Bottom Bunch Dive Club

This morning the following individuals met up for the Memorial Day dive Herb G Steve P Heather L... Vanessa H Eric Y & Myself Now I am not going to lie to you about todays dive Editors note: Post terminated at this point as all other statements made concerning this dive and dive buddies were bald faced lies! End of post

From all us Bottom Bunchers...we wish you a Happy Birthday Mark! :)

Yeah, just another boring cove dive Not Kidding Folks It was Boring!... All five of us reported being bored Vanessa H William K Eric Y Joseph N That covers todays dive buddies Eric and Joseph pulled a disappearing act on the descent So the next time any of us see them Is as they were headed out for dive #2 As we were finishing up dive #1 William and I both clocked in at 80 minutes Vanessa finished with 74 I managed to navigate William and I all the way out to boomers before we surfaced So we had a long surface swim back to the cove Surf was small and manageable on entry and exit Temp was reported as 62f by my computer But the vis was a bit on the short side today at 10-15 feet Not that it mattered much Vanessa William and I covered less than 200 square feet of bottom for the fun part of the dive Shortly after hitting the bottom, we discovered that we had landed right in the middle of a convention Of FAT FAT FAT Hermissenda crassicornis Some of them approaching 4 inches in length One rock had 8 Big FAT hermi's on it We were trading off who was shooting which one for the duration of our visit It was a long surface swim to get there Halfway from buoy A to buoy B We also found Chromodoris macfarlandi and Mexichromis porterea to round out the nudi's Vanessa and I both found little crabs that I think might be masking crabs, that had sponge covering most of their carapace That is the name for a crabs shell And don't you forget it I might need you to remind me On the way back to dry land. William and I found a HUGE abalone of over 14" in shell width Don't ask me which one, all I know about Abalone is they are mollusks, I am allergic, and it is illegal to take them. Hopefully Williams shots turned out. Remember tomorrows dive is La Jolla Shores 7AM meet up!

OK ALRIGHT I know it is way too late for any risk to my sanity...Continue reading

This morning after much back and forth last night J.S.: "You better not spend a bunch of time talking, I got things to do and places to be, so get ready and go dive!" So who would you guess was late arriving at the beach this morning?...Continue reading

Well I am not So back out I go chasing my favorite nudibranch Animalia, Molusca, Gastropoda, Heterobranchia, Optistobranchia, Nudibranchia, Dexiarchia, Cladobranchia, Dendronotida, Tritoniodea, Tethydidea, Melibe leonina...Continue reading

After a decent surface interval Randy motored us over to another spot that I have dove before from the Marissa I call it NRAD reef as it is directly offshore from that facility on Point Loma... Right after checking the anchor, we look west And there is fantastic structure Water and critter worn rock rising 10-15 feet above the sea floor Right away Randy spots a Felimare porterae (formerly Mexichromis porterae) Hermissenda crassicornis Several really large Flabellina iodinea And another surprise when I got home Another new species for me in one of my lucky Two Fer shots A Felimare porterae with a Ancula gibbosa The second one is a first time spotting for me Took me a while to find an ID for that little guy Then as we were nearing air limits The find of the trip A swellshark in a cave with a bunch of lobsters Diner and Dinner in one shot My third Two Fer of the day! I did not know they had teeth like that That is one mouth I would not like to have my hand anywhere near Thank you Randy T for you hospitality And for two great dives! Hope to see you and Teri on Saturday so I can take you out to the Lions! Tired and sore so not diving Friday See you all on Saturday morning La Jolla Shores!

Since none of my usual dive buddies could make a dive today Randy took pity on me And invited me out on his boat to dive at Point Loma ... 2 tanks with transportation to and from the dive site The ocean did get even with me for switching from fins to an outboard motor for my visit I broke my new mask pre-dive But I learned a valuable lesson Don't buy frameless masks They just are not rugged enough A calm channel and mild seas greeted us at the mouth of the Mission Bay Channel It was a nice smooth ride all the way out to our first dive destination In the vicinity of Tripod Reef Hitting the bottom we found dozens of nice fat colorful Hermissenda crassicornis Lots of Tritonia festiva And one Aegiress albopunctatus 52 minutes of bottom time in 56f water With about 25 foot vis I would apologize for all the Hermissenda pic's but these are only the best ones This showing was paired down from over 100 decent to great shots And of course once again I get a nice surprise after downloading A Two Fer shot Reviewing the pictures of the Festiva I find a A.albopunctatus being chased the the festiva God I Love DUMB LUCK!

