July '05 Dive Reports

[headhunter]

Date:
Dive Location:
Time:
Bottom Time:
Max Depth:
Vis:
Wave height:
Temp at depth:
Surface Temp:
Tide information:
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date: 7/02/05
Dive Location: Marineland (again!)
Time: 10:03
Bottom Time: 57 minutes
Max Depth: 52'
Vis: 2-15
Wave height: Lake Pacific
Temp at depth: 54F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:I met with Susan (coralcuts) at Redondo this morning, but the red tide was so bad that Ray Swartz (Radinator) came up with a new term; Foamberg. There were large foambergs everywhere. I drove around the peninsula looking for better conditions and decided to clean up the lines I layed out to Headhunter Reef, aka the platform. Jeff Shaw was in the parking lot when I arrived, so we headed out along the line. Reports from yesterday had nasty red tide at Marineland, but it wasn't too bad today. There were occasional clouds, but the patches were small enough that it only took seconds to swim through.
We removed the line to oblivion and used it as the new surface marker. We found two large Cabezon and more sandbass than normal here. I'm beginning to like this spot.
Before dropping down I spied two sea lions on the surface a few yards away, but they showed no attack postures, so I was able to enjoy the dive without incident. The surface was so flat that when we exited, Jeff stood in what is normally the surf zone and talked to a couple other divers for several minutes. The water also warmed up five degrees from last week.

 

[Scot M]

Date: Saturday, July 2
Dive Location: Crescent Bay, Laguna Beach
Dive #1 / Dive #2
Time:8:15 / 10:43
Bottom Time:57 / 55
Max Depth:43 / 31
Vis: 15-25, except for a patch of 8-10
Wave height: Waves? What waves?
Temp at depth:57
Tide information: High tide
Comments: Conditions are awesome in Laguna today! At 7:30, the water was glassy with no surf more than ankle high. The water in the "surf zone" was so clear that you could stand waist deep and look at the fish on the bottom. Visibility was 15 to 25 feet in most places at depth, more occasionally, and as little as 8 to 10 feet in patches at the "corners" of the bay. The high surf this week must have flushed away the red tide.

Jim wanted to try out his newly serviced regs on a shallow dive, so we explored the northern reef out to near Seal Rock. We saw loads of sea life, including a cabezon, several large sheep crabs, a C-O sole, and quite a few intermediate phase garibaldi and sheephead.

For the second dive, we went in on the south side of the bay. Neither Jim nor I had ever dove there, due to the typically rough surf. No problem today! We crossed through the reef into Shaw's and came back around the outside into Crescent. Along the way, we encountered the exoskeleton of the largest lobster I've ever seen in California. Other fun sightings included a pair of much smaller lobsters that we couldn't quite convince to come out and play, a small octopus (or at least the tips of his tentacles), another C-O sole, and a gigantic bat ray that circled us on our way in to the beach.

 

[MissyP]

Date: July 2
Dive Location: Shaw's Cove (Laguna)
Time: 1040am
Bottom Time: 47
Max Depth: 31
Vis: 15-20
Wave height: waves? not in Lake Laguna
Temp at depth:54
Surface Temp: 70
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: Dive 1 of the day turned out to be pretty good. No waves, no surge & vis was surprisingly nice. Finally able to swim through the crevice due to the lack of surge & saw a little octo snoozing between rocks. Spanish shawls were everywhere, along with the usual fish that hang out in the area. Came upon a massive guitarfish and watched him for a couple of minutes, then moved on. Just as my 2 dive buddies and I were about to turn & head back, a seal lion zips by and startles the bejeezus out of us. Obviously amused with our reaction, the sea lion decides to come back for more fun and dive bombs me... then has the gall to get face to face with me and blow bubbles at me. After showing off with a few acrobatics, it decided to go find something else to play with... Nice dive!

Dive #2, same place, same conditions. 12:52pm, 44 min, 39 ft.
Met up with a buddyless diver that got chastised by the lifeguard & added him to our trio... Beginner diver, this was his first dive outside of OW class- watched him closely but he did extremely well & we all had a great dive. Poked around the reefs & crevices, saw pretty much the same as dive 1... I found a small Moray peeking out at us & we watched him for a few minutes. On the swim in, I noticed a fishing lure right next to the reef... and then I caught a fisherman...lol.. I took the line and swam with it for about 10 ft (he must've thought he had a big one!)... then looped it around a clump of eel grass.. I swear I could hear my buddies laughing underwater Ok, it was a mean thing to do....but I don't think it's a good idea to be fishing in an area full (and it was full !!) of divers... After a few minutes of tugging (which gave us time to clear the area, heh), the fisherman's line slipped off of the grass and I guess he thought the big one had gotten away

Dive #3 Heisler Park 4:12pm, 44min, 40 ft, 52 Suunto degrees (brrrr!!!)
Again, no waves & no surge...but the vis was not quite as good as Shaw's- a guesstimated 10-15 ft. One of the white marker buoys was missing.. Didn't see anything out of the ordinary.. just the usual fish, few lobsters, halibut, few greenlings & juvi garabaldi, etc... Came upon the large Moray that Seth & I saw a few weeks ago, in his same hole surrounded by a bazillion Jacques (the cleaner shrimp). Snapped a pic of him and he got pretty perturbed- lunged out of his hole toward us, then slunk back in his hole. Temperature was noticably colder.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Pinnacles off “Splash rock” at eastern end of cove.
Splash time: 0930
Max Depth: 59fsw
Run time: 54 minutes
Surface temps: 56 – 61F
Depth temp: 50F
Gas: Air, 80 cu. ft.
Tide: about an hour past high tide.
Water condition: Glassy, tiny surf/surge, kelp up. Looked like lentil soup at the surface due to a red tide.
Carlos and I found the exact “split boulder” pinnacle that we found at the end of our explorations here last week. Straight out on the surface, (lining up inshore ‘kayak rock’ with the two handicapped parking signs up in the lot,) until 28fsw, then descended and continued to 40-45fsw. Visibility was a very nice 20+ down below the thermocline at 35fsw. Surface was a murky brown layer of red tide algae bloom. Found a nice big octopus sleeping safely in a deep crevice…it slitted one eye open at us, then closed it again…Very safe hole. We could illuminate it from two sides and the water was clear so we could see its thick arms and big suction cups. There were many nudibranchs: Hermissenda were everywhere, including two that approached head on, roiled around with cerata splayed out for a couple of minutes, then split up. Mating? A large sea lemon, several Doriopsilla albopunctata, a large Diaulula sandiegensis and a small one, a few Flabellina iodinea, and a pure translucent-white dorid with pronounced opaque-white spots, white rhinophores and gills, and a fine opaque-white line all around the margin. Found two dense clusters of hundreds of light-bulb tunicates growing on a base of some kind of old gorgonia-like stump. The cluster was soft-ball sized absolutely covered in tunicates. The split boulder has lots of gorgonia covering it. The split is about 12 feet from sand to top, and wide enough that I could hover and inch along the bottom almost the entire 20 feet of crevice. It was really fun to go through this well-lit 'tunnel' with a sandy floor and sides covered with lovely invertebrates. This could be the end of the series of pinnacles out from splash rock…we chased shadows using the sonar but just found a fried-egg jelly and acres of sand sprinkled with white urchins. Ended up going too far west and having a long swim in toward ‘kayak rock’ and shore. 'Lovely' hike back up to the car. This place would make a fantastic boat dive!!! From shore, it's one heck of a workout. Thanks, Carlos, for being endlessly game. It was a beautiful day for SoCal diving.

 

[Lexy]

Date: Saturday, 7/2/05
Dive Location: Eagle Reef (Catalina)
Time: Dive #1: 10:06 AM, #2 12:26 PM, #3 1:16 PM
Bottom Time: 42 mins, 39 mins, 29 mins
Max Depth:73, 42, and 25 ft
Vis: 15 (first dive) up 30 ft max
Wave height: none & current varied
Temp at depth: 59, 56, 60 deg.
Surface Temp: 64, 68, 72 deg.
Tide information: 3.5' High 9:27AM / 2.5 Low 1:31PM / 6.1 High 7:56PM
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: Went out on my first boat dive & first official Research dive as a Catalina Conservancy Research Diver. We chartered the Magician this time, due to scheduling conflicts with the Catalina Conservancy Marineros (Boat Owners).

First dive was pretty interesting. The giant step off the boat was a blast, or should I say splash! he he he We were doing band transect counts (invertibrate/algae counts along a 20 meter section of a 100 meter transect line). Due to lack of viz, my buddy and I missed the transect line. Took a little detour and saw a fried egg jelly (although I think it was dead because the bell was downward on the bottom with stringy tentacles floating upward diagonally). We both agreed that the transect line was definitely not at 73 feet and ascended up the steep slope of Eagle Reef. We did our measurements and took a nice long safety stop at 15 feet.

Second dive was also enjoyable - this time we were doing 1 meter quadrant counts (counting key indicator species at specific locations along the 100 meter transect). The Eagle Reef topography is really cool - LOTS of vertical structures, tons of crevices, walls, and slopes. We felt a significant thermocline around 38 feet. Once finished with our measurements, we continued the dive in "fun mode" rather than "researcher mode". There were a ton of BIG lobsters hanging out in the crevices, found a big ole navanax (my first siting - had to be at least 3 inches long), adult garabaldis but no baby sightings, sheephead and juves, kelp perch, black surfperch, lots of giant spiny sea stars, kelp bass (smaller than Casino Pt. kelp bass), juvie treefish (cute!!!), a juvie scopionfish and just a few opal eye.

Third dive was a short fun dive. Again, equally pleasant and so relaxing. We stayed nice and shallow taking time to really enjoy the reef structure (and warmer water). Eagle Reef was a piece of cake to dive. There was 0 surge, current wasn't noticable and viz picked up at the end of the day when the sun decided to make an appearance.

By the way, boat diving.... way too easy! A nice treat from all the shore divin' but one could certainly get spoiled. The crew on the Magician were really friendly, helpful and the food was fantastic.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date:July 3, 2005
Dive Location:Marineland, again
Time: 7:44 and 10:25
Bottom Time: 48 and 41 minutes
Max Depth:50 and 33'
Vis: 10'
Wave height: 0-1
Temp at depth: 50 and 54
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: Susan Grant (coralcuts) joined me for her first dive to the platform and first post auto accident dive. We followed the line out to the artificial reef, passing a large Sheepcrab along the way, as well as several Lizardfish, Synodus lucioceps. A rather large halibut was nearby and even stayed for a couple other divers to see, but was gone later in the day. Surfperch and sandbass checked us out as much as we were checking them out. Below the thermocline at 27 feet the water was a brisk 50F. Vis was down from yesterday, but still good enough to see where we were going. We made it back up to the parking lot without causing any further damage to Susan's back. After she went home to get some much needed rest I plunged back in for a little shallow water nudibranch hunting. While exploring the reef I came across two octopus, one of which was out in the open. A large Batray cruised by, but too fast to get a picture.Will I ever get bored with Marineland?...No way!

 

[Lexy]

Date: Sunday, 7/3/05
Dive Location: South Crescent, Shaws and a few coves in between
Time: 12:25 PM
Bottom Time: 40 mins
Max Depth:24 feet
Vis: 2-5 feet
Wave height: ankle slappers, 0 feet surge
Temp at depth: 61
Surface Temp: 80
Tide information: 3.5' High 9:27AM / 2.5 Low 1:31PM / 6.1 High 7:56PM
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: Buddied up with Christian (Headhunter) and Scot (Scot M). We geared up and headed toward South Crescent. Was a short swim, with high hopes that conditions would be just as good as yesterday & even this AM. From reports, sounded like amazing 20-25 foot viz. Well, we descended into brown haze. Made a short cruise around South Crescent and had absolutely no surge, which was great. The viz was just plain old icky/blah. Did sneak up on a small school of blacksmiths who looked rather lost and a even two small garabaldi's. Scot pointed out a large octopus too! We headed toward Shaw's finding time to checkout some of the tide pools swimming through the crevices until the road ran out. Litterally went up the tidepool wash... on a day like today, no problemo. Surfaced and decided to continue a hopeful swim toward Shaw's. Dropped down and found again more brown hazy water. <sigh> Cruised along the sandy bottom finding several small sand dollars and exited to a nice Shaw's Cove lake laguna exit. Some days you reflect on how great the viz was and others how cool it is to have such nice dive buddies. Christian even showed me the DIR stomp to get the sand off your booties. (Just playin' around) Thanks again for the good low viz practice!

 

[mccabejc]

