You've all heard me beat the drum since November: GET TO MARINELAND.
In addition to making ML our first call dive spot for our weekend diving, Chica and I have taken to peeling off one of our Vets night dives each month and making it a MarineLand night dive.
A night dive where we see more than just sand and mud. What a concept! Pinnacles, rocks, gorgonia, fish, and more.
Last night's was spectacular. Its the first time we've seen someone else there at night. We've been having the place completely to ourselves. They were in the water when we arrived, so we never really "saw them" - we saw their lights and the flasher they left on the shore to get back (we know the silhouette of the cliffs and the features of the bottom so well we find our way back easypeesy.)
I gotta say - the tide profile last night was perfect. I'm stunned there wasn't a line to dive the place - from about 6:00 PM to about 8:20 PM there was a flat slack... tide was rising maybe a few inches. And in the 10 hours prior to 8:20 PM the tidal movement was only about 2 feet pushing.
No water movement, combined with no wind, essentially no swell = Aquarium diving.
And there wasn't a line. Oh, SoCal. Thanks for giving us the place to ourselves, but geeze - you're missing it.
This was the first time I've dived MarineLand DRY since about September. Oh baby - it was plush. We did about 84 minutes. We STILL hit the parking lot with 1000 PSI. My scooter batt died on the last 20 feet to the shore on the way back in (after what I estimate to be about 55 to 65 minutes on the trigger.) I limped it along those last few feet, and it literally died as I lifted the scoot out. Talk about skidding in.
ML is the only dive site locally where we constantly run out of Battery before we run out of gas. That is due to the happy topography that keeps your dive in the 40 - 60 foot range the whole time. Last night we were feeling it, so we drove south to about 74 feet over the sand, looking for pinacles and stuff.
ABOUT THE DIVE
I had planned on taking the deathstar. Mostly because I knew I wouldn't be shivering (!) and because I know the Nudis are coming back in a big way.
Gearing up, I had problems getting the dry gloves onto the new CLX-450, and I spent about 40 minutes trying. OY. That ate up my camera prep time and I decided to mount the gloves on my back up suit (a 350 shoulder entry) and roll with that suit. A buddy hooked me up with his old shoulder entry. I just got it back yesterday afternoon, having put a neoprene neck seal on it. The gloves mounted without incident on this suit (go figure) so I dived it. It was wacky trying to adjust the Neo seal - the bulk of which you do from the inside of the suit. I can't get to the inside of this suit (its a shoulder entry...) so it was pretty funny. I finally had dette reach over my back and grab me round the throat and straighten things out....
I was running a bit late. I HATE being late. I tossed everything in the truck and headed out. I was not in a good mood. I'm serious - I was a little pissy. Traffic was terrible as we were diving early. I wanted to get there in daytime as there are no lights and the place is super dark - I'd rather ascent the hill during the day... no chance as I was running late. The gloves got me so frustrated. I had the cam out but not set up so I had to leave it...
I was not having a good night.
We arrive and gear up. I forgot - this suit has "Turbo Soles". Comfy in the parking lot, worthless off road. OMG, is there anything more evil to wear when you're walking down a rocky trail.
At night.
Then its over the cobbles and rocks with the scoot and a 130 and weight belt and stuff.
Cruel.
I can't imagine any SoCal diver ever considering these things. I was screaming as I was stepping on rocks, corners of rocks and general construction site detritus. Going over the cobbles I was literally screaming.
On the dive, my fins were flopping around.
After the dive, my feet were hamburger. This morning I was walking about on the wood floors of our home just sore as hell. My feet are still sore as I write this.
Turbo Soles. Pluh-lees. Worthless in SoCal.
That said - the suit rocked. Its big on me - pretty darn big on me, and the legs are a bit wet (could have been schvitz) but it is a darn fine back up. I owe this guy a bottle of my favorite wine for hooking me up.
I'll just never wear it shore diving again.
OK OK - What'd you see???
Fourteen species of Nudis.
Count 'em and weep, baby:
1. Fed Ex
2. Hermi (the fat, juicy ML Hermis are BACK!)
3. Sandy
4. Tata
5. Flava
6. Clownie
7. Tri-Linny
8. Lemon
9. Tritonia Festiva
10. (muh muh muh my) Cuthona
11. Yellow Lined Cadlina
12. Black Dorid (several on eggs on those furry green hydroids)
13. Armina (my first in SoCal)
14. Gibby (Gibbbosa - my first at ML)
Fourteen!!! And that's without several of the usual suspects we've been seeing nearly every dive since November:
* Rosie
* Dirty Dorid (Monterey)
* Mexi
* McFarlands
* Poodle Dorid (OK...its really called a Yellow Dorid)
* Berthella
* Limbaughs
This could have easily been an eye-popping, record-setting 20+ nudi night.
