The Pasley "HURRY HOME" August '07 Dive Reports

[headhunter]

Date:
Dive Location:
Buddy(ies):
Time:
Bottom Time:
Max Depth:
Vis:
Wave height:
Temp at depth:
Surface Temp:
Tide information:
Gas mix:
Top reason Pasley should hurry home:
Comments:

 

[LLKZ16]

Date: 8/2/07
Dive Location: Christmas Tree Cove
Buddy(ies): Jester
Time: 10:52 am.
Bottom Time: 1 hr 6 Min (started with 3150 in my HP80 and ended with 800)
Max Depth: 49 fsw
Vis: 10-15 ft
Wave height: 1-2 feet
Temp at depth: 57F
Surface Temp: 70F
Top reason Pasley should hurry home: The climb back up from Christmas Tree Cove

It was a grey morning but the wind and ocean were calm. I met up with Josh at the top of Christmas Tree Cove for a lovely hike down the cliff face…..YIKES. Actually, the train is only a bit hairy in one place and the rest is not too bad. However, up and down are two different stories.

We made it to the bottom with no casualties and set up our plan of attack. Basically, we decided to kick out to the left outside area drop, make our way out going across and then head back to the beach.

As we kicked out we saw that the water was pretty clear. Once we reached our drop zone and began making our way into deeper water, we noticed that there were lots of particles in the water.

One thing that was interesting was that there were TONS of Giant Black Sea Hares out today. I have never seen such a large amount in one are. Right off the bat, Josh found an anchor while I was getting some shots.

This place is a mix of sand, rocks, kelp and some nice walls and rock structures as you make your way to the left side past the rock that sticks out at the point. The best part of the dive was the area past the point. It actually began to feel a bit like OML in this area. Josh snagged a nice size scallop in this area. The other areas were OK but they did not have as much life.

One thing for sure is that the climb back up is a total KILLER.

Below are some highlights from the dive:

Anyone know what this is?

Roaring Giant Sea Hare


Josh Snags a Scallop


Tiny Hopkins Rose


Full Pictures and Movies
http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m...20Cove 8207/

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date: August 5, 2007
Dive Location: Marineland
Buddy(ies): Merry Passage
Time: 8:16
Bottom Time: 1:36
Max Depth: 27'
Vis: 15'
Wave height: 0-1'
Temp at depth: 67.3F
Comments: It was a fun day to be at Marineland, even without the great dive. The parking lot was a circle of wagons. I brought the Bottomtime Buggy out for a test run, as did Don Robarge and Victor Morita. Don's has an electric motor, so he pulled the train along.

The dive itself was amazing. The water was a warm 67F and with visibility a pleasant fifteen feet we were able to find lots of critters. I spotted a Zebra goby who allowed me to take eight shots of him. My strobe wasn't firing most of the time, so I didn't get any good shots. I later realized the dessicant packs in the housing were blocking the flash.
We found plenty of Rockpool blennies, including a couple in the same hole. We found two Garibaldi nests, one of which was full of eggs.
Merry and I spent a lot of time barely moving, and despite swimming about 1/4 mile underwater we had a 96 minute dive and came back with lots of air. I had about 1000psi while Merry still had 1350. Today was her longest dive, and we could have made it a two hour dive if we had wanted to. She attributes it to her new Eric Sedletzky Freedom Plate. She glides through the water and I can't keep up with her on the surface. We call it her racing plate.

 

[LLKZ16]

Date: 8/8/07
Dive Location: Vets
Buddy(ies): Dana, Angelique and Kyle
Time: 9:15 pm.
Bottom Time: 40 Min
Max Depth: 102 fsw
Vis: 0-10ft
Wave height: 3-5 feet Constant Rollers YIKES!!
Temp at depth: 55F
Surface Temp: 65F

The lot at sun down was packed with cars dang it!! I would totally recommend getting there past 8:30 so all of the people who want to watch the sun set can clear out. Luckily, we got 3 spaces that opened up in the sea side lot near the middle steps. After 1 hr of jabbering we geared up to enter the mighty sea.

