Back in the water! I have set out the last few weekends waiting for conditions to improve, it seemed like the weekend surf Gods were smiling on the surfers to the chagrin of us divers.
With low swell conditions all week Moe and I decided to hit our favorite Heisler Park in keeping with the observation;..."you always dive Heisler".
Morning surface conditions were excellent, beautiful blue skies, no wind and a soft swell of 1-2'. At a mid-tide the kelp canopy was very evident, it is absolutely amazing to see the kelp rebounding to the extent it has. By August it should be equal to what we have seen at the Park before the die off.
We swam out to the edge of the kelp, which reflected our less then well defined dive plan (aka route). We descended and managed to separate immediately, again poor behavior, so we surfaced to find each other and re-group. Once in sync we headed for the East pinnacle, with a plan to do a looping route from the East pinnacle to the West pinnacle. We reached the East reef in no time and I was surprised almost immediately by a Tope Shark, although common along our Pacific Coast, I cannot recall seeing one before. Later as we traversed over to the West reef we saw him again. (Shout out to Deb who gave me the ID.)
The shark was the high-light of the dive, we also spotted a 5# bug hiding in a crevice, schooling fish were hard to observe, as the viz varied from 12-20'. There was a surge sanding the bottom up, so the viz suffered a bit. The water was also green, I thought my GoPro red filter was on vacation, but it was simply being overwhelmed by the algae bloom coloring the water.
Even with these minor distractions we managed to stay underwater for 85 minutes and have a pleasant dive.
Divemetrics: 85 min, 47', 53F
J. Reeb
Dark-Thirty Divers
J. Reeb (@dark_thirty_divers) • Instagram photos and videos
With low swell conditions all week Moe and I decided to hit our favorite Heisler Park in keeping with the observation;..."you always dive Heisler".
Morning surface conditions were excellent, beautiful blue skies, no wind and a soft swell of 1-2'. At a mid-tide the kelp canopy was very evident, it is absolutely amazing to see the kelp rebounding to the extent it has. By August it should be equal to what we have seen at the Park before the die off.
We swam out to the edge of the kelp, which reflected our less then well defined dive plan (aka route). We descended and managed to separate immediately, again poor behavior, so we surfaced to find each other and re-group. Once in sync we headed for the East pinnacle, with a plan to do a looping route from the East pinnacle to the West pinnacle. We reached the East reef in no time and I was surprised almost immediately by a Tope Shark, although common along our Pacific Coast, I cannot recall seeing one before. Later as we traversed over to the West reef we saw him again. (Shout out to Deb who gave me the ID.)
The shark was the high-light of the dive, we also spotted a 5# bug hiding in a crevice, schooling fish were hard to observe, as the viz varied from 12-20'. There was a surge sanding the bottom up, so the viz suffered a bit. The water was also green, I thought my GoPro red filter was on vacation, but it was simply being overwhelmed by the algae bloom coloring the water.
Even with these minor distractions we managed to stay underwater for 85 minutes and have a pleasant dive.
Divemetrics: 85 min, 47', 53F
J. Reeb
Dark-Thirty Divers
J. Reeb (@dark_thirty_divers) • Instagram photos and videos
