I have been lurking on this board for a long time now, and thought it was time I contributed something back.
I live in Southern California, and dive at least weekly, but unlike most of the local board members, the most of my dives are beach dives, and the majority of those are around the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southern Los Angeles. The diving is pretty unique, and I thought Id post a dive report that both told the story of the dive, and brought up some points about planning and executing beach dives.
If you enjoy this, Im willing to repeat them regularly, so give me a vote yea or nay after you read:
On with the show .
Christmas Tree Cove, 10/22
A group of us have a longstanding Wednesday night dive scheduled, although the numbers and locations are pretty flexible. Last night the group split into two, with one group diving Malibu and playing with Tech gear, and the other heading to Palos Verdes (PV).
The PV group consisted of myself, Ross and Mark. We had planned on diving Flat Rock, a popular lobster spot since commercial trapping is not allowed here, and were going to meet up at sunset to plan the dive. Wednesday morning I did the usual quick check of the CDIP and WAM local wave models, and rather glumly noted that both predicted 3-5 feet swells from the Northwest. Since Flat Rock is perched on the northwest corner of the peninsula, and is an extremely rocky entry, this wasnt looking good. To make matters worse, much of the diving is in 15-25 feet, and with 5 foot swells, the surge can get out of control here.
I sneaked out of work early and met up with Ross at the headland above the point. As we pulled up, we couldnt help noticing another bad sign about 10 cars worth of surfers parked at the trailhead. Needless to say, good surfing and good diving here rarely occur on the same day, and a quick peek over the cliff confirmed our fears. The rocky point was totally awash in white water, with our usual surge channel entry point looking like the inside of a washing machine. The swells were rolling in from the north-west and the ocean looked like a giant swatch of corduroy! Machismo and bravado didnt stand a chance and we slunk back to the cars.
We headed southward to our standard backup Christmas Tree cove. This cove faces southwest, and therefore is partly protected from predominant NW swells. A quick check confirmed that the cove was divable, but just. West swells were sneaking in, and were breaking across the large deep reefs that run across the mouth of the cove. No way we were going to get across them and do our favourite dive along the outer walls today.
We geared up and headed down the goat trail to the water the cliff here above the cove is pretty high, and its about a fairly loose sandy path to the water. Steep also, especially after the dive. We entered off the boulders on the north side of the cove where the surf was the least and dropped down in about 20 fsw mid-cove. Visibility wasnt bad and ranged from a low of 5 to upwards of 20 feet in places. The reason however, was the surge. We were rocking and rolling from the first minute. At times we were being shifted 10-15 feet with each oncoming wave, and since the bottom is strewn boulders and pinnacles, it required some pretty serious concentration. Add to that keeping track of your buddies, navigating at night and trying to watch for lobsters - Can you say task loading!! Fortunately we dive together a lot, and keeping track of each other was easy. We swam directly out to the mouth of the cove, not seeing any lobster, but the occasional cabezon and the usual reef fish. Further out, we started seeing some shorts, but nothing even remotely legal sized, and passed a few lobster traps to remind us why the commercials have been here for a couple of weeks now. As I swam across a sandy patch a pile of shredded boa kelp moving back and forth with the surge caught my eye. After a second realized that what was bugging me, was that there were two antennae sticking out of it. I swooped down and grabbed blindly at the mat, and was rewarded with the first legal of the night. Moments later, Ross flashed me with his HID, and Mark and I swam over to the mouth of a longish cave where he had found a sleeping horn shark 4-5 footer, largest Ive seen here before.
We made it to the outer reef, where we could see the surf breaking above us, and turned the dive rather that risking life and limb in that boiling mess. 3 more lobster, and 3 golf balls made it into my bag on the way back, and Mark grabbed a legal at the turn-point. The surge made grabbing a heck of a challenge and I nearly broke my shin as one particularly large wave hurled me against protruding rock. Halfway back to the exit we ran across a lobster trap that had lost its line, and still had a lobster in it. We ripped off the top and freed the little fellow (our flexible moral standards somehow wouldnt let us take him after rescuing him from the trap ..). A bat-ray and several octopi rounded out the return trip, and we surfaced right at the exit point to see a clear starry sky.
The exit across the slippery wet rocks in decent surf in the dark was about as much fun as it sounds, but no one lost any blood or significant dignity, and after pausing to catch our breath we trudged up the cliff, doggedly NOT thinking about the effects of post-dive exercise on DCS.
Nice drive home along PCH, listening to old radio shows on am 1070 finished up another typical PV night dive, and tonight were all meeting at my house for a lobster boil.
