Breakwater Conditions

[mattaphore]

Can we make a sticky for current NorCal dive conditions? SoCal has one . I know most people post individual threads for conditions, but it might be cool to have a central thread for North coast and central California updates.Today I dove twice at the breakwater (along the wall). Started at 8am and the tide was high, water was up to the stairs. Water temperature was 52 °F by my computer and vis was around 15-20 feet along the wall and the nearby sandy bottom. The kelp wasn't as thick/overgrown as it was the last time I was at San Carlos Beach. Didn't see too many sea lions, but there were a lot of young blue rockfish near the wall.Didn't make it out to the metridium field, but I suspect the vis was about the same.Anyone check out Monastery today?

 

[g1138]

I was at Monastery with the UCSC scuba club today. There were some pretty big waves down the middle. By my books North was closed out entirely, South was a borderline bearable entry (knee high waves), although I would not want to do either at all.
Lots of surface chop and heavy wind.

We got back to BW around 11am for an off-wall dive followed by a tour of the pipe. It was very cold and windy waiting for my divers on the beach.
Tide was low enough to expose all of the rocks around the entry points by that time.

 

[Ouvea]

I passed Monastery Beach around 1:00PM and I would never have entered, either the Southern or Northern side. Looked like the wind was blowing straight through at a full force. I passed by it again around 4:30-5:00PM after a nice little hike through Garrapata State Park. Conditions had worsened. The rolling thunder at the Northern End easily exceeded 10 feet in height. Hopefully, you guys who dove within the Monterey Peninsula had an easier time but it looked pretty rough out there.

 

[mattaphore]

Didn't get to make it down mid-week like I had originally intended. Went down to San Carlos beach yesterday (5/6/12) with 2 friends to test out and familiarize myself with my new BP/W. Ended up doing a single dive to the Metridium fields.

Surface conditions were pretty calm and I had expected a little more swell. It was pretty flat with the occasional 1-2 ft wave. At depth, ~50 feet, my computer registered 46 F, but my buddies' computers were registering 48 F. Vis was snotty near shore but opened up to about 25 feet at the fields.

In addition to the usual critters I saw what looked like a bunch of squid egg cases. Didn't have my camera with me but maybe divers in the next few weeks might see some baby squid?