Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

[CalTony]

Mola Mola spotted near Pacific Grove on the Beach Hopper Sunday? #jealous

(Atomic) Joe Platko on Instagram: “We saw a flying saucer on our dive yesterday! This large mola hung out for the full dive, wanting to be cleaned of all the parasites…”

 

[lordhelmet]

Did 2 dives at lovers on Saturday. First dive the Vis was 40 feet of blue water. Lots of urchins, very very little kelp. Made for a bit of a boring dive with only schools of senoritas keeping us company. 2nd dive the vis had deteriorated to 30 feet or so, still blue. This time focused on finding little things in the water and it was a much better dive.

 

[uspap]

Two dive at Breakwater today. Vis was 40ft in spots. Not great in the shallow area but when you dropped it opened up. Tons of sea lions buzzing all around at various depths. 50 degree water temp. Too bad the sun never came out or it would have been epic.

 

[wnissen]

Cool! Do you know roughly where along the wall you were? BTW, I think that's a sea lion, due to the external ears. One of the highlights of my dive career was seeing them going so, so fast as you describe.

 

[uspap]

I figured I'd get corrected. I never can remember the difference. I was actually in 5 feet of water so I'd say around number 3 or 4. They were playing above me so I just stopped and he/she kept buzzing me. I stuck my fin out and knew I'd get a photo op. Today was one of the best vis days I've had at BW.

A link to a short video of the dive.

 

[uspap]

Another couple of great dives at Breakwater yesterday. Wall had 25 foot vis in the morning. One of the local DMs said he had 50ft near the end of the wall in the afternoon. Second dive was in the middle reef kelp. Wow it sure improved. 30-35 foot vis or better. The water was blue and it felt like swimming in an aquarium. The kelp is back and looks healthy. Water temp was 51.

 

[wnissen]

With the swell forecast under 2 ft, and reports of miraculous viz, I decided to try Monastery for the first time. @dive1bb and I went with Randall Spangler, who has a very helpful page on Monterey marine life at Spanglers' Scuba. Unfortunately the stillness of the water had let the algae bloom, so viz was a decent but not spectacular 5m / 15ft. Conditions were perfectly calm on entry to North Monastery, and we dropped short of the wash rock and made our way towards the wall. Tons of interesting stuff, starting with a huge school of tubesnout fish around 7m / 25 ft. Went down to 30m / 100 ft, total of 37 minutes. Pretty amazing that you can be in water that deep so close to shore. Then we came up along the wall. It's pretty handy that the kelp only grow on the rock, so if you stay along the edge it's hard to get too lost. Unfortunately the swells had increased a bit while we were under so I got decently seasick on the surface swim back. Water temperature was a balmy 13C / 55F. The famous Monastery is indeed very difficult to walk in, and it is a bit of a trek from the road, so one dive was plenty for me. Thanks to Randall for teaching us a lot about the undersea life.

 

[dive1bb]

With the swell forecast under 2 ft, and reports of miraculous viz, I decided to try Monastery for the first time. @dive1bb and I went with Randall Spangler, who has a very helpful page on Monterey marine life at Spanglers' Scuba. Unfortunately the stillness of the water had let the algae bloom, so viz was a decent but not spectacular 5m / 15ft. Conditions were perfectly calm on entry to North Monastery, and we dropped short of the wash rock and made our way towards the wall. Tons of interesting stuff, starting with a huge school of tubesnout fish around 7m / 25 ft. Went down to 30m / 100 ft, total of 37 minutes. Pretty amazing that you can be in water that deep so close to shore. Then we came up along the wall. It's pretty handy that the kelp only grow on the rock, so if you stay along the edge it's hard to get too lost. Unfortunately the swells had increased a bit while we were under so I got decently seasick on the surface swim back. Water temperature was a balmy 13C / 55F. The famous Monastery is indeed very difficult to walk in, and it is a bit of a trek from the road, so one dive was plenty for me. Thanks to Randall for teaching us a lot about the undersea life.

I was about to post my dive reports for the weekend, as well! Awesome diving with you, as always, Walt!

 

[uspap]

Randy taught my rescue class.

 

[dive1bb]

Jumping off of @wnissen 's post -- amazing diving this weekend!

Saturday was a wonderful day spent at Lobos with my buddy Aaron. Sunday was spent at North Monastery with @wnissen and Randall as Walt mentinoed.

Lobos: Great amount of kelp made for an entertaining surface swim. We managed to get through it without becoming mighty kelp monsters. First dive we cruised around Middle Reef with a max depth of 35ft at a chilly 52°F for about 60min. Viz was about 30ft or so! Saw a good amount of rockfish of all sizes and colors, some large lingcod, plenty of nudibranchs including the Spanish Shawl and Opalescent nudibranchs, along with a bunch of Painted and Fish-eating urticina. We set out to swim through the Coal Chute cavern for dive number 2. Similar depth, temp, and time. Caught more life in the cavern! Beautiful day of diving overall.

N. Monastery: First time at this site! Wasn't as flat as we saw on the drive to Lobos Saturday, but it was still pretty calm. Ankle biter waves at most. First dive was a max depth of 99ft at 53°F for about 37 minutes like Walt said. We were greeted by a school of tubesnout fish on our descent - very cool! Plenty of life to check out. Similar to lobos, saw some rockfish, nudibranchs, and healthy kelp. Also saw colorful sculpins, virgularia, and plenty of worms like the slime fan and serpulid worms. Viz was a little murky -- I agree with Walt's assessment of about 15ft. Second dive with Randall was a max depth of 61ft at 51°F for 50min. We spent most of our time looking into all the nooks and crannies on the wall. Discovered a unit of a lingcod that looked like 2-3ft long or more only to discover an even more monstrous one a few minutes later deep into a hole in the wall. Looked like it was considering us for dinner! Reminded me of the giant sea bass I saw last week at Point Loma. Another great day of diving for sure!