Dives # 335 and 336 - Diver's...Right and Left....

Date: May 28, 2007
Time: 6:30am/8:30am
Location: Diver's Cove
Depth (feet): 31/38
Dive Time (minutes): 50/45
Surf (feet): 1-4
Surge (feet): 2-12
Water Temp (fahrenheit): warm (no hood)
Visibility (feet): 5-12
Visibility Description: surge murky
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Len, Scott, Josh, Blake and Alex (nice to meet you)...first dive we dropped down pretty quick and onto about 1 dozen bat rays of assorted sizes. Very murky with the surge, so they didn't give us too much of a view, and no photo ops. Made our way right - over to the reef between Diver's and Fisherman's in pretty surgey, murky conditions. Got buzzed by a sea lion that I didn't see...some lobsters, a medium sized cabezon and the remains of a sheep crab which was being taken care of by urchins...found a little, blue beach shovel that my 3 year old son will like.

...second dive we decided to go left and check out the reef that's 150 degrees over the sand. Visibility over the sand in 20 feet was a little cleaner and opened up 10+ ...not great, but enjoyable. Got over the reef and found a bunch of tiny Spanish Shawl's, a tiny crab, painted greenlings, rock pool blennies, and many large bass and sheephead. A small bait ball circled us a few times too...overall a good time had by all.


A very small, very camouflaged crab

Rock Pool Blennies - I think they should be "Reindeer Blennies"


"Remains of the Day"

Chestnut Cowry

"What Every Whelk Should Know"

Dive # 334

Date: May 25, 2007
Time: 6:00am
Location: Diver's Cove
Depth (feet): 28
Dive Time (minutes): 55
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 2-3
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 58? (warm)
Visibility (feet): 5-10
Visibility Description: murky
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Scott and Len...high tide with some visible signs of surge on the surface. Dropped down pretty quickly in shallow water - hoping to get some footage of mating bat rays...but I don't think they're "morning people". We did see several large ones (females) - but returning red tide visibility and their skittish nature made most of the sightings brief and not suited for video. Still amazing creatures to watch - even if I can't show you...Len had a very short fill on his tank, and we turned pretty early for the shallows again. Not a whole bunch to see, and poor water conditions...but a great time had by all.

Dives #332 and 333 - Plainfin Midshipman

Date: May 23, 2007
Time: 5:30pm/7:30pm
Location: Diver's Cove/Shaw's Cove
Depth (feet): 33/26
Dive Time (minutes): 50/57
Surf (feet): 1-2+
Surge (feet): 2-5
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 58
Visibility (feet): 2-15
Visibility Description: variable...see below
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Scott - was thinking that we were going to be doing some red-tide diving - but the swell, surge, and surf seems to have driven the red tide off of the beach a ways...water looked pretty inviting. First went in at Diver's and dropped into about 2 feet of vis in 10 feet of water...the surge was kicking up A LOT of stuff...but no red tide! I've recently chided a dive buddy for not testing his camera gear - resulting in a blown dive with a reversed battery. Karma kicked me in the butt by having me not take the 5 seconds needed to turn my camera on after I put it in the housing...and...dead camera. We proceeded over the sand a bit - startling several bat rays, and a guitarfish. Once we were in about 20 feet of water - the surge wasn't nearly as bad, and the vis opened up to about 15. Once we got to 30 feet however, we hit the "wall" of red tide...so we stayed closer in and poked around the shallower reef. Found the rock pool blennies again...and when I turned to get Scott's attention to show him the blennies - I almost had my head taken off by a large bat ray flying about 15 feet off the sand - with a smaller one right behind it...must be mating season. On the "way back" over the sand - an awesome video opportunity for a pair of mating bat rays swam slowly by me...did I mention karma?!

We exited uneventfully, and decided to try out Shaw's for dive #2. We dropped into about 15 feet of water, and heavy surge again...this time the surge felt even more forceful - not necessarily pushing you that far...just a very distinct, constant feeling of extreme pressure against you. At one point we were blown off the reef and whited-out (new word?)...A large number of small things were out...the surge making the pictures difficult...but there were many octopi, hopkin's roses, a tiny decorated crab (1 inch), and a tiny scorpionfish (1 1/2 inches)...have I mentioned my camera stinks for macro? Brittle stars, lobsters, blacksmiths, and garibaldi rounded out what was going to be a routine, outer-reef dive at Shaw's...until...

...I noticed an "eye" in the sand...and then a second - not very close to the first. A circular mouth was partially exposed, and I realized it wasn't a halibut. I've seen a few plainfin midshipman...but they are still rare enough that it was very cool. It was also a large one - nearly 2 feet in length and heavy. I "helped" it out of the sand gently, and was able to get some still-camera video clips (see below). Certainly made fighting the surge worthwhile, and guaranteed a good time was had by all.


Plainfin Midshipman


Two-spot Octopus

Hopkin's Rose

Dive's #330 and 331 - Shawl's, Shank...Redemption

Date: May 12, 2007
Time: 6:30am/8:30am
Location: Deadman's Reef
Depth (feet): 48/45
Dive Time (minutes): 61/48
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 1-3
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 52
Visibility (feet): 10-20
Visibility Description: Mostly clear below red tide level
Notes and Highlights: First dove with Kevin and Josh...swam out, dropped down and redeemed myself for yesterday's fiasco...the red tide was in patches even at depth - but when you avoided it the vis was approaching 20 feet and nice. Cool dive - saw a bunch of Spanish Shawl's...one as large as Josh's dive knife...Cold dive - 52 wears on you after an hour...should have brought my better gloves...nice easy swim around the reef, and most of the trip back was under as well...

