Anacapa Diving, Sep 8-9, 2017, Trip Report

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Dan

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Location
Lake Jackson, Texas
# of dives
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Diving in Channel Islands has been in my bucket list. When my dive buddy moved to Los Angeles area, I proposed to do a weekend dive trip there. He went diving there with Calboat Diving - Spectre last year and was happy with the experience, so we booked the same trip for Friday (Sep 8) and Saturday (Sep 9) in 2017 (last week) with them. @drrich2 has posted a very detail info about diving in Anacapa, Channel Islands, here: My Notes for Researching My California Dive Trip. So, I would just share our diving experience there and what we saw.

I was told that this would be a cold-water diving (below 70F is cold for this wimpy warm-water diver) and the local wear 7mm wetsuit. I don't have 7mm wetsuit, so, I brought my 5mm full wetsuit with 2mm shorty to layer over it to get a "sort of 7mm" wetsuit and a 2mm hood. This set up has kept me warm when I was in Galapagos down to 61F. When I was in the boat I saw some divers wore ranging from 7mm wetsuit, semi dry to drysuit. The water temperature in Anacapa turned out to be "pretty warm", by the local standard, then at about 66F. So it was bearable for me. I did get a bit chilly at the end of the second dive of the day.

We dove in and near the kelp forest, not too far from the island to avoid being dragged out into the fast current. So, the surging water around the kelp forest made the visibility pretty low, 10 to 20 foot visibility and moving particulates made picture / video taking challenging.

This is my first diving experience in SoCal area, so there were quite cool things for me to see, like this giant nudibranch, called Sea Hare.

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This guy was grazing on kelp.


Apparently it was mating season too. We saw tons of Sea Hare eggs.
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The surging water also made an interesting sight. Some of the huge kelps that grew on a rock becoming more buoyant and lifting the rocks up and down with the surge.


2 southern California fishes that I was glad to finally see them are Garibaldi & California Sheephead.

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2 other cool experience diving with Spectre were dipping in 100F Jacuzzi on the boat after the last dive and the yummy tri-tip steak lunch. I'll come back again diving with them just for that.
 
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Thanks for posting your report @Dan_T - and welcome to the wonderful world of So Cal Channel Islands diving!
We are pretty spoiled here with outstanding diving. Water temps in the islands have certainly been in the upper 60's the last month or so. Prompting me to put away my drysuit and dive in my 7mm wetsuit for a couple months, which is quite rare. Visibility was in the 50+ foot range throughout mid June and most of July- but has dropped considerably the last few weeks with some algae blooms- which you clearly experienced. Our best viz typically is between October and February- when we can experience 75-100 foot visibility. The Garibaldi is the State Fish of California, but I think the Sea Hares are even more prolific :wink:
Please come back and keep spreading the good word of our World Class diving! All the best to you!
 
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Thanks for posting your report @Dan_T - and welcome to the wonderful world of So Cal Channel Islands diving!
We are pretty spoiled here with outstanding diving. Water temps in the islands have certainly been in the upper 60's the last month or so. Prompting me to put away my drysuit and dive in my 7mm wetsuit for a couple months, which is quite rare. Visibility was in the 50+ foot range throughout mid June and most of July- but has dropped considerably the last few weeks with some algae blooms- which you clearly experienced. Our best viz typically is between October and February- when we can experience 75-100 foot visibility. The Garibaldi is the State Fish of California, but I think the Sea Hares are even more prolific :wink:
Please come back and keep spreading the good word of our World Class diving! All the best to you!

Thanks for the tip on better viz period. We may revisit the sites during that period, especially during lobster season. We saw some big ones there. Here is one in Witch's hat no-take zone that sticked an antennae to my face and probably smiling since I can't do anything to it.

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Thanks for the tip on better viz period. We may revisit the sites during that period, especially during lobster season. We saw some big ones there. Here is one in Witch's hat no-take zone that sticked an antennae to my face and probably smiling since I can't do anything to it.

View attachment 426637
They do that. It's like they know.
 
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Thanks for the tip on better viz period. We may revisit the sites during that period, especially during lobster season. We saw some big ones there. Here is one in Witch's hat no-take zone that sticked an antennae to my face and probably smiling since I can't do anything to it.

View attachment 426637

Sounds good and thanks for the pic. Just as an FYI, Lobster season runs thusly, every year:

Starts at 6am on the Saturday preceding the first Wednesday of October
Concludes the first Wednesday after the 15th of March
 
Glad you had a good time. I didn't actually hit Anacapa, but got 3 southern and 1 northern island my trip. Impressed me how lush and attractive the underwater landscape can be, even without hard coral.
 
Anacapa dive sites seem to be favorite places for newbies to get their fist few OW dives. We found knifes (new & old with coral growth on it), snokles, a snorkel with mask, flashlight, etc. on the kelp forest floor :D.

I saw several divers strapping their legs with BFKs, even a girl with BFK strapped on her left ankle & another one on right thigh in built-in pocket of her 7mm wetsuit. What are freaking 2 BFKs used for in a shallow dive (< 40 feet deep) where the kelp can be easily rip apart by a fin stroke or a hand pull?

I have never seen so many divers strapping BFKs on their legs until then. :D
 
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At the risk of sounding like one of those annoying nit-pickers . . .
The Garibaldi is the State Fish of California . . .
The Garibaldi is the state MARINE fish. The Golden Trout is actually the official state fish of California.

. . . but I think the Sea Hares are even more prolific
And we have two species of Sea Hare. What the OP saw was the Black Sea Hare, which is also the largest gastropod in the world.

- Ken
 
Good to know about the sea hares. I was surprised his were black, whereas the 2 I saw where intricately mottled dank green and magenta.

Richard.

P.S.: I didn't pack a big knife, but knowing that's great white territory made me think about it. Not that I think it'd make a difference, but humans are not solely driven by rationality...
 
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