Grouper "hunting" a lionfish.

Grouper/ Invasive Lionfish Live Open Water Kill: Believed to be the Firs...: http://youtu.be/HKLkQaMY8KQ

Diving McAbee Beach - Night Dive - Feb 25, 2015

McAbee Beach Night Dive

Site Description

McAbee beach is a dive site on Monterey's Cannery Row. The dive site is accessed from the small beach between the El Torito restaurant and the Spindrift hotel.



Click for Fullsize map or Google Map

Street parking is available, metered. There is also a lot across the street, which charges by the day. The El Torito restaurant also has a parking lot, however, El Torito do not appear to be welcoming of divers in there lot at the moment (parking tickets have been issued recently!).

Enter the water around the center of the beach, the is where the water is the calmest. Be aware of the drop-off, the beach has a shelf. A small problem on entry, and on exit - for short divers it can make the exit on this beach tricky. Swim away from the beach quickly, and bear towards the El Torito side of the beach.

Plan to dive closer to the El Torito side of this beach (South East), this is the calmer water. If you dive towards the North, the water is shallow, and the surge and waves can become dangerous.

On this dive, we dropped down just outside the rock-wall surrounding the El Torito restaurant. We dove the plan shown below.

View Fullsize Map

What to see on the dive

At first we swam parallel to the shore and the water remained pretty shallow (20ft). You will see plenty of old cannery pipes and plenty of rocks. We saw rock fish, decorator crabs. Also, in under the rocks I saw a good size octopus. I was hoping the pipes would have some eels, but wasn't lucky enough to see any.

As we swam out from the beach (30degree heading) we got more kelp. The depth dropped to around 30ft for a while. There were still plenty of rocks, although the bottom did opened up a little and there were several sandy patches.

Swimming back in, it got more rocky, gradually shallower, and a little surgy as we got in above 20ft.

Video

Here's a Critter Montage video. If you look carefully, around 45seconds in, you can see the octopus hiding in the rocks.



Watch on YouTube

Dive Log

Depth	34ft
Duration	56min
Temperature	56F
Visibility	15ft

Click for full-size

Night Dive at McAbee Beach, Feb 25 2015

Metridium Fields and Breakwater Dive Oct 25 2014

Dive to the metridium fields this weekend with a couple of dive buddies from the Dive Club of Silicon Valley.

We dove to at the metridium fields, as one of my buddies had not had the opportunity (or good fortune) to find the metridiums when he'd tried it in the past.

Recently I've taken the approach of descending nearer to shore and following "the pipe" out to the metridiums (see earlier maps). However today we swam out further, to save air, and dropped right down on the metridiums.



The advantage of avoiding the swim out underwater is that you then have enough air to make the long swim parallel to shore, to exit at the breakwater. This makes for a different dive from usual. Infact, this is the first time I've done this and it's a nice way to end a metridium dive.

I was expecting the bottom to be entirely sandy and barren, with the occasional halibut for company. But as the video shows, there are several rocky oasis on the journey, with plenty of marine life to enjoy.

"Easybreath" - Full face snorkeling mask/snorkel

Masque facial "Easybreath" - Full face snorkeling…:


Looks kinda nice.  I'm not sure I'd pay 95 euro for something like this though. But if someone wants to send me one, I'll give it a try. Could be a good seller for our next Dive Club of Silicon Valley annyal Snorkel Safari

Breathing Underwater A Possibility | Collective-Evolution

Wow, let's hope they can make chewing gum that lets you breath underwater.


http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/10/10/absorbing-crystal-can-steal-oxygen-from-air/

California Lobster Season Off To A Rough Start With 5 Accidents | California Diver Magazine

Go Lobsters!

http://californiadiver.com/california-lobster-season-off-to-a-rough-start-with-5-accidents

A little cold water doesn't scare me, I dive Monterey!

UK Dive Boy and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

seeing something on the way back, which you saw on the way out ...

Little things like that give you a warm fuzzy feeling, when you're a scuba diver.

#navigationspecialty

Sex and Sensitivity to Oxygen Toxicity | The Dive Lab

http://thedivelab.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/sex-and-sensitivity-to-oxygen-toxicity/

No "wimmin diver" jokes here ...

Dive to Metridium Fields, Monterey, CA

Managed a repeat of the Metridiums dive this weekend.

Visibility was about the same as last month, maybe a little better.

Took my GoPro this time, so captured some video of a Metridium. Unfortunately, I didn't have my green water filter on, so the colors are somewhat messed up.




