Whim-sea or Luna-sea....you decide

2/25/2010 - San Miguel Island

Went out for a great 2-day trip on the Peace to San Miguel with many friends. It was my 2nd attempt at San Miguel, and my first time making it there.

Here is the full photo album: http://photobucket.com/San_Miguel_Island

Day #1 - San Miguel (5 dives on the south side)

Wyckoff ledge, Wyckoff ledge, Point Bennet wall, Rain barrel, Cuyler harbor (night dive)

Day #2 - Santa Cruz (west side, 4 dives)

Gull island, Gull island, West end pinnacles, West end pinnacles

Conditions were excellent, vis was great, water was cold (52-59), and all dive sites were very nice. Often there was some surge, especially at Point Bennet Wall (almost at the west end of San Miguel).

Highlights at San Miguel include a couple wolf eels, a mosshead warbonet, many large vermillion and blue Rockfish, a school of a hundred adult blue rockfish, big fish in general, a 6ft shark sighting, occasionally thick krill in the water - which was quite a sight to see, many large Abalone trying to make a comeback, and many nudibranchs such as Dirona albolineata, Dendronotus albus and Hilton's aeolid.

Highlights at Santa Cruz include beautiful kelp, large clusters of beautiful purple hydrocoral at Gull Island, many large fish and lobster at Gull Island (it's a preserve), a couple close harbor seal encounters, many Nudibranchs, and a couple Soupfin sharks spotted.

The Peace boat was exceptional, with great captaining, on-deck service, food - including an awesome sit-down dinner, and fills.

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11/13/2009 - Hunting Lions in La Jolla

The melibe nudibranch is one of my favorites and while we sometimes will see one or two around, this November has turned out to be a miraculous month for them. In all my dives at La Jolla I have never seen a biomass of a single species like this.

http://photobucket.com/LionNudibranch

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10/3/2009 - Dive 1000

Took me nearly 8 years but I finally made it. 1000 dives. What does that mean? If I take that and $2.00 I can get a cup of coffee. BUT it was a good excuse to go diving and since John L had already chartered a trip to the kelp it seemed like the perfect time to take a Friday off to dive with good friends. Thanks John L for chartering the boat and Kim, Spencer, Mike, Marla and English Mike for coming out. Thanks to the crew of the Marissa for making sure the boat could GO as planned and for the nice German Chocolate cake. It was the perfect complement to Kim's cheese cakes and Marla's Firestone Ale and Stella.

The Highlights of the trip was the playful sea lion that joined us as we anchored at dive two and stayed with us nearly all the way while we motored to dive sight 3. He was extremely curious and playful and chased me around on my scooter at 20ft. He had a small orange tag so he was most likely a Sea World rescue and that would explain the lack of fear and overtly playful nature......or he was just hungry.

On dive three Kim saw a large seven gill shark. Kim loves sharks and couldn't wait to get back to the boat to tell everyone. I am sure that is why she was hurrying back to the boat anyway.

Here is her video of the encounter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VAWOFqLjLk

and the sea lion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjKpxtn-YeM

This is me doing my "almost somersault" in for dive 1000

and coming out after the dive.

My Photo album from the dives http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/Pt%20Loma%202009/D1K/
My photo highlights

Berhens Nudibranch

Yellowfin fringehead

Hilton's Nudibranch

Limbaugh's dorid

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9/27/2009 - Eureka, Pt Loma and the local wrecks....not a bad week of diving

Saturday Spencer and I traveled to Long Beach for two dives on the Eureka oil rig and then a third on the Olympic II. This was my first dives on the oil rigs and I wil defiinetly be back. Amazing clouds of sardine and mackeral. Water was a nice cobalt blue and clear and warm.

Photo album : http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/Charter%20Trips%202009/Eureka%2091909/

Thursday I took the day off work to celebrate some friends birthdays with some diving in the kelp of Pt Loma. Again the water was warm and the conditions made for some fun times both above and below the water.

Photo Album: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/Pt%20Loma%202009/092409/

Saturday again found me on the boat diving the local wrecks. Water temp was nice and warm ( for here ) and pretty dang good clarity (for here) Took a few pictures but mostly just cruised the wrecks and enjoyed the scenery.

Photo Album: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/Wreck%20Alley/Yukon%20Ruby%20092609/

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8/31/2009 - SDOF DIVEATHON donation time is nearly over!!!!

Down to the wire and I am neck and neck for first place. It’s exciting and the competition is raising more money for the Oceans Foundation so it’s all good. If you have wanted to donate/donate more, NOW is the time!!!!!

You can donate directly at It’s not too late to donate to this years diveathon. You have until midnight tonight.

Here is the link http://tinyurl.com/diveathon2009

YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT TO DONATE VIA PAYPAL.

Let’s go everyone. Support the Diveathon….and yours truly in the process.

THANKS

Terry

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8/10/2009 - Diveathon Dive portion wrap up

Well Sunday marked the last day for logging minutes underwater for the Oceans Foundation Diveathon. LOTS of divers out for the final day trying to squeeze in as many minutes as possible. Spencer and I had a great 77 minute dive to top off the diving portion of the event. Scootered around the point and saw a juvenile black sea bass maybe 18” long. Black with white spots. My first ‘tweener’ sighting as I have seen the little orange ones and the big black ones but not in between before. The day before I saw a huge electric ray out on the north wall and the dive before that it was angel sharks. Good dives all around.