I live in Southern California, and dive at least weekly, but unlike most of the local board members, the most of my dives are beach dives, and the majority of those are around the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southern Los Angeles. The diving is pretty unique, and I thought Id post a dive report that both told the story of the dive, and brought up some points about planning and executing beach dives.
If you enjoy this, Im willing to repeat them regularly, so give me a vote yea or nay after you read:
On with the show .
Christmas Tree Cove, 10/22
A group of us have a longstanding Wednesday night dive scheduled, although the numbers and locations are pretty flexible. Last night the group split into two, with one group diving Malibu and playing with Tech gear, and the other heading to Palos Verdes (PV).
The PV group consisted of myself, Ross and Mark. We had planned on diving Flat Rock, a popular lobster spot since commercial trapping is not allowed here, and were going to meet up at sunset to plan the dive. Wednesday morning I did the usual quick check of the CDIP and WAM local wave models, and rather glumly noted that both predicted 3-5 feet swells from the Northwest. Since Flat Rock is perched on the northwest corner of the peninsula, and is an extremely rocky entry, this wasnt looking good. To make matters worse, much of the diving is in 15-25 feet, and with 5 foot swells, the surge can get out of control here.
I sneaked out of work early and met up with Ross at the headland above the point. As we pulled up, we couldnt help noticing another bad sign about 10 cars worth of surfers parked at the trailhead. Needless to say, good surfing and good diving here rarely occur on the same day, and a quick peek over the cliff confirmed our fears. The rocky point was totally awash in white water, with our usual surge channel entry point looking like the inside of a washing machine. The swells were rolling in from the north-west and the ocean looked like a giant swatch of corduroy! Machismo and bravado didnt stand a chance and we slunk back to the cars.
We headed southward to our standard backup Christmas Tree cove. This cove faces southwest, and therefore is partly protected from predominant NW swells. A quick check confirmed that the cove was divable, but just. West swells were sneaking in, and were breaking across the large deep reefs that run across the mouth of the cove. No way we were going to get across them and do our favourite dive along the outer walls today.
We geared up and headed down the goat trail to the water the cliff here above the cove is pretty high, and its about a fairly loose sandy path to the water. Steep also, especially after the dive. We entered off the boulders on the north side of the cove where the surf was the least and dropped down in about 20 fsw mid-cove. Visibility wasnt bad and ranged from a low of 5 to upwards of 20 feet in places. The reason however, was the surge. We were rocking and rolling from the first minute. At times we were being shifted 10-15 feet with each oncoming wave, and since the bottom is strewn boulders and pinnacles, it required some pretty serious concentration. Add to that keeping track of your buddies, navigating at night and trying to watch for lobsters - Can you say task loading!! Fortunately we dive together a lot, and keeping track of each other was easy. We swam directly out to the mouth of the cove, not seeing any lobster, but the occasional cabezon and the usual reef fish. Further out, we started seeing some shorts, but nothing even remotely legal sized, and passed a few lobster traps to remind us why the commercials have been here for a couple of weeks now. As I swam across a sandy patch a pile of shredded boa kelp moving back and forth with the surge caught my eye. After a second realized that what was bugging me, was that there were two antennae sticking out of it. I swooped down and grabbed blindly at the mat, and was rewarded with the first legal of the night. Moments later, Ross flashed me with his HID, and Mark and I swam over to the mouth of a longish cave where he had found a sleeping horn shark 4-5 footer, largest Ive seen here before.
We made it to the outer reef, where we could see the surf breaking above us, and turned the dive rather that risking life and limb in that boiling mess. 3 more lobster, and 3 golf balls made it into my bag on the way back, and Mark grabbed a legal at the turn-point. The surge made grabbing a heck of a challenge and I nearly broke my shin as one particularly large wave hurled me against protruding rock. Halfway back to the exit we ran across a lobster trap that had lost its line, and still had a lobster in it. We ripped off the top and freed the little fellow (our flexible moral standards somehow wouldnt let us take him after rescuing him from the trap ..). A bat-ray and several octopi rounded out the return trip, and we surfaced right at the exit point to see a clear starry sky.
The exit across the slippery wet rocks in decent surf in the dark was about as much fun as it sounds, but no one lost any blood or significant dignity, and after pausing to catch our breath we trudged up the cliff, doggedly NOT thinking about the effects of post-dive exercise on DCS.
Nice drive home along PCH, listening to old radio shows on am 1070 finished up another typical PV night dive, and tonight were all meeting at my house for a lobster boil.
