New Southern California Dive Video - Beautiful Kelp Forest!

[miket]

Hello everyone,

I finished editing some video I shot at Catalina on May 28th on a Reef Seeker's charter with the Magician Dive boat.

I got some really cool shots of kelp with the bright sun overhead. Vis was 20 feet or so.

We saw a few Bat Rays, a Round Ray, a small Horn Shark, A huge Sheep Crab, lots of Bad-Boy Garibaldi's defending eggs, A moray that wouldn't come out of his hole and more of the regular critters.

It's 6:40 minutes long, about 18mb in size, and is a Windows Media Player formatted AVI file.

Catalina_UnderTheKelp_05282006.avi

Enjoy,
MikeT

 

[CompuDude]

Nice! I liked the music, too... I'll have to look that band up. Have it available in a slightly less-compressed format anywhere? That one seems a little over-compressed, esp. when I opened the window up a bit bigger.

You had some great vis on that dive, though. I take it you were in pretty shallow water? I didn't notice any added lighting, so I assume it was all ambient?

 

[TSandM]

Lovely, dramatic video. Looking up through the kelp at the sunlight reminded me of the feeling of awe and exaltation of hiking in the redwoods. I have GOT to get down there and dive some time.

One question . . . how uncommon are the Garibaldis? It seems as though every photo or video presentation from Catalina includes them, and if they are unusual, I want to be prepared for disappointment

 

[CompuDude]

Garibaldi's are certainly not swarming, because they're very territorial, and aside from mated pairs, they do not play well with others. If you're diving Catalina, however, I'd be pretty stunned if you didn't see any.

You see them because they're fairly aggressive, and they'll come right up to you, trying to chase you off. It's hard to be overly frightened by an overgrown goldfish, however. LOL Plus, they're so darn bright, they really catch the camera's eye.

So come on down!

 

[miket]

Nice! I liked the music, too... I'll have to look that band up. Have it available in a slightly less-compressed format anywhere? That one seems a little over-compressed, esp. when I opened the window up a bit bigger.

You had some great vis on that dive, though. I take it you were in pretty shallow water? I didn't notice any added lighting, so I assume it was all ambient?

The music is my own, electrostatic is a music group I am in.

http://www.electrostatic.net
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=4888977

Vis wasn't that great really, maybe 20 feet due to particulates. Almost all was shallow 15-50 feet. Deep in the kelp the vis would improve from time to time, maybe 35 feet vis near the end. It looked even cleaner when the boat left.

Lights were used alot actually, some of the Garibaldi shots, the sea fan, the horn shark, the gobys, the moray. It was really dark under the kelp, the light cannons give a good natural light for close up shots. I leave them on almost all of the time, I just aim them down when the lights would mess up an ambient light shot.

I agree about the compression, but I have limited space sometimes. Maybe I'll bump it up to about 25mb and see how it looks.

how uncommon are the Garibaldis?

I wouldn't worry about not seeing one anywhere you dive in Southern California. Very abundant at the Channel Islands. You can see lots of them in the Avalon Harbor from the surface where the boats come in.

Males are guarding eggs now so they are more photogenic. There are grey and yellow eggs in the dark red algae nest, behind the Garibaldi in the middle of this video. They get very bold to the lens sometimes shaking and making clucking noises, it makes a neat video.

Thanks for checking out the video
- MikeT

 

[Jcsgt]

Very cool!

What's the average water temp, there? I'm hopefully going to be drysuit diving by the end of summer and would like to head down your way.

 

[miket]

Very cool!

What's the average water temp, there? I'm hopefully going to be drysuit diving by the end of summer and would like to head down your way.

Thanks, water temps in the late summer are usually mid 50s to low 60s at depth, I have had 73f at the surface before at Laguna Beach on a shore dive.

I wear a 7mm wet suit, and don't feel cold unless doing repetitive dives in the winter season (water temps 49 - 54).

- MikeT

 

[Nay]

Great video. That's why we dive here isn't it?

Jcsgt: If you have a drysuit you'll be more than fine, many of my drysuit buddies go with pretty light undergarments in the summer. I'm still in my 7mm wet with a 5mm hooded vest. We're at 63' now so I expect to see as high as 68' by Sept. Yay!

TS&M: In my 100 or so So Cal dives, I don't think I've not seen a Garibaldi. A juvenial is a treat but they're frickin' everywhere.

Hope you enjoy diving out here!

 

[miket]

Thanks everyone, I re-uploaded the video at a higher rate. It looks much better and not as compressed.

- MikeT

 

[Dryglove]

Great video. I went to your site and watched all the other videos also. Keep up the good work and continue to post them.