San Diego - A 9/11 I will never forget (pt 1)

[Mo2vation]

Plans changed for us last weekend, and my schedule opened up for a quick pop down to San Diego for some diving last Saturday, 9/11.

The plan was to swoop in Friday night, have a real dinner and face plant early. Early the next morning, we were going to hop onto the Marissa (we love that boat) for a couple of dives Saturday AM. If all worked out, the plan was to dive the Shores in the afternoon and head home.

The Marissa was completely empty. 4 divers booked.

FOUR.

A fifth joined that morning as a walk on. So there were five divers on this boat. Me, Chica, another buddy pair and another guy. The deck was roomy.


DIVE ONE - NROD


This is the reason I booked us onto the boat. We LOVE this site. It's nudi paradise. It's essentially a long lip or shelf that runs at about 75 to 90 feet, rising about 8 to 15 feet off of a sandy bottom. The top of the plateau is covered with thick kelp - and that's a great dive, too. But the star of this show is always the wall. I've dived this site probably a half-dozen times, and I could dive it another 20 times and still not get tired of it.

The density of life here is so thick, and so diverse. 8, 10, 15 species of Nudibranchs. Shrimp, sponge, tons of fish, JELLIES, and all manner of macro life: Bryzoan, cup corals, anemones and more. Its cool, its generally clear, and it is amazing. I love this site.

We splashed and started to descend. Immediately we're greeted by several Medusa jellies. We have these at Vets all the time - but they're golf-ball size. These are cantelope size - and there are many of them - most with small hitchhiking crabs and amphipods in and on their bell. I stop mid water and pop off several shots of 3 or 4 of them, then we compete our descent.

We start to scoot over to the Wall, when we see this big rock. Its weird - much larger on the top than the bottom - like an inverted pyramid. We get closer and start to scoot around the thing - and there is so much to see we have to clip off and kick around the thing a time or two. Amazing.

I find a mystery Nudi that looks like a San Diegensis without spots (more like a couple of dots only.) This rock is also the scene of a mass hermicide. Hermi's everywhere! We roll onto a Sea Lemon that is nearly perfect white. I see another Sandy that is perfect white... and I remember. In San Diego, most of the Sandy's are white-white while in LA area they're more buff colored. We're loving this inverted pyramid, but we need to get to the wall - so we signal and head over.

On the way we find a fried egg jelly. Way cool. I heard they've been seeing them in SD. Then moments later we see some very large purple / black beach ball Jelly. Both on the way to the wall!

We get to the wall. WOW. We hit it in the middle somewhere, so we head left a few moments - not all the way to the end. Just enough to carve out a bit-sized chunk of this amazing site. I want to do a careful, slow survey of this place... no rush, no scoot. This is going to be great.

The water at 80-ish is clear and cold. Almost immediately we find the largest McFarlands I've ever seen. This thing had to be nearly 2-inches long. The stripes on his back (remember: Mac has 3, Mexi has 2) are all broken up and funny. Claudette would later say they looked like someone was a little drunk when they were driving the lane marker machine down this highway!

BAM BAM BAM.... more shots. More nudis, more shots. We are utterly alone on this structure. I don't know where the other three people are, but they're missing a show.

Next up is a fat Hermi in a hold fast at the top edge of the wall... nice. I love the play of colors and textures, so I fire off a couple of shots.

I'm off shooting one of the hundred or so Tritonias that are performing their gymnastics on all the red gorgonias, and I see a light signal. Claudette calls me over - and I look down and see another Hermi on a sponge. I'm, "uh, thanks..." and I start to leave.

Chica slowly waves her light - I stop and look. She has two hands up - index finger one hand to thumb on the other... and she's winding them up and up.... ** BING **

That's the Sea Spider Sign!!! I look down at the sponge again, and there is a very small, very clean sea spider. We just shot several on Anacapa several weeks ago - they were larger and not nearly as nearly groomed as this little guy.

Claudette finds a dirty Aegires. These are the guys we always see on the Yukon - a bright white lumpy bumpy little sluggo. This one was on an orange sponge and was not at all white... more brownish and dirty. Weird.

Kick along and I'm getting more shots of all these Nudis - Chica signals me. There is a huge Hermissenda going all trapeeze on a kelp stipe. Dude crawled up, and fell off... except for his tail. OMG. I'm cracking up. I got 17 or 18 shots of this clown. Too funny.

Time, as it does on all great sites, goes by too quickly. Even with EAN 38, the NDL at 85-ish starts to bubble away - and our gas is winding down. I'm so sad to leave. I could seriously spend a week diving this site. On the way up to 20 and our switch we run through the field of Medusa jellies again. I make my switch and start shooting one that had several tag alongs. We wrap our hang, and scoot back to the boat.

WHAT A DIVE!!!



