Divarrhea
noun dīv-ə-ˈrē-ə\
Crappy conditions that force divers to abort dives, remain close to their buddy or shoot out of focus images.

We experienced a weekend of dives that fit this category. After peering through thick haze on the Star of Scotland yesterday we kept to the south end of Santa Monica Bay today. It didn't matter.

We made our first dive on the Hermosa Artificial Reef to count Giant Sea Bass. In spite of decent visibility our total was zero. I did come away with photos of sand bass and sea hares, though.

We moved to Golf Ball Reef where we have seen a few GSBs but usually have decent conditions. Large rolling swells swept through the area creating a silt cloud on the bottom. Visibility on the edge of the reef was a sandy two feet. I headed "uphill" to the west to find better vis. There is only a few feet of relief on the entire reef, so uphill only gets you so far. Merry spent most of the dive in the kelp.

The only highlight was finding two Eurylepta californica flatworms. I also got another sand bass photo. :(

Hermosa Reef

Golf Ball Reef