Harbor Seal. This seal kept spying on us for about 10 minutes.
Maybe a CO-SOle
Kelp Rockfish
Free-swimming spanish shawl, we were surprised to see him! This was on the way to the rocky reefs (no kelp out here).
at the rocky reefs, gorgonians and tube anemones started appearing. And lots of urchins!
scorpionfish
Guitarfish. We saw a couple guitarfish on this dive.
Rubberlip Perch
----------------------------------------
The second dive was at staircase, just north of Leo Carillo. Parking was $6. Access was a decent hike down a gently-sloping trail (switchbacks). Entry was sandy and easy. This reef is very large and has lots of kelp and structure. kelp is from 15ft - 26ft. we followed a rocky reef out to at least 43ft, and it may have kept going even further. We saw a harbor seal here also, a couple of huge Bat Rays in the sand, and a couple guitarfish. The kelp here was tall and beautiful. We liked deer creek and staircase equally well.
As soon as we dropped down, a school of yellowfin croakers swam by us, what a nice start!
There is lots of beautiful eel grass in the shallow area of this site.
Again, here we dove to the right (west). There also seemed to be a reef to the east.
Even though waves were tiny, there was still decent surge at both dive sites, to our dismay.
Peering through the kelp forest
The sun bursts through the kelp
Black-n-yellow Rockfish. We found a family of 6 black-n-yellows together, how nice!
Limacia Cockerelli Nudibranch, very tiny! We also saw lemon nudibranchs, a san diego dorid, and many Doriopsilla Albopunctata.
Blacksmith
School of Rubberlip Perch
A giant kelpfish winds its way through the kelp
A baby spotted or crevice kelpfish comes out of its hole
