Wow! We had two great dives off the Giant Stride this past Friday . On the Olympic wreck the first 50' feet of the water column was blue, blue, blue, as in Cozumel blue, vizibility was over 50', down on the wreck at 85' it was 30-40'. We toured the whole wreck from stem to stern with a light current making us work a little harder to reach the stern. At the stern area a dense school of fish hugged the wreck. I tried my best to capture it all but my GoPro was acting up and my footage was poor. Brook Peterson got several great shots though, see a photo here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUnxEEojBA-/?taken-by=waterdogphotography_brook

Nitrox is highly suited for this dive, with the sand at 95' there is no chance of exceeding your depth limit for 32%, without it most divers will not have enough bottom time to fully explore the wreck. Its really a dramatic dive; deep without being too deep, there is quite a bit of structure to explore, it holds marine life and it's usually dark down there, which adds to the sense of adventure.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUralPsAazT/?taken-by=dark_thirty_divers

Next we headed to Hawthorne Reef off PV. Hearing reports of abundant nudibranches on nearby reefs we were hoping Hawthorne would produce the same. It was a Hermissenda opalescens convention, they were everywhere, you could see 10-15 of them in a single glance. Brook reported seeing seven different Nudi species in a two square foot area. Nudis must like it cold, as this dive is always an icebox, my computer read 49F.

Brook's image here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUlMyqBDw7u/?taken-by=waterdogphotography_brook

J. Reeb
darkthirtydiver@gmail.com
818-635-4408 (text)