Posted by Chris on June 09, 2004 at 21:24:06:
Last Saturday morning June 6, 2004 my friend Curt Billings and I went for an abalone dive. The surf had been big, but it calmed enough we decided to go for it. The spot we selected to go out did not seem to have any abalone in shallow areas even though there was a minus tide. Thus we continued out to where the depth was about 20 feet. There were many abalone here, but they were at the depth limit of my free diving ability. The visibility was about 2 feet with a bright sun overhead. Even so, I managed to get three nice abs all between 8¼” and 8¾”. Curt also got three nice ones including one that was well above 9” as illustrated by his 9” trophy gauge in the picture. While we were out the surf grew and I was somewhat resigned to getting worked on the shallow rocks when returning to shore. We paddled to just outside the breakers and waited. Just as I though the lull was due to start I headed for shore and we both managed to make it in before the next big set came through. I was very happy for the day, we both got nice abalone and we didn’t get worked in the surf zone.
Click here for all of the pictures for the day
pictures & text © Chris Grossman