Haven't been to Catalina since April this year. With the horrific logistics of the Long Beach Catalina landing far from my mind, and vis reported as stellar, it was time to return for some fall diving.
I promise this will be the last time I mention this, as this will be the last time I ever, EVER set foot in the Long Beach Catalina Depress landing - but there is no worse way to get to the island, short of a leaking raft. Their parking sucks, their parking rate sucks (I paid $1.00 per minute to park there overnight), their load in sucks, their line up system sucks, and they are the most diver-unfriendly boat landing I've ever, ever been to. They have managed to wring all the fun out of going to Catalina for me, as I have to endure this model of inefficiency and wallet grabbing waste of real estate twice for each trip. Which now means if I every return to Avalon, it will be in the summer out of the fantastic San Pedro Catalina landing.
Back to the dives.
When Claudette and I were talking about this trip, we decided to go over on the 2:00 PM Friday boat... It'll be mid-day, uncrowded, a piece o cake. The boat was packed with swing dancers, swing bands, and swingers of every stripe. I mean, wow... what a packed boat.
We arrive at the island, unload our mountain of gear and grab a cab to the Point.
I wanted to shoot a cover shot for my 2012 Photo Calendar - and I wanted to shoot it at the park. It was pretty gray and overcast when we got there, so I blew off the pic and we went for a twilight dive. Claudette ran over to Mitch at the fill station as they were closing and begged a couple of rental cylinders for us (wanted to keep the 130's for the morning) - he gave us a couple of phattys and we were in business!
DIVE #1 - Valiant at Night
It occurred to me - I've dived the Valiant a few dozen times... but I've never dived it at night. Claudette confirmed same - so this was our destination!
We dropped and headed to the corner of the park - on my way there the handle on my light was loose so my light head is swinging all over.... ugh. I need to check this stuff when I'm not diving! I head up to the surface to fix it, and I look down - there is Claudette at about 70 feet - clear as a bell. I do a big circle, she responds... this is some kinda viz! I jury-rig the lighthead, and drop, and we're off.
The Valiant becomes a very big boat when its dark.
We took it in - inch by inch, section by section. That thing is a lobster machine... OMG - I've never seen lobster so thick. Every hatch, every crawl space, every nook and cranny - spilling out onto the sand. 3 and 4 pounders just walking along.... it was amazing. No cam, but believe me - it was a bugfest.
A short, but fun dive on AIR (ew) with some O2 for dessert.
Dive #2 - The Valiant (day time)
Back to the Val.
On a real cylinder. With real gas. SOOOO much nicer. We spent 42 glorious minutes on this thing. Photographing all kinds of fun stuff. I found a Mexichromis on a very encrusted Mussel shell that looks like a map of the world! We got snoot shots of a silly Bunny-eared Hudsons.
Claudette found the shell of a lacy Bryzoan - so fragile and beautiful. I placed it on a large kelp leaf, snooted it up and shot. Then I put one arm of the snoot UNDER the leaf, got a shot. Then I bent the other arm over the top to act as fill light, leaving the light UNDER the leaf, got a shot. Fantastic!!
We see maybe two lobsters. OY
Got a great extreme close up of a Clown nudi on the Port bow. Another of a Mexi on some hanging fuzz. The Val is a lock for 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 species every time.
We move to the stern section, and Claudette sees a fairly large Pacific Electric Ray. He has this Wacky skin peely thing going on - brown skin peeling, leaving the normal blue skin. Never seen that before.
We come back to the stern just as a large group of divers are descending. Its about 42 minutes now, we have about 1100 or 1200 PSI left, so we leave and scoot back to the park. We peel off to go check out the swim platform, and find an eel in on of the corner boxes. We try to get some shots, he's not cooperating, so we bid him farewell and head in. We are heading right into a huge cloud, as there are several clutches of students on their knees working on stuff. We pop up to 20, make our switch and scoot in the treetops for 5 or 6 minutes before heading in. WHEW! Great Dive!
Dive 3 - SueJac
Off to the Sue Jack. The plan was to move slowly at the 50 - 60 foot line ("eel alley") looking for eels, and shark eggs and other fun stuff - as opposed to blasting there in 3 minutes on the scoots.
On the way out, Claudette finds the perfect, newly dead, small Sea Urchin 'test' (the name for an Urchin shell.) We'll find a place to snoot this up - I did some test shots with a small test months ago at Marineland off of Ross' boat - in a silt and surge storm. They showed great promise. With conditions like this - I'm getting excited.
We dive the wreck - and some how Claudette, can light in one hand, scoot in the other, manages to keep this thing in one piece for about 15 minutes.
We have only a few minutes of NDL left, so I take us up from 80-ish to about 60, then to about 45 for these urchin shots.
WOW WOW WOW.
We set up a photo studio at about 45 feet or so. Pixar and snoot on a rock, Chica holding it in place, I balance the Urchin Test on one arm, and I'm taking shot after shot - working on the angle and the lighting. Garibaldi are coming around. A teen Sheephead comes around. Without hesitation he goes over and chomps the Urchin test.