All told I logged 22 dives totaling 1769 minutes or 29.5 hours underwater. The fund raising will continue through the 31^st at midnight. Thanks to many generous friends and family I have raised $780 so far and I know with your kind and generous donations I can raise another $220 that will get me to the $1000 mark. All proceeds to the Foundation and they are a registered non-profit charity and your donation is completely tax deductable.

I want to thank everyone that supported me in my diving this year and a special thanks to those who were able to donate to the Oceans Foundation. They do great work with children and the children of today will determine the oceans future tomorrow so bring awareness to them is critical now more than ever.

It’s not too late to donate. You can call the SDOF directly if you want to use a credit card. There phone number is (619) 523-1903. You can also mail a check or money order to

San Diego Oceans Foundation
PO Box 90672
San Diego, Ca 92169-2672

And of course you can donate via Paypal ( you don’t need a paypal account to use the service) My donation page is at http://tinyurl.com/diveathon2009

Check out my photo blog at http://mydivinglife.com/divinman/

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7/26/2009 - Yet another Diveathon weekend

I made it out again this weekend for a couple of dives. Work has really been crazy so I am no where near where I was last year at this time as far as time underwater. I am having fun and am far less exhausted….so there is always a silver lining if you look hard enough.

Saturday I took my scooter out ( drags you along underwater so you don’t have to kick) for a nice long tour of the local beach dive site. Normally when I dive here I see short sections of the site but with the scooter and no camera I covered about ¾ of a mile of the coast. Depth ran from 50-80ft mostly and I just hummed along at an easy pace taking it all in. At full speed and 3ft from the bottom it FEELS like you are really moving fast…..until a huge school of mackerel explodes past you and you reminded just how awkward and cumbersome humans are in the water.

Sunday morning found me back at the beach, camera in hand this time. Calvin, the crazy Brit I dive and run with sometimes, and I had a nice leisurely dive down to the Gardens at 110ft and then back up to the 50ft contour and around the Point. Nice easy dive. I would love to show you the photos. I brought the camera….just failed to put memory in it when I closed it up in the morning. DOH!!!!!

I am currently running in second place in the “social” category. Last year I did quite well in the “competitive’ category but work was far less taxing last year. Thanks to some very generous donations I have raised $600. Only $150 more and I can have the Oceans Foundation go to the local school for their Oceans in Motion talk. It’s vital to expose our children to the wonders of the ocean. We tend to protect that which we love so exposing children to the wonders that wait beneath the waves is critical for long term success in ocean conservation.

As a personal donation goal ( beyond winning the diveathon and its fantastic prizes) is the “the jacket”. Local divers are always proud of their SDOF jacket and I wouldn’t mind added this years to my closet. I only need $1400 and while it seems like a lot, I remain optimistic. I do understand these tough financial times means that many who would love to donate simply can’t this year.

For those fortunate enough, please consider even a small donation to a great cause.

http://tinyurl.com/diveathon2009

Warmest regards

Terry

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7/22/2009 - Diveathon home stretch

Well the Diveathon is in the home stretch. Juat a couple more weeks to go. I am trailing sadly behind because of work and life getting in the way of my diving but in this economy I can't complain about having a job.

There is still time to donate if you can and want to.

You can donate at my sponser page : http://tinyurl.com/diveathon2009 via paypal
or by calling the Oceans Foundation at 619.523.1903 and using a credit card. You can even make out a check to SDOF and mail it to me. Simple huh?? :) I have $300 from my generous donators and only $1200 to go to reach my goal. ANY amount helps. Donate early and often. Help protect you children/grandchildrens ocean.

I have had little luck in the photo department lately but am still out there snapping away. Here are some highlights from the recent dives.

Thanks and enjoy your summer everyone.

Terry

Full album: http://photobucket.com/diveathon2009

Highlights from the last few dives.

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7/10/2009 - Catching up on the diveathon dives

I have managed to log 7 dives this month so far. Nothing compared to the whirlwind of diving for last years event. Work and life just has me too busy for all that diving this year but I am still raising money and really that is the important part.

Here are some of the albums from my dives. I have been having strobe firing issues so on a few dives I have no photos at all. I don't mind so much except the camera weighs a ton and dragging it through the water and NOT taking pictures is a bit irritating.

Here are the albums:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/La%20Jolla%202009/070809/

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/La%20Jolla%202009/070209/

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/La%20Jolla%202009/070109/

And some highlights of the last 4-5 dives.

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7/1/2009 - Oh Solo Me Oh.....

SInce no one wanted to go diving with me last night ( busy, work, family) I decided to take the bale out bottle and hit the shores. Scored a good spot on V street and quicky geared up to escape the heat. Surf was mostly wind driven and lacked any real punch. Dropped in to 28ft and headed west. Caught the canyon at about mid bowl south of the point, turned west and followed the contour around. Nice easy dive, Vis was best below 70ft but so was the thermocline. As is my usual plan, I turned at 1500psi to give me plenty of gas for the slow trip back to the beach. Not much to see but a nice relaxing dive all the same.

Terry

Photo album: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/La%20Jolla%202009/063009/

Diveathon page http://tinyurl.com/n5d8ys

Highlights