Dive Report - 5/30/10 La Jolla Shores

Date: 5/30/10
Location: La Jolla Shores, CA
Time in: 6:53 AM
Time under: 70 minutes
Max depth: 62 ft
Min temp: 53 F, cold
Vis: 5-10 ft, mostly 5 w/ pea soup.
Waves: 1-3 ft w/ occasional 4 footer
Buddy: Mike Hallack

Highlights: Happy to be diving at all with this el nino. Saw stearns aoelids, lots of lion nudibranchs, a school of juvenile rockfish.

Weather topside is beautiful today and the waves weren't too bad. On our way out, I had to dive under one 4+ ft wave that was breaking right on us, but came out unscathed. It was pea soup green underwater, with vis less than 5 ft at the surface. At depth it got up to 10 ft in some spots. Mike and I had to use our lights to keep track of each other.



We saw the usual suspects, with lion nudibranchs crowding the remaining shreds of kelp. At Vallecitos Point, there was a knot of kelp all bunched together about 10 feet off the bottom. There was a group of lion nudibranchs and a school of juvenile rockfish all huddled inside. We surfaced in 5 feet of water with an uneventful exit.



More photos:
http://underpressurephoto.com/Dive-Reports/20100530-Scuba-LJS/

La Jolla Shores:

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Scott

Dive Report - 5/16/10 La Jolla Shores

Date: 5/16/10
Location: La Jolla Shores
Time in: 7:59 am
Time under: 52 min
Max depth: 80 ft
Min temp: 53.6 F (Uwatec) - Spencer recorded 49 F
Vis: about 10 ft, less in the shallows, a tiny bit more at depth.
Waves: 1-3 ft, occasional bigger one. Easily timed.
Buddies: Spencer and Bill S.

Highlights: First dive in 7 weeks, first dive back at La Jolla Shores in 7 months.

It was really nice to get a dive in... finally. Waves were easy to get through and the vis was not spectacular, but with shooting macro, it didn't really matter. We dropped in a little north (Bill was 2ft off on his depth estimate at the drop in point, knowing that Spencer aims for 35 ft :) ) and stopped at the crap patch on the way south. We never quite made it to the Vallecitos Point, but that was fine with me. I had some buoyancy problems on the way in and up, since I was wearing an extra vest undergarment. Apparently, I need to add more than a couple of pounds. It was good to be shooting underwater again, since it's been forever.



More photos:
http://underpressurephoto.com/Dive-Reports/20100516-La-Jolla-Shores/

La Jolla Canyon:

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Scott

Last rays of the setting sun at Moss Point, Laguna Beach, CA

Almost a month ago was another weekend, high and dry with no diving. I needed to get my fix at the beach, so I headed up to Laguna Beach for a Saturday night sunset. I knew the tide was going to be high, so I wore my scuba booties in case I needed to wade back to the stairs. I managed to time the waves to get over to the reef on the far left side of the cove.

I decided to shoot looking perpendicular to the sun to get the warm setting sunlight on the sandstone cliffs, combined with the texture of the sandstone reef I was perched on. This also meant I was getting splashed from behind from the incoming large waves and had to keep one eye behind me in case a really big one came in.

Moss Pt Cove, Laguna Beach CA:

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Scott

24 hours in the Cuyamaca Mountains

View from the top of Stonewall Peak with the last rays of the setting sun:


Last Saturday, we did an overnight camping trip to the Cuyamaca Mountains. We were staying at Green Valley Falls campground and were fortunate to get a spot very close to the falls. Soon after arriving, we took a walk down to the falls to see how much water was flowing through them and what they looked like. The last time I was there in January, the recent snow was melting, which created a nice river through the valley. Fortunately, there was still a nice amount of water running. With the warmer weather, however, it also brought out a crowd of people playing in the icy water and sunning on the warm rocks. We decided to come back Sunday morning for photos.

One of our goals was to hike up Stonewall Peak and catch the sunset from the peak. Stonewall is 2 miles up and 2 miles down, with a 950 foot elevation gain (photo from January - snow is all melted now):
Photo of Stonewall Peak

We started the hike around 4:30 pm, which ended up being a bit early. The wind on the peak was cold and blowing strong and we had a bit of time to kill waiting for the sun to slowly set. I'm glad we waited though, as the setting sun lit up the clouds to the east:



We started down the mountain after the sun passed below the peaks to the west. The ambient light was enough to get us about halfway down, after that we had to turn on our flashlights to avoid stumbling on the rocky path. That night, it got down to 32 F - we had frost on the tent and covering the ground the next morning.

I got up around 7 AM, trying to wait for the sun to warm me up a little bit, but still early enough so that it wasn't shining directly into the Green Valley falls. I was also the first person down at the falls and I had their peace and beauty all to myself.



I was able to shoot for about an hour before the sun started shining through the trees, straight down the valley.



