The surfline forecast was looking pretty good for surfers. Not too much for divers...

Despite the gloomy reports, I got up early on Monday morning and fired up the Hotel Laguna webcam pointed on Main Beach as well and the Pacific Edge Hotel beach cam which shows Cleo Street. Both showed 6ft waves crashing on the beach. Not good.

I went anyway.

I decided to try my luck at Mountain, hoping that the slight different in orientation between Cleo and Mountain would help make this dive site more diveable. I was wrong.

I got the best parking spot on Mountain (diving during the week helps quite a lot), but only stayed the time it took me to go down to the beach and realized that there was no way in hell I would fight that surf. I might have been able to get in, getting out would probably have been a complete different story... I was ready to go back home but I still decided to go check out Shaw's Cove which I have dove in the past in pretty nasty conditions. Parking was great there too, only a few divers there that day, a couple reporting "Hmmm OK" conditions. I stayed on the beach for about ten minutes checking the surf patterns. I almost decided to bail out when I saw that there were short periods of calm between the six-footer sets. Enough to go safely past the surf zone. I made up my mind and went gear up.

I did not regret it.

Despite the very strong surge, the visibility was not that bad. A lot of the mess was local, due to the sand being all turned up. A few areas were pretty decent in the 10-15ft range.

I gave up going through the crevice and the adjacent tunnels, the surge was way too strong in this area. I stayed along the main reef and went all the way to the outer kelp patch. The sun had decided to come out when I hit the kelp, so I shot my favorite usual sunbursts. Tv 1/250s no flash 100 ISO appeared to give good results. Photoshop auto level + auto color made the reddish blue tint re-appear on the shots that were all greened-out otherwise.

Just when I was turning around at the border of the kelp patch, a school of what I think were Blacksmiths went pas me. Conditions there were terrible and the shot won't be a winner any time soon.

On my way back, at the Northern end of the main kelp patch, a big bat ray flew right past me and was gone in seconds. I tried to follow but to no avail.

The usual suspects were there. Garibaldis are hornier than ever. One even nipped at my shoulder and I wondered for a moment why another diver would try to get my attention? Aren't I diving solo? I couldn't find any Spanish Shawl though. But with the surge, I doubt that I would have got the shot... The Hopkin's Roses are still there though, true in fewer numbers than last month. 

As I was ready to turn off my camera for good, just before the entrance to the crevice, I came face to (pointy) face with a 3ft guitar fish! That was the first time I saw one in Shaw's although I know other divers had. Tv 1/100s, forced flash and auto macro, got me a decent head shot. A little back-scatter removal in post-prod and voilà!

That's amazing that after more than a hundred dives there, I can still find something new! Maybe I'll go again next weekend!