Date: 8/8/07
Dive Location: Vets
Buddy(ies): Dana, Angelique and Kyle
Time: 9:15 pm.
Bottom Time: 40 Min
Max Depth: 102 fsw
Vis: 0-10ft
Wave height: 3-5 feet Constant Rollers YIKES!!
Temp at depth: 55F
Surface Temp: 65F

The lot at sun down was packed with cars dang it!! I would totally recommend getting there past 8:30 so all of the people who want to watch the sun set can clear out. Luckily, we got 3 spaces that opened up in the sea side lot near the middle steps. After 1 hr of jabbering we geared up to enter the mighty sea.

Wow what a crazy night!! The wave from the parking lot looked not too bad until entry time….lol I made it out without issue and so did Dana and Angelique. Kyle on the other had had a bit more problems then us (UNDERSTATEMENT..lol). The sea decided to take one of his fins and to make sure that he was OK; Angelique bravely made her way back out of the surf zone to see if he was OK.

While waiting for her to get out, Dana and I were tossed about just outside the surf zone which by the way was half way out to the pier. I have not see Vets like this with such strong rolling wind waves for a long long time. A few sets that came in were well over 5 feet.

Dana and I kicked out to the end of the pier and dropped down into terrible vis. Once we hit the bottom it got better but there were a lot of particles and silt in the shallows. As we made our way down the canyon we saw a Fringehead and a nice sized Lizardfish. Dana has a great Can Light that is awesome for lighting up subjects. Note to self, go out with Dana more often…lol As we kept going we ran into the biggest Cusk Eel I have ever seen. At that point Scotty Boy dropped in on us and got the shot before me. With all three of us around the subject, it got silted up pretty bad so we decided to move on. When we hit 102 with only 5 minutes of non deco left, we started to make our way up he canyon. For some odd reason we hit an area between 80 and 70 where we did not seem to make that much progress. My computer kept going back to telling me I only had 5 minutes left as we briefly stopped to check out critters. As we began the kick up the canyon in about 60-50 or so feet, I got the signal from Dana that she was low on air so we decided to make our way in without stopping at the vegetation field or “salad Bowl” area in the 40’s-30’s. As we hit 20 feet, the surge was awful and the vis was down to 1-2 feet.

We ended up popping up near the bathroom stairs but the waves were rolling in something fierce. They kept coming in without a lull. We both made it out OK. I almost lost a fin and Dana gracefully crawled out on all fours.

Below are some highlights from the dive:

Sarcastic Fringehead

Lizard Fish

Acanthodoris Rhodoceras

Crab Face

Fish Face

Spotted Cusk Eel