ZD California Labor Day Trip Report

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zendiver1

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Scuba Instructor
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Location
Houston, TX
WOW...what another great trip. We arrived in CA at LAX a bit late as we were almost 45 minutes late leaving IAH here in Houston. I barely snuck in the radar getting to the airport where I met up with Sea Dragon and Idigrss (Penny). Richard was alread there diving (see his trip report on (Just got my @*** Handed to Me) for more details on that one.
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. Twinklez was also already there in CA visiting with her Dad. We were to meet up with mtndiver (John), sapphire (Jennifer), jexy (Jamie) and his lovely wife Wendie, and John's sister, Julie, the next morning on the boat.

Once we arrived in CA, Richard met us at the pickup zone and picked up Sea Dragon and loaded all of her gear into his rental and then followed Idgirss and me over to Fox Rental Car where we were to pick up our rental. Once we got all checked in, we headed out to Ventura to get situation. Along the way, we called Jexy and Wendie to see if they were still interested in eating dinner with us but being late arriving, it was getting a bit late so they opted to pass. Jamie gave me directions to IN/OUT Burgers so we stopped and grabbed something to eat then back on the road. We arrived in Ventura Harbor around 11 or so and Twinklez was still up waiting on us. We all got our gear unloaded and put on the boat - Spectre - nicknamed - Spinkter(sp). Don't ask.
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Once we were all situated, we hung out and chatted and got to bed around 1:30 am (3:30am by our times - long day). At 6am, we were awaken by rukus on the deck - many of the others were showing up and the Kristen was already in the galley cooking breakfast. Jamie, Wendie, John, Sapphire, and Julie showed up - we introduced ourselves and made some small talk before setting sail at EXACTLY 7am.

Heading out to Anacapa found the seas not so pleasant. Quite a few people were getting sick but I believe that everyone made the first dive. It was a great dive - sea lions, Nudibranchs everywhere, a bat ray, Gerabaldies all over the reef, sheep heads, etc....all in all a great dive. Dive time was right at 60 minutes and a chilly 63 degrees. We had an approximate surface interval of 1 hour and we were back in the water, well most of them were anyways. While I was suiting up, I ended up tearing the neck seal on my drysuit. I opted to set out and try and fix it but to no avail. The DM, Dennis, ended up loaning me a 3XXL 5mm semi-dry, Jamie loaned me his booties (that is another story in itself) and I was back in business.

We then picked up anchor and headed to Santa Cruz. Much better diving, a tad bit warmer and also was able to go deeper. Again, nudi's everywhere and so many different ones (videos and photos to follow). Great diving - good visibility for the area and registered 65 degrees on the next two dives there at Santa Cruz. Asked Richard and Sea Dragon why they were named "The Trouble Makers" *BIG GRIN*

After our last dive, we headed back to land. We got back on land about 6pm, showered on the trip back in and all went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Food was pretty good, but the company, photo slide show (Thanks Richard), and the small talk was the best. Wendi and Jamie were so beat that they decided to make their journey back home instead of joining us but they did meet up with us on Monday for breakfast.

Sunday started out pretty much the same with the exception of the weather. The winds were too strong for us to attempt Anacapa so we headed straight to Santa Cruz Island. Two of the dive sites we had already dove, but enjoyed them the first time enough that we welcomed them again. We did get four more dives in on Sunday and all the dives were great. The last dive on the inland side of Three Sisters was what most would suspect of the kelp diving of CA. It was EVERYWHERE....

All in all, I think everyone had a great time, I know I did. It was great to finally meet jexy after two and half years of chatting with him online. It was also a pleasure seeing and diving with John and Sapphire again and meeting Johns sister, Julie....the others, what can I say...it is ALWAYS a pleasure diving with Twinklex, Richard, Kristy, and Penny. I can't wait to do it again.

I will be trying to get all the video captured and edited this week and get it posted. Time may be an issue this week though as I have to get all my geared cleaned up and repacked for this coming weekend...YES, I am headed back out to the Flower Gardens to DM the Fling with Idigrss.

To get your juices flowing, checkout the photos from the trip: HERE
 
Nice report!

Glad you had yet another great time diving in SoCal waters.

Sorry to hear about the dry suit seal. It's good that you were able to make it work with a wetsuit on loan.

Christian
 
Thanks Christian....it was a ANOTHER great trip and some awesome diving. I will have to say that I enjoyed the diving more at Santa Cruz than at Anacapa. Looking forward to going back next year.
 
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