Imperial Sand Dunes and crashing on an ATV

View of the dunes, with 2 quads in the background

Two weeks ago, we camped for a weekend out in the Imperial Sand Dunes off the 8 freeway. It was a fun trip with perfect weather - high of 75 F in the middle of winter. For those familiar with the Imperial Dunes, we took a ride out to Test Hill, where I decided to test out a Yamaha Raptor ATV. After driving up Test Hill 3 times with no issues, I brought my son up to the top and gave him my camera to shoot some photos of me.

In order to go up where he was shooting, I had to drive up a different face of the dune. This one was steeper and softer, with tracks erased by falling sand soon after they are made. I think I may have stayed on the throttle a little too long or not seen where the top was. In any case, the ATV started doing a wheelie at the top of the dune and I flew off the back of it.






With the camera shooting at 5 shots per second, the whole thing happened in about a second. I was on my way up the hill and the next thing I knew, I was laying on the ground, unable to breath.

Fortunately, the bar on the back of the ATV prevented it from flipping over or landing on me. The ATV was fine.. I was not so much. My back took the brunt of the impact and I had the wind knocked out of me. Fortunately, my family was nearby and drove me back to camp in my sister's dune buggy.

Two weeks later, I still have back pain, but it is definitely getting better. It's the reason I haven't been diving in a few weeks and it's going to be my excuse for not being ready for my first 10K run in 2 weeks. :(


Quads in the dunes


The telephone pole out at Gordon's Well

Imperial Sand Dunes:

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Scott

Cabo San Lucas, August 2010 - Part 6

Cabo Harbor Dive

On the last day of diving for the trip, we were scheduled to do an 'Across the Bay' set of dives, but the swells were up and dive boats were not allowed out. So instead we did the type of diving that I'm most familiar with - shore diving. At the south-east end of the Cabo harbor, past the naval base, there is a small sandy beach complete with thatch roof umbrellas for shade.


Pacific seahorse (Hippocampus ingens) on abandoned rope

Our dive plan was to swim north-east from the beach, under the harbor entrance. I don't think the other divers were aware of the risk or were experienced enough to do this type of overhead diving. The type where boats are actively motoring above you during the dive. Fortunately, nothing bad happened...


Pacific seahorse (Hippocampus ingens) on abandoned rope

The terrain under the harbor entrance is a sandy bottom with gentle rolling hills. The marine life is concentrated in small clumps around small pieces of reef and boating trash. Tires, rope, bottles and cans provided the majority of habitat for macro life.


Argus moray (Muraena argus)

On two dives, we saw a couple of Pacific Seahorses, panamic arrow crabs, porcupine puffer fish, jeweled moray and argus moray eels and surprisingly only one nudibranch. I asked the dive guides afterward if there are usually more nudibranchs and they said that there had recently been a harbor cleanup that picked up a lot of the trash. It sounds like they also removed the habitat for the smaller inhabitants.


Chromodoris norrisi



Jeweled moray eel (Muraena lentiginosa)

Cabo Harbo:


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Cabo Photos:
http://www.underpressurephoto.com/Underwater/Cabo-2010/Cabo-San-Lucas-2010/

Scott

Common Dolphins off Pt Loma - 2/5/11

On Saturday, we went straight west from Pt Loma in search of migrating gray whales. We didn't manage to find any (neither did anyone else, apparently), but we did find a large pod of common dolphins.

More photos: http://underpressurephoto.com/Animals/Common-dolphins-off-Pt-Loma/



We met up with a small group that was heading towards the larger pod and slowed down to let them swim with us. After we met up with the larger pod, various groups would swim with the boat and then swim off.



The boat was surrounded for probably a half mile in any direction by dolphins, leaping out of the water.



After turning around and speeding back up, we had some that followed the boat, surfing and leaping out of the wake.



Short video of the dolphins playing at the bow of the boat: