Posted by ChrisM on November 07, 2000 at 11:57:51:
Lot of crap on this board lately, thought I'd post a reminder ....
Sat., 11/4/2000. While suiting up overlooking Crescent Bay in Laguna, the air felt incredible, 8:30 a.m. but already creeping up into the 70s, absolutely clear sky with no pesky marine layer. And, looking off the coast, the top side viz was about 50 miles. This weather - in November! And why do we live in L.A.??
1-2 foot surf at long intervals so the plan was to hit Seal Rock for a few minutes of hopeful sea lion encounters, then follow the finger spurring from Seal Rock out to Deadman's Reef, a submerged reef about 1/4 mile ofshore or so. The beach has some erosion in the shallow areas and gets deep quickly, so when the rogue 3 footer comes in and walls up, it's probably best not to be swimming on your stomach with all your gear at the surface in the surf zone (or at least look up now and then - never drop your guard in the SZ), as one unlucky fellow did and ended up getting sucked over the falls. he was OK, but it probably didn't feel too good, especially since he never saw it coming.
Swam out to Seal Rock and waited in about 30' of water for a couple minutes, and there they were, three young female sea lions swooping around, almost dancing with one of our divers. They were mucking around in a little clearing, so I dropped down to the bottom. At one point, one came right at me and gave a little head dart as she blew her bubbles, copying me. The head dart is actually a sign of aggression, but they weren't looking for trouble.
After about 10 minutes, proceeded slowly over to Deadman's. Lots of Garibaldis and Senoritas. Surge was perfect, shoot you forward, hang onto a rock or slowly fin in the suck, shoot you forward again. Quite fun.
Reached Deadman's with about 1500 psi, and turned to go in at 1000 psi. By the time I rounded up some buddies (we were a group of eight and some wanted to stay), I was down to 750. This concerned me slightly, since last time at this spot I left at 1000 and needed nearly all of that to get in away from the boat traffic (and a long surfce swim to boot) Navigated three of us exactly back in to the spot where we descended. I love it when navigation works. Time the exit to stroll right back onto the beach.
Perfect, perfect morning of diving. Viz was about 30', comp recorded temps at 61. Even heard a rumor of a diver diving without a hood. Hehehehehehehehehehehehe