Dive Report 4.24.12 - Title Fight!

This was one of those dives where is was my turn to pout and throw a temper tantrum...above water. Because my new fin strap decided to snap off in the water, and my spare fin straps didn't fit my new fins... So had to sit this dive out, but the weather was beautiful, the waves were ankle slappers, and I was excited for the boys to come out of the water and report their findings! Ryan, Tim, and Kimo headed down to the angel statue again, but the highlight of this dive was the fighting Sarcastic Fringeheads Ryan managed to capture on his GoPro/Watershot camera set up on the way back in!

and yes, Ryan has a sense of humor with all his gentleman fish production films. :)

Dive Report 4.16.12 - Angels and Tantrums

La Jolla Shores Night Dive

Last minute dive with Debra, Ryan, James and Dan. Storm had calmed down, the swell was low and most importantly... Deb's first dive back in the water after her Lasik surgery! The waves were knee slappers, so entry was easy, we kicked out with an occasional swell rolling through, but no biggie. The goal tonight was for Ryan to lead us to the mysterious angel statue located somewhere off Vallecitos Point at 112 feet. We dropped down in slop, maybe about 7 feet viz, BUT Ryan nailed the canyon wall. Nice! We followed the canyon wall to Vallecitos Point then headed down to 112 feet. No pressure on Mr. Divemaster candidate to navigate us, not at all... haha. As we descended down the viz was a hazy 10 feet at most. Strangely, we saw hundreds of Graceful Crabs running all over the sea floor. I wish I could have captured a photo but there was way to much debris in the water to capture anything farther than 2 feet from my camera. We hit 115 feet and knew we went too far. Ever see a temper tantrum underwater? I witnessed Ryan's tantrum last night out of frustration of not being able to find the statue. Fists clenched and shaking, feet kicking, and you could see him going "ARGGGGGGGGG!!!!!". Hilarious!! I'm sure he was dreading the teasing he was going to get on the surface. Just then James' light flashed on a dark mass... THE STATUE!!! Ryan lucks outs!!! We finally get to see the mysterious statue we had only previously heard about. It's a lot smaller than I imagined, but still cool! The dive was a success! I wish I could have gotten a full image of the statue but the viz and debris would not allow it. Next time!

Max Depth: 115 feet
Temp: 51 degrees
Viz - 3 feet in the shallows, 10 feet at depth
Current: Mild current pulling us north
Bottom Time: 42 min

Eye Candy:
The angel statue, hundreds of graceful crabs, sea lemon, sarcastic fringehead, anemones, brittle sea stars, pipe fish, giant sheepshead crab, pleurobranchaea californica, carpenter's turrid snail, swimming crabs.

 

(see more pics here!)

Dive Report 4.9.12 - "Current" Events

Marine Room Night Dive - La Jolla Shores

I'm finally back in the water on a weekly basis! My eyes have healed nicely and while they are still adjusting at times, I can already tell they make a world of difference underwater. I swear I'm seeing so much more tiny things that I never noticed before!

Monday night I head out to the Marine Room in La Jolla for a night dive with my two good friends, Bethy and Kimo. It was a beautiful night for a dive. No wind. Maybe two foot waves at the most, and an easy entry. We drop down in slop though. Completely murky with sand billowing from the current. The current easily pushed along to our depth where the ocean cleared up to a wonderful 30-40 foot viz. We happily poked along through the sand taking photos and video. The current pulled us north at this point so we missed the canyon (oops) but still found so much life to take footage of!

Max Depth: 78 feet
Temp: 49 degrees (burrrr, thanks for the wetsuit warmer Kimo!)
Viz - 3-5 feet in the shallows, 30-40 feet at depth
Current: Strong current pulling us west and sometimes north
Bottom Time: 59 min

Eye Candy:
Adult and juvenile horn sharks, scorpion fish, nudibranchs, spiny lobsters, swimming crabs, a school of pipe fish, ronquils, pygmy's, red octopus, staghorn sculpin, flat fish,

(more pics here!)

As we started to head back we then started to noticed just how strong the current was that so easily pushed us out to our dive spot. We surfaced to get a gauge on where we were and were still quite a distance off from the shore even though we were in pretty shallow waters. We decided to do a surface swim in so we could talked excitedly about our dive and what we saw. Then we noticed we weren't moving... I stopped kicking and almost immediately was 15 feet from my buddy heading the opposite direction back into the ocean. Time to make a decision and fast. We both had enough air to drop back down. Luckily we were able to easily swim under the current, I was dreading the thought of having to to claw my way back to shore. Once my computer read that we were at a 5 ft depth we surfaced. Phew. They don't say rule of thirds for air in diving for nothing! Dive safe! :)