Dive # 301

Date: December 30, 2006
Time: 9:00am
Location: Shaw's Cove
Depth (feet): 39
Dive Time (minutes): 52
Surf (feet): 1
Surge (feet): 1
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 59
Visibility (feet): 20-30
Visibility Description: clear
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Garrett...similar dive and conditions to the previous - Garrett had his camera and was taking pictures - I was just following along - burning off the rest of my tank from the previous dive, and enjoying the conditions. Same horn shark, moray and Roses from the first - hopefully Garrett was able to get some good pics.

Dive #300!!!

Date: December 30, 2006
Time: 7:00am
Location: Shaw's Cove
Depth (feet): 42
Dive Time (minutes): 45
Surf (feet): 1
Surge (feet): 1
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 59
Visibility (feet): 20-30
Visibility Description: clear - very nice
Notes and Highlights: Dove my 300th dive - buddied with Josh...awesome day at Shaw's - was thinking we'd get "decent" conditions with the recent swell and storms, but we ended up with one of the better days there all year. Easy 20-30 foot vis, and nice and clear water. We did a very lazy dive around Shaw's to Crescent - enjoying "the window", and several of the inner passages on the way back through...very manageable surge on the inside. We saw a 2 1/2 foot horn shark by Turn Around Rock, a nice moray just inside the arch, and several Hopkin's Roses. Awesome conditions - especially for a milestone dive!

Dive # 299 - Merry Christmas!

Date: December 25, 2006
Time: 12:30
Location: Shaw's Cove
Depth (feet): 39
Dive Time (minutes): 63
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 2-5
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 59
Visibility (feet): 10-15
Visibility Description: Murky - lots of surge-generated particulate - but seen worse.
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Garrett, Scott, Josh, Len and Len's Father-in-Law...Long lulls of nearly no surf between short sets of 1-2 footers made getting in and out easy. Dove with the requisite Santa hat - fish seem to really appreciate it...Scott was also going to try and see if they liked Easy Cheese for a Christmas feast - but they seem to have higher standards in food...not Scott though - he ate some during the dive...

Len and his F.i.L. broke off first due to air consumption, and headed back...a few minutes later Scott and Josh peeled off in a buddy pair - leaving Garrett and I to continue the search for good pictures - I hope Garrett fared better than I...I should stick to video.

Saw a nice sized octopus - a few Hopkin's Roses, a Cockerell's Dorid, and a fairly aggressive moray eel ('specially for the time of day)...pictures weren't very good - but the dive was enjoyable...a Merry Christmas and good time had by all!

Dive # 298 - Friday, Dec 15th - Shaw's Cove

Date: December 15, 2006
Time: 6:00am
Location: Shaw's cove
Depth (feet): 42
Dive Time (minutes): 36
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 2-4
Water Temp (fahrenheit): around 60
Visibility (feet): 10-15
Visibility Description: decent
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Scott - Wetsand.com showed a "lull" in the surf this morning - so I figured we'd take a shot at getting in this weekend...glad we did. Conditions were far from what they were 2 weeks ago - but this morning's dive was truly enjoyable. Rough water, but the surf wasn't significant - getting in and out was nicely uneventful. Dropped down pretty shallow and stuck out heads in the Arch - but we could feel the surge picking up inside and decided to stay on the outside. The water seemed "deep"...28 feet at the top of Turn-Around Rock...which seems deeper to me than usual...maybe not. Saw an good-sized octopus, 2 moray eels (one large), a 2 foot horn shark that was pretty exposed, and a crevice near Turn-Around in which a 3-4 foot horn shark was getting cozy with my second-ever swell shark that was roughly the same size. How cozy I'm not sure, but the prospect of them making little sharks that swell when they get...

...sorry.

Light was just breaking through when we turned, enough to turn off my light and enjoy the "awakening" reef...very enjoyable, and with the surf forecast for the weekend - timely I'm sure.

Dive # 297

Date: December 6, 2006
Time: 5:30pm
Location: Fisherman's Cove/Diver's Cove
Depth (feet): 32
Dive Time (minutes): 45
Surf (feet): 0
Surge (feet): 1
Water Temp (fahrenheit): low 60's
Visibility (feet): 20+
Visibility Description: clear - very nice
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Scott and Mike - extremely low tide which made the entry and exit difficult due to shallow water rocks/holes...but other than that the dive was AWESOME! No-hood temps, 20+ foot, clear vis, and the animals were out! We apparently adopted a juvenile seal very early in the dive - unsure of the gender so we'll call it "Sam". Sam was bright-eyed and very young - probably under 75 lbs. Untagged - so it was a wild one. Sam stayed with us for 40 of the 45 minutes we were under - up to and back into about 2 feet of water. Sam was using my light to do a whole bunch of harassing and a little bit of hunting of just about every SoCal fish species. And he/she was up for a bit of back scratching too...my dive buddies wish they had a camera - as apparently at one point I was shoved under a ledge trying to get a good look at an octopus which had an arm at least 2" in diameter - Sam was shoved under the same ledge and they said that both of our fins sticking out was a missed photo opportunity. Speaking of cameras - other than the difficult and sometimes ungraceful entry and exit over the shallow rocks - WHY DIDN'T I BRING THE VIDEO EQUIPMENT!!! If I had this dive report would have been accompanied by incredible video including MY FIRST EVER SWELL SHARK (I've seen a lot of their eggs - but never a "hatched" one...this one was between 3 and 4 feet and very healthy looking - gorgeous even. There would also have been a 2 foot leopard shark, several moray eels, several octopi (including the very large one), tons of bugs and a nice selection of small rays. The only items missing on the list were bat rays and horn sharks - and those were well represented in the previous dive over the weekend (Dive #296 - check out the video on the blog). Truly enjoyable…on the short list of lifetime dives.

Dive # 296

Date: December 2, 2006
Time: 8:00am
Location: Wood's Cove
Depth (feet): 39
Dive Time (minutes): 64
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 2-4
Water Temp (Fahrenheit): 61
Visibility (feet): 10-20
Visibility Description: a little murky - alot of sand in surgy areas
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Len - welcomed the new month with a dive - and brought the video camera. Swell looked worse than it was breaking on the sand - so the in and out were trouble free. Dropped down pretty quick and pretty much swam around looking for stuff to shoot (video). Found a nice-sized bat ray and a couple of horn sharks - check 'em out in the video.