Conditions remained the same here today. Andrea and I are going to try diving a different site tomorrow.
Wrinkles October '05 Dive and BBQ planning thread - Laguna Beach
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dazedone
Contributor
ShakaZulu:
Yeah, the surf was totally manageable but the surge that day was pretty bad. We were getting swells from all directions which made it so choppy. Christian and I found an octopus getting dragged back and forth across the sand by the surge in about 30ft of water. Poor guy had nothing to grab on to. Oh and vis sucked too.
OP
Well... it's taken me a while to get back here, but everyone has pretty well painted the picture. TeqP and stoddu formed one buddy team and dazedone and I formed another. We planned it so that if the teams got separated they would simply continue the dive separately and if a team got separated that only that team would surface. Surprisingly enough, we all managed to stay together quite nicely throughout the entire dive.
Surf was manageable with most of the waves at around 3 to 4 feet and every set of about seven or eight waves having three or four 6 to 8 footers. If there would have been vis beyond the waves, it would have been worth going in a few times.
Of course, there was that pesky surge to deal with. It was around a 6 to 8 foot surge, but the vis was only around 3 to 5 feet. We managed to do the dive starting from Diver's cove and going all the way over to Fisherman's Cove. We'd be looking at the edge of the reef and then be pulled out over the sand. Then we would wait until the reef came rushing back into view. We didn't get smashed into the reef at all, so it was a fun ride... for a while.
We saw the biggest Garibaldi I think I've ever seen. It must have been over a foot long! I didn't see the shark that stoddu and TeqP saw, but was told that it was very close to my fins on our wild ride.
All the way out and on the way back we could hear the breakers loudly crashing on the reef above us. As we approached Fisherman's Cove, the vis got so bad we turned the dive.
It was difficult to figure out how far we had gone with all the zig-zagging around on the sand. On the way, back we started to head north toward the beach, but I had a sneaking suspicion that we had not gone far enough and that we were at the entrance to the crevice that leads to Mermaid's Grotto.
Since the vis was so low, we had two ways to figure this out. Either continue north until the sides came close enough to each other that you realized that you were in a crevice with very strong surge or stay far enough from the reef and surface to take a look. We thumbed the dive and took a look. Upon surfacing everyone agreed that it was about time to call the dive anyway, because we were getting a bit dizzy.
I'm glad we decided to surface and check it out. We were at the entrance to the crevice and there were very large waves crashing on the reef. We decided to swim back on the surface.
We didn't have to wait long for the big waves to come by for our exercise in timing, but we got a bit concerned when 5 six to eight footers in a row came by. We didn't think they were going to stop and that it was simply going to be a rough exit.
But soon the smaller waves came. I was surprised at how strong the small ones where on both entry and exit this day. They normally don't have as much power. I'm not sure what to attribute this to.
On exit, I was tipped over by what I thought was likely to be one of the last small ones before the next group of monsters (I'm getting into the Halloween spirit). It just sucked the sand right out from under my firmly planted feet. so, I checked my pride at the door, turned over and crawled out on my hands and knees like a frantic hamster. I crawled so far that TeqP asked me where I was going! I told him that I wanted to crawl out of reach of the next big one before standing up. It turned out to be a good move with the swirling water from the big-uns did reach us that far away. It's all about "commit and go with all you've got" regardless of what changes on the way! By the way, that does not always work as well if there are big rocks involved on exit. :11:
When we were going in, I was also standing pretty far from the water's edge, since I was anticipating 3 big-uns. I don't remember who it was when the big wave came in, but someone yelled, "Now I see why you're standing way up there!"
When we got up the hill, we discovered that the beach had been closed by the snorkel police and that some of our group was stopped from following us into the water.
So, we lit the Match Light bon fire and sacrificed 2 virgin hot dogs to the Heisler Park goddess of cooking to ensure that the rest of the meal would go well.
We all had a great time hanging out and really look forward to doing it again soon.
And we all drove home happily ever after.
The End.
Christian
Surf was manageable with most of the waves at around 3 to 4 feet and every set of about seven or eight waves having three or four 6 to 8 footers. If there would have been vis beyond the waves, it would have been worth going in a few times.
Of course, there was that pesky surge to deal with. It was around a 6 to 8 foot surge, but the vis was only around 3 to 5 feet. We managed to do the dive starting from Diver's cove and going all the way over to Fisherman's Cove. We'd be looking at the edge of the reef and then be pulled out over the sand. Then we would wait until the reef came rushing back into view. We didn't get smashed into the reef at all, so it was a fun ride... for a while.
We saw the biggest Garibaldi I think I've ever seen. It must have been over a foot long! I didn't see the shark that stoddu and TeqP saw, but was told that it was very close to my fins on our wild ride.
All the way out and on the way back we could hear the breakers loudly crashing on the reef above us. As we approached Fisherman's Cove, the vis got so bad we turned the dive.
It was difficult to figure out how far we had gone with all the zig-zagging around on the sand. On the way, back we started to head north toward the beach, but I had a sneaking suspicion that we had not gone far enough and that we were at the entrance to the crevice that leads to Mermaid's Grotto.
Since the vis was so low, we had two ways to figure this out. Either continue north until the sides came close enough to each other that you realized that you were in a crevice with very strong surge or stay far enough from the reef and surface to take a look. We thumbed the dive and took a look. Upon surfacing everyone agreed that it was about time to call the dive anyway, because we were getting a bit dizzy.
I'm glad we decided to surface and check it out. We were at the entrance to the crevice and there were very large waves crashing on the reef. We decided to swim back on the surface.
We didn't have to wait long for the big waves to come by for our exercise in timing, but we got a bit concerned when 5 six to eight footers in a row came by. We didn't think they were going to stop and that it was simply going to be a rough exit.
But soon the smaller waves came. I was surprised at how strong the small ones where on both entry and exit this day. They normally don't have as much power. I'm not sure what to attribute this to.
On exit, I was tipped over by what I thought was likely to be one of the last small ones before the next group of monsters (I'm getting into the Halloween spirit). It just sucked the sand right out from under my firmly planted feet. so, I checked my pride at the door, turned over and crawled out on my hands and knees like a frantic hamster. I crawled so far that TeqP asked me where I was going! I told him that I wanted to crawl out of reach of the next big one before standing up. It turned out to be a good move with the swirling water from the big-uns did reach us that far away. It's all about "commit and go with all you've got" regardless of what changes on the way! By the way, that does not always work as well if there are big rocks involved on exit. :11:
When we were going in, I was also standing pretty far from the water's edge, since I was anticipating 3 big-uns. I don't remember who it was when the big wave came in, but someone yelled, "Now I see why you're standing way up there!"
When we got up the hill, we discovered that the beach had been closed by the snorkel police and that some of our group was stopped from following us into the water.
So, we lit the Match Light bon fire and sacrificed 2 virgin hot dogs to the Heisler Park goddess of cooking to ensure that the rest of the meal would go well.
We all had a great time hanging out and really look forward to doing it again soon.
And we all drove home happily ever after.
The End.
Christian
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