Peter and I headed down to Monterey on Friday night. We hooked up with Dara, Jim, Terry and Melissa at the Lone Oak Lodge. Knocked back a few cocktails and headed to bed.
We planted the banner at the Breakwater around 7:30 am and set up camp. The surge waves were coming all the way up to the stairs and the surf zone was pretty mucky. However, Dara, Jim and I went out for a training dive. We did some drysuit skills and went on a nice dive along the wall. Once you got past 30' the surge really got managable.
Back on the surface we were joined by several other NCDers. Scott came back from the oblivion as did Eric. Kevin and his wife Denise with kids in tow showed up. We were also joined by some new people, Odie and Lauren. A great group of people!
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=67357
Everybody paired off and did the second dive. Everybody seemed to have a good time. Peter lost his mask, but thanks to Karma, someone found it and left it where we could find it. Denise lost a fin too, but once again Karma struck and it was found and returned as well. After hanging out and chatting for a while several of us headed out for the dive on the Beachhopper II.
The Beachhopper II was a little bit late coming back from its Lobos Charter, so we didn't get on the boat until about 2:45 or so. It's a nice boat and the owners are very accommodating. They had all sorts of great snacks and some killer brownies. Our first dive was off of the Aquarium, we didn't do any advanced sites since there was another instructor with new students. It was a nice dive and I got some great pictures of a bunch of metridiums. However, the second dive really sucked. It was close to dusk, so it was close to a night dive. The problem had to do with the 6' vis and heavy surge. We called the dive pretty quickly.
From Ericson-Posted on our site
Hello fellow NCD'ers,
I just got home after diving Pt. Lobos with the sunday crew. Boy, what a day! I drove down from the bay at 630am and got to Monterey by 8am. I met up with Chris, Andy and Peter at Denny's. After fueling up at Denny's we proceeded to Aquarius Dive Shop to grab the tanks. When we arrived, Jim and Dara were already there picking up their tanks. For those of you who haven't been to the shop--they pump banked-Nitrox--no need for an O2 cleaned tank, just a Nitrox card. (Also, yours truly, re-designed their website--check it out at www.aquariusdivers.com.) After grabbing the tanks, I was off to Pt. Lobos. When I got there, Laurel was no where to be found. After waiting for Andy, Peter, Jim and Dara to arrive, I finally got in the Park with the excuse that my dive buddy (Laurel) was on her way and that if she didn't show up, I have other dive buddies (Kevin & Denise) who were already in the park to dive with.
Parking at Lobos is a hoot on a weekend. I'm so used to diving there on a weekday when there's only two cars in the parking lot. After a bit of driving around, I proceeded to double park right behind Peter's Prius. After setting up, the crew was on their way to the first dive. I'm paired off with Kevin's wife, Denise; Andy with Peter, Jim with Dara. Laurel is still no where to be found.
We all hit the water a we were off to Granite Pt. Everyone has a camera except me--I damaged mine last night by incorrectly inserting the memory card in the slot, thus bending 2 pins. The card can no longer be read--great...NOT! This dive was the maiden voyage of my new drysuit, a Diving Concepts, Neo Z. I guess I'm glad I wasn't too task-loaded with having the camera AND a new drysuit. I fiddled with the suit most of the dive and still will need more practice to get it dialed in. Other than that, I had a great time diving with Denice and her new camera. It was fun to watch her get all happy when taking a picture of a nudibranch or any other creature that happened to swim by. The viz was about a cloudy 20 feet and opened up as we got deeper. The surge was pretty strong and a few times it caused me to crash into everybody. Water temp was 52F and max depth around 43 feet. Bottom time was about 45 minutes.
The surface interval was relaxing. Everyone had some sort of snack to share with the group. Laurel finally showed up and Jim Ernst showed up on a motorcycle--OOOOH! Peter's drysuit became a wetsuit; luckily he had his old wetsuit as a backup. We were all chatting about what we've seen, talking about dive techniques, etc. As we suiting up for our second dive, Dara decides to sit the 2nd dive out. Jim Erst takes off, but before we dove, he called with news of finding Denice's fin at the Breakwater. Andy and I buddy up and start heading into the water. The rest of the folks started to hit the water after us: Jim (See), Peter, Kevin and Laurel--I can't seem to remember the buddy teams, but I'm sure they'll pipe in with their dive reports.
Andy and I headed back towards Granite Pt, though we never really reached it. We cruised around 30 or so feet then hit a max depth of around 50ft. We saw a variety of fish: a huge ling cod, various male and female sheephead, kelp bass, vermillions, blues, perch, gophers and kelp rockfishes. We also saw a variety of other creatures such as: a tiny box or comb jellyfish, a sheep crab, anemones, snails and many that are too many to name. My trim with the drysuit seemed to be better, but it was hard to tell with all that surge at depth. Water temp was 52F, again, viz was nicer--around 30ft or so in some areas. Our total bottom time was about 50 minutes.
We got back to the parking and shared a few stories before heading out for dinner. Jim and Dara headed home. Kevin, Denise and their family headed back home to Davis. Andy, Peter and I headed to Aquarius, then to MBDC for fills then had dinner at the British Bulldog Pub and guess who we find? Jim Ernst and Laurel---HMMMMM! After dinner, Andy, Peter and I headed out to MBDC for their tanks and after they loaded up we parted ways until our next diving adventure.
Awesome day. It was great to see everyone, especially the new faces. I look forward to seeing all of your pictures posted here on our board. Until the next time we dive, take care and dive safe.