Dive TWO - New Hope Rock


This was my first time to this site. Its not a "rock" as much as a series of large rocks and pinnacles all bunched together in a shallow mass of Kelp. At 40-something on the bottom, the largest rocks climb to about 15 or 16 feet from the surface - with diveable (read: scootable) cracks and fissures.

This is where the locals will be for Lobster opening night. Oh man - the place was thick with bugs.

We're poking around. I see a huge Hopkins rose - he's at the very end of a piece of red algae, sort of walking the plank. The shot below makes it look like he's floating. It totally looks all photoshopped. Its not - its just a wacky slug dancing on air.

Chica finds some sort of small fringehead (I haven't looked it up, yet.) He was performing for us. I got super low and shot up so I could get his fringes against open water so you could see the detail. I spit the reg so I could get closer to the rock... the bubbles freightened him so after I got the shot he took off.

We found a big flatworm. Really cool. They're so fast. The kelp at this site was amazing.

We'd seen most of the site after 45-some minutes, and without casting ourselves far away to go exploring, we decided we should head back. We ascent, zoom in the kelp for a few minutes and head back to the boat.

WOW.

One fav site, one new site. Can this day get any better?

We're off to LJS for a pork loin sandwich at the Cheese Shop, then a late afternoon dive at the shores!


Next Up, Part 2: LJS... what the heck happened to this place (wow, its so much better than I remember!)


-Ken

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Mystery Nudi (likely a Sandy)

World's largest McFarlands

Hanging Hermi (and Friend)

I love this Tritonia looking into the Pantry Shot!!!

Floating Rosie. Weird. Kinda cool! Here's a larger version of Floating Rosie... check the skin. Who knew? Linky: Rosie

Fringe Head Blenny Thing... kinda neat. Nice find, Chica.

Sea Spider

Holdfast Hermi

Medusa's with hitch hiking juvi crabs

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[Mo2vation]

I can't remember the last time I dived LJS.

I do remember the last time I dived it, I said I wasn't coming back. I'd hit it a lot, a scooter made it really small, all that mud, etc, etc...

WOW.

We had the best dive.

Dive Three - LJS


After offloading the Marissa, we rolled directly to the Cheese Shop for their warm Pork Loin sandwich. I dream of this sandwich - it is that good.

After making about 5 trips around the block (its about 1:50 by now... maybe 2:00 PM) I found a spot several blocks away. We walk to the Cheese Shop and order.

Its funny being here so late. This has always been a morning dive destination for me. If I'm here in the afternoon, I'm usually Kayaking and not diving.

The sandwich comes up, and its everything I remember. Delish.

We hike back to the car and drive the 2 blocks to LJS. And then it begins.

If you haven't tried to park at LJS after about 9:00 on the weekends, here's the scene: The lot is full. People are sunning and surfing. The lot is full. Families are everywhere, and when its family beach day, that means load up enough gear for the Donner party. Blankets, coolers, chairs, chemicals, strollers, easy ups, umbrellas, bags for more stuff you MAY need (no way you're going back to the car)... so people show up and dig in.

And it begins.

"Hey, you leaving?"

Its the LJS Mantra.

"You leaving??"

I haven't decided which is worse. Being the pathetic driver asking the question 700 times... "you leavin'?" or being the lucky guy who found the spot. It takes no time for survivor's guilt to set in.

You need to picture this scene. I mean, if you're walking to your car, the whole lot of these .5 MPH sad sack spot seekers has you in their steely gaze. If you flinch, you get pummelled with "you leavin's". If you stop walking and pause, you hear cars accelerating towards your vicinity. I pity da' foo who actually puts key to lock, because its on. This is why you carry everything with you to your spot on the sand. God have mercy on the poor schlub who loses rock-paper-scissors and has to go back to deathlot for the SPF or mom's Beef Jerky.

Pretty soon, you stop making eye contact. Not long after that you stop listening for an answer, as its always no. Then you just drive in a circle like some sand-starved NASCAR goober in the off-off chance a spot will open up before sundown. Its pretty much Lord of the Flies out here after lunchtime.

After about 4 or 5 rounds, we found a spot. This spot is about a million feet from where we're going to be heading... so I'm already cooking up a plan to half-dress to schlep the camera and the scooter through three zip codes and a county line. And quite possibly a time zone.

We take our time gearing up. We leave the drysuits open, wear the rigs, hoods off, and start the pilgrimage west, zig zagging around parked cars, trying not to scratch them with the scooter, the deathstar, a 130 or a drysuit zipper as I sandwich my bulk between them.

We make it to the wall, drop the scooters nose first into the finest sand on the west coast (this stuff makes corn starch seem abrasive), take a load off and take a puff. People have been here all day. The afternoon air at LJS is redolent of Salt spray, Baby Buttwipes, BO and Coppertone. Unlike Vets, I'm not getting a whiff of anybody decompressing at 0 FSW on 21/420 this afternoon.

