The Pasley May 06 Dive Report Thread

[HBDiveGirl]

Date: May seeeexth, 2006
Dive Location: Malaga Cove (Surge=Viz Beta Test Site)
Buddy: Mo2vation, and ISOF (Internal Sense Of Fun)
Time: Half way between diveable conditions and surfable conditions (10ish)
Bottom Time: Lots, (Hour and three)
Max Depth: 22fsw(with our bellies on the sand)
Vis: 2 - 8 feet
Surge: 2 - 8 feet
Wave height: 1 - 4 feet
Temp at depth: 56F (Aeris)
Surface Temp: Wet, I guess, outside the drysuit.
Tide information: Waning tide, low enough to make the entry south of the pool about 50-feet of knee-deep water over slippery bowling-ball sized rocks. Do the rock dance!
Music mix: Every Beach Boys tune Ken could think of, with "Surge" replacing the word "Surf". (...and 'Chica has her mask flooded... again :14: )

Comments:
So... Two SoCal divers stumble into a L.A. cove.
One says, "What do you get when the visibility equals the surge swing?"
Second one says, "Inner peace, dude. Why worry when you can't see what you're about to hit?"

(And you thought the answer was going to be "Shaw's Cove" :11doh: )

Yeah, we walked away from Marineland. My hood's off to MaxBT's relentlessness in the face of explosive 3-foot rollers and erratic, short lulls. The waves at OML had increased noticeably in the 45 minutes since we had arrived. Invoking discretion, we motated the little 130s back up the hill, with nary a whine. (I've been hammered there... more than once. And I done lurned from my hammerin', thankyouverymuch.)

Malaga Cove looked sweet! Wavelets under a foot lapped the rocks in front of the swimming pool. We geared back up and were a little surprised as a set of two-footers shoved us around during the entry. We saw a 3-footer from the back as we finned out to the kelp line.

New Dive plan: Enjoy the reef, then exit to the north at RAT beach, on the sand. (Evolution gave me a big brain, and the world is always ready to punish me if I don't use it.)

So, wha'dwee see?
More octopus than even the most enthusiastic dive buddy could keep pointing out, (after about 10).
Garibaldi nests (4), but no hormone-juiced little orange newyawkers guarding them... yet!
Gastropods laying eggs at the speed of... well, of snails... but it was still impressive.
An actual Chiton!!! Hardly ever see these cool guys below the intertidal, and this 5 cm guy was fun to find.
A couple of meter-long horn sharks cruised by, obviously as blind in the poor viz as we were. The first one appeared out of nowhere and made me jump a couple of inches! I thought it was a rock that the surge was about to slam me into. I veered left, and the shark veered right... no harm, no foul. Later, two divers made a similar startling appearance and made Ken jump.
A lovely big sculpin was wedged deep in the kelp against the bottom.
A Sheep crab robot-legged around, gesturing rudely at some big blue thing that had gotten too close and personal.

There may have been big pelagic thingys all around us, but if they were more than 8 feet away, they might as well have been on the moon. Some fish of some kind occassionally slinked through the gloom.

Conditions were sooo challenging, it made me hyper-aware of the power of strong buddy skills and communication. For 63 minutes we each knew where the other was, while exploring countless rocks and overhangs, adjusting navigation throughout, sharing all the fun finds, cracking each other up (with BeachBoys tunes, Rototilling clown-fish counts, Braille-diving-in-surge signals,) and general hilarity over realizing that fun is something ya just gotta bring with ya on every dive... really!

It was Ken's first dive at Malaga, and he worked up a mental map of the place so fast that he was able to detour our return path and successfully seek out areas with less surge. A long kick back to RAT beach, and we eased to the surface offshore of the RAT beach surfing area. Kayakers were hootin' and hollerin' as they worked the now consistently-3-foot swells rolling in.

Ding! The Diving session for the day has now ended.
Surfers: The pool is now yours. Enjoy!

We still had a good workout carrying 1300 and 2200 psi back up that beloved Malaga cove hill, but I was very relieved to finally get the gear off and relax.

We worked for this dive.