Timeline for the video:

Time Offset	Description
0:00	Urchin on the pipe
0:30	Traveling along the pipe (lots of sea stars
1:10	Into the murkiness
1:40	Arrival at the metridiums and a friendly nudi
2:00	Metridium panorama
3:00	Critter time: Sea hare?
3:20	Critter time: Lingcod
4:05	Critter time: Tiny Nudi (back on pipe)
4:20	Traveling back along the pipe in the murkiness
5:20	End

Turtle in Belize

My son had been wanting to see a turtle the whole time we were diving in Belize. If fact, even before we got there. Luckily, on the last dive, of the last day, we got to see one!



And to think, we were supposed to be diving out at Turneffe Atol that day. Good job the trip got cancelled eh!

Coral Reefs 101

http://www.padi.com/blog/2013/05/24/coral-reefs-101/

Well, I just learnt something, plus got a pining to go back to Belize :-)

Diving Metridium Fields Monterey, April 19, 2014

Dive Site

Metridiums Fields, San Carlos Beach, Monterey, California.




Click for fullsize image or Google Map


The Metridium Fields site is a beautiful dive site located at San Carlos beach in Monterey. San Carlos beach, also known as The Break Water by many local divers, is a very popular site. If you dive closer to the breakwater wall, you will be diving amongst the hordes of open water dive classes. However, further away from the wall, and a long swim from the shore, is the spectacular Metridium Fields.

Reaching the Metridium Fields requires a rather long swim. If you do it underwater this will limit your time at the dive site. If you do it on the surface you will be getting close to boat traffic. On this dive we had Diver Propultion Vehicles (DPVs), so we were able to do the descend quite close to the beach yet still have plenty of bottom time once we reach the metridiums.

Actually I was taking the PADI DPV specialty.



You enter the water from the left side of San Carlos beach. There are stairs down to the beach near the restroom at the left side of the parking lot. Before you go down to the beach, familiarize yourself with the location of the pump house just behind the restrooms, as that will be an important visual landmark for the start of the dive.

Be careful where you enter the water. At this side of the beach there are a number of submerged rocks, and also exposed rebar (metal) from the foundations of the old cannery buildings. The beach here is quite well protected, so waves are usually not too large. However, as I say the rocks and foundations can be a hazard and you don't want to fall here should a rogue wave come along.

Dive Plan, showing entry/exit, ascent/descent, and directions

Click for fullsize image

After entering the water swim away from the beach and, if looking towards the beach, out to your right (northerly). The drop off here is slow, so you need to swim out a way before it's deep enough to descend. You need to head more northernly, as you need to line yourself up with the pump house on the shore. You can also see the road, Reeside Ave, going up the hill behind the pump house.

View from the ocean, GPS coordinates show where we surfaced

Click for fullsize image or Google Maps

Swim out away from the beach perpendicular to the pump house. As I said earlier, the further out you swim, the less swimming you need to do underwater to reach the Metridiums.

Take a bearing back to the beach before you drop down. Prefer a bearing towards the center of San Carlos beach rather than direct to the pump house, as you don't want to come ashore too far north here on your return - it's very rocky with no good beach north of the pump house.

Descend and head North. You should shortly hit the pipe. There are lots of small pipes around Monterey dive sites, don't be mistaken, at this dive site you are looking for a much larger pipe, about 2, or more, feet in diameter.

When you reach the pipe, follow the pipe out into deeper water (30degree heading). At the end of the pipe (the pipe ends abruptly) head North again. You will very soon hit the Metridium fields.

Once we reached the site we explored on a NE-SE direction. After completing the dive, we turned on a 180degree heading for a short while, to put us on a good path towards San Carlos beach, then turned to 240degrees. This put us on an intercept path with the pipe, which runs at 210 degrees towards shore.

Take time to look around the pipe, there is plenty of marine life living here. Nuibranches, crabs, rock-fish, sea-stars, and the occasional seal. Depending on the season, seanettles and moon jellies.

We ascended along the pipe. When we got to 15 feet we stopped for a safely stop on the bottom, alongside a nice Lingcod (which was resting on the pipe).

Dive Computer depth profile

Click for fullsize image

Dive Log

Depth	43ft
Duration	43min
Temperature	48F
Visibility	15ft

PADI DPV Specialty

As I said, I was participating in the PADI DPV Specialty Class. I can recommend the class, it's a great way to get some hands-on time with one of these fun toys without the outlay of cash. You will also learn about the various different kinds of DPV available, and our instructor took us through the various maintainance, assembly and disassembly procedures.

This dive site is an above average distance from shore, and reaching it is made much easier with a DPV.

Diving in Belize - Hol Chan

One of the sites we dived in Belize was the Hol Chan Marine Reserve.

We did a night dive here.