What a rough start to the day Alarm went off at 5AM So I could get to the beach by 630 and meet with Steve G and Kari M... And of course I probably misspelled her name yet again Our goal North Wall and time with the Lions! Out we went to my lineups And landed once again within 10 meters of the Lions The Kelp that was directly below us Had lions, but the monster batch was about 30 feet away The 3 of us spent 24 minutes just on the lions Then we did a quick tour of North Wall hoping to spot the Swell Shark Not Today A few chestnut cowries and the usual gobies, blacksmiths, juvenile rockfish and Sheephead were of course present Back we headed towards dry land and my targets 3 & 4 for the dive J.barbarensis CHECK Tuna Crab CHECK On our way east along North Wall we ran into Dan D Bruce H Herb G And lastly John H.M. of dive bums fame All still heading westbound I missed the photo op on Dan And Bruce thought he was grand Marshall of a parade and his wave caused the picture to be out of focus Or at least that is my story! But I did get a good shot of Herb! Unbeknownst to me, Steve G was getting low on air at this point And when we reached the north end of the crap patch I was surprised by his lack of enthusiasm for the J.barbarensis that I tried to share with him And he completely ignored the 2nd one Preferring to head for unlimited air on the dry side of our little planet He finished the dive with a breath or two in his tank surfacing in 4 feet of water after 51 minutes I finished the dive with 64 minutes And surfaced in 4 feet of water as well after playing with the Tuna Crabs with about 200 lbs of air remaining We also had some unexpected finds on the dive Including a flat fish that does not show up in my guide books Herb if you can help on that one. Really long pectoral fin, and 2 very prominent dark spots on the body ringed in white, and many light spots. But see the picture... Vis not a good today at about 20 feet for most of the dive Water temp 52f by my computer AND NO FREAKING SURF! Heather showed up later, she dove secret gardens solo, and is really starting to figure her new camera and lighting system out And she got to spend a good portion of her dive playing with octopi She submitted some shots for the report Thanks Heather.

Today started just like any other Saturday My alarm sounding off at 530 AM Notifying me it was time to grab my camera...Continue reading

Well I know you are wondering how todays dive went It is bothering some of you so much that you have put down your phones... Turned off the TV And are sitting in front of your computer just waiting for this missive to arrive Hitting refresh every 15 seconds to see if I have sent it yet Well, let not your hearts be troubled Here it is Dan D, Skip G, Bruce H, Steve G, Stan H, Chris H All were waiting for me to arrive at La Jolla Shores Stan was planning on diving today, but his Prius would not let him go Dan D and Bruce H were one dive team Steve G dove solo Skip, Chris and I once again dove Secret Gardens Chris was taking his new camera out for it's second dive Same model as mine, but only using a video light today as his strobes would not be in till he got home today On the swim out, the team once again had to wait for me I was in low gear today on the swim out. Some of them commented that if I did not hurry up That this was going to be a night dive by the time we reached the descent point But they wanted to take advantage of my line ups So they waited Some where on the planet today there may have been surf But not at La Jolla Shores But water conditions below the surface In a word SUCKED! Pea Soup without the chunks clarity Good critter count at the gardens with vis in the 10-15 foot range there On the way up slope Chris and I ran across Jabba the Giant Moon Snail This guy has a shell approaching 8 inches (200 mm) across Then a bit further on we ran into a convention of Target Shrimp gathered around a bit of kelp stalk This is normally a nocturnal species, so seeing them in daylight is a bit unusual Oh yeah It was COLD TOO! One diver reported 48f degrees as water temp for most of the dive None of us stayed down for the full hour we usually get Once you got shallow No critters No reason to stay Tomorrow I want to try for North Wall I was originally thinking of making this a Marine Room Gear Salvage dive But the poor water quality changed my mind for me! Wanna Join Me? 7AM in the parking lot BTW better shots of the south line up for Secret Gardens Photo by Chris H North line up not so good June Glooms fault, not Chris's

Good afternoon all This mornings plan was to dive La Jolla Cove for a SHARK HUNT with Vanessa H and Mark G Well 2 things wrong with that plan... 1 No Parking I arrived at 705AM and had to park all the way up at Shell Beach. Mark and Vanessa were still on the road 2. I observed some big sets running directly into the cove that would make entry and exit a challenge So I called Vanessa and suggested we reset for LJ Shores We all got parking on Vallecitos Street And that was the base of operations for our dive Since a couple of classes had already been out and reported marginal vis in the shallows We decided to make the long haul out to Secret Gardens AGAIN! Surf was small to manageable on entry But it was a bumpy swim out We made our entry just in time as the swell started to pick up Vis at the gardens was again around 30 feet with lots and lots of fish still out and about After running out of No Decompression Bottom time at the gardens we headed up slope to Vallecitos Point To burn off our excess air supplies Above 60 feet the water had a milky quality with lots of suspended material, and vis dropped to about 20 feet Looking down, it looked great, but look horizontal And well, not so great By the end of the dive we all had to deal with some 2-2.5 foot sets that jumped in while we were out But thankfully it is easier exiting the ocean with bigger waves than entering So no issues whatsoever! Next dive Thursday morning

