Sunday April 1st. 2007

Well, another ab opener weekend up on the North Coast.

I left the house about 5:45, hit Starbucks, then hit the road to the coast. I knew it was ab season because around the town of Guerneville the pick ups were beginning to accumulate on the road and it seemed all of them were on a mission by the way they pushed the speed limit and had that ‘Get the hell out of my way, I’m going ab diving!’ attitude. By the time we got past Jenner there was a definite line of pickups like a freight train heading up the coast. There was no poking allowed. If you didn’t stay with the determined mindset and flow of traffic you were going to piss someone off. You could tell almost all the people heading up were locals, contractors, workers, tradesmen. This wasn’t city boy day and certainly wasn’t rock picker day. The wind was up and so was the tide. Today was not exactly the most stellar of dive days, but the hardcore went, the ones that have been thinking about this day since November 30th of last year. ‘Oh how long that dreaded four months takes to go by before the savourance of that delicious snail!
Yuk!! They can have it. I don’t even have an ab card yet, I’m tank diving for Lings!

I arrived at Fisk Mill Cove about 7:30 am and none of our group had arrived yet.
I decided to gear up and jump in for a quick scuba hunt before everyone got there and the circus started. I was in the water by 8:00 and finning hard against the incoming swells and wind chop to get out. Today South Fisk Mill was a double diamond as far as treachery. Even in the morning it was blowing which made for lots of annoying wind chop. There were already lots of ab divers there; all of them veterans. The beginners would walk out to the overlook and decide against it.
During my dive I shot 2 nice vermillions and a big fat blue. After they were on the game hook I constantly kept looking back to se if there was any lingcod following me but no luck. It seems the lings went deep. Coming back in was fun. I got caught in a good current and had to work my little behind off to get around the rock and into the lagoon. Fisk Mill never seems to let me down, it always seems to test out the limits of your abilities. I know many of you think I’m an idiot for solo diving this spot, you’re probably right, but every time I’ve taken someone here and it’s time to try and get back in it becomes a free for all and the only thing anybody thinks about is saving their own hides. So much for the buddy system.

When I hiked back up to the parking lot I ran into a few good friends that I didn’t know would be there. The lot was full with all kinds of people. My group hadn’t showed up yet except for two of the North Coast Divers. They decided to go one cove up and do an ab dive. I set up all the barbecue stuff and everyone eventually showed up. Many of our group camped out over the weekend and were already dived out and sleeping off hangovers so they were late. But eventually every one showed up.
I cooked a whole mess of baby back ribs and tri tips. Andy barbecued up a whole abalone and it was surprisingly tender and flavorful. If I do decide to get an ab card this year I’ll have to try that technique.

The North Coast Divers.

• Re: North Coast ab opener dive report Reef Diver 07:24:30 04/04/07 (0)
• Re: North Coast ab opener dive report seahunt 18:55:10 04/03/07 (1)
  • I forgot to put in the report Eric S 19:22:57 04/03/07 (0)