November 24, 2013 17:26:08

17.862582°N, 87.978395°W

Click for fullsize

View in Google Maps

Baja plans major 'underwater park' off its coast | UTSanDiego.com Mobile

http://m.utsandiego.com/news/2014/feb/08/rosarito-baja-underwater-park/

Hopefully this will mean some nice, warm water reef, within a days diving distance of home.

How is PADI dive society's online magazine so terrible?

I was looking forward to reading this online today.  It should be much more convenient than a paper magazine.

http://links.bonnier.mkt3362.com/ctt?kn=1&ms=MTkwMjcwNzMS1&r=Njk3ODY3MDQyODAS1&b=0&j=MjUyNDI4MTkxS0&mt=1&rt=0

I really don't understand how they can make it work so badly.

Stop pretending that my tablet is a Paper magazine, just make the site work like a web page.  Let me pinch and zoom, let me flick.  Test your shit!

Diving Point Lobos Nov 2, 2013

Club dive with the dive club of silicon valley.

Excellent day's diving. The conditions had been good for a couple of weeks, so the visibility today was awesome. We dove from MADs inflatable (see also: kamtime) so we were able to get a little further out from the boat ramp than normal.

We dropped down from the boat into about 70ft of water. We could see the bottom as soon as we descended from the surface. It was an unusual experience for Monterey diving, as usually you dive into a murk and the surface slowly emerges to visibility as you get within a few feet of it. Today I had an incredible sensation: On the descent I was at 40ft. I looked down, the bottom looked as though it was maybe 10 ft away, then I looked to my right, I could see my dive buddy a clear 20ft below me, and he looked only halfway between me and the bottom. Sure enough, we touched down into 72ft of water. Incredible.

Both these dives started in approximately the same place. The pin on the map is the location of the first dive. Second dive was slightly to the north-west of the first site.

Dive Site

View in Google Maps

First Dive

Dropped down onto a number of submerged pinnacles. Bottom was around 70ft, but we hovered above that and explored the walls for nudibranch, shrimp, cucumber, etc. We made our way towards the three large rocks visible on the satellite map. We were heading in an approx 300 magnetic direction.

Bottom varied from sandy to "mountainous", with abundant kelp.

Plenty of large schools of blue and black rockfish. It was wonderful to hang in the water column, facing up, and enjoy the views - hundreds of 9-15" fish schooling over head. Spooked a rock wrasse at one point and it flared up its pectoral fins, which were really pretty.

Best view (for us not the creature involved) was a poor old jelly, in about 20ft of water. It was getting picked at by several rockfish. Still pulsating along, but definitely looking worse for wear, it's tentacles were all but gone, and it's bell was looking a little pecked at.

At the half way point we took a reciprocal heading, once we saw the boat overhead we ascended. Kari was waving at us from the surface, she said she could see us 20ft down on our safetly stop.

Depth	56ft
Duration	41min
Temperature	52F
Visibility	40ft

Second Dive

Similar to the first, thought the descent point was slightly north-west of the first.

Took a 300 magnetic heading towards the three rocks again. As we got shallower conditions got a little more surgy.

We were not getting picked-up by the boat this time, so rather than taking the reciprocal heading we instead turned on an approx 150 heading to return to the cove and do a shore exit. We made the turn to 150 at approx 15 minutes. As you can see, I was in around 20ft of water at that point as the bottom was getting shallower towards the wash rocks.

Again, the marine life was mainly rockfish: Large schools of blue and black, a couple of vermillion. Saw a couple of lingcod on this dive and a sheephead. Surprisingly no seal action today, unlike two weeks back.

Returning to the boat ramp was fairly easy, once you start heading in on a 150 heading just keep the shallows to your right and skirt between rocky wall and sand channel (on your left).

As always, the visibility dropped drastically as we got close to the parking lot, that's your cue that it's time to surface.

Depth	72ft
Duration	50min
Temperature	51F
Visibility	40ft

Belize Scuba Diving Trip - Shopping List

Couple of things I'd like to buy before we head out to Belize in November:


Hero 3+
Got to get a good video camera to capture all our underwater and jungle antics!

Spare Air
I am paranoid these days about being in an Out Of Air situation ... probably because I'm diving a lot with my 13 year old son and I can't afford to have him die on me.

Light and Motion Sola 1200
I'm perfectly happy with my SL4, but these Light and Motion and so damned bright. Great for night dives ... though I know from past experience that in the clear blue waters of the Caribbean you really don't need 1200 lumen, even on a night dive.

Diving Monastery North, September 8, 2013

Dive Site

View in Google Maps

First Dive

Depth	121ft
Duration	35min
Temperature	47F
Visibility	20-30ft

Second Dive

Depth	94ft
Duration	50min
Temperature	47F
Visibility	30ft

More Info

Other dives at or near Monastery: ukdiveboy.com #Monastery