Trying to beat the heat we headed up to Mesa Lane in Santa Barbara early today, ignoring tide charts and buoy reports (heat makes one quite mad).

Sets were running 7 to 8 seconds and 2 to 3 feet, rather than the usual ankle slappers found there, but at least there were no surfers...yet. We headed in and over to the westerly start of the reef (conveniently marked by some crab trap buoys). Descending we found the vis to be maybe 2 feet with a lot of washing machine action. Not many fish in sight (fish are NOT stupid!), so we called the dive and headed back to shore, chalking up the day to some good exercise and surf practice. Plus the weather was really nice!

After de-gearing, we headed back down those 250 stairs to the beach to chill out. We watched two divers enter about 250 yards west of the best entry point and right in the midst of what was now a wolf pack of surfers. True to form, they also did a fins off entry, deciding to don them exactly where the surf was breaking (after 4 or so attempts with the resultant flips and tumbles they finally got them on). They did give us back the "OK" sign a few times as we watched (mental note: young male divers always give an OK sign back instinctively). As they did their surface swim to the reef, one got about 100 yards ahead of the other (who had managed to start towing most of the kelp forest with his BC); realizing he was sans buddy, he went back to help untangle him. They finally made it to the reef and we decided we'd spent enough time watching, so headed for lunch.

Tropical depressions Bud and Carlotta off of Mexico are supposed to continue to whip up the southerly swells until mid week. Hopefully next weekend will bring better conditions.

• Re: Mesa Lane today Tommy 16:35:43 07/18/06 (0)