San Diego Dive Conditions

La Jolla Shores, Wed Jan 13, 2010

seastaradventures — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:15:38 +0000

We did a dive at the Shores this morning, with high tide going out. It was surprisingly a nice dive today, even though the predictions for huge waves have been all over the surf reports. About 15 ft vis on the main wall, 20-25 ft in the shallows. 2-3 ft surf, moderate longshore current, 61*F at depth. A few Octos in their lairs, and lots of Greenlings out today, and some small Kelp Bass. Lots of Swimming Crabs and Stingrays in the shallows.

Location: La Jolla Shores, Valecetos Point
Time of day: ~7:45 am
Bottom time: 48 minutes
Max Depth: ~66 fsw
Temperature: 61F
Visibility: 15f in the canyon
Surge: no
Current: a bit, going north
Waves: 2-3f

Scripps Canyon, Tue July 22, 2008

seastaradventures — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:59:21 +0000

We had ourselves a very nice dive at Scripps canyon this morning. Surf was down and the water was nice and blue for the first 30f or so, but we also had respectable visibility in the canyon today. The usual abundance of life was out on display, including several swell sharks, the large moray eel and a fried egg jelly. Good deed of the day by my brave hearted buddy was to free the jelly which had managed to wedge itself under a ledge and appeared to be stuck. We carefully created the necessary water currents to ‘flush’ it back out into open water.
Bottom time always seems to fly when you have a good dive and soon our computers indicated that it is probably a good idea to head into shallower water.

Location: Scripps Canyon, Sumner branch
Time of day: ~6:35 am
Bottom time: 48 minutes
Max Depth: ~120f
Temperature: 54F
Visibility: 20-25f in the canyon
Surge: no
Current: a bit, going north
Waves: 1f

Scripps Canyon PM, Mon July 7, 2008

seastaradventures — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:57:29 +0000

Met up at the usual place for the Scripps Canyon dive this evening. Our plan had been to have Dan, Darren, Jen and I dive as a group. We met at the buoy after ducking under some 4 foot waves before yanking on our fins and kicking like crazy to get beyond the surf zone. Luckily the surf didn’t turn out to be packing much of a punch and we made it out without any problems. We dropped down the buoy line around 7:30 pm and headed down along the wall to explore. As usual, Jen and I stopped to look for nudis. We saw white spotted porostome’s, san diego dorid’s, berthella californica’s, stearn’s aeolid’s, yellow edged cadlina’s, yellow spotted cadlina’s, macfarland’s chromodorid’s, hudson’s dorid, and the largest spanish shawl I have ever seen. There were tons of scorpion fish out and some beautiful red and golden gorgonians. The viz wasn’t great, about 10 feet with a max depth of 111. We still had a nice dive and a nice post-dive dinner with interesting converstation on nudibranch anatomy.

Marianne

La Jolla Shores, Mon July 7, 2008

seastaradventures — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:55:22 +0000

We saw the schools of bait fish during the swim out and again near the end of the dive shortly after we started over the fields of Sand Dollars. Where oh where is a good alchemist when we need one? The bait fish literally formed a swirl and darkened the bottom during the last part of the dive. Unfortunately, the lack of visibility prevented us from getting a good look at them.

The temperature was up and therefore the visibility was DOWN!

I did have one interesting wave at the end of the dive which artfully decorated my tank yoke and regulator with my camera housing. After my partner straightened out the mess another wave tried to surprise me. We did have to pay attention to the surf. We did have some nice waves pass us on our swim out just after we got through the surf line. I think those same waves stayed around to greet us on our exit.

Over all this was a GREAT DIVE!

Stan

Critters: LOTS of small Rock fish in the Ditritis, Sarcastic
Frengeheads, Bat Ray, Round Rays, Octopi, Huge school of swarming bait fish (type is unknown), several different types of Dorids, plus a lot of the Gorgonia in the secret garden area, one bright Red Crab, one Guitar Fish.

Where: Not So Secret Garden area to Vallecitos Pt. and South East.
When: About 8:15 AM
Surf: 2-3 ft with occasional sneakers
Surge: only in shallow water (about 12 ft and less)
Temp: Cobra at depth 52 F Hands probably 50 F
Visibility: 15-20 ft in the canyon, 5 ft in the shallows.

La Jolla Shores PM, Sun July 6, 2008

seastaradventures — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:19:42 +0000

Nice conditions at the Shores today. Our dive group decided that the new parking situation at Vallecitos made it easier to drop off/pick up dive gear. On the kick out, we were treated to a fleeting dolphin show. A friendly sea lion popped his head up to say hello. With J’s line-ups, we dropped right onto the wall at a depth of 50 fsw. Working our way west along the wall, we encountered lots of male and female sheephead hiding in crevices. One particularly large male bared his teeth from the comfort of his den. A painted greenling meandered about and then suddenly froze, blending in quite nicely with his surroundings. We spied the usual black-eyed gobies and blue-banded gobies perched in and around their holes. Brittle stars stretched out their legs along the expanse of the wall. The rock wall was punctuated by Corynactis californica and colorful nudibranchs — several Doriopsilla albopunctata and a couple of Flabellina iodinea. Two small, wayward octos gave half-hearted attempts at camouflage. 25 minutes into the dive, we crossed over to the Far North Wall. Surprisingly, we didn’t see any halibut hanging out on the sandbar connecting the two walls. On the Far North Wall, a handful of sarcastic fringeheads popped their heads out of their holes. The trip into shore was rather uneventful, although we all noticed a slight northerly current.

Viz was quite nice. Get out there and dive.

Chris

Map to Dive Site at SeaStarAdventures.com
Time: 6:30 pm ~
Viz: 20′+ in canyon – 5′ shallow
Temp: 52
Surf: 3′ -4′

Yukon & Ruby E, Sat July 5, 2008

seastaradventures — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:02:56 +0000

Conditions were very good at the wrecks today. Took a client out on their first Wreck Alley dives today. Very little swell. Good viz. Hit the Yukon first at about 8:15. Didnt have to compete for buoys, as we were the first one out there this morning. No thermocline today, temp was in the mid 50’s on the bottom, about 40ft viz and no current. Saw a massive lingcod on top of the observation tower.

Got to the Ruby E at about 10:00. Dropped down and had a great dive. I think the viz was actually a bit better than the Yukon, maybe 30 ft. There was a mild current going through, but otherwise a great dive.

More info at SeaStarAdventures.com
Swell: 4-6 @ 15 sec
WX: Cloudy, light fog, 68F
Temp: 62