SoCal Dive Trip Report July 1-5, 2006

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shark.byte.usa

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Headed home [OC will always be home] for a visit and some diving, arrived on the 30th for my mother's birthday. Diving commenced the next day, started off poorly and ended with a bang!


Dive #1 [7-1-06]
Site: Heisler Park, Laguna Beach
Waves: 2-4' with occassional 5+
Viz: 5-10 at best
Surge: 2-5'
Surface Temp: 66F
Bottom Temp: 57F
Max Depth: 34'
BottomTime: 60"
Buddies: Peter, Kevin, Jerry
Comments: Went straight out to the little white buoy and dropped in
and puttered around in the murk and surge. I like to think of these as character building dives, everybody should do them. Spent most of the time looking for cool stuff with no luck. Upon exiting we were timing the surf and as we proceeded through the surf zone a large 2 wave set had us cooked, we all proceeded to body surf in with no injuries or rolling around in the sand; had a good chuckle about it, it was actually kindof fun. Called it a day and spent the remainder of the day cleaning sand from my gear in prep for my boat trip to San Clemente Island.

Dive #2 [7-3-06]
Site: Pyramid Point/China Hat, San Clemente Island
Viz: 10-20'
Surge: 2-7'
Bottom Temp: 65F
Max Depth: 43'
BottomTime: 52"
Buddies: Ted, Charles
Comments: Headed out on the Sundiver for 4 dives at San Clemente Island, this is my first dive trip to the Island. Beautiful day little swells, the Pacific was like glass, we had left at midnight the night before and stopped in a little cove for breakfast with sea lions playing all around. Pulled anchor and went around the point for our first dive. Similar to a Catalina dive, the kelp seemed a little more lush with lots of reef structure to explore, tons of lobsters out in the open with no fear of divers. I found a little baby moray eel, and just puttered around taking pictures.

Dive #3 [7-3-06]
Site: Window Pane, San Clemente Island
Viz: 15-30'
Surge: 2-4'
Bottom Temp: 63F
Max Depth: 64'
BottomTime: 54"
Buddies: Ted, Charles
Comments: Well it started out as a good day then Murphy reared his ugly head, we got to our second dive spot and kept slipping anchor and shifting winds delayed our second dive, then as luck would have it the boat's compressor took a C-R-A-P. The crew managed to get everyone who didn't have a fill a full tank, but this was it, we were heading home after this dive; in the immortal PG rated words of Forest Gump "It Happens!". Nice dive site with a wall that started around 30' and dropped to about 70', just explored all the cracks and crevices and took some more pictures, a thermocline at about 45' dropped the temp down, but for the most part it was a nice dive in the high 60's. Headed back to Long Beach and arrived home in time for dinner.

San Clemente Pictures:
http://www.ocdiving.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=5921


Dive #4 [7-4-06]
Site: Divers Cove, Laguna Beach
Waves: 0-2'
Viz: 5-15+
Surge: 2-5'
Bottom Temp: 66-74F
Max Depth: 30'
BottomTime: 63"
Buddies: Peter, Josh
Comments: Clear in shallows murkier as we got deeper, easy entry/exit and unbelievable warm water. Saw a little horn shark, a medium sized bat ray, a two spot octopus, alot of lobsters [and carcases(sp?)], and my buddy peter spotted a 2' plainfin midshipman [see pics]. A very warm relaxing dive and conditions are improving every day. At the end of the dive I realized I just had logged dive #59 and thought heading back to Phoenix stuck on 59, would be like going to the prom only to come home after being stuck on 3rd base, so I prompted Peter to accompany me for an early morning dive before he had to go to work and I had to head home the next day.

Divers Cove Pictures:
http://www.ocdiving.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=5950


Dive #5 [7-5-06]
Site: Woods Cove, Laguna Beach
Waves: 1-3'
Viz: 10-15+
Surge: 1-3'
Bottom Temp: 62-72F
Max Depth: 33'
BottomTime: 54"
Buddy: Peter
Comments: No camera [I was too lazy...arggg!] but what a dive to end my trip and well worth the alarm waking me at 4:30AM. I've always loved the beach in the wee morning hours, weather it was when I was a kid going surfing or now as a diver, and this morning was no exception. This was my first dive at Woods Cove. We dropped [@ 6:07AM] in to some beautiful reef structure and I was thinking this was a great dive spot one I'd have to revisit when the conditions permitted, little did I know... Just then Peter spotted a 2.5' horn shark, by far the biggest I've seen, as we explored more toward the seaward side of the reef, Peter spotted something BIG in the murk of the open ocean, we cautiously went out to investigate and were rewarded with a GIANT BLACK SEA BASS! He was about 3.5' over 100lbs and very curious he came to within inches of Peter and about a foot and a half from me, he did big circles around us checking us out, then swam off back out to the deep. I was stoked, this was my first sighting. We further explored and I spotted two octopi out in the open, playing or fighting or fornacating or all of the above, very cool. As we swam back in toward shore Peter spotted a bat ray flying over the eel grass. Exited without incident; what else can I say but what an unbelievable dive! Oh as we were walking up the stairs discussing the dive, some elderly folks were walking down and they asked Peter if we had seen anything interesting, he said, "a giant sea bass and a two and half foot horn shark" they got all scared and the older gentlemen said, "that settles it I'm not going in the water!", one of the ladys who had two lassie looking dogs asked, "Will the shark eat my dogs!" too funny. Headed back to my parents and loaded up my truck and dog and made the trip back to Phoenix in 5 hrs. and had a smile on my face the whole drive!


Garrett
 
Cool stuff! Thanks for sharing it. Nice pictures, too - love the anemone...

David
 

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