Well hello again I missed diving Saturday Due to attending the Scuba Show in Long Beach... Did you miss me Well if you did, Seek professional help! This morning waiting in the parking lot With a cardboard sign propped in front of a full scuba tank "Will dive for bottom time" Was Mr Dan D Then Heather and Vanessa arrived while I was getting my morning hugs from all the cute scuba girls down by the flag pole We missed an opportunity to dive with Gayle V-L who I invited yesterday at the scuba show when she complained about not having a dive buddy She did tell me that if she was not there by 730 to assume she had stood us up So we did And so did she! Heather and Vanessa wanted to dive Secret Gardens Heather wanted to try out the new video light she bought at the Scuba Show yesterday to see if it would resolve some of the issues she has been having with strobes and lighting Well, based on the photo's submitted, it did not hurt anything but her checkbook! And it may have helped her get better images She even scored two first time sightings on this dive A T.catalinae and a B.mimetica (at least I think that is what the bigger one is) IN THE SAME PICTURE NO LESS! Good Job Heather Lots of fish out today at Secret Gardens Halfband Rockfish were all over the place making the dive feel a bit like we were in an aquarium Vis was in excess of 30 feet at the gardens Up slope after running out of bottom time we found plenty of J.barbarensis and a couple of navanax and one H.crassicornis Octopus, Sarcastic fringehead's, Sheephead and horn sharks rounded out the species count Post dive our only dry suit diver complained about the cold today And the 3 wet suit divers joined him In complaining that is 48-51 degrees at depth depending on whose computer you were trusting The thermocline was right at 36 feet, and was strong enough that you could actually see the colder water mixing with the warmer water at the boundary point All of us had just around 1 hour of dive time and an uneventful entry and exit from the sea. The swim out was a bit challenging due to a southerly current from the beach to at least 500 yards offshore So we ended up swimming about 600 yards to get to my lineups Vis in the shallows was about 20 feet which was better than at V-Point which was 12-15 feet

This morning Bob A was waiting in the parking lot as I arrived Originally I was planning on diving North Wall But after Bob pulled a WAAAH BUT session on me... I caved and reset for Secret Gardens My girlfriend Ms. Pacifica did not approve of our change of plans This we quickly realized as she delivered what we used to call a Shampoo Beating during my navy days She pummeled us about the head and shoulders as we worked our way thru the surf Click Me! But thanks to a shortage of working brain cells We made it out to deeper water The surface swim out was rather eventful due to the swell There is the beach Where is the beach? Oh There is the beach As the rollers progressed past us to dash upon the shore Dropping in at Secret Gardens The first thing we noticed The thermocline had moved up a bit since our last dives Like 40 feet up the water column Thermocline now at 20 feet Several days in a row of grey skies will do that Temp on the bottom was a mild 52f But due the the mind bending effect of no sunlight It felt like 25f Darn it, does the ocean not know it is summer time? Does she even care? Simnia, spalding's Dorid, San Diego Dorids and White Spotted Dorids for Nudibranchs and Bubba of course was still napping in his notch when we arrived Up slope we came across a small octopus hiding in half of a mussel shell Then Bob found a Navanax and a Horn Shark Most critters seemed to be in hiding today So not a lot out and about Bob and I made our way into 16 feet of water where we surfaced Ms Pacifica seemed to be mostly satisfied with the beating she gave me on the way out And she only tried to knock me over twice But she was not done with Bob yet. As he was trying to get his fins off, she delivered another shampoo beating Well we both managed to escape with our lives And our dignity more or less intact Our Sanity, well that ship has sailed Bob cancelled his plans for an evening dive today And I am canceling my plans to dive Friday Next dive Sunday morning Herb will be in Long Beach at the Scuba Show So you are left with me to lead the dive Hope to see you there Destination: PACIFIC OCEAN

Good evening This morning Skip G... Rick K (not diving) Bruce H Dan D Herb G & Myself Me up to dive La Jolla Shores Now yesterdays surf was small Todays was smaller We had a couple break over the tops of our dive boots as we reached waist deep water Our target area today Secret Gardens 500 long yards off of the beach Working our way out thru the baby set surfers The Stand Up Paddle Boarders & A pod of transiting dolphins Herb and Skip used Herbs line ups Dan, Bruce and I used mine Wanna try and guess who dropped directly into Secret Gardens Did you guess Herb and Skip Well Did you WRONG AGAIN! Of course it was me and mine. We tried to tell them they were too far north But did they believe me NOPE! So we got there first And got were set up and taking pictures before they even saw the 1st gorgonian Another pair of divers followed our merry band out and did the drop on Herbs line ups as well San Diego Dorids, Spaldingi and white spotted dorids were found Then reaching our stay limits for that depth Up slope to Secret Gardens were we found Navanax and Barbarensis nudibranchs Octopus and Pipe Fish With so many divers in such a small area several of us headed out to Vallecitos Point I drifted up into the large kelp stands there hunting for juvenile Kelpfish I found them and some more pipe fish While I was up there, all my erstwhile dive buddies left me behind And that worked out for me Cause I found the coolest thing I have seen in a long while on the way back in I found the deceased Bat Ray being fed on by Sheep Crab that Diver Jackie reported from yesterday A couple of photo's included for proof 71 minutes of dive time 50 degrees at depth 60 in the shallows Thermocline at 60 feet And vis for most of the dive was in the 30 foot range Best of all Less student divers today lifting the silt while practicing their skills So plenty of room at the showers to rinse off and no taking a number to get to a shower head Anyone up for a Tuesday morning dive?