I had a great time, Ken. Thanks for your endless good spirits and skills.

~~~~~~
Claudette

(hbGottaBeASaferPlaceToDive'Chica )

 

[Mo2vation]

I feel compelled to offer a few corrections to Chica's report:

#1 - "SurgeCity, here we come...." is an OCal reference. Its sad, but true. I promise: no more OCal references on our dives. I've yanked that page from my Wetnotes.

#2 - I thumbed OML because I was carrying my big Camera rig and didn't want to return through that banging surf. You sweetly agreed to the thumbage, but I still think you could have and should have gone in. Honestly, we both could have gone in (where Phil did... not too rough) but me getting out with the cam would be impossible and dangerous.

#3 - Malaga - going in on the rocks and coming out on the sand as the surf got bigger was your idea. The wise decision of a person who has dived Malaga and got rolled over those bowling ball rocks. Good call. The OCals that went in after us came out stumbling over the rocks (the same place they went in.) Your experience on this site made our exit a complete no brainer.

#4 - you suggested I leave the camera. Another good call. The surge was wicked and the viz was bad. Carrying the cam through the pumpkin patch of 18" water (just deep enough to hide the slippery pumpkins you're dancing on, but too shalllow to fill your BC and kick out over) would have been foolish. Thanks for the tip.

#5 - I saw at least 4 big Sheep Crab. Well, three that were awake. You awoke the one you mentioned above with the blue glove facial. I'm sure he appreciated it. Meany.

#6 - In a big cove, in a huge ocean, in viz that averaged about 2 - 3 feet, we run right into 2 of the other 4 divers within 5 miles of us. It was creepy. I totally jumped when we came up on these people (the OCal's referenced above.)

#7 - You chickened out and changed tanks at Malaga, opting to dive the sissy HP100 jogging tank. So you get no lovin' for schlepping baby up the hill with 1300. Need I remind you this was my SECOND large hill of the morning with a real tank (whahhhh.) Actually, if I had brought my HP100 I would have done the same. Silly to do a 22' dive with the 130. Hence the 2300 remaining gas. OY.

#8 - Going to a new site with an experienced diver who is familiar with the site makes all the difference. I found this true a couple of weeks ago in OCal at N. Crescent (RJP) and again here with you. I was confident and comfortable in the pushing and pulling surge. We did a little braille diving at the end over the sand, but its all good. This site will rock at night, and on a clear night I bet its amazing.

#9 - you mis-read my note. You think I wrote "one square meter." Everyone knows Metric Sucks and I would never possibly use a metric reference. What I wrote was "one spare cheater"... a reference to you and your jogging tank. Get corrective lenses for that tight Atomic Mask, will ya?


Thanks for a fun dive. Only you can make what could have been a crappy dive come alive with fun and laughter underwater. You rock.

---
Ken

 

[Peter McGuinness]

I took the occasion of a business trip to Miami to play hookie and go
down to Key Largo for a couple of days' diving. My first trip to the
keys and well worth the extra effort of hauling dive gear around on a
work trip.

I stayed at a place called Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Centre just a couple
of miles past the point where Highway 1 enters Key Largo. It's a
friendly place, not expensive and although their boat had maintenance
problems which prevented it going out on the Tuesday, the staff arranged
for us to dive with another operation, It's a Dive, less than a half
mile away, without us having to worry about any rearrangements. The
place is self catering but there are so many restaurants close by there
is really no need to cook - just remember that you may need more
breakfast than the free bagels and coffee will be good for. Also, you
will need cash for the toll roads to get there from MIA.

The plan was to stay two nights and dive as often as the boat went out
- a theoretical total of nine dives but in the event, high winds on
Monday prevented the afternoon and night trips so I managed only six.
Still not bad going. The boats at both places are pontoon-type
catamarans which allows them to negotiate the very shallow water through
the mangrove swamps and also makes them very stable in moderate seas.
The dive deck is large, flat and completely open to the breeze, so
keeping warm after diving can be a challenge. It was very noticeable
that the 80cf catalinas were always overfilled - before one of my dives
I measured the pressure at 3600 psi., the upshot of which is that I came
