The last time I dove Mountain Street was in September 2016 and my dive log reads "NOTHING, MEGA AWFUL" in all caps. I think I remember that dive. I used to dive Mountain a lot back then and decided to take my wife and a friend who drove on his bike all the way from LA for that. Thick pea soup, that's what it was.  

This time was slightly better. Despite reports of 10ft viz everywhere in Laguna Beach, I decided to join the South Orange County Dive Club (SOCDC) for our usual week end dive. I had not dove in a group in Laguna for almost 5 years as I had gone solo to take pictures without having to worry about losing a buddy. That only works in coves I know so that I don't get lost thanks to my legendary underwater navigation skills (or lack thereof).  

The group had seen soupfin sharks (Galeorhinus galeus), also known as tope shark or even "vitamin shark" because apparently their liver oil is rich in vitamin A (thank you Google for this one), on most of their dives at Mountain this year but no picture or video was ever produced to back  that (bold) claim. So I was assigned a very specific mission on our dive this morning: shoot or film the damn sharks. I failed. 

First, our group of 7 intrepid divers showed up at the beach at about 9:30am. The tide was weird that day as we were only going to have one high and one low instead of the usual two each, so expectations were pretty high that viz was going to be stupendously awesome (= more than 15ft) because less movement in the water can mean less particulate and better viz. Well not this time baby. 

Then we found out that Poseidon who had been quite pissed off lately (must be because they fired the guy from Sea Shepherd) and in his wrath had destroyed part of the stairs that led to the beach. We all had to maneuver on the rocks with 50lbs of stuff on our backs. Where is Aquaman when we need him? Oh that's right he's a waiter at Angelo's Italy in Bandon, OR (if you don't believe me, check out their reviews on Yelp).   

Then we swam. A long long swim. To the third reef. In 3ft swell. I did drink a little bit of sea water on the way. 

And we drop where the sharks were supposed to be.  But we missed. Because of 10ft surge and a 10kt current. And 8ft viz, maybe, maybe 10ft. 

Water was toasty though, 70F even at 45ft. I was almost sweating in my 7mm. That's not good for kelp which likes it 10 degrees colder. 

The bad news is that we did not see the sharks. Nope. Nada. One of us did report a bat ray. I saw a couple of Garibaldis, a few spotted kelpfish and a shit ton of kelp bass. Our dive leader was trying hard to get us to the spot so it was kind of a power dive and opportunities to stop for a shot were scarce. Unless you wanted to end up by yourself. In the middle of the ocean. With current and no viz. No thanks. 

The good news is that sorting through the 10 pictures I took was not too complicated. I mostly shot our group of divers. Tv 1/125s. Green and dark. Limited post prod to really keep the green in as it was what it was. 

Against all odds, our dive leader got us back to the beach. Since I had no idea where the hell I was or where I was going, I was pleasantly surprised when I surfaced to find myself about 20 yards from the shore, and, amazingly, in the right cove! The surf zone was quite active and  a few of us ended up on all four at one point. I almost lost my fins but held steady. Sets were pretty close to each other and timing was a bit challenging. We all made it back OK, with all our gear. Yay! 

After the dive, we had our SOCDC picnic at Heisler Park. I think it was our second one since COVID hit. We had one in May, but I was down with... COVID, so I passed. The club president is well known for his recipes from all around the world. We had Greek inspired food this time with a moussaka, Greek salad and grilled chicken.   

I had so much fun reconnecting with a few divers I hadn't seen in years that I forgot I had left my tank at Laguna Sea Sports for a fill and only realized my mistake as I was opening my garage about 10 miles inland... Oh well. It sucks to get old...