Old Marineland ***Stellar Conditions***/ Shaw's Cove Laguna

Sunday, August 20

Dive #1  Old Marineland, Palos Verde

Surf:  0

Swell:  Minimal on entry; Min to Mod on exit

Surge:  0

Viz:  Hold onto your hats 'STELLAR'  30-40'  decreasing to about 20' at depth

Max Depth:  56'

Bottom time:  61"

Dive Buddies:  John, Johnny, & Lars

Entered over the boulders at Long Point.  Took a 230' heading then a 180' that took us out to some amazing walls and rock piles.

Viz was the best I have ever seen it, anywhere on a beach dive.  Who says California doesn't get tropical conditions??? 

So much marine life to see, but I was concentrating on Nudibranchs.  Spotted 4 or 5 different species that posed nicely for some great photo ops, especially the Lemon Dorids, they were litterally all over the place...some as large as my hand!

Saw quite a variety of Rock Fish, Octopi, Blacksmith, Girabaldi's, lots and lots of itty bitty JV Girabaldi's, Deep Sea Blenny's, and the usual stuff.  Met up with some friends in the parking lot who claimed they had seen two GBSB in the shallows at Long Point.

Exited without incident back over the boulders.  Swells were picking up, but we just waited and timed our exits.

Dive#2  Shaw's Cove, Laguna Beach

Surf:  0-1

Surge:  0 on outer reef; minimal to moderate past Arch way

Viz:  15' with particulate

Temp:  68

Max Depth:  35'

Bottom Time:  50"

Buddies:  Leonard, Richard, Roger, and ???

Met up with Leonard and the gang at LSS to make my second dive of the day.  After driving around for almost an hour, I finally secured a parking spot.  Got geared up and met the gang on the beach.  After intoductions and buddy team assignments, we all entered the water.

We had a couple of newbies with us not diving So Cal, or California for that matter, but we got in without incident.  Dropped down right over the arch.  Explored a ways in...I went into the cave (tunnel) but it was dark, so turned around to meet up with the rest of the gang.  Spotted a nice sized Hopkins Rose in the Arch.  Coming out of the Arch, we headed south on the reef.  Sea Hares were out in droves.  Bunches and bunches.  Spotted a few Octopi, a large one in the verticle crevice of 'Turn Around Rock' as the group called it. At this point, we turned around to head back to shore.  Sigh....  We had a nice leisurely swim back where I stood up in 4' of water and 1800 psi left on my tank.  Unfortunately, no takers to go back out...Not being able to dive solo in Laguna really stinks!  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.........................Otherwise, I would have been back out in a heartbeat!

Jan

8:03 PM - 8/20/2006 - post comment

Untitled Comment

Nice report. It's always cool when you get some decent vis at the beach

limeyx - 11:04 AM - 8/21/2006

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