Yesterday's diving was incredible! (with video)

I was itching to get into the water all week. I had trouble sleeping the night before, and even checked out the forecast, which I've been trying to ignore. When we pulled up to Lobos, the sun was shining, the parking lot was absolutely packed with divers, and there were multiple floats out in the calm water. All good signs.

We chatted with friends local and visiting, and when we got into the water, we were amazed at the visibility. Clear, blue, sand visible 35ft below us. Immediately as we descended, we happened upon a thornback, which I've seen maybe two times before. We took a different route to Hole in the Wall, buzzing above it from 35ft (the incredible viz really gave us a birds-eye view of the reef) and on to Lone Metridium. From 70ft depth, we could see kelp stalks rising all the way to the surface of the water. We could see all of Sea Mount from a distance, and could almost see Beto's Reef from the end of Sea Mount. After a few minutes at Beto's, we headed back and spent the rest of our dive exploring the eastern side of Middle Reef.

Through the dive, we ran into maybe 5 separate teams underwater. On at least one case, I caught video of divers that I didn't actually see while diving.

[youtubehq]b3kWpoorfdM[/youtubehq]

Beautiful! Especially, the school of fish 4:08 and beyond. Was that Xen misbehaving?

Scott L:

Beautiful! Especially, the school of fish 4:08 and beyond. Was that Xen misbehaving?

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Thanks! That school of blue rockfish was amazing. We were just swimming around, and happened to look up and see them all hanging out in the water column.

What you see with the Xen is the same thing television and movie directors have had to deal with for years when showing CRT televisions and computer monitors on-screen. The refresh rate of the display (the Xen has selectable refresh rates for battery conservation) simply doesn't match the fps of the camera, so it looks like it's blinking. In reality, the display is solid.

nice video,
thanks for sharing.
M

Chickens!?
You're still planning on giving your bunnies some spot light right

Great video Kenn... It was great to see everyone. It's always good to see friends both in the water and out...

The vis was amazing... We were looking for you guys at Beto's but must have just missed you.

Now, in keeping with the long-running thread here, you DID chew Steve out for being out of trim at the end, right?

Beautiful conditions -- Lobos is so lovely when the water is clear.

Love the chicks, but rabbit poop is much easier to live with

Wow, almost makes me wish I'd have stayed home. I was at Santa Cruz island, with so-so conditions and the sites were pretty much textbook examples of what happens when you remove all the sea otters (i.e. Nothing But Urchins).

Wow, Beautiful!

TSandM:

Now, in keeping with the long-running thread here, you DID chew Steve out for being out of trim at the end, right?

Click to expand...

I told him "I know Uncle Pug. You sir, are no Uncle Pug."

I'm eager to hear if things held out for Sunday (seemed like the swells were picking up in the afternoon).