4/10/2009 - We Found Good Conditions! Whoo Hoo!

It seems as if we find bad visibility when others find great conditions nearby. Today Divebum Don reported bad conditions all around Palos Verdes. With the surf predictions for the upcoming week looking dismal I didn't think we would be diving for awhile.
Yesterday, the waves at Vet's looked too big for diving and the water was dirty. I stopped by today and found six to eight inch surf! There were many divers in the parking lot and thanks to Carlos' report of nice visibility below 25 feet I rushed home and packed gear.
Merry and I swam out to the end of the pier and dropped into pea soup, but when we hit a thermocline at 27 feet I could see beyond my hands. We touched down in 69 feet and had 15-20 feet of vis. There were patches of squid eggs here and there, and I even found a single squid napping on the sand. I tried to get close enough for a photo and it darted away. Merry got some video of it.
Along the way back to shore we found hundreds of crabs and a few octopus crawling about. One octopus was the size of a dime. Water temperature was 51F with little surge below 25 feet. The shallow water is filled with kelp and debris.