My usual buddy being busy, I decided to put myself on a dive boat this past Sunday AM. I was excited to get out to the properly deep kelp beds, vs the usual grassy knoll at Marine Room. On the way out, we got to see porpoises herding a baitball that was also being attacked from above by sea birds - a good omen for conditions, I think.
So we set up at the first site which is an old wreck intertwined with the reef, I got all geared up, and on the way down the viz was just terrible. Well, just more like San Diego normal conditions really, but somehow I always hope the kelp beds are crystal clear here like they are up at Laguna. Despite that, I got a quick peak at the bottom (nudis galore! Too bad I couldn't focus on them... enjoy the blurry pics
)
There are stars yet!
I love these anemonies!
I wish this picture came out better - it's one of those yellow striped blue nudis!
This is what the bottom looks like
Spanish Shawls here too
CHALLENGE!! Find the fish:
And on the way up because I was definitely narced at my max depth of 52fsw
And then headed up to go hang out in the shallower end of the pool with the bait.
Isn't kelp just so nice?
So we packed back up and the boat headed out for the second dive.. (the land in these shots if Pt Loma because these sites are in the Pt Loma kelp beds)
The second dive I knew I would get a little cold (the first one was 62ºF), but somehow I was still ill-prepared for the 57ºF degrees. I gave my buddy a minute or two on the bottom before I signaled that we needed to go up and level off. The bottom was at 73fsw, at least the bottom according to how low I was willing to go:
A nice big urchin
lots of sea slugs out that day
So heading back up, we hung out at 30' until I couldn't stand it no' mo' but it was nice up there considering all the life going on shallower:
So many blacksmith!
And I think remnants of those baitballs
Gone in the blink of an eye!
My buddy, it seems like most people here, never consider hanging out in the top 30fsw of the kelp, but imo that's the best part.
So we set up at the first site which is an old wreck intertwined with the reef, I got all geared up, and on the way down the viz was just terrible. Well, just more like San Diego normal conditions really, but somehow I always hope the kelp beds are crystal clear here like they are up at Laguna. Despite that, I got a quick peak at the bottom (nudis galore! Too bad I couldn't focus on them... enjoy the blurry pics
)
There are stars yet!
I love these anemonies!
I wish this picture came out better - it's one of those yellow striped blue nudis!
This is what the bottom looks like
Spanish Shawls here too
CHALLENGE!! Find the fish:
And on the way up because I was definitely narced at my max depth of 52fsw
And then headed up to go hang out in the shallower end of the pool with the bait.
Isn't kelp just so nice?
So we packed back up and the boat headed out for the second dive.. (the land in these shots if Pt Loma because these sites are in the Pt Loma kelp beds)
The second dive I knew I would get a little cold (the first one was 62ºF), but somehow I was still ill-prepared for the 57ºF degrees. I gave my buddy a minute or two on the bottom before I signaled that we needed to go up and level off. The bottom was at 73fsw, at least the bottom according to how low I was willing to go:
A nice big urchin
lots of sea slugs out that day
So heading back up, we hung out at 30' until I couldn't stand it no' mo' but it was nice up there considering all the life going on shallower:
So many blacksmith!
And I think remnants of those baitballs
Gone in the blink of an eye!
My buddy, it seems like most people here, never consider hanging out in the top 30fsw of the kelp, but imo that's the best part.