back from every dive - even the Speigel Grove - with around 2000 psi left.

Monday:
Dive 1: Wreck of the City of Washington
28ft, 53 mins
Temp at depth: 79f
Vis: Didn't even think about it: after a certain point it's not even an
issue really.
This is the wreck of a 320ft coaler which sank in 1917. There is not
much left of the superstructure but the remains of the ship are easy to
see and follow. The big features of this wreck are lots of nurse sharks
and one very large and approachable jewfish. Coral and sponges of
course, as well as some flamingo tongues and banded coral shrimp.

Here's the Jewfish:

Dive 2: North North Dry Rocks
31ft, 53 mins
Temp at Depth: 79f
Vis: same as before but some particulates in the water due to the nature
of the reef.
This is a shallow reef system with lots of sandy grooves running between
10 to 15 ft high heads of coral. A quite typical coral reef system, very
like the shallow reefs I have seen elsewhere in the Bahamas; lots of
encrusting sponges and corals with christmas tree worms buried in them.
We also found a goldentail moray - one of only two morays we saw over
both days - directly below the boat mooring.

Very pretty around here:

Tuesday:
Dive 3: The Speigel Grove
100ft 33 mins
Temp at depth: 81f
Vis: crystal clear.
The Speigel Grove is an artificial reef with a history not unlike the
Yukon in the sense that she was taken out to be scuttled but sank before
she was meant to; after spending a short time upside down with the bows
sticking out of the water, they finally managed to get her resting on
the seabed but, like the Yukon, resting on one side with the decks now
forming a vertical wall. The twist in this tale, however, is that when
hurricane Dennis came through it flipped the 510 ft ship upright so that
now it rests as first intended, decks fully level.
This is a huge ship; if you think the Yukon is big, think again - this
one is enormous; the publicity claims it is the largest ship ever
intentionally sunk and with the exception of the largest of the German
high seas fleet which was intentionally sunk in Scapa Flow after the
first world war, they are probably correct. The boat sits in about 130ft
and we descended to the well-deck at 100ft where there is a nice
scattering of life with sponges and corals beginning to colonise the
superstructure. I found and photographed lots of fireworms on the
gorgonians which are scattered liberally around that spot.
Definitely a headline dive.

Fireworm:

Dive 4: Wreck of the Benwood.
47ft 54 mins
Temp at depth 79f
Vis: Lots.
The Benwood was an English freighter which sank after colliding with an
oil tanker during the second world war. It was used by the US navy for
target practice before being blown apart to remove the navigation hazard
she presented. It's a large ship, covered in growth and sheltering
literally thousands of fish, with some enormous groupers hiding out
under the various pieces of steel deck which are lying around. We also
found a spotted, or reticulated moray, lots of banded coral shrimp and
a two-inch mantis shrimp out in the open. This is a very easy dive but
none the worse for it - one I would recommend and probably a spectacular
night dive.

Dive 5: Key Largo dry Rocks
29ft 50 mins
Temp at depth: 79f
Vis: a cloudy 60 - 80 ft.
This is another shallow finger reef system, very similar to dive 2, and
in the same general area. The spot is distinguished by a large statue
commissioned by Cressi and donated to the area by him. It's a replica
of a statue which is sunk just off the coast of Italy at Portofino near
Genoa, entitled "Christ of the Abyss". Given the location and recent
history, I have renamed it "God welcoming the cubans to miami"

"Welcome, my chidren":

Dive 6: North North Dry Rocks
28ft 56 mins
Temp at depth 79f
Vis 60 - 80 ft
This was a repeat of dive 2 just a few yards away from the original. A
nice relaxing way to end the day.

The rest of the photos can be found at:
http://www.mcguinness-family.net/albums/diving//KeyLargo_06/

Cheers,
Peter

 

[divinman]

Date: 05/06/06
Dive Location: Pt Loma Kelp/ Random reef structure
Buddy(ies): Bill B. and Mr. Powder
Time: 10.22a
Bottom Time: 57 minutes
Max Depth: 35ft
Vis: 5-8ft
Swell height: 3-4.5 at 16 seconds
Temp at depth: 54f
Surface Temp: 58f
Gas mix: 21%

Image Gallery: http://www.scubapost.net/forums/Scorpionfish/050606/

I met up with Bill and Powder (can't remember his name) at Shelter Island and before long we were motoring at break-neck speed toward the Pt Loma Kelp beds. Bills orange bullet really flies across the water and before long we were there and I could relax my white-knuckled grip on the railing and pull on my dry suit.

