La Jolla Cove, Evening Dive
Monday evening I head to the cove with Ryan, Bethy, and Kimo which looked to be an epic dive on the surface. The cove was a lake, no waves, just beautiful. It was so calm and clear I felt like I made a wrong turn and ended up in La Paz…. minus the whole 80 degree water part…. lol. We head down the steps and start our very easy surface swim to the buoy. We ended up dropping sooner than that to avoid getting tangled in the kelp. Viz started out decent, maybe 15 feet, but hazy. As it got later in the dive, the viz left with the sunlight. It was a hazy 10 feet, with a moderate surge. But hey, I only need 10 feet to take a picture! I secretly had my fingers crossed I’d have a seven gill shark encounter since its been TWO years since I’ve seen one. We start weaving through the kelp stalks underwater which I LOVE to do, you never know what you’re going to find. It’s like a secret underwater forest, so amazing. And the cove never disappoints in regards to life. We had a steady group of sheepshead, calico bass, senorita fish, and perch swarming us most of the dive. They were definitely camera shy and would dart away, then come back to hang out. Unfortunately there was too much particulate in the water to capture the swarm on video. I came across a really cool scorpion fish on this dive with amazing coloring. Ryan found a good sized octopus still hiding out in his home, their tentacles are so fascinating to me, I see a future art project in the works with that!
Not that I needed it on 61 degree shallow dive, but I was testing out the best way to activate my chemical heating pad from under my wetsuit. I’ve been told you have to activate it before you zip up your wetsuit. They feel so nice but they only last for 30-45 min so by the time you zip up, gear up and swim out, you’re towards the end of that heat window. And it’s the END of the dive where I get cold, not the beginning. Well I bought a larger one where the metal activation disk is on the edge not the center. I rotated it around my waist so that the pad was still on my kidneys for circulation, but so I could reach that activation button. Pushing it did nothing…I had a certain dive buddy volunteer who shall remain nameless who was more than willing to offer to to punch that activation disk for me underwater till it turned on to “help me out”. Um yea no. hahaha. Although that would be quite a site underwater to anyone watching… With this set up though, I was able to get enough give in my wetsuit to get two fingers around that disk and pinch it to activate it. WOO HOO!! It worked. Thermocline at the canyon… here I come!!!! haha
And if you couldn’t tell by the title of this post, no seven gill shark sightings, or soupfin shark sightings. So I’m STILL shark repellent…. *sigh*
Max Depth: 34 feet
Temp: 61 degrees (sooooooo nice!!)
Viz – 10 -15 feet and hazy
Current: none
Surge: moderate
Bottom Time: 60 min
Eye Candy:
scorpion fish, octopus, keyhole limpet, sheepshead, calico bass, senorita fish, perch, spiny lobsters, kelp crabs, a tree fish, and lots of Kellet’s Whelk.
This is Very interesting and the pictures are exquisite. Always enjoy seeing the pictures posted of your dives. Good work.