South Monastery 10-19-08

[Coll]

Nice dive, 40ft vis with some surge but nothing brutal, absolutely tons of dead moon jellies to the chagrin of many anemones. Very pleasant dive, love Monastery!

 

[KirkD]

Monastery beach? Carmel, California?

 

[Larry C]

Monastery beach? Carmel, California?

Real name is Carmel River State Beach. Everyone calls it Monastery because of the Monastery on the hill overlooking. (Some call it Mortuary, due to the propensity for divers who don't know better to wade in under conditions when you shouldn't go near it due to a steep beach that hides the power of the surf below)

Great job on the Kelp Sunburst Coll. Always enjoy White Spotted Rose Anemonies as well. I suspect that the jellies were more to their delight then chagrin, though. The jellies seem to be enjoyed by pretty much all the bottom dwellers, especially the crabs.

 

[Coll]

True enough Larry in regards to the delight of a moon jelly snack! The Rose Anemones were out in force, you can kind of see in the picture that you can actually see some of the anemones innards in that picture. I took another macro shot of the stem of the anemone and was surprised to see when I looked at it on my computer how clearly you can see the insides, very cool. This was also my dive buddy/girlfriends first dive ever at Monastery. She had previously been hesitant because of the whole "Mortuary" stigma associated with the site. Now I think she'll refuse to go anywhere but Monastery! As always, thanks for your feedback! I'll keep on striving to come up with shots like yours

 

[Larry C]

I've always enjoyed Monastery as a shore dive myself, though we haven't done it since we got our boat. Now we can dive pretty much anywhere in Carmel for similar conditions. The cool things about Monastery are a)very few shore dives allow you to go to true depth on a single tank-Monastery, you can go as deep as you want and generally get back to shore because of the steepness of the hill. b)Ocean exposure gives generally clear vis as long as the swell is coming from the normal direction. c)One of the easiest natural navigation dives you'll ever do, just follow the kelp bed out to the wash rock, hang a right and boulder hop downward.
On the other hand, don't get fooled by Ma Nature. If the waves are breaking over the wash rock, don't get in no matter what the beach looks like. You'll get pummeled and spun like a washing machine. The beach is so steep that you're under water two steps from shore and the wave action pretty much pounds straight in and blasts you into the sand. Other downside is that stupid pea gravel (Monsterberries) gets in your reg, your suit, your boots and everything else. Always rinse your gear good and check your reg after you get out.

 

[everlasting]

I love your jelly and kelp shots! Beautiful.
What kind of camera do you use?

 

[vicdiver656]

Great pics!! Thanks for sharing them with us!!!

Taylor
Vicdiver656

 

[Coll]

I love your jelly and kelp shots! Beautiful.
What kind of camera do you use?

Hi everlasting,

I have a Canon SD 630 with it's underwater housing the WP-DC3. Nothing fancy whatsoever. Because of it's limitations especially with the internal strobe though, I have to focus a lot of my pictures on macro shots, this day happened to be a gorgeous day on the Carmel side though so I seized the opportunity to get some grander shots. Thanks for the kudos!