Dive Report - Marine Room, La Jolla 6/20/15

Date: 6/20/15
Location: Marine Room, La Jolla
Time in: 11:03 am
Time under: 38 min
Max depth: 70 ft
Min temp: 54 F
Vis: 20-30 ft
Waves: Small, 1-2 ft
Buddies:Carolita & Virginia

More Photos

Highlights: Great vis at depth, but cold!





Cold! The thermocline was at only ~15 ft, which was fine for me in my drysuit, but was a challenge for Carolita in her wetsuit. Virginia didn't seem to mind much in her 5mm (!). We did a surface swim out to the edge of the canyon, navigating the chop and northerly current and dropped down into ~25 ft of water. From the canyon wall, we headed north to see the part we missed last weekend. Below the thermocline, the vis opened to 20-30 feet and we could clearly see the outline of the small canyon wall and the slope down into the abyss. We didn't see too much in the canyon - a brown crab, sarcastic fringehead and an octopus were the notable creatures. We then turned up slope and headed back to shore for the long swim.



More fun GoPro photos this week. I get my housing back on Tuesday, so I'm really looking forward to getting back underwater with the DSLR!

Scott

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

Dive Report - Pt Loma Kelp Beds 2/16/13

Date: 2/16/13

Dive #1:
Location: Pt Loma Kelp Beds
Time in: 8:46 am
Time under: 53 min
Max depth: 78 ft
Ave temp: 57 F
Vis: 15-20+
Waves: Flat
Mix: 33%
Buddies: Kim, Mike H, Marla, Virginia


Giant Spined Star (Pisaster giganteus) and Spanish Shawl (Flabellina iodinea) nudibranch in the kelp forest off Pt Loma, CA.

Dive #2:
Location: Pt Loma Kelp Beds
Time in: 10:46 am
Time under: 59 min
Max depth: 64 ft
Ave temp: 55 F
Vis: 15-30+
Waves: Flat
Mix: 33%
Buddies: Kim, Mike H, Marla, Virginia


The fate of the blue planet is in my hands.

Photos: http://www.underpressurephoto.com/Dive-Reports/20130216-Scuba-Pt-Loma-Kelp/
Older dive reports/photos: http://www.underpressurephoto.com/share/y8kKlJq8A5w4g

Highlights: 1st dives in 2 months! Pimped my drysuit with dry gloves and a new silicone neck seal, which were awesome. Great conditions, great weather and great company.

I joined my dive buddies on a local charter boat (thanks Anita and Ryan!) and enjoyed beautiful topside and under sea conditions in the kelp beds off Pt Loma. Everything went right on this trip - I was able to get suited up with dry gloves for the first time by myself (being self sufficient getting suited up or unsuited is important). No leaks in the drysuit or in my camera housing. The first dive was spent playing with my camera underwater and just enjoying being warm and dry. During the safety stop, we were treated by a school of mackerel hanging out in the top 5 feet of water.


Three Lined Aeolid (Flabellina trilineata) on the reef off Pt Loma, CA.

I switched to macro for the second dive and remembered why I love hunting for treasure on the reef. Marla, Virginia and I hung out around 55 ft on the reef looking for nudibranchs and other reef creatures. Some of the highlights included a porters chromodorid, many three lined aeolids, a yellow spotted cadlina, my first sea spiders (with eggs!) and a pair of moray eels who seemed annoyed at each other. At the end of the dive, Marla and I saw a large jellyfish (not sure of the ID) just floating by underneath the swim step.

Scott


Three sea spiders (Anoplodactylus species) carrying eggs off Pt Loma, CA.


A pair of California Moray Eel (Gymnothorax mordax) in a crevice off Pt Loma, CA.

Dive Report - Shaws Cove & frogfish 12/29/11

Probably a roughbar frogfish (Antennarius avalonis)

Date: 12/29/11
Location: Shaws Cove, Laguna Beach
Time in: 10:55 am
Time under: 81 min
Max depth: 40 ft
Avg temp: 57 F
Vis: 5-10 ft at depth, 15 ft in the shallows
Waves: Lake Laguna
Buddies: Mike H., Debbie K, DJ S, Cathy S

Photos: http://www.underpressurephoto.com/Dive-Reports/20111229-Scuba-Shaws/

Highlights: The frogfish, of course. We also saw a nice, large moray and a large horn shark. Finally visited Shelly of Shaws.


California Moray Eel (Gymnothorax mordax)

Mike and I joined Debbie and friends to go visit the frogfish. Without a guide, I don't think we would have found it, tucked away and camouflaged. As I always do when I set up my camera before a dive, I did some test shots. Those seemed to work without a hitch. Once underwater, however, my camera wouldn't fire reliably with the strobes on (fired once or twice and then no more). My guess is either the hot shoe flash connector on the camera or the TTL cable connectors weren't quite seated correctly. So I found myself going to visit the rare frogfish with a camera that wouldn't fire with strobes.


Probably a roughbar frogfish (Antennarius avalonis) and a treefish

I remembered Allison V. and Andy S.'s recent article on doing still photography with video lights and was inspired. I cranked up the ISO a bit, opened up the shutter and slowed down the shutter speed. I was using NOAA Jim's NiteRider dual HID light (thanks Jim, still helping me out!), which is basically a video light and was determined to make lemonade out of lemons. The photos needed a little more help in the white balance department, but actually came out ok.

Scott

Dive Report - Pt Loma Birthday Dives 9/23/11

Spencer photographing the reef near Train Wheels in Pt Loma

Date: 9/23/11
Location: Train Wheels, Pt Loma
Time in: 9:18 am
Time under: 44 min
Max depth: 90 ft
Avg temp: 54 F
Vis: 15+
Swells/surge: Calm swells, some surge
Buddies: Spencer, Marla, Kim, Mike H

Location: Lazy Days Wreck, Pt Loma
Time in: 11:17 am
Time under: 50 min
Max depth: 79 ft
Avg temp: 54 F
Vis: 5-10 ft
Swells/surge: None/none
Buddies: Mike H, Marla, Kim, Spencer

Photos: http://www.underpressurephoto.com/Dive-Reports/20110923-Birthday-Dives/


Mike H in the gloom off Pt Loma

Highlights: Fun day out on the water on the Humboldt. We were spoiled by Anita and Ryan and I had the pleasure of finally meeting Bethy. It was Kim's, Mike's and Marla's birthday and we gorged on cake, fruit, beer (root and otherwise). For the second dive, when I got in the water, I noticed a cold feeling around my waist and quickly realized water was coming into my drysuit. I quickly got my fins off and climbed back onto the boat, but the damage was already done. Apparently, my drysuit zipper was just about 1 inch away from actually being zipped shut. Oops. I completed the second dive, but was pretty cold, so I decided to sit out the third dive soggy and take photos of my dive buddies instead.

Scott

Birthday cake!