Palos Verdes Dive Reports

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ifukuda

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Messages
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Location
Japan
# of dives
200 - 499
I'll post information of Palos Verdes dive sites when I dive there. I hope the information will be useful. I also hope that other PV divers will add to this thread too.

Dive Spot: Malaga Cove
Date: 04/17/04 (Saturday)
Entry Time: 11:00AM
Surf: 2-3ft.
Viz: 5~10ft.
Water Temp: 62 degrees
Max Depth: 26ft

It was raining earlier in the morning. My dive buddy and I discussed entry/exit risks and bacteria levels, but decided that we'll go ahead and dive. We selected Malaga Cove because of the paved trail, and because we'd be able to escape to RAT beach if the surf was to suddenly get rough.

At Malaga, we met a couple of guys who drove all the way from NorCal on Friday night just to freedive (spearfish), because they heard a rumor of WSB being spotted in the area. Poor guys...they drove hundreds of miles for these terrible conditions. I felt bad for them because they seemed like they were really nice guys.

We enterred from the southern end of the cove (past the private clubhouse) where the rocks are smaller. Viz was terrible where it was shallow, but it was better below 20ft. There wasn't too much out of the ordinary... a bat ray, a few leopard sharks, small sand and kelp bass, and too many garibaldi.
 
Dive Spot: Haggerty's
Date: 05/02/04 (Sunday)
Entry Time: 10:30AM
Surf: 1ft during entry, 2~3ft during exit.
Viz: 25~40ft.
Water Temp: 63 degrees
Max Depth: 32ft

Beautiful day! Off shore winds had flattened the surf...no surge...great viz. It's amazing how diffenent this spot looks when the water is calm and there's 40ft viz (instead of the usual 15ft). It was so nice that I ended up staying under for 70 minutes.
 
Dive Spot: Haggerty's
Date: 05/15/04 (Saturday)
Entry Time: 10:15AM
Surf: 2ft
Viz: 20ft
Water Temp: 63 degrees
Max Depth: 24ft

There was some kind of military operation (training?) all over the South Bay area on Saturday. The water was not an exception. There was a military vessel parked pretty close to shore where we were diving.

Light surf, light surge. The viz was prety good. There were a lot of fish in the shallows and in the kelp. There were schools of many kinds of fish. Nice day.

I've encountered the largest sting ray I've ever seen. Nothing at Sea World or Long Beach Aquarium even came close. Haggerty's is known to be home for huge string rays, but this thing looked bigger than a king size bed. Even considering underwater size distortion, it was one gigantic ray.
 
5/15/04

Dive site; Marineland

JonD, Ross-O and DonS joined me for a beach dive at Marineland this morning. We met at Flat Rock, but the large swells and two second intervals scared me off. Conditions at Marineland were much nicer. Below thirty feet, the vis opened up to at least fifteen feet and allowed us to find lots of fun critters. Jon found a Swellshark egg case, Ross pointed out a large Sunflower star and I spotted a large Lingcod in a crack. 52 Suunto degrees and fair conditions. A splendid time was had by all.
 
Dive Spot: Haggerty's
Date: 05/22/04 (Saturday)
Entry Time: 10:15AM
Surf: 2ft
Viz: 8/15ft
Water Temp: 62 degrees
Max Depth: 24ft

Someone had carved a few footings on the steepest part of the trail.

Viz was poor at the beginning of the dive...murky green. But viz cleared up about 30 minutes into the dive. Many things to look at this day. Lots of bass, opaleye, bat rays. a guitar shark, etc. Ended up being a nice dive.
 
5/26 Wednesday night dive at Vet's. 54F, heavy surf and not much to see, although we did find the bell of a Purple Striped jelly.

5/29 Skills/fun dive at Vet's again. This time the temp was down to 50F and we gound the lower half of the jelly, but coralcuts lost a Jetfin.
 
Dive Spot: Haggerty's
Date: 06/05/04 (Saturday)
Entry Time: 10:10AM
Surf: 2-4ft
Viz: 3 or 4ft
Water Temp: 64 degrees
Max Depth: 25ft

Yuck! Pea Soup. I ended up calling off the dive in about 20 minutes. I was barely able to see the bottom even though I was only 3 or 4 feet off the bottom.

I slipped on some rocks on my way down, and nearly hit my head. If the rock looks slippery, don't step on it beause it probably is.
 
I went snorkeling on Saturday (june 12th) at Long Point in Palos Verdes (I hope nobody minds a snorkeling report, I dive also, but sometimes I just like to snorkel too). I went at 1PM, sunny day, low tide was at noon. Zero vis as soon as you enter the water, but if you swim to the right for 1 minute, the vis becomes perfect!

Lots of starfish (bat stars, pisaster), purple sea urchins, a couple red ones, large snails with beautiful red bodies in the shells, sea anemones, a couple garibaldies, lots of large olive-colored fish with small yellow marks just below their dorsal fin. Oh, and I almost forgot, lots of sea hares! Some engaged in orgiastic mating circles. And a 4-5 foot leopard shark swam within a few feet of me.

I also went snorkeling to the left of the path, on the other side of the large rocks, there was a lot of kelp, but vis was fairly poor everyone except for a small area.

If anyone else could recommend good snorkeling sports in Palos verdes or Malibu, please send them to me! I've heard malaga cove (walking to the west) is good, and x-tree cove (on the right hand side) is good.

Scott
 
We dove on the wreck of the Avalon on Sunday (June 13). We went out early and encountered some big swells. By 10 am the wind was up and we had some white caps and wind chop. Surface water was the color of weak coffee and visibility sucked down to forty feet. Below that the vis opened up to over 20 feet, but the water was cold (50 Genesis degrees). I spoke with a friend who was diving inside the western coves and he said that the water was clean on the inside.
 
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