Josh and Kevin had to go - but Alberto showed up as I was pulling off my gear...put it all back on and went for round two (put my better gloves on this time)...surf was still down, easy in and a leisurely swim back out to the drop point. Alberto took the lead and we explored the clear areas of the reef...a bunch of morays - one very large, and most in the medium-sized range...again, more Spanish Shawls, lobsters, cabezon and other usual suspects. Hadn't dove with Alberto before...looking forward to more in the future. Equally leisurely, underwater swim for most of the return trip, and I had the pleasure of meeting Jan and got to say hi to Donna too...it's a beautiful day out...a good time had by all.


Spanish Shawls

Update: Slipped my mind - but I did notice a sunflower star on Dive 331 with Alberto...pointed it out, but I'm not sure if his angle let him see it. Not sure I've seen one in Laguna before. It wasn't nearly as large or "well-armed" as the one I saw at OML on Dive #315...probably only 10-12 arms...still cool to see here though.

Dive # 329 - Exercise 'n Humility

Date: May 11, 2007
Time: 6:30am
Location: Crescent
Depth (feet): 73
Dive Time (minutes): 31
Surf (feet): 1-3+
Surge (feet): 1
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 52
Visibility (feet): 20+
Visibility Description: below the red tide it was nice and clear
Notes and Highlights: Started to dive with Scott, Garrett and Derek - I say started because a rogue wave in the generally light surf took Garrett for a little ride - and relieved him of his mask...I'm sure he'll replace his mask a lot quicker than I'll be finding my pride (read on)...

Scott, Derek and I swam out to my normal drop down spot - dropped into 41 feet of water, and at depth the vis opened way up and clear...gorgeous actually. Took a 210 heading and then preceded to take an unprecedented tour of the sand off Crescent. Didn't find Deadhenge, Deadman's or my dignity anywhere...un-freakin'-believable...

Did find a lobster (legal sized) that had apparently gotten as lost as we did...said "Hi" to it...took some pictures...Derek got to hold his first live lobster...we got buzzed by a solo seal lion on our way "back"...which ended up not being a very long trip underwater - as the two AL80 divers were getting low on air quickly at those depths...long-@$$ surface swim back from what turned out to be way south and way past where Deadman's is...embarrassing and lots of exercise guaranteed a good time had by all...

Dives # 327 and 328 - Red Tide Dives

Date: May 9, 2007
Time: 5:30/8:00
Location: Diver's/Shaw's
Depth (feet): 30/30
Dive Time (minutes): 60/63
Surf (feet): 1+
Surge (feet): 2-4
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 58
Visibility (feet): 2-10
Visibility Description: strong red tide
Notes and Highlights: Dove first at Diver's with Scott, Loi and Derek (nice to meet you both)...Red tide was obviously socked in around all of Laguna...looked like (but didn't taste/smell like) Newcastle Brown Ale. Damn the torpedos...goin' in anyway. Dropped down quick and into 2 feet of vis. Looked around for bat rays - but I didn't see any. Loi saw a small one. I saw a large halibut tail - but only the tail. Made our way off the sand and into the broken-up reef area. The vis opened up to around 8 feet there...still didn't find too much of interest. Scott and Derek split off to take some pictures - and Loi and I found a striped greenling, the usual suspect garibaldi, sea cukes (one which was extremely animated), and sea hares. Horrible vis, bad water quality...but it was wet...beats the hell outta workin'.

Loi had to leave, and Kevin and Ron joined the three of us at Shaw's...Vis was marginally better here, and there was at least the nudes around the Arch. More sea hares, stingrays, a seal that caught me by surprise while I was trying to shoot a Hopkin's Rose, and an octopus that Scott found rounded out most of what we saw...Kevin and Ron split off and found much better vis deeper and colder...I'll be diving Friday morning, and will be sure to keep that in mind. Overall - a good time was had by all...enjoy the short clip:

Dive # 326 - Rock Pool Blennies

Date: May 2, 2007
Time: 5:30pm
Location: Diver's Cove
Depth (feet): 23
Dive Time (minutes): 53
Surf (feet): 1-2
Surge (feet): 2-4
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 60
Visibility (feet): 5-10
Visibility Description: murky
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Josh and Blake (nice to meet you) - easy in with small surf - and we dropped down pretty quickly in shallow water over sand - looking for bat rays...didn't take long. We spent the first several minutes moving slowly over the sand...finding bat rays by the dozen (see the clip). Blake also found a horn shark early in the dive which we chased around on the sand for a while (pic and video clip below)...

We went further out - still not very far or deep - but where the reef structure begins. Spent quite a bit of time trying to get a picture of the first rock pool blennies I've seen. Two were sharing a hole in the reef - one much smaller than the other...but even the biggest was barely 2 inches long. Surge and a dive-long fight with buoyancy made shooting the little buggers difficult - the result:





At least a dozen bat rays



Horn Shark


Overall - still less than desirable conditions - vis is consistently murky and sandy with surge...but tremendously enjoyable to spend time with that many bat rays - and the bonus of a new fish find for me guaranteed a good time had by all.