Date: 2 October 2011
Location: Anchor Bay, north side
Estimated Air Temp: ~62*
Estimated Water Temp: ~55*
Time: 10a-12p
Max Depth: 16′ dive, 25′ bottom
Visibility: 2′
Equipment: 7mm med suit; TI med gloves; med booties; lg hood; snorkel; mask; 17lbs weight; ScubaPro JetFins. Note: First time diving with everything owned by ME

Hit this nice little tree across the road on our way to the coast. Set us back ~2hrs drive time, but helped us find a better road to the coast in general. Pretty amazing seeings this.

So this was my second outing for abalone. We (Rod + I) headed up to Anchor Bay (95445) to try our luck. Sonoma County has been closed since ~Sept 20th by CA DFG due to the invert die-off. Noted by me in my previous dive report. So we headed up to Mendocino coast, about 4 miles past the county line. This was Rod’s first time free diving and I’m sorry it had to be in these conditions. Wind was blowing about 5kts when we pulled up and payed the $9 day use fee for Anchor Bay campground. The usual cloudy and overcast skies made it seem a little colder too. Surf didn’t look too bad, but there were a few nice sets here and there. After gearing up, we walked north along the beach til we were almost next to the cliffs. Entry was fairly easy, just timed it right between the knee-waist (3′) waves. Swam out on my new dive floats, both are re-purposed boogie boards.

Basically stayed along the northern end of the cove in water up to 20′ deep. Visibility was horrible to the point where I couldn’t see my fins if I was looking down. Brownish water with a fair amount of pulverized kelp. It’s a reminder to check on the ocean conditions for the week leading up to your trip. Just because conditions let you get in the water doesn’t mean it’ll be good diving. At any rate, vis improved on the bottom to about 3′, maybe 4′. Using my dive light actually helped. There was a pretty good surge going, but nothing horrible. Holding on to kelp/rocks was necessary though to keep looking at one spot. I managed to see a good size ~14″ rockfish swim by me, looked like a blue or black but it happened too fast. That was about all of the life I saw that dive. Found one small ~4″ ab shell that I brought up for Rod to see. Only time I saw a legal looking ab was when I was running out of air on a dive ~12′, he was clinging upside down to the roof of a rock about a foot in. Didn’t seem like I would be able to get him so that was it. Other than that, was glad I could get out and go. Will probably try a different spot next time with less parking so hopefully there will be more abs.

Date: 28 August 2011
Location: Fort Ross, CA
Estimated Air Temp: ~60*F
Estimated Water Temp: ~55*F
Time: ~9a-130p
Max Depth: 25′ dive, 40′ bottom
Visibility: 5′
Equipment: 7mm med suit; gloves; booties; hood; snorkel; mask; 18lbs weight; split fins all but mask and snorkel were rented

First time going out abalone diving and having an actual purpose for free diving. Did it through a Zozi coupon for a ‘class’. Drew Rappoport was our guide through Sonoma Coast Bamboo Reef. All equipment was provided. We had a quick orientation on what abs looked like and how to pop them off. Location was Fort Ross, which has 2 coves separated by a small point and kelp bed. We started out in the southern cove. Entry was a very easy surf entry, especially compared to La Jolla Shores. Very minimal surge, the only noteworthy part of the beach was a quick drop-off from ~2.5′ to 5′ or so. Swam out on our floats til we were in about 15′ of water. First dives were there. Spotted a harbor seal at about 20 yards. I learned that the first few free dives are usually the hardest on the body. Surge and swell was pretty minimal. Had a hard time seeing abalone in the beginning and the visibility really made it dark down at depth. Eventually moved to the North cove and then back through the kelp bed at the point. Managed to pick 2 legal abs and get  some good exploring in. Didn’t see any legal sized fish of any sort, which I was hoping for. Did see about 50 total dead abalone, recently dead and many upside down. Very minimal if any decomposition. Also found two urchin tests floating. The day ended up with me doing quite a few dives. I bottomed out at 25′ and stayed down at depth for 30-45seconds. Longest dive was probably around 15′ for about a minute. Considering the temp and the very limited visibility I was quite happy with it. Of note: I did get my foot wrapped in some kelp @ about 10′ and despite all the mental training I panicked. Literally just kicked hard and after about 5 strokes I think it broke and I was free. Just a note to myself that no matter how well prepared I think I am, I can’t ever practice being wrapped up and stuck.

Wildlife: Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina); Red abalone (Haliotis rufescens ); Sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus spp.)

Note: According to a friend in CA DFG, the abs were part of a large invert die-off possibly linked to a red tide and unusually calm conditions. Will post more when something gets published.

Dive #5
Bottomed @ 40′, dive time 30min. Visibility was 15-17 feet. 28lbs of weight. 75* air, 69* surface, 58* bottom. 3100-1200psi.

It was Jenna, Liz and me, all of our first time out on our own after getting certified. We headed straight out from Vallecito turn around @ Shores. Doing a real surf entry was pretty interesting since it was our first time. Figured out it helps to have your BCD completely deflated until you’re in water too deep to touch bottom, or else you’ll get carried in on each wave instead of pushing through it. We did a pretty long surface swim straight out from shore before we dropped down. NOTE: you really should never dive w/o a compass. It makes for swimming underwater almost pointless if you’re trying to get somewhere, like the canyon. Just cruised along for a little bit before the bottom started to slope steeply. Probably part of the canyon edge, but we weren’t really sure. It was still fine sand on the bottom. Jenna had some problems equalizing more, so we swam parallel to the dropoff and explored. Saw some smaller sand dabs (nothing like Monterey) and a few pretty impressive sand dollar fields. After that point, I realized that sometime my D40 in it’s case had somehow come off my arm and floated to the surface (thank goodness for positive buoyancy). I tried to explain to the other two that I had lost my camera and was going to surface to look for it. Apparently, they understood this as “hey, take a picture of me while I float up”. Jenna obliged and there’s a nice photo of me ascending, but other than that it was a fail. I found the camera ~30yard away floating in some kelp. Couldn’t find the other two after that, so just hung out @ the surface. They popped up ~4 min later laughing hard. As it turns out, a giant black seabass gave them a quick buzz and scared them a bit. Long swim back in, but surfing the waves was pretty fun.

Wildlife: sanddabs (Citharichthys sp.); sand dollars (Dendraster excentricus?); giant sea bass (Stereolepis gigas