Wow what a crazy night!! The wave from the parking lot looked not too bad until entry time….lol I made it out without issue and so did Dana and Angelique. Kyle on the other had had a bit more problems then us (UNDERSTATEMENT..lol). The sea decided to take one of his fins and to make sure that he was OK; Angelique bravely made her way back out of the surf zone to see if he was OK.

While waiting for her to get out, Dana and I were tossed about just outside the surf zone which by the way was half way out to the pier. I have not see Vets like this with such strong rolling wind waves for a long long time. A few sets that came in were well over 5 feet.

Dana and I kicked out to the end of the pier and dropped down into terrible vis. Once we hit the bottom it got better but there were a lot of particles and silt in the shallows. As we made our way down the canyon we saw a Fringehead and a nice sized Lizardfish. Dana has a great Can Light that is awesome for lighting up subjects. Note to self, go out with Dana more often…lol As we kept going we ran into the biggest Cusk Eel I have ever seen. At that point Scotty Boy dropped in on us and got the shot before me. With all three of us around the subject, it got silted up pretty bad so we decided to move on. When we hit 102 with only 5 minutes of non deco left, we started to make our way up he canyon. For some odd reason we hit an area between 80 and 70 where we did not seem to make that much progress. My computer kept going back to telling me I only had 5 minutes left as we briefly stopped to check out critters. As we began the kick up the canyon in about 60-50 or so feet, I got the signal from Dana that she was low on air so we decided to make our way in without stopping at the vegetation field or “salad Bowl” area in the 40’s-30’s. As we hit 20 feet, the surge was awful and the vis was down to 1-2 feet.

We ended up popping up near the bathroom stairs but the waves were rolling in something fierce. They kept coming in without a lull. We both made it out OK. I almost lost a fin and Dana gracefully crawled out on all fours.

Below are some highlights from the dive:

Sarcastic Fringehead

Lizard Fish

Acanthodoris Rhodoceras

Crab Face

Fish Face

Spotted Cusk Eel

 

[Roughwaterjohn]

I'm sure one of the 2 dive crew will chip in with a report from the Shores this morning. I could only do one today, but I saw lots of cool stuff. Here's a link to the two page album;

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v116/krowsea/LJS 08-11-07/

I tried to label the creatures above each pic, but some ID'S are vague at best. Feel free to chip in with the correct ID

Shrimp with a Spanish Shawl for company

Rockfish

I have no idea

Sarcastic Fringehead

Close up of the nudi (ID'd as a barnacle actually

San Diego Dorid?

Black Eyed Goby

Tube Dwelling Anemone, dwelling in its tube

Rockfiish

White Spotted Porostomes

Rockfish

Sea Hare

Sea Hare

Cumanotus

Cumanotus

 

[Jake]

Date: 2007-08-12, Sunday
Dive Location: Shaw's to Fisherman's to Shaw's
Buddy(ies): Yossarian
Time: 10:53
Bottom Time: 4,500 seconds
Max Depth: 312 ISW
Vis: 6-12fsw
Wave height: Pretty flat
Temp at depth: 66 Aeris degrees
Surface Temp: 70ish
Gas mix: Air to the extreme!
Top reason Pasley should hurry home: Labor Day is coming up, and that means BBQ!
Comments:

We got a late start today, so parking sucked. Other than that, conditions top-side were perfect. We wanted to go somewhere else, but we could only find parking at Shaw's. Curses! Foiled again!

Conditions underwater were nice and warm, with minor surge. Viz was pretty poor though, especially on the Shaw's side. It was ok in Mermaid's Grotto at Fisherman's, but not much better. Nevertheless, any day spent underwater is a damn great day.

Three major highlights today:

1) an annoyed, but very active octopus. He was crawling all over the reef, changing colors constantly as he went. Cool!

2) we spent a lot of time in the sand making our way between the two coves; there were literally clouds of fry out there. It was pretty neat to stop, sit in the sand, and watch little fish dart all over the place.

3) also in the sand, I came across what I think was Syngnathus californiensis, or kelp pipefish. There was random little strand of anchored plant in the sand, and the little guy was doing his darndest to look just like it, moving back and forth as the surge moved the plant. He was about 10" long, but very narrow. Very fun to watch. He hung out for a while before jetting off into the briny deep.