Bill took us to a spot near the New Hope Rock area. This site has similar structure and depth. Suited up, we slipped below the surface. Green soup greeted us all the way to bottom and the 4ft swell made this shallow spot a bit challenging to take photos in the surge but I wasn't complaining! I was DIVING with no surface swim and no post dive sand in my gear!!!!

The three us of use spread out and explored the patchy reefs and over hangs, finding the usual assortment of nudibranchs, octopus, starfish, etc. I came nose to nose to a largish lingcod before he turned and swam away and then later again with a scorpionfish. Not many photos today but still a nice long hour under water.

Back on the surface the wind had picked up and the marine layer had stolen the sunshine so we opted to head back instead of going for the second dive. Beverages were had and sea stories swapped as the orange lightning streaked across the water back to the dock.

Thanks Bill for the invite today. I look forward to diving with you again. And Powder....maybe next time I will remember your name. Nice to meet you as well. Let's get out and explore that wall!!

Terry aka Divinman
www.ScubaPost.net
A Southern California Dive Community

 

[Robert Phillips]

Date: 5/7/06
Dive Location: Crescent Bay/Deadhenge
Buddy(ies): Friedrich
Time: 7:58 AM
Bottom Time: 51 min
Max Depth: 51'
Vis: 5-10'
Wave height: Some 3-4' waves but nice long lulls
Temp at depth: 55°
Surface Temp: 59°
Tide information: waning high
Gas mix: strokeAir
Comments: We dropped down on the Deadhenge buoy and headed towards the reef, enjoying the dark water and limited visibility. Visibility varied from 2' to 10' but in most areas it was 8' with 3-4' if surge even at 50fsw. We made it to the beginning of Deadmans by pretty much running into it. Rock, meet face... hello rock!
As we made our way back towards shore we were buzzed by some sea lions dropping in to say hello. We surfaced right in front of the reef, timed the sets and walk out like we've been doing this for years (we have!)

Not a great dive and it sucks diving wet with an aluminum 80, but any time under the water is good. I'll have my dry suit in 2 weeks or so and I can get back to some longer dives and more time on the doubles!

 

[Jake]

Date: 5/7/06
Dive Location: Old Marine Land
Buddy(ies): My brother "Elwood"
Time: 09:41
Bottom Time: 27 min
Max Depth: 23'
Vis: 8-10 (at Long Point), 2-5' (towards the cobble beach)
Wave height: 1-2'
Temp at depth: 56°
Gas mix: air
Comments: This was my first time diving here. Despite bad reports from yesterday, my brother and I decided to give it a try. We made the tricky entrance at Long Point, kicked out a bit, and then dropped into the unknown. Visibility here wasn't terrible; I would say maybe as "good" as 10 feet or so. We swam along about a 30-degree heading for most of the dive, preferring to stay close to shore since a) viz got worse and worse, and b) we didn't know what was out there.

The initial area by Long Point was pretty interesting. Before long, however, we headed into apparently never-ending sand with pretty much nothing to look at. Looking at a satellite map now, it looks like we needed to head out from shore a bit. Oh well.

After about 10 minutes of swimming in "chocolate milk", as a fellow female diver was heard to remark, we made our sad ascent. I thought it looked more like green, expired, rancid chocolate milk, but who's keeping track?

Following the dive, a threesome commented that they saw a good amount of life and had decent visibility. IIRC, they stated that they had headed away from shore a bit. Sounds like the place to be.

At some point I lost a weight pouch from my BC, although I'm not sure when. I'm hoping that I lost it in the water or during entry, 'cause that would mean that I can dive 6 pounds lighter than I have been. Hooray! I'm betting that I lost it at either entry or exit, as I was being dragged across numerous rocks in an akward prone position.

A very nice gentleman came up to my brother and I after the dive and invited us to join the DiveVets group for refreshments and conversation. We had to run, but thanks for the invite! Maybe next weekend.

 

[TeqP]

Date: 05/07/06
Dive Location: Old Marineland
Buddy: Scubainspired (Thomas)
Bottom Time: 66:00
Max Depth: 42’
Vis: 5-8’
Surface Temp: 57F
Temp at depth: 55F
Surface Conditions: 1-2’ swells

