Dive Report - Marine Room, La Jolla 6/13/15

Date: 6/13/15
Location: Marine Room, La Jolla
Time in: 11:57 am
Time under: 66 min
Max depth: 42 ft
Min temp: 55F
Vis:10-15 ft
Waves: Tiny
Buddies: Carolita

GoPro Photos: Photos at Underpressurephoto.com

Highlights: Lots of octos, sarcastic & yellowfin fringeheads, giant bat rays in the shallows

I haven't been diving as much lately, partly because of events in my personal life (like getting married) and partly because I've been doing other outdoor things, like backpacking/hiking. But the best part is that my wife is now a certified scuba diver (thanks V!). We've been focused on training dives, getting her comfortable in relatively shallow water and learning the joy of beach entries with surf. I haven't had much to report other than getting my butt handed to me in Laguna Beach back in April and then having my camera housing partially flood on the 10 minute dive after. Also, for my birthday, Carolita took me over to the Catalina dive park for my very first dive there.



Yesterday, we decided to visit the canyon in La Jolla. Rather than brave the La Jolla Shores parking lot, we went to the Marine Room and scored good parking close to the restaurant. Waves were tiny and there was just a little bit of surface chop. On the surface swim out, there was a slight current pushing north, but by half way out it ceased. We dropped down into 15 feet of water, but fortunately at the point that it starts to slope down from there. We hit the thermocline at about 30 feet and the mini wall at ~40 ft and turned south.



Carolita got to see her very first octopi on a dive. And not just one, but about 4 of them. She also got to see her first sarcastic fringeheads (that I've talked so much about), the smaller yellowfin fringeheads, and a pipefish. She was fascinated by the wart-neck piddock siphons. We didn't see any of the normal nudis other than navanax. The wall gently sloped up to about 25 feet where it sort of disappears and a current started pulling us south. We drifted south for a little bit before turning east to head in. On the swim in, we found another small octo hiding in kelp and watched it for a little bit. Then in the shallows, we came upon giant bat rays feeding, creating giant clouds of sand and swooping off to find their next meal.







I'm still waiting for my camera housing to come back from the shop, so I'm learning how to make the most of a GoPro. Apparently they don't focus as close underwater as they do on land. :)

Scott