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Dive # 263

Date: July 26, 2006
Time: 8:45pm
Location: Shaw's Cove
Depth (feet): 44
Dive Time (minutes): 51
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 2-4
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 75 top and 65 bottom
Visibility (feet): 15
Visibility Description: mostly clear
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Scott - a really nice night dive with a whole bunch of video that I need to now edit...so stay tuned...nice two-spot octopus in the open on the sand...a few bat rays - one eating and one that looked liked someone might have recently taken a pot shot at it (still somewhat bloody looking hole in it's belly - but not life-threatening). Halibut, turbot, stingray, thornback, lobsters, california lizardfish and more ...all the reasons I love night dives!

Dive # 262

Date: July 26, 2006
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Shaw's Cove
Depth (feet): 47
Dive Time (minutes): 53
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 2-4
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 75 shallow - 65 deeper
Visibility (feet): 25 shallow - 15 and a little murky deeper
Visibility Description: best in a long time!
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Josh and Scott. Rachel and Tyler came down to play at the beach as well. Saw a couple of sheep crabs, octopus, large cabezons and a whole bunch of schooling reef fish. Beautiful vis - especially shallower...easy 25 feet in the area around the entrance to the arch. Found a dive knife on the way back in...turns out Josh lost a dive knife of the way back out...so it all worked out. Awesome dive.

Dive # 261

Date: July 12, 2006
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Wood's Cove
Depth (feet): 36
Dive Time (minutes): 51
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 2-5
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 65 (thermo-cline 60)
Visibility (feet): 6-12
Visibility Description: murky
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Scott...warm water and easy in/out with minimal surf. Bunch of octopi, a large moray, and a whole bunch of senorita fish, blacksmiths, and other schooling reef fish. Water just seemed a little bit "thick"...but otherwise a nice, relaxing dive. Lifeguard came down as we were walking towards the water and very nicely asked us if we had dove there before. Didn't ask me about my snorkel (rolled up in my BC pocket). A positive interaction.

Diving solo? (an attempt at humor)

Note: the writer of this post does not recommend that any of the following be construed as official recommendations.

If you are asked by a lifeguard if you are diving solo...try one or more of these:

* All my dive buddies got pregnant...wanna dive with me? (the line I used to use after my wife - my original and favorite dive buddy - did indeed bring home a mini-human souvenir from a dive trip to Cozumel).

* Diving solo is better than diving so-high.

* I just do this to meet lifeguards (feel free to integrate with the pregnancy line)

* My dive buddy is very shy...he's hiding and won't come out until you leave.

*This has been a test of the Laguna Beach ordinance enforcement...great work! Stay right here and I'll go get the form for you to sign from my car...

And the #1 response:

* My buddy got sucked up in the alien spaceship that's making Deadhenge!

Dive # 260

Date: July 5, 2006
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Diver's Cove/Fisherman's
Depth (feet): 20
Dive Time (minutes): 40
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 2-8 (shallow)
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 73
Visibility (feet): 10-15
Visibility Description: shallow and sandy equals clear...murkier deeper and on Fisherman's side
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Josh, Scott and Pablo. Diver's looked better than Heisler and Crystal Cove (I didn't see Shaw's)...Easy in and we dropped down on about 1/2 dozen bat rays - and then we spent most of the dive combing the sandy areas for more of 'em. Total bat ray count was probably about 12. Josh picked up a female lobster with a gorgeous pile of eggs...great to see the future bugs that I'll be chasing with my son in 8 years or so...stayed really shallow and ended up coming out at Fisherman's. Maybe I was tired - or maybe just not used to the warm water - but I had trouble feeling really comfy for the dive...but still enjoyed the rays and the company.

Dive # 259

Date: July 5, 2006
Time: 6:00am
Location: Wood's Cove
Depth (feet): 34
Dive Time (minutes): 54
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 2-3
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 65-72
Visibility (feet): 10-15
Visibility Description: murkier deeper
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Garrett...his 60th...congrats! Saw a 2 foot horn shark, a whole bunch of bugs, a bat ray and a GIANT SEA BASS! Absolutely awesome...only my 4th ever. Just when I thought the dive couldn't get any better - we ran into a small group of elderly people about to walk their dogs on the beach...when they asked if we had seen anything and we told them "a giant sea bass and a horn shark" - one of the ladies asked..."will the shark go after my dogs?" Priceless...

Dive # 258

Date: July 4, 2006
Time: 6:30am
Location: Diver's Cove
Depth (feet): 30
Dive Time (minutes): 61
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 1-4
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 74 shallow and 68 @ 30'
Visibility (feet): 10-15
Visibility Description: clear in shallows and murkier as we got deeper
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Josh and Garrett...easy in...and WARM! Couldn't believe it as we swam out...Garrett and Josh saw a horn shark and a bat ray in the shallows...I found a large 2 1/2 foot plainfin midshipman (link to video of one at night) curled up in a crack, and a smaller one lying under a rock...I've never seen 2 of them in one place before - in fact they doubled my plainfin midshipman total count...ugly things - but cool. Josh found an octopus and there were a bunch of lobsters out...overall a very warm, relaxing dive. Easy out and what a great way to start the 4th!

Dive # 257

Date: July 1, 2006
Time: 7:30am
Location: Heisler Park
Depth (feet): 37
Dive Time (minutes): 57
Surf (feet): 2-5
Surge (feet): 2-5
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 58
Visibility (feet): 2-5
Visibility Description: murk, crap, floaties...gorgeous
Notes and Highlights: July started with a bang...at least that was kinda the sound the wave made on top of me...Dove with Garrett, Kevin and Jerry...I'll try not to duplicate Garrett's earlier post too much - but we dropped at the white buoy and coulda' used seeing-eye dogs...just kinda putz'd along the bottom alternating between trying to find cool things to look at (pretty much failed miserably) and trying to find each other (did pretty good at that)...so overall a good time had by all and the laughs after we all got creamed by a 2-breaker set that was damn close to 5' made for a good time. Kevin did spot (how the hell I'm still not sure) a Porter's Chromodorid...first time seeing one for me so that was quite cool.