I showed up to meet Thomas for some diving. As we were heading to check conditions, we ran into ReefCheckster (Rick). He was waiting for the rest of the RCheckers. After checking out Long point, we decided to give it a go. We back to the cars to suit up. Saw MaxBottomtime and he was going to wait and see if the dive vets were going in. This had me nervous, if MBT (who’s 2nd home is Marineland) isn’t sure about diving, then what were we thinking. Thankfully, conditions weren’t that bad. During the surface interval, ReefCheckster and HBReefChica surfaced from there dive. Chatted for a little, than geared up for another dive. I believe we were the only ones up for a second dive.

We entered at Long Point. The conditions weren't too bad. There were a couple of decent size waves that we had to wait for to enter. The visibility wasn't the best, but we decided to investigate the area since we were wet already. Dropped down and started to explore the structure. This place is where all the nudibranchs hang out. I saw at least 6-7 different species and as usual, I didn't have my camera with me. One of these days, I am getting my camera out there! Saw a lot of the other usual suspects, 3-4 decent sized octos, a 2.5-3lb bug (wish it was bug season) and a couple of lingcod (2-3') hanging out on the bottom. Thomas hit his turn pressure and on the way back we ran into some more pinnacles with more nudis. The viz got a little worse on the way to cobble stone beach, but was manageable, we never lost sight of each other. I knew we were still a little far from the beach but Thomas was at 500psi, so we surfaced and swam to the beach with an easy exit. Even though the viz wasn't the best, this was an excellent dive.

Date: 05/07/06
Dive Location: Old Marineland
Buddy: Scubainspired (Thomas)
Bottom Time: 44:00
Max Depth: 32’
Vis: 40-50’
Surface Temp: 57F
Temp at depth: 54F
Surface Conditions: ankle slappers
We entered at cobble stone Beach, had a short surface swim and dropped down on the reef. As soon as we dropped down, saw a small ray swimming away from us. Again, more nudis (still no camera!) and the usual suspects, plus quite a few senoritas hanging out together. We both decided that we were only going to do a 40 minute dive so we could get home kinda early. There was a little surge (1-2'), so not too bad. The viz here seemed a little better in most areas than at Long Point. Again, even though the viz was that great, this was still a very nice dive. Exit was a breeze!

Thanks Thomas for the 2 dives I had a great time. I sure hope I get a little bit better viz this coming week in Roatan. Hope everyone has great diving this coming week.

 

[JMdiver]

Date: 5/7/06
Dive Location: Leo Carillo
Buddy(ies):Joe
Time: 8:20 AM
Bottom Time: 27 min.
Max Depth: 32 fsw
Vis: 2-3ft / 5-7ft below 25fsw
Wave height: 2-3ft
Temp at depth: 54 deg.
Surface Temp:59 deg.
Gas mix:air
Comments:Entered by the big rocks on the south end. There's a really nice reef system there. The surge was really bad, it was like drift diving. Didn't see too much wild life just alot of sea urchins.

Happy Diving
John

 

[scottfiji]

Photos: http://www.scubapost.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1869

Vets Park, Redondo, Sunday Night, 9PM

In the parking lot, I saw a lone diver. I asked him if he was going in or coming out, and he said “neither, I couldn’t make it past the waves”. Wow. He said the other divers in his group made it out. We stood at the water’s edge, watching waves of “variable size”, sometimes very small, sometimes huge, hitting right near shore.

We descended into 18ft of clear, warm water. Vis was fairly decent on the dive, ranging from 5-15 ft, usually at least 10ft. We hit one thermocline at 28ft, and a second thermocline descending into the canyon. Deeper than 60ft, it was freezing! Our max depth was 70ft.

Lots of life was out, including nudibranchs Hermissendas, Dendronotus iris, and Triopha Maculata. Baby rockfish were everywhere, as were adult and baby octopus. Several cusk-eels, roughback sculpin and a sarcastic fringehead were out. We also saw a few scorpionfish, swimming crabs, large rock crabs, white shrimp, mole crabs, several large purple globe crabs, elbow crabs, and kelp crabs. A sea lion came quite close to us. In the shallows we found a clump of floating seaweed with 4 pipefish in it, what a treat! In 14ft of water a pacific staghorn sculpin was lurking. Many baby horn sharks were out playing. At the end of the dive we went hunting for rays, and found 1 round stingray and several thornback rays.

The exit was fairly easy, as the waves had died down. What a great dive!
Scott

 

[Mo2vation]

Lots of life was out, including nudibranchs Hermissendas, Dendronotus iris, and Triopha Maculata...

I'm on this site every week. Sometimes twice a week. You saw an Iris??!!

You dog. Now I'm jealous.

We'll be out there Thursday night again. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

---
Ken