Stonewall Peak:

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Scott

Spring sunset at Woods Cove, Laguna Beach

After the past 3 years, I've spent a lot of time diving Woods Cove in Laguna Beach, but I haven't photographed it above water. Due to the marine layer that moved in late in the day last Saturday, I took a chance on it being clearer further north.

I love the rocky structure along the beaches in Laguna Beach. It provides a reef structure for life underwater, including kelp, sea anemones, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, sea hares and nudibranchs. It also provides safe harbor for garibaldi and other fish to lay eggs.

However, The rocks can make it harder to enter and exit the water. I've had my fair share of stubbed toes and trip ups from walking into a submerged rock with scuba gear on. At Woods Cove, there are two ways to enter the water - either to the right or left of the large structure on the left side of the photograph. The entrance on the left side is somewhat protected from waves and has fewer rocks and is the easier way to go.

Woods Cove, Laguna Beach:

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Scott

Dive report - 2 dives of Pt Loma 3/27/2010

Mikey Bear above the pinnacle:


Dive #1

Date: 3/27/10
Location: Pt Loma kelp beds
Time in: 12 pm
Time under: 42 min
Max depth: 89 ft
Min temp: 54F
Vis: 15-20 ft
Waves: periodic large swells, but no problem
Buddy: Mikey, Dave Hershman
Setup for Wide Angle (hoping to see a sevengill shark)

Hermissenda crassicornis on the reef:


Dive #2

Time in: 2:18 pm
Time under: 42 min
Max depth: 79 ft
Min temp: 56F
Vis: 15 ft
Waves: swells
Buddy: Dave Hershman
Setup for macro

Highlights: Exploring two large pinnacles covered in life. Nudibranchs seen: porters chromodorid, spanish shawl, hermissenda crassicornis, tritonia festiva, stearns aeolid, flabellina trilineata, cadlina luteomarginata. I also saw my first underwater spiders. It was really nice to 'hook up' with Steve Murvine and Gayle Van Leer out on the water.

Mikey holding onto a kelp holdfast:


It was a beautiful day out on the water after a month of storms. The sun was shining brightly. There were occasional large swells, but with a really long period, they were hardly noticeable.

Red gorgonian with kelp in the background:


For the first dive, I was setup for wide angle, hoping for good visibility and a sevengill shark. Even without seeing a shark, the twin pinnacle structures that Gayle and Steve found were amazing, going from about 65 feet down to the bottom at 95 ft. In between was a sandy channel littered with shells and rocks, almost like an underwater river bed. Mikey and I did the dive together, with Dave joining us later due to some equipment issues. It was a pretty cold dive, partly due to a leaking right arm in my mostly dry suit.

Stearn's Aeolid (Facelina stearnsi):


After an hour and a half surface interval, complete with lunch and cookies and wringing out my undergarment, I switched my camera over to macro. Mikey sat out the second dive due to a leaking inflator valve on his drysuit. Right as I got in to the water, Gayle and Steve surfaced and shouted that they had seen a sevengill. But it was too late to switch the lens back, oh well... Dave and I dropped down to the same pinnacles again, looking for macro life to photograph. I didn't explore as much of the structure this time, closely examining the reef for nudibranchs. About half way through the dive, I noticed that my pictures were getting awfully dark. Turns out, my strobe batteries weren't lasting as long as they normall do. By the end of the dive, only one of them was firing... On a positive note, my drysuit stayed dry on this dive.

Mikey pointing to the reef:


About an hour after getting back to the dock, I noticed my left shoulder was a little itchy and felt hot. I looked in the mirror and noticed a mottled appearance with some reddish/black/blue areas. Apparently, I had skin bends on the same shoulder that got the Type 1 DCS hit a little over a year ago. I immediately called DAN, who recommended I go and get checked out, even though breathing oxygen was the only treatment really needed. On my way to UCSD/Hillcrest, I got a call from the diving doctor to confirm what DAN had told him. It was a busy Saturday night at the ER, but they finally got me my on O2 by about 9 pm. The rash went away pretty quickly and they decided no chamber ride was needed (yay!). Now no diving for another 6 weeks :( Our best guess is that I'm not getting enough circulation in my left shoulder, either due to suit squeeze or just low blood pressure.

Diver Dave Hershman looking for macro subjects on one of the pinnacles:


The rest of the pictures are up at:
http://underpressurephoto.com/Dive-Reports/20100327-Scuba-Pt-Loma/

Scott

Cloudy sunset at Bird Rock, La Jolla

I was working on finding a good composition for beach sunsets at Bird Rock in La Jolla on an overcast spring day. I could have used a little help from the clouds and sun. I like the way the halo in the clouds echoes the shape of Bird Rock, but the shot is missing some color. This spot is really special at low tide and I plan on heading back to try to catch a colorful sunset.

Bird Rock, La Jolla (green arrow is approximately where the photo was taken):

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Scott