 

[LLKZ16]

Date: 8/15/07
Dive Location: Vets
Buddy(ies): Angelique
Time: 8:57 pm.
Bottom Time: 47 Min
Max Depth: 80 fsw
Vis: 5-10ft
Wave height: 2-4 feet
Temp at depth: 54F
Surface Temp: 66F

Our plan was to dive OML at night. Angelique went there yesterday at 10 pm and found it was open. Tonight I showed up and there was a chain across the lot opening and the gate was chain locked too. DAMN!!!! Plan B, go to Vets.

Since we were there around 8:30 pm, the lot was not that full. There were a group of diver going in for a class but not too many other people were there. We suited up and walked sown to the middle stairs. The plan was to go out till 80 or 90 and then work our way back up stopping at the salad field around 50-30 feet.

The waves were not too bad tonight. They were till rolling in consistently but they were on the weak side. We finned out to the end of the pier and dropped down into just OK visibility. As we made our way down the canyon, the vis got a little worse.

There were tons of critters out tonight. Octo’s both big and small, a few species of nudi’s (One new one for me!!!) Fringeheads, Cusk Eels, tons of crabs and a HUGE Sea Cucumber which I did not get a chance to take a picture of. This guy was almost as big as my arm!

The dive was cut a bit short because Angelique’s computer was telling her she had only 4 minutes of non deco at around 50 feet. When we moved into 30-20 feet, there was a considerable surge and almost nothing around so we just decided to go in with over 1000 psi left in our tanks. Oh Well!!

Below are some highlights from the dive:

Octo

Lizard Fish

Acanthodoris Brunnea (NEW FOR ME!!)

Spotted Cusk Eel

Triopha Maculata

 

[Rickster]

Date: aug 18
Dive Location: Deer Creek Rd
Buddy(ies):Steve, Lisa, Maciek, John
Time:8:30am
Bottom Time:58min & 72min
Max Depth: 34' & 31'
Vis: 8' to 15'
Wave height: what waves?
Temp at depth: 62 deg
Surface Temp:69 deg
Comments:

The Beach Crabs had a dive/picnic scheduled for Point Dume. We arrived there and the currents around the point were very visable, so, we decided to move to Deer Creek Rd. It was a great choice! As soon as we pulled up, I could tell this was going to be fun.

1st dive
We geared up and did a waveless flawless entry. Surfaced out and dropped down right before the kelp. The Vis was alittle murky, but quickly cleared up as we proceeded further out to deeper depths. John pointed a huge octopus that was all curled up in his hole. I found the smallest Black and yellow rockfish. It was only about 1 1/2 inched long. We also seen lots of sheephead, blacksmith, catalina blues, sargo, various rockfish, sheepcrabs, and a bunch of lemon nudis. This dive was a great dive!

2nd dive
John & I decided it was to nice to pass up a second dive. We swam out and decended. The vis had cleared up even more. What an awesome dive. We just floated along, looking in every crack and under every rock. We seen A lobster, rockfish a couple garabaldi, sheephead, sargo, surf perch, and sheepcrabs. There was a school of baby senioritas, that were 3/4 to 1 inch long. So cute! on the way back in, we stayed underwater all the way up to the shore. For those of you that dive DCR regularly, you know how the vis is usually real bad close to shore. Not yesterday. For the first time in years, of diving there, it was clear! We found rock and eel grass in the shallows, and to our amazement, lobster everywhere, in 9' depth.

These dives were the best I have had in a few weeks. We are going back this morning as well, with a few different divers, so I am hopping it stays like yesterday. I will let you know.

Rick

 

[JMdiver]

Hey Rick if you use "so cute" again I don't know if I'm going to be able to dive with you again.

John

 

[JMdiver]

Date: 8-19-07
Dive Location:OML
Buddy(ies):Robert
Time:9:36 AM
Bottom Time: 97 min.
Max Depth:34 fsw
Vis:9-10 ft
Wave height: 1 ft
Temp at depth: 61 deg.
Tide information:low
Gas mix:32%
Comments:We swam out to the 120 reef descended & did our Reef Check survey. We saw all the usual critters but no Lobsters or Octo's. The entry & exit was very easy & made the dive that must more enjoyable but the hike to the beach is just way too long.

John