I swear I thought he broke it. So now Claudette is going all King Kong ans swatting at the hovering fish to keep them away from an urchin shell balancing on a two armed fiber optic snoot, balancing on a rock while I shoot.
I get the shots I want, we're in modest deco, so we flee, move slowly up to 20, make our switch and play in the tree tops a bit!
Dive 4 - Platform, Kismet, Octo Wall
We hit the swim platform - I want to take another shot at the eel that is deep in that corner box. We get there, set up the snoot, and he's not at all happy. He's digging in deeper into the box - I can hardly see him. I know the snoots will light under the edge - I just need him to peek out just a bit so I can capture him.
No dice. He's not having any of it. I got of a couple of meh shots - and then turned to the cleaner shrimp. They are jumping all over the place. I turn the snoot 90-degrees and wait and wait. A shrimp pops out. Then another. I get 3 or 4 shots of these guys under the roof of the box.
We pack up and head over to the Kismet. We find a clown nudi who does not want to play.
We head over to an area I call the Octo wall - its a mortal local lock there will be between 1 and 4 Octos on this thing every time.
I find an Octo holding a Wavy Turban shell as a door. Claudette removes the shell from his grasp, and I get some shots. We find a couple of more Octos, but they're too deep to get shots.
I put us back to the uplines, and we make our switch. While we're sucking O's, I start looking for octos. Claudette finds one - the last shot of the trip is this beautiful little octo.
YEAH!! 4 excellent dives.
Lots of friends were there, a couple of great meals, amazing conditions, super clarity in the water, some new shots with the snoot and my bestest buddy.
Thanks Claudette for a great 30 hours. Just fantastic!
Pics below.
Enjoy
-Ken
Mexi Mussel - looks like he's walking on a map of the world!
Mexi hanging on the Val
Clownie from the Val - Wayne's World Extreme Close Up
Snooted up Hudsons, running over the sticks
Lacy - Shot #1 - Snoot from top down only
Lacy #2 - Bottom lit only through the kelp. No top light
Lacy #3 - lit as above, but with the top snoot added as fill light. WOW!!
Inside-the-box snooted up Moray and friends
Snooted up cleaner shrimp as he pokes out to see what all the hubbub is about
Urchin Test - lit from inside, also lit from top with Snoot
Urchin test - let ONLY from the inside. The top arm of the snoot bent out of frame
Octo Wall - using Wavy Turban as a door. Love the red eye and the pink coral overhead!
Last shot of the day!
I promise this will be the last time I mention this, as this will be the last time I ever, EVER set foot in the Long Beach Catalina Depress landing - but there is no worse way to get to the island, short of a leaking raft. Their parking sucks, their parking rate sucks (I paid $1.00 per minute to park there overnight), their load in sucks, their line up system sucks, and they are the most diver-unfriendly boat landing I've ever, ever been to. They have managed to wring all the fun out of going to Catalina for me, as I have to endure this model of inefficiency and wallet grabbing waste of real estate twice for each trip. Which now means if I every return to Avalon, it will be in the summer out of the fantastic San Pedro Catalina landing.
Back to the dives.
When Claudette and I were talking about this trip, we decided to go over on the 2:00 PM Friday boat... It'll be mid-day, uncrowded, a piece o cake. The boat was packed with swing dancers, swing bands, and swingers of every stripe. I mean, wow... what a packed boat.
We arrive at the island, unload our mountain of gear and grab a cab to the Point.
I wanted to shoot a cover shot for my 2012 Photo Calendar - and I wanted to shoot it at the park. It was pretty gray and overcast when we got there, so I blew off the pic and we went for a twilight dive. Claudette ran over to Mitch at the fill station as they were closing and begged a couple of rental cylinders for us (wanted to keep the 130's for the morning) - he gave us a couple of phattys and we were in business!
DIVE #1 - Valiant at Night
It occurred to me - I've dived the Valiant a few dozen times... but I've never dived it at night. Claudette confirmed same - so this was our destination!
We dropped and headed to the corner of the park - on my way there the handle on my light was loose so my light head is swinging all over.... ugh. I need to check this stuff when I'm not diving! I head up to the surface to fix it, and I look down - there is Claudette at about 70 feet - clear as a bell. I do a big circle, she responds... this is some kinda viz! I jury-rig the lighthead, and drop, and we're off.
The Valiant becomes a very big boat when its dark.
We took it in - inch by inch, section by section. That thing is a lobster machine... OMG - I've never seen lobster so thick. Every hatch, every crawl space, every nook and cranny - spilling out onto the sand. 3 and 4 pounders just walking along.... it was amazing. No cam, but believe me - it was a bugfest.
A short, but fun dive on AIR (ew) with some O2 for dessert.
Dive #2 - The Valiant (day time)
Back to the Val.