-- Ericson
We planted the banner at the Breakwater around 7:30 am and set up camp. The surge waves were coming all the way up to the stairs and the surf zone was pretty mucky. However, Dara, Jim and I went out for a training dive. We did some drysuit skills and went on a nice dive along the wall. Once you got past 30' the surge really got managable.
Back on the surface we were joined by several other NCDers. Scott came back from the oblivion as did Eric. Kevin and his wife Denise with kids in tow showed up. We were also joined by some new people, Odie and Lauren. A great group of people!
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=67357
Everybody paired off and did the second dive. Everybody seemed to have a good time. Peter lost his mask, but thanks to Karma, someone found it and left it where we could find it. Denise lost a fin too, but once again Karma struck and it was found and returned as well. After hanging out and chatting for a while several of us headed out for the dive on the Beachhopper II.
The Beachhopper II was a little bit late coming back from its Lobos Charter, so we didn't get on the boat until about 2:45 or so. It's a nice boat and the owners are very accommodating. They had all sorts of great snacks and some killer brownies. Our first dive was off of the Aquarium, we didn't do any advanced sites since there was another instructor with new students. It was a nice dive and I got some great pictures of a bunch of metridiums. However, the second dive really sucked. It was close to dusk, so it was close to a night dive. The problem had to do with the 6' vis and heavy surge. We called the dive pretty quickly.
From Ericson-Posted on our site
Hello fellow NCD'ers,
I just got home after diving Pt. Lobos with the sunday crew. Boy, what a day! I drove down from the bay at 630am and got to Monterey by 8am. I met up with Chris, Andy and Peter at Denny's. After fueling up at Denny's we proceeded to Aquarius Dive Shop to grab the tanks. When we arrived, Jim and Dara were already there picking up their tanks. For those of you who haven't been to the shop--they pump banked-Nitrox--no need for an O2 cleaned tank, just a Nitrox card. (Also, yours truly, re-designed their website--check it out at www.aquariusdivers.com.) After grabbing the tanks, I was off to Pt. Lobos. When I got there, Laurel was no where to be found. After waiting for Andy, Peter, Jim and Dara to arrive, I finally got in the Park with the excuse that my dive buddy (Laurel) was on her way and that if she didn't show up, I have other dive buddies (Kevin & Denise) who were already in the park to dive with.
Parking at Lobos is a hoot on a weekend. I'm so used to diving there on a weekday when there's only two cars in the parking lot. After a bit of driving around, I proceeded to double park right behind Peter's Prius. After setting up, the crew was on their way to the first dive. I'm paired off with Kevin's wife, Denise; Andy with Peter, Jim with Dara. Laurel is still no where to be found.
We all hit the water a we were off to Granite Pt. Everyone has a camera except me--I damaged mine last night by incorrectly inserting the memory card in the slot, thus bending 2 pins. The card can no longer be read--great...NOT! This dive was the maiden voyage of my new drysuit, a Diving Concepts, Neo Z. I guess I'm glad I wasn't too task-loaded with having the camera AND a new drysuit. I fiddled with the suit most of the dive and still will need more practice to get it dialed in. Other than that, I had a great time diving with Denice and her new camera. It was fun to watch her get all happy when taking a picture of a nudibranch or any other creature that happened to swim by. The viz was about a cloudy 20 feet and opened up as we got deeper. The surge was pretty strong and a few times it caused me to crash into everybody. Water temp was 52F and max depth around 43 feet. Bottom time was about 45 minutes.
The surface interval was relaxing. Everyone had some sort of snack to share with the group. Laurel finally showed up and Jim Ernst showed up on a motorcycle--OOOOH! Peter's drysuit became a wetsuit; luckily he had his old wetsuit as a backup. We were all chatting about what we've seen, talking about dive techniques, etc. As we suiting up for our second dive, Dara decides to sit the 2nd dive out. Jim Erst takes off, but before we dove, he called with news of finding Denice's fin at the Breakwater. Andy and I buddy up and start heading into the water. The rest of the folks started to hit the water after us: Jim (See), Peter, Kevin and Laurel--I can't seem to remember the buddy teams, but I'm sure they'll pipe in with their dive reports.
Andy and I headed back towards Granite Pt, though we never really reached it. We cruised around 30 or so feet then hit a max depth of around 50ft. We saw a variety of fish: a huge ling cod, various male and female sheephead, kelp bass, vermillions, blues, perch, gophers and kelp rockfishes. We also saw a variety of other creatures such as: a tiny box or comb jellyfish, a sheep crab, anemones, snails and many that are too many to name. My trim with the drysuit seemed to be better, but it was hard to tell with all that surge at depth. Water temp was 52F, again, viz was nicer--around 30ft or so in some areas. Our total bottom time was about 50 minutes.
We got back to the parking and shared a few stories before heading out for dinner. Jim and Dara headed home. Kevin, Denise and their family headed back home to Davis. Andy, Peter and I headed to Aquarius, then to MBDC for fills then had dinner at the British Bulldog Pub and guess who we find? Jim Ernst and Laurel---HMMMMM! After dinner, Andy, Peter and I headed out to MBDC for their tanks and after they loaded up we parted ways until our next diving adventure.
Awesome day. It was great to see everyone, especially the new faces. I look forward to seeing all of your pictures posted here on our board. Until the next time we dive, take care and dive safe.
-- Ericson
.