AND WE WERE ON SCOOTERS!
You do not want to mess with the eagle-eyed CK team. We are the Nudi Whisperers, people.
Fourteen.
I'm still stunned. I'm looking at the Panera napkin we pulled out of my dash (my dash napkins are the official Team CK post-dive Nudi logs, BTW) and I keep counting the species again and again.
Add to that dolphin calls underwater (we've heard them every night dive at ML we've done), more large sandbass than you can count, a HUGE Bat ray that dived with us for a good 4 or 5 minutes (the three of us just did very large circles - he was completely unafraid of us, and glided along matching our pace), a billion huge sea pens, a half-a-billion striped shrimp, a star I've never seen before (probably Luidia Foliolata), an urchin I've never seen before (can't find it in any of my books) a huge field of brittle stars (never seen that at ML before) and so much more.
Best local night dive ever. I'm still fired up.
We both popped up breathless and as we came out we saw the divers before us walking up the trail. They kindly shined their lights at us to guid us in. Whoever you are, thanks.
As we're getting out, we hear owl calls. These were cartoon owl calls, with the very distinctive, quick hoo-hoo-hoo. I was laughing - these divers were on the cliffs messing with us.
We finish the dive, load up, put the can lights facing forward as headlights and push / pull the carts up the path (this was also one of the easist trips, as the path was wide and at the top there is a whole new section!)
As I'm nearing the top of the trail there are these two temporary telephone poles. You know the ones - the square white ones with the phone number stencled very large on the side. At the top of each are these two HUGE owls. They're making their calls back and forth to each other. I'm standing at the base of these poles, looking up. I'm stunned. I was sure it was the other people just messing with us.
I was faster up the trail, so I leave my cart and walk back to get Claudette. I tell her, "those owls are real!" She's all, "duh...."
I'm a SoCal. What do I know from owls? We had barn owls in a palm tree once, and the were all scratchy... nothing owly about their call.
These two were a pair. No doubt about it. One flew silently over to the other's pole, and they did this dance thing. They hung out for a few minutes then took off.
Unreal - calm, warm night. Best local night dive ever. No clouds, stars out, half moon lighting up the place.
And I'm standing there, in February - in a t-shirt, watching owls play.
What a life. I am so grateful to be here.
If you didn't dive MarineLand last night, you're blowing it.
My feet are still sore. But what a dive.
Only with you, Chica. Best dive buddy ever.
---
Ken
In addition to making ML our first call dive spot for our weekend diving, Chica and I have taken to peeling off one of our Vets night dives each month and making it a MarineLand night dive.
A night dive where we see more than just sand and mud. What a concept! Pinnacles, rocks, gorgonia, fish, and more.
Last night's was spectacular. Its the first time we've seen someone else there at night. We've been having the place completely to ourselves. They were in the water when we arrived, so we never really "saw them" - we saw their lights and the flasher they left on the shore to get back (we know the silhouette of the cliffs and the features of the bottom so well we find our way back easypeesy.)
I gotta say - the tide profile last night was perfect. I'm stunned there wasn't a line to dive the place - from about 6:00 PM to about 8:20 PM there was a flat slack... tide was rising maybe a few inches. And in the 10 hours prior to 8:20 PM the tidal movement was only about 2 feet pushing.
No water movement, combined with no wind, essentially no swell = Aquarium diving.
And there wasn't a line. Oh, SoCal. Thanks for giving us the place to ourselves, but geeze - you're missing it.
This was the first time I've dived MarineLand DRY since about September. Oh baby - it was plush. We did about 84 minutes. We STILL hit the parking lot with 1000 PSI. My scooter batt died on the last 20 feet to the shore on the way back in (after what I estimate to be about 55 to 65 minutes on the trigger.) I limped it along those last few feet, and it literally died as I lifted the scoot out. Talk about skidding in.
ML is the only dive site locally where we constantly run out of Battery before we run out of gas. That is due to the happy topography that keeps your dive in the 40 - 60 foot range the whole time. Last night we were feeling it, so we drove south to about 74 feet over the sand, looking for pinacles and stuff.
ABOUT THE DIVE
I had planned on taking the deathstar. Mostly because I knew I wouldn't be shivering (!) and because I know the Nudis are coming back in a big way.
Gearing up, I had problems getting the dry gloves onto the new CLX-450, and I spent about 40 minutes trying. OY. That ate up my camera prep time and I decided to mount the gloves on my back up suit (a 350 shoulder entry) and roll with that suit. A buddy hooked me up with his old shoulder entry. I just got it back yesterday afternoon, having put a neoprene neck seal on it. The gloves mounted without incident on this suit (go figure) so I dived it. It was wacky trying to adjust the Neo seal - the bulk of which you do from the inside of the suit. I can't get to the inside of this suit (its a shoulder entry...) so it was pretty funny. I finally had dette reach over my back and grab me round the throat and straighten things out....
