Since I had been a good citizen and already voted, I figured out I might as well go diving to celebrate. Better than a sticker. 

So here I was, all planning to get up early, kind of, because, you know, day light saving, but I failed. I still ended up at Crescent Bay at around 8:30am new time. Apparently I was not the only one to be late, because the first wave of early divers had already left! I got a parking spot right at the top of the stairs. Awesome.  

Since it had been a while, I made sure I ran through a mental checklist before heading to the beach. That's a good thing to do when, you know, are old(er) because I almost forgot my fins. 

The wave action was pretty mild and easy to time. Despite a screwed-up mask I could barely see through and a couple of deadly 2-footers, I was out of the surf zone in no time. It was high tide or close anyway, and there was mild current towards the open ocean that helped me get to the drop point in no time. I made a mental note to save some air for the way back, in case it was stronger than expected.    

Down I went.

Viz was indeed awesome. Probably 20ft+ in the exposed areas of the reef, and a solid 30ft in the kelp forest. Vertical viz, was probably in excess of 5 fathoms, because I could see the surface clearly at that depth. 

There was not however a lot of marine life around. I did not see the huge school of sargos and kelp bass that others had reported and videoed. I did see a huge California Scorpionfish and the nice school of what I think are California barracudas that hang in there often. I also saw a group of fish that I had never seen around here before. I asked a friend for a fish ID, hopefully I'll find out. 

Photo-wise, I decided to give up on the pro-settings I had been advocating on this blog forever and let the damn camera decide whatever exposure it wanted. Since I'm now shooting with two small external video lights, I guess it makes kind of sense that I get decent results. Kelp shots, still in manual to get the rays defined: shutter speed between 1/640 and 1/1000 did a good job. 

I got to explore the kelp bed quite extensively and was back after more than an hour of bottom time. I got on the beach outrunning a rogue 5-footer that would have probably knocked me down on my face. I don't usually run on the beach with 50lbs of dive gear on my back, but when I do I do it to not look too dumb crawling in the sand and scare the weekend beachgoers. 

So all in all, an enjoyable dive, so if you're looking for something to do this weekend, there are still a few hours of sun: go diving.

Next week, surf's up, so back to couch potato I guess...