On a real cylinder. With real gas. SOOOO much nicer. We spent 42 glorious minutes on this thing. Photographing all kinds of fun stuff. I found a Mexichromis on a very encrusted Mussel shell that looks like a map of the world! We got snoot shots of a silly Bunny-eared Hudsons.
Claudette found the shell of a lacy Bryzoan - so fragile and beautiful. I placed it on a large kelp leaf, snooted it up and shot. Then I put one arm of the snoot UNDER the leaf, got a shot. Then I bent the other arm over the top to act as fill light, leaving the light UNDER the leaf, got a shot. Fantastic!!
We see maybe two lobsters. OY
Got a great extreme close up of a Clown nudi on the Port bow. Another of a Mexi on some hanging fuzz. The Val is a lock for 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 species every time.
We move to the stern section, and Claudette sees a fairly large Pacific Electric Ray. He has this Wacky skin peely thing going on - brown skin peeling, leaving the normal blue skin. Never seen that before.
We come back to the stern just as a large group of divers are descending. Its about 42 minutes now, we have about 1100 or 1200 PSI left, so we leave and scoot back to the park. We peel off to go check out the swim platform, and find an eel in on of the corner boxes. We try to get some shots, he's not cooperating, so we bid him farewell and head in. We are heading right into a huge cloud, as there are several clutches of students on their knees working on stuff. We pop up to 20, make our switch and scoot in the treetops for 5 or 6 minutes before heading in. WHEW! Great Dive!
Dive 3 - SueJac
Off to the Sue Jack. The plan was to move slowly at the 50 - 60 foot line ("eel alley") looking for eels, and shark eggs and other fun stuff - as opposed to blasting there in 3 minutes on the scoots.
On the way out, Claudette finds the perfect, newly dead, small Sea Urchin 'test' (the name for an Urchin shell.) We'll find a place to snoot this up - I did some test shots with a small test months ago at Marineland off of Ross' boat - in a silt and surge storm. They showed great promise. With conditions like this - I'm getting excited.
We dive the wreck - and some how Claudette, can light in one hand, scoot in the other, manages to keep this thing in one piece for about 15 minutes.
We have only a few minutes of NDL left, so I take us up from 80-ish to about 60, then to about 45 for these urchin shots.
WOW WOW WOW.
We set up a photo studio at about 45 feet or so. Pixar and snoot on a rock, Chica holding it in place, I balance the Urchin Test on one arm, and I'm taking shot after shot - working on the angle and the lighting. Garibaldi are coming around. A teen Sheephead comes around. Without hesitation he goes over and chomps the Urchin test.
I swear I thought he broke it. So now Claudette is going all King Kong ans swatting at the hovering fish to keep them away from an urchin shell balancing on a two armed fiber optic snoot, balancing on a rock while I shoot.
I get the shots I want, we're in modest deco, so we flee, move slowly up to 20, make our switch and play in the tree tops a bit!
Dive 4 - Platform, Kismet, Octo Wall
We hit the swim platform - I want to take another shot at the eel that is deep in that corner box. We get there, set up the snoot, and he's not at all happy. He's digging in deeper into the box - I can hardly see him. I know the snoots will light under the edge - I just need him to peek out just a bit so I can capture him.
No dice. He's not having any of it. I got of a couple of meh shots - and then turned to the cleaner shrimp. They are jumping all over the place. I turn the snoot 90-degrees and wait and wait. A shrimp pops out. Then another. I get 3 or 4 shots of these guys under the roof of the box.
We pack up and head over to the Kismet. We find a clown nudi who does not want to play.
We head over to an area I call the Octo wall - its a mortal local lock there will be between 1 and 4 Octos on this thing every time.
I find an Octo holding a Wavy Turban shell as a door. Claudette removes the shell from his grasp, and I get some shots. We find a couple of more Octos, but they're too deep to get shots.
I put us back to the uplines, and we make our switch. While we're sucking O's, I start looking for octos. Claudette finds one - the last shot of the trip is this beautiful little octo.
YEAH!! 4 excellent dives.
Lots of friends were there, a couple of great meals, amazing conditions, super clarity in the water, some new shots with the snoot and my bestest buddy.
Thanks Claudette for a great 30 hours. Just fantastic!
Pics below.
Enjoy
-Ken
Mexi Mussel - looks like he's walking on a map of the world!
Mexi hanging on the Val
Clownie from the Val - Wayne's World Extreme Close Up
Snooted up Hudsons, running over the sticks
Lacy - Shot #1 - Snoot from top down only
Lacy #2 - Bottom lit only through the kelp. No top light
Lacy #3 - lit as above, but with the top snoot added as fill light. WOW!!
Inside-the-box snooted up Moray and friends
Snooted up cleaner shrimp as he pokes out to see what all the hubbub is about
Urchin Test - lit from inside, also lit from top with Snoot
Urchin test - let ONLY from the inside. The top arm of the snoot bent out of frame
Octo Wall - using Wavy Turban as a door. Love the red eye and the pink coral overhead!
Last shot of the day!
