New Dive Reports Section Added
by brett on Feb.02, 2009, under Classified
I added a new post category under member->dive reports. Members can post recent dive reports or trip for local and world wide travel. Feel free to share conditions, experiences, tips, what you saw, etc. Please limit any negative comments of particular businesses, but feel free to give a shout out on the ones you like.
If you are not yet set up wiht permisions as a ”contributer” which allwos you create posts, let me know as I will upgrade your account. The default is “subscriber”. brett_tischler@hotmail.
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February 2nd, 2009 on 10:55 am
Superbad Superbowl Sunday dives: Hogan and Point Loma kelp
We were able to corral quite a few divers who were indifferent to today’s football festivities, so we took the opportunity to fill a local charter boat (* name available upon request, wink wink) and take a little trip down to the Mexican border….
Dive 1 – Hogan
Max depth – 129 ft
Mix – 28%, but dove an air profile (in other words, I had a v short bottom time)
Dive time – for goody-goody me, about 30 min – but there were plenty of deco-loving divers doing a longer dive!
Temp – didn’t look, would hazard a guess of about 55-56, no thermocline
Vis – beautiful, blue 40 ft
Beautiful flat ride down, today – and conditions UW were also lovely. A slight current, but just enough to give you something to kick gently against during ascent, so easy to keep a nice horizontal trim
. Saw the usual suspects – huge lingcod, wolf eels (none came out for a photo op, though), some reported sea lion fly-bys. As always, this wreck gives you either a short bottom time or a long deco stop – I tend to avoid the latter altogether, but I am never disappointed with my short dives here. Some of those lings appear longer than I am tall, amazing.
Intermission – middle of the ocean
We were visited by a 25-30 ft or so grey whale en route to Point Loma. When I say “visited”, I mean, he practically got up on the boat and hung out for some hot chocolate and a sandwich. He swam around and around us within about 10 feet, hitting the side of the boat with his tail, showing off, lifting his baleen and body and tail out of the water to emphasize his gorgeousness. He also had a small entourage conisting of some white-sided dolphins – one was nicknamed “sparky” because he was all over the place, “Look at me, hey, I’m here too!!!” In-credible. A large whalewatching boat spotted him and came over, and it was as if he didn’t want them to see him – he’d go to the opposite side of our small boat – then the big boat would circle to the other side, and he’d switch again in a sort of “catch up” game. He eventually swam off but this extended our surface interval by about 45 minutes.
Dive 2 – unnamed structure at Point Loma – proposed names include “Aerishole”, “Trading Post” and “Superwhale”
Max depth – 75 feet
Mix – 32% (and that is what I dove!)
Dive time – 66 min
Temp – a bit colder, maybe 54
This was a site Captain Carl had been looking at for a while – when we requested “something with structure and some kelp”, he dropped us here, and we weren’t disappointed. Long, shallow ridges and crevices leading to a sloping dropoff that went down to about 100 ft. I stayed shallower to prolong my dive time, but I heard taht there were some lovely overhands and a ton of macro items to be found – tons of sponges and a few gorgonians made it very colorful. Yellowfin fringeheads, numerous dorids and cadlina, Spanish shawls, Stearn’s aeolids, Hermissindas, and a few cowries. Lovely. But the action realy heated up during my ascent. I was lengethening my dive by inspecting the kelp leaves on my way up – saw a few Corambe nudi’s on the kelp, a well as lots of Doto’s….but then, at about 40 ft, I saw something I have only seen once – a pair of nudis that I will wait to name until I have an ID on them…but let’s just say that the last time I saw one, my dive buddy thought they might be a new species. (Naturally, by saying this, it is likely to be something old-hat and boring, but there you are)…I also found a few Cuthona Lagunae at about 20 ft. Oh, and the name? Let’s say that there was a little exchange with Neptune. A fishing pole (not ours) was brought up. A computer (ours) was not. Bonus question – what was the brand of computer lost to the kelp gods today?
All in all, an amazing day. Thanks to all my awesome dive buddies for your indifference to the Superbowl – personally, I think we made the right choice!!!
Allison
February 2nd, 2009 on 10:56 am
Edit to above – SDUPS members in attendance – Brett, Allison. Jen T was there in spirit, if not body, as she was ill. Feel better soon, Jen!