April '05 Dive Reports

[Lexy]

Nice pictures Terry! Is that a rockfish in your last pictures? Very cool looking fish!

Nice work!!!

Sean

I'd like to take a crack at ID'ing it - I'm thinking California Scorpionfish. Eyes, dorsal spines and patchy coloring above the upper mandable. I totally agree - great photo Terry!

 

[Diver_Jan]

Date:4/30/05
Dive Location: Old Marineland - PV
Time: 11:43am
Bottom Time: 49min
Max Depth: 23.1ft
Vis:3-8'
Wave height: 1-4
Temp at depth:59
Surface Temp:63
Comments: We decided to do one more dive so we went over to Dive n' Surf for air fills and headed up to marineland. I timed the sets and made an easy entry off the rocky beach. We explored the reefs, but the vis was terrible, so I used the dive to practice some skills. Upon exit, I timed my exit, but had trouble getting one of my fins off while balancing on the rocks and a 4ft. wave came while I was balancing on one foot, knocked me on my butt and ate my other fin. If anyone retrieves a Jetfin with a spring strap at marineland, contact me and I will gladly buy you a beer.


Sorry to hear about your fin. I was there today, but didn't see it, but didn't know about you loosing it either. Good to see you yesterday. I guess your buddies didn't head our advice about diving over by the boulders, for the viz in the cove was squat. Unlike today, where it opened up to 25' viz or better!

Good luck finding your fin. Just a beer though?

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Yeah the beard is a good clue. I haven't seen one that is red... Very cool lookin' fish!
Nice ID Lexy!!

Sean

 

[SNOBORDJON]

Dive #1
Date: 4/30/05
Dive Location: Deadmans (Crescent)
Time: 8:16AM
Bottom Time: 47 min
Max Depth: 59 ft
Vis: 15-25ft
Wave height:2-4ft
Surge: Couldnt even tell you... it got pretty bad
Temp at depth: 54
Surface Temp: 61

Comments: We swam out in the group of 8 of us out to the location to drop down and descended right on the north east part of the reef. Visibility was pretty good even though it was somewhat dark. Lots of particles in the water. We saw quite a few spanish shawls (about 5 of them in a group), a dorid nudibranch, several bugs, a good sized octo, and just about every fish on the fish ID card I have (haha)... When we turned around the surge had picked up tremendously.... we navigated to the inside of the outer part of the reef and the surge was moving pretty good.. the vis dropped to 2-3 feet in parts, but we kicked 5 feet out of it and it shot up to 15 again... at the end of the dive I saw the shadow of a HUGE bat ray.. I would estimate it was 5' from wingtip to wingtip (possibly bigger).... just seeing how slow it was moving showed just how big it really was....

---------------------------------------
Dive #2
Date: 4/30/05
Dive Location: Deadmans
Time: 11:51AM
Bottom Time: 47 min
Max Depth: 51 ft
Vis: 5-15ft
Wave height:4-6+ft
Surge: settled a little bit from before but still strong...
Temp at depth: 61
Surface Temp: 58

Comments: This dive was not great for finding things (except a few bugs) because the visibility dropped significantly.... Still, lots of fish were swimming all over the reef, but nothing exotic....Another great dive for navigation practice... When the dive was over we swam into the surf zone to find waves breaking WELL over our heads... I got tossed around quite a bit, but was fun none the less.... I STILL havent gotten all the sand out of my gear... blah...

Yeah it seems that Deadmans was the best dive in laguna this weekend. Better viz than in the last few months, still particles but whatever. Good to meet everyone who went with us on Saturday. I dont know about you guys, but I am slow and tired today after deadmans twice in pounding surf.
John

 

[divinman]

Is that a rockfish in your last pictures? Very cool looking fish!

Nice work!!!

Sean

Yes, smallish and quite calm. I am still experimenting with the strobe. You can get some interesting lighting effects with a single strobe. Looking forward to more practice. Great diving with you as usual. See you Saturday at San Clemente.....ear plugs are already packed for the trip there.

Terry

 

[headhunter]

OK you guys, I'll bite...what's an S-drill?

It was a pretty busy working weekend, so I didn't get to see this until just now. That's a good video of an S-drill that FrankO posted.

Here is another video with a different camera angle. This is what it was like watching Robert do them from my vantage point as an observer.

Christian

 

[scottfiji]

It was a pretty busy working weekend, so I didn't get to see this until just now. That's a good video of an S-drill that FrankO posted.

Here is another video with a different camera angle. This is what it was like watching Robert do them from my vantage point as an observer.

Christian

I believe S-drill stands for "safety drill". Glad to see you guys practising it!

(disclaimer for newbies - do not continue reading!)
I also occasionally practise the S-drill. If I am on an interesting dive, with a buddy I trust, I simply continue the dive until I am out of air. The S-drill then follows automatically. (I think the DIR version works differently though).

Scott

 

[PhotoTJ]

Date: 4/30/05
Dive Location: Leo Carillio
Time: 8:45 PM PDT
Bottom Time: 60 mins.
Max Depth: 30 ft.
Vis: 5-10 ft
Wave height: 2-4
Temp at depth: 56 F
Surface Temp: 71 F
Tide information: not available

SoCalAJ and I went out to try for a ling or halibut. Saw a Grey Whale and her calf as we were suiting up, took that as a good omen. A little surge-y, saw a couple Octopi, and one short ling cod. Three or four lobsters, (don't tell me they can't read a calender!), and a small horn shark. AJ got a 26' ling.

 

[SNOBORDJON]

how'd you get the 26 foot fish back to shore?

John

 

[PhotoTJ]

Fortunatly, his truck has a wench. (And she is a pretty hefty wench to be able to land a 26 ft fish!)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I missed the shift key.