Shaw's Cove: Day of the Tentacle
Published on 2013-09-28 14:59:21
This morning, like almost every Saturday morning now, I showed up for the SOCDC weekend dive. It was a gorgeous day in Laguna Beach but unfortunately two divers reported high surf in Montage, poopy water at Cress and the online surf reports were all bad for our South exposed coves. After an attempt to contact the local weather forecast and ending up listening to yesterday's prediction, it was decided to call it day.
As I am trying to resurect my old BC for my exotic travels (my new one takes way too much space in my bag), I stopped at the nearby Laguna Sea Sports for a tube of Aquaseal and a can of nasty potty. I asked the guys at the shop how the conditions were at Shaw's Cove and they all agreed that it was great, so I decided to go down the beach to check it out. On my way a couple of divers were coming back and reported a "very tough surf"... Mmmmm... Maybe not after all? What the heck, I wanted to see it with my own eyes!
Down at the beach, zillions of divers were coming back from their class or preparing for it. The surf was... 2ft. Maybe 2.5? Very tough indeed. Must have been divers from Lake Mead or something. So after a 5 minutes survey of the wave patterns and a "mostly harmless" categorization thereof, I decided to go diving.
And I did not regret it.
65 minutes underwater, tons of octopus in every cracks including one at turn-around-rock that was very interested in my fingertip pointing out from my outworn glove, a couple of morays (but I could not find the real couple that is somewhere over there), nudis, bugs and sculpins. Visibility was not that bad, but I must admit that in the shallows, the sun shining in the heavy particulated water, is not the best experience ever. Lot's of light, but lot's of messy little thing in the water reduced the clarity big times. Actually toward the end of the reef, at 50ft, it seems the sun was gone. It even got chilly down there! Tv 1/100 - 1/125 Auto Macro + forced flash, nothing new.
It was a good day not to go back to bed!
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