Saturday 4/19/08

 

OML, Palos Verde

 

Met up with Angelique N. and Hayden Y. to do an early morning dive at OML.  Upon arriving, Angelique and Hayden had already scoped out conditions and even spotted a whale off the Point!

 

We donned our gear, made our way down the long winding pathway that led us eventually to the cove.  No access currently to the Point, which is normally where I like to enter and exit.  The waves were coming in at their usual steep angle.  It seems to me, there alot more boulders and rocks exposed then ever before.  We surveyed the scene to see where we were going to make our entries.  Angelique and Hayden opted for the west side in which they made it in without incident, whereas I made my way more towards the east side.  Timing is everything.  I waited.  I was ready to go, when all of a sudden a swell came out of nowhere.  In it's anticipation, I braced myself behind a boulder for protection.  The only thing was, the swell turned out to be bigger than the boulder and came up over the top.  Whoosh!  Rock-N-Roll.  Once I got my wits about me, I discovered my strobe was gone!  I looked out, and saw it floating in front of Hayden.  With a quick yell, Hayden was able to latch onto my strobe.  It turns out the arm that attaches my strobe broke.  Whew!  Could have been worse.  I pondered what to do next.  Stash my camera, and make the dive?  Having fear that someone might take it?  Call the dive for myself and have Hayden and Angelique continue?  Or call the dive all together due to possible increasing surf?  We chose option #3.  Hayden and Angelique exited without incident.  Bravo for them!  Upon our return up the long path, we were greeted by Al and Dennis and 'others' who were gearing up, but quickly changed their minds after our report.  We all headed to Vet's Park.

 

Vet's Park, Redondo Beach

 

Surf:  1-2' on entry 2-4' on exit (between Pier and Bathrooms)

Swell:  Min/ mod

Surge:  Nada at Depth; Heavy in the shallows (15' and less)

Viz:  10' -20'+ at Depth

Temp:  Bone Chillin' 50' at Depth

Max Depth:  80'

BT:  62'

Buddy:  Angelique N.

 

Ok. Those that know me, know that I don't normally like to dive Redondo during the day.  Since conditions were poor everywhere else, Vet's was our only option.  I am proud to say, that this dive was the BEST day dive I have ever done at Redondo.  Thanks in part to Angelique's keen eye we saw lots of critters.  Upon drop down, Angelique spotted a Pipe fish and Hermissenda crasicornis.  Not too far away, I spotted a Navanax.  Probably a total of 6 different species of Nudi's were seen today, including a itty bitty nudi that Angelique spotted riding a tip of an algae plant (note to self: need to get specs for mask!); we also saw baby octo's, Cusk eel's, Sarcastic Fringeheads hiding in Kellet's Welk, Elbow crabs, Sand Crabs, Sea Pens, large Halibut, a legal bug, C-O Sole's, JV Horn Shark, Sanddab's, unusual tube/ worm anemone's (???). Something similar to this that we saw in the shallows was a large tube protruding from the sand about 12" high shaped like a candy cane.  There was some type of aneomone or worm (similar to feather duster worm) at the end.  As we swam by, it retreated inside the tube.  Unfortunately, I have no photos, for I was taking my housing for a test swim after my Rock-N-Roll at OML.  Needless to say, very fascinating.

 

As we neared the end of our dive, we came across a bed of Sand Dollars and more bottom dwellers.  The surge on the bottom picked up quite considerably.  We surfaced in about 6' of water in which the swells were rolling in.  We decided to go back out and make our way south a bit.  Again, timing is everything!  Angelique and I were making our way in.   Then boom, I dipped under a swell and got rolled again!  I did the crawl.  No dignity lost.

 

Thanks Angelique for the great dive and all your help; Thanks to Hayed for rescuing my strobe!

 

Jan