We stand up, zip up, glove up, hood up, gear up and make the hoofy trek across this powdered sugar, emerging mercifully onto the acres of wet hardpack (low tide at LJS is cruel.) The surf is shin high, and as it take about half-a-mile to get 17 feet deep (the slope is so mellow) so we walk out, getting punched in the chest with powerless rollers. We fin up and hit the trigger for the longest surface scoot in the northern hemisphere.

After what must have been 7 or 8 minutes on the top, we stop, agree we must be in 25 feet of water by now and we drop.

14 feet.

The plan was simple: Go find Swami's d. Iris nudis.

We drop and scoot along acres of Oreos posing as teeny Sand Dollars. Hmmmm... I don't remember there being this many. Kinda cool. (This will be the recurring theme of this dive... the "I don't remember ______") I see something funny on a stray kelp leaf. Its a quarter-sized octo. I motion to Chica to light it from behind, and I shoot my first Light Table octo!

A cormorant buzzes us at 46 feet. Weird.

We slide out of the Oreo field into the Saddle - this gracious, tilted half pipe that serves as unmistakable navigation marker, trash collection spot and surge diffuser. And as there always is, there are the Sea Hares of LJS rolling around in there. I love that.

We veer left - and we scoot down to about 90-something, where I remember there being a short wall in the mud. We find it. There is this huge 'tata Nudi being all reachy. Kinda cute.

We start to make our way to Vallecetos and the plateau near it, thinking this is probably where Swami saw the zillions of d. Iris Nudis. On the way there we see another wall. And another wall.

Huh? Where did all of these walls come from?

HUGE Sarcastic Fringeheads... holy moly these things would eat the Vet's sarky's as a snack. More Nudis - Tata's, a Fed Ex, Sandy's, Navanax.

No d. Iris.

We find a huge Pleurobranchia. I love those things. We find a couple of smaller ones. I get some shots.

Shrimp. WOW. They are everywhere. I love that.

We keep heading South - we get to Vallecitos. We go past it, still going south. The viz is so great (at least 35 - 40 - I'm not kidding) and there is so much light from all the light gray sand that its just beautiful. This is probably my best shore dive in the last 4 or 5 months.

The further south we go, the more mud walls we see. Last time I was here, it was all gentle sloping sand. Now it looks like a lot of that sand has given away and there are mud walls - and mud walls mean critters. A huge Sheephead COMES OVER TO VISIT as we're scooting by. Then part of his family - 3 or 4 females. Big sand bass are everywhere. On these mud walls there are blue-banded goby's. These are the same little guys that litter Catalina. I've taken hundreds of pics at LJS - I don't recall ever getting a shot of a BBG. There weren't many, but there were on every little mud wall we saw. I got a shot of an Octo in a vertical hole on the wall just south of Vallecitos.

I don't remember any of this. It didn't look at all like this a couple of years ago when I was here last. This is lovely. This is striking. This is wonderful.

We turn North going back to Vallecitos. We figure we'll hit up the plateau and intercept the army of d. Iris Nudi's there.

As we come over the lip, Claudette sees a Navanax heading East (towards shore...) She points to it. I laugh. She's basically saying, "lets follow the Nax to find the Nudi's...." (Navanax eat Nudibranchs)

I get some shots of our new friend, and we head inland, following his direction. We look and look and look.

We see no d. Iris.

Hmmmm....

BUT - I don't ever remember LJS looking like this.

We turn north and scoot until we hit the Saddle - that unmistakable landmark that says you're back in front of the tower. We turn east and blast home.

Even at full speed, the slope is so long and so mellow it still took us about 8 minutes to rise from 43 feet to about 5 feet.

We exit, and we make the schlep back across the acres of wet hardpack, across the powdered sugar sand and to the wall where we flop breathless.

A funny thing is happening. The Baby Buttwipes, BO and Coppertone smell in the air has been replaced by lighter fluid and burning wood. The night crew is moving in, replacing the day shift.

We walk most of the way to the truck, drop gear and I bring the truck to us.

WHAT. A. DIVE.

Thankfully, the navigation hasn't changed, as I pinned us out and back. But the area south of the Saddle sure has changed. So much more to see now. Just wonderful.

All the way home, I was shaking my head. LJS. What a place. I was SO over the place. When I called Jaye at lunch and told her we were gonna squeeze it in before I came home, she laughed out loud. "You hate that place..."

When I called her on the way home, I couldn't stop raving.

WOW.

Some shots below.


Huge thanks to Chica, Apex Buddy for a great, fun, silly weekend.


-Ken

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Light Table Mini-Octo

LJS Mud Hole Octo

Reachy 'tata

LJS Monster Sarky.