Date: Sunday, July 3
Dive Location: Crescent Bay, Deadman’s Reef
Time:9:48 am
Bottom Time:45:50
Max Depth:50 ft.
Vis: 10-15
Wave height: 0-1 ft.
Temp at depth:54 Suunto (it was a lot colder than that)
Tide information: .5' High 9:27AM / 2.5 Low 1:31PM / 6.1 High 7:56PM
Comments: Met up with ScotM and Headhunter at Crescent Bay, and decided to do Deadman’s, but this time we were going to drop down on the far outside part of the reef, head east, then around the east end of Deadmans, then back West and follow the West reef of Crescent back to shore. We eased into the virtually flat ocean, and kicked out to Deadmans. Using Headhunter’s trusty depth finder we positioned ourselves to the southwest of the usual drop down point (flagpole between Seal Rocks, and line up the face of the west cliff at Crescent). Dropped down below a deep layer of stinky red tide to some VERY cold water (my lips were stinging), but the viz at that point was pretty good (at least 15 ft I'd guess). We slowly headed off east along some gorgeous structure for maybe 10 minutes, then around what we thought was the east end of Deadmans, then doubled back along the inside of Deadmans. Saw what maybe the pinnacles near Seal Rocks (big ol’ things). Looking at my dive graph, I think we then spent about another 10 minutes cruising at around 40 ft., heading west and north, ending up over sand. My guess is that at that point we were somewhere near where we dropped down, but closer to shore over sand. We then spent the rest of the dive (maybe 20 minutes) heading south and west and bumping into each other trying to find the extension of Deadmans which connects up with the west reef at Crescent. In fact we were heading way past Seal Rocks, bouncing around at 30ft to 50 ft depth. The layer of red tide was very misleading, as it looked like the shadow of some large structure off in the distance. So we chased it like an underwater mirage, but of course never found it. With all the bouncing around, Scott had an equalizing problem in one ear and gave us the thumb. At some point in our bouncing Christian also gave the thumb, so we headed up (and down, I think) and finally started to make our way up from 45ft, did a 3 min safety stop, and surfaced to find ourselves somewhere near Malibu So we did a 40 minute surface swim, past the inside of Seal Rocks, around the reef at Crescent, and into shore. After re-running the dive in my head and checking the graph, I guess my lesson learned on this one was to keep track of how long I am swimming, and if you swim out 10 minutes, then back 10 minutes, you’re probably close to where you started. Anyway, I think we all agreed that the first part of the dive was very nice, with some great, towering structure and good viz. The second half was “The Search for the Elusive Reef”. Hardy Boys did it too, as I recall. As the others did a second dive, I did "The Search for the Double Cheeseburger", and found a real nice one. Extra grease too

 

[HBDiveGirl]

July 3, 2005

Marineland, Point

Splash: 0800

Max depth: 63fsw

Temp at depth: 49F (Oceanic)

Run time: 1 hour, 2 minutes

Gas: Air

Viz at depth: 20-25 feet

Oh, man, what a fun dive at Marineland this morning. Carlos and I splashed into Lake Palos Verdes at 8:00AM this morning…little glassy wavelets were lapping the shore out at the point. I looked down and thought the visibility looked pretty lousy, but my relentlessly optimistic dive buddy bubbled enthusiastically: “It looks great! What are you talking about??” I really should try to be more ‘up’ when diving…thanks for the nudge! And, sure enough, it was great viz at the bottom, easily 25 feet of clear water as we played our way down the string of pinnacles from 35 to 65fsw. THIS is definitely the year of the nudibranch! We found multiple specimens of 8 (eight!!) different species of nudi’s: Thundering herds of Hermissenda, including a mating pair and a couple of gargantuan 4 inch bushy monsters. The rest of the nudi’s:

Doriopsilla albopunctata

Okenia rosacea (Hopkins rose)

Acanthodoris hunsoni

Triopha catalinae

Diaulula dandiegensis

Peltodoris nobilis (Sea lemon)

Flabellina iodinea (Spanish shawls)

Every huge boulder and pinnacle was covered with that beautiful carpeting of thick life that our sometimes-murky shore-diving waters support. I enjoy the clarity of the island waters, but the invertebrate carpeting is often more lush and varied on the mainland where there’s more to filter from the water column. We wander happily toward the cobble beach in a helping current, enjoying more nudibranchs, fish, and gorgonia fans. The water stayed pretty clear as we skirted the boundry of boulders and sand, surfacing about 2/3 of the way to cobble beach. Wonder what we’ll see on the next dive?



Marineland, Cobble Beach to Headhunter Reef sunken dock

Splash: 10:20 AM

Max depth: 53fsw

Temp: 52F at depth

Vis: 10 – 20, patchy

Gas: Air



We saw a few bat rays as we zoomed down Phils line, several 5 inch lizard fish, 2 purple globe crabs and a large black sea hare. I found more gorgeously decorated “decorator” crabs on the platform, covered with camouflaging brown sponge, corynactis anemones, leafy algae, and clumps of hydroids. A pair of Stearns aeolid nudibranch’s really made the trip sparkle…I’ve never seen these before. They are shaped like Spanish shawls, but the body is white, and the cerata are NEON orange, like traffic-safety-cone orange! The sponge growth on the platform is very pretty. We set off on a compass heading that could have taken us to the rocky reef in front of the sea caves….but instead took us through sandy pastures being grazed by herds of bat rays. A pushing current helped us right past the (invisible) reef and on into the next cove. So we got to do my favorite activity in scuba: A long surface swim back to the beach!! We strolled casually out of the Marineland pool and called it a Wonderful Day of Diving.

Of course, MaxBottomTime found a great big octopus, but missed all that wonderful sand ;-). I hope everyone else had wonderful dives today, too!

Happy Independence Day!!