Yes we do folks All you once a month boat divers The once a year tropical ocean resort divers... Well you can all kiss my stinky black wet suit Cause Beach Divers Rule! Since all we have to pay for is air and gas We actually go diving Frequently 58 times this year for me alone So This morning Capt Bill and Luca G met up with me at La Jolla Shores for another BEACH DIVE! Todays dive was to the Crap Patch, south to Vallecitos Point then onward to South Wall Surf conditions were so mellow today that we entered in front of the lifeguard tower Mainly because there were 2.6 million student divers down at Vallecitos Street And we would have had to walk on their heads to get out far enough from shore to get our feet wet The Crap Patch was chosen since most rookie divers cannot find that spot And we were hoping to find nudibranchs Well we did find two Sadly that is both the species and specimen count One J.barbarensis One N.inermis Where have all the nudi's gone, long time passing? Where have all the nudi's gone, Long time ago? Where have all the nudi's gone? Navanx have eaten everyone! When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? At least that is what I was singing on this dive... Octopus, Horn sharks and several Pipefish were spotted Along with the ever present Black Eyed Gobies and Blue Banded Gobies As we passed to the south side of V-Point We were attacked by a pair of divers heading west The light from my strobes scared them off and we were able to escape to the south Avoiding a much dreaded encounter from the invading divers The highlight of the dive was missed by Luca He had a small tank of only 80 cubic feet And so he was required to depart our undersea wonderland before Bill and I were done playing around A 12-14 inch long Pyrosome I did not notice till downloading the images But this specimen was infested with critters eating it from the inside They kind of look like copepods http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copepod By just dumb luck, I obtained two shots showing the parasites in detail, and one shot showing at least 3 of them feasting on the pyrosome Heading back out there again in the morning to try again Hope to see you there.

No invite this morning This was a private check out dive for a friend My dive buddy was experimenting with diving wet and wanted some one on one supervision... Well I was available and he thought I was competent to provide the supervision So rather than argue and prove a friend wrong I agreed to the plan Secret Gardens Hunting for Heathers mystery nudibranch Thankfully conditions were so much nicer today than they were on Monday I did get my hair wet on entry, but by that time I was in chest deep water By this point my dive buddy was already complaining about how cold the water was And we were still on the surface All those years in a dry suit had ruined him Out to the line ups, and a little south so we were not dropping directly into 100 feet of water Then down we went My dive buddy hit the bottom pretty hard, and I was concerned that it might generate an earthquake reading on the seismometers Well, I just finished checking And NO EARTHQUAKES reported for that time period Well after 15 minutes searching high and low in Secret Gardens We did not relocate the mystery nudibranch We did find D.albopunctata, a virtual plethora, D.spaldingi, 2 ea , D.sandiegensis, 2 ea and C.luteomarginata and that was just in Secret Gardens Having reached our time limits without loosing sight of each other We headed up slope to the Crap Patch for a bit more hunting As I am photographing the 1st of several H.crassicornis I see the light flashing from my dive buddy So off I head to see what he had found J.barbarensis and N.inermis Then more J.barbarensis for 5 total found on this dive Another H.crassicornis and another N.inermis Then I see the flashing light trick once again Time to get my butt over to where my buddy is to see what he found this time A D.picta Rounding out the species count for the dive at 8 species of nudibranchs Time now to head for the beach We were both at turnaround air pressure And the temp profile today was a bit odd There was an inverted thermocline at 60-70 feet With a cold band of water at that depth Above and below that it was noticeably warmer Vis however today was much improved ~30 feet at Secret Gardens >20 feet above that all the way into 15 feet where we surfaced 51 and 53 minutes of dive time My dive buddy just ran out of cold tolerance 2 minutes before I decided to surface since I no longer knew where he was We stayed together for all but the last 5 minutes of dive time An excellent dive, but I am pretty sure that the next time he dives wet on purpose it will be in the tropics Enjoy the pictures!