I was running a bit late. I HATE being late. I tossed everything in the truck and headed out. I was not in a good mood. I'm serious - I was a little pissy. Traffic was terrible as we were diving early. I wanted to get there in daytime as there are no lights and the place is super dark - I'd rather ascent the hill during the day... no chance as I was running late. The gloves got me so frustrated. I had the cam out but not set up so I had to leave it...
I was not having a good night.
We arrive and gear up. I forgot - this suit has "Turbo Soles". Comfy in the parking lot, worthless off road. OMG, is there anything more evil to wear when you're walking down a rocky trail.
At night.
Then its over the cobbles and rocks with the scoot and a 130 and weight belt and stuff.
Cruel.
I can't imagine any SoCal diver ever considering these things. I was screaming as I was stepping on rocks, corners of rocks and general construction site detritus. Going over the cobbles I was literally screaming.
On the dive, my fins were flopping around.
After the dive, my feet were hamburger. This morning I was walking about on the wood floors of our home just sore as hell. My feet are still sore as I write this.
Turbo Soles. Pluh-lees. Worthless in SoCal.
That said - the suit rocked. Its big on me - pretty darn big on me, and the legs are a bit wet (could have been schvitz) but it is a darn fine back up. I owe this guy a bottle of my favorite wine for hooking me up.
I'll just never wear it shore diving again.
OK OK - What'd you see???
Fourteen species of Nudis.
Count 'em and weep, baby:
1. Fed Ex
2. Hermi (the fat, juicy ML Hermis are BACK!)
3. Sandy
4. Tata
5. Flava
6. Clownie
7. Tri-Linny
8. Lemon
9. Tritonia Festiva
10. (muh muh muh my) Cuthona
11. Yellow Lined Cadlina
12. Black Dorid (several on eggs on those furry green hydroids)
13. Armina (my first in SoCal)
14. Gibby (Gibbbosa - my first at ML)
Fourteen!!! And that's without several of the usual suspects we've been seeing nearly every dive since November:
* Rosie
* Dirty Dorid (Monterey)
* Mexi
* McFarlands
* Poodle Dorid (OK...its really called a Yellow Dorid)
* Berthella
* Limbaughs
This could have easily been an eye-popping, record-setting 20+ nudi night.
AND WE WERE ON SCOOTERS!
You do not want to mess with the eagle-eyed CK team. We are the Nudi Whisperers, people.
Fourteen.
I'm still stunned. I'm looking at the Panera napkin we pulled out of my dash (my dash napkins are the official Team CK post-dive Nudi logs, BTW) and I keep counting the species again and again.
Add to that dolphin calls underwater (we've heard them every night dive at ML we've done), more large sandbass than you can count, a HUGE Bat ray that dived with us for a good 4 or 5 minutes (the three of us just did very large circles - he was completely unafraid of us, and glided along matching our pace), a billion huge sea pens, a half-a-billion striped shrimp, a star I've never seen before (probably Luidia Foliolata), an urchin I've never seen before (can't find it in any of my books) a huge field of brittle stars (never seen that at ML before) and so much more.
Best local night dive ever. I'm still fired up.
We both popped up breathless and as we came out we saw the divers before us walking up the trail. They kindly shined their lights at us to guid us in. Whoever you are, thanks.
As we're getting out, we hear owl calls. These were cartoon owl calls, with the very distinctive, quick hoo-hoo-hoo. I was laughing - these divers were on the cliffs messing with us.
We finish the dive, load up, put the can lights facing forward as headlights and push / pull the carts up the path (this was also one of the easist trips, as the path was wide and at the top there is a whole new section!)
As I'm nearing the top of the trail there are these two temporary telephone poles. You know the ones - the square white ones with the phone number stencled very large on the side. At the top of each are these two HUGE owls. They're making their calls back and forth to each other. I'm standing at the base of these poles, looking up. I'm stunned. I was sure it was the other people just messing with us.
I was faster up the trail, so I leave my cart and walk back to get Claudette. I tell her, "those owls are real!" She's all, "duh...."
I'm a SoCal. What do I know from owls? We had barn owls in a palm tree once, and the were all scratchy... nothing owly about their call.
These two were a pair. No doubt about it. One flew silently over to the other's pole, and they did this dance thing. They hung out for a few minutes then took off.
Unreal - calm, warm night. Best local night dive ever. No clouds, stars out, half moon lighting up the place.
And I'm standing there, in February - in a t-shirt, watching owls play.
What a life. I am so grateful to be here.
If you didn't dive MarineLand last night, you're blowing it.
My feet are still sore. But what a dive.
Only with you, Chica. Best dive buddy ever.
---
Ken