This is the Navanax that did not point us to Swami's zillions of d. Iris. Do not trust this guy.

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[Bubbletrubble]

Ken,

My only criticism is that you ordered the wrong sandwich at the Cheese Shop!
The funny thing is that I ordered my standard Creamy Dofino last Saturday.
We saw a couple of mola mola at LJS that morning. They must have been munchin' on the fried egg jellyfish that we encountered. I hope you got a pic of those guys. (I didn't.)

Take it from a local yokel, diving LJS on a weekend just takes a proper plan:

1. Drop off gear at the corner of Vallecitos and Camino del Oro.
2. Find parking a few blocks away from the beach. In the dead of summer, this means parking on the other side of the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club and having a very pleasant 10 minute stroll back to the grassy area near the flagpole.
3. Reverse the process on the way out.

I found parking at LJS on Saturday two blocks away from the beach almost immediately.

Always love your dive reports. Keep 'em comin'.

 

[surfinusa555]

I really like your pictures. I love the colors.

 

[kyjellyfish]

wow, amazing pictures!

 

[Dracunos]

How do you get those photos so vibrant? They are breathtaking. Great shots!

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Wow, I feel like I need to get out a dictionary or some fish ID books! Those are some really cool shots and what a detailed description! My sister moving to San Diego sounds a whole lot more interesting!

 

[Mo2vation]

How do you get those photos so vibrant? They are breathtaking. Great shots!

The photos are so vibrant and colorful because its so vibrant and colorful down there. I just get out of the way.

Technically, I throw a lot of light, often bouncing to add dementionality.

I also brace to hold very, very still, fully exhale, settle and I slowly squeeze through the trigger so I don't jerk the camera when I fire off a shot. This keeps things sharp.

I approach by stealth and am careful not to kick up a lot of yuck. I'll occasionally pick out some random floaties, but 99% of what you see comes right out of the camera like this. I don't crop most of my stuff as I want to fill the frame with as much of the critter or subject as I can.

I never add color, I don't pump up the saturation or anything like that. The colors on these critters pop, its just how they're made - and I want the colors to ring true.

Some shots are toss-aways. Like the Navanax, above. If he wasn't part of the dive report / story that shot would never see the light of day. Its a bad shot - huge shadows, boring top-down composition, and nothing interesting about the shot. It was a quickie just because it made me laugh that this guy was giving my buddy directions!

My job is to see the critter, work an interesting composition and make the water disappear.

Here are some links to some larger shots:

MacFarlands eating. Check the cell structure on the yellow sponge. This guy dines here a lot, and that yellow sponge is his buffet table. In the large shot you can see a few of his mantel glands, and the siphon extended on the side of his mouth. He is totally eating in this shot: Link to Big Mac

Here's a link to a Big Fringhead. Some fish are so confident in their camouflage that even as you get closer and closer, they won't move. Scorpionfish, Kelp Fish, these little Fringhead guys. I wanted to compose the top of his head against open water so I'd get the black behind him, so you can see the detail of his fringes. I was creeping closer and closer, until finally I had to move my back up regulator to the side and take out my primary and hold my breath so I could get my chin right on a rock, rest the cam on the same rock and get that upward angle to deliver the black. It also delivered a cool 3-d thing with the tunacates and fuzz all around, framing up the edges of the shot. This guy didn't even flinch... he as so sure I couldn't see him. Link to Huge 'Head


Thanks for your kind words. There was so much to see and shoot at these sites. Glad you like the shots.


-Ken

 

[Mo2vation]

Ken,

My only criticism is that you ordered the wrong sandwich at the Cheese Shop!
The funny thing is that I ordered my standard Creamy Dofino last Saturday.
We saw a couple of mola mola at LJS that morning. They must have been munchin' on the fried egg jellyfish that we encountered. I hope you got a pic of those guys. (I didn't.)

Take it from a local yokel, diving LJS on a weekend just takes a proper plan:

1. Drop off gear at the corner of Vallecitos and Camino del Oro.
2. Find parking a few blocks away from the beach. In the dead of summer, this means parking on the other side of the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club and having a very pleasant 10 minute stroll back to the grassy area near the flagpole.
3. Reverse the process on the way out.

I found parking at LJS on Saturday two blocks away from the beach almost immediately.

Always love your dive reports. Keep 'em comin'.

I got way too much stuff to do the dump and run. Besides, people watching with your buddy as you gear up, getting pummelled with "you leavin's?" is half the fun!



What's the Creamy Dofino? Don't think I've ever had that one.

Dontcha love that place??!!


-Ken

 

[fnfalman]

The Hopkin's Rose photo is awesome. It does look photochopped as advertised.

The baby octo on the kelp leaf is also a great find. Who woulda thunk that an octo would hang out like that, not to mention the freaky shot of the jelly fish and all the little crabs on it.