Date: 7/1/08
Dive Location: Vets
Buddy(ies): Angelique
Time: 8:52 pm.
Bottom Time: 57 Min
Max Depth: 73 fsw
Vis: 3-5 in Shallows 10-20 at Depth
Wave height: 2-3 Feet (Non Stop Rollers & 7 ft High Tide)
Temp at depth: 54 F
Surface Temp: 69F

What a beautiful evening in SoCal. I met up with Angelique for my first cold water dive of the month. After being in 78 degrees in PV I was not looking forward to being cold.

The tide was way high tonight (7.0 Feet) and the waves were breaking very shallow and constantly rolling in. Entering the water was just a matter of timing. After two funny air oddities between Angelique and I were remedied, we made it out without any issues.

We kicked out to the end of the pier and dropped into super poor visibility. I had 2 primaries with me and turned both of them on for the first few minutes. As we began to kick on down to the canyon, it began to open up nicely at 30-35 feet. The first critter I saw was a super fat and plump Spanish Shawl. I usually never stop to shoot this early on in the dive but I had to do it even with Angelique tugging on my right fin……lol

After my short photo stop, we began to make our way down the canyon. The plan was to hit around 90 and then work our way back up. At about 70 we began to run into a TON OF CRITTERS. There were at least 5 species of Nudis out and around us everywhere were tiny to large size octopi. This dive could be called the night of a thousand Octos. Because there was so much going on in the 70’s we decided to stay there and just check everything out. The water at depth was 54 and we began to feel it after a while. As we started to make our way back up the canyon, we ran across a lonely 5 foot strand of kelp sitting in the middle of nowhere. As we began to look for Hemphill Crabs, we noticed a tiny Kelpfish hanging out at the base. This little guy was not afraid of us so we stayed around and played with him for a while.

On the way back in, we took it nice and slow. At our deco stop, the surge was not that bad and the water was warm so we just stayed were we were and relaxed while looking at rays and other things in the area.

Our exit was not too pretty but we made it in without any problems. Overall, we had a GREAT dive!!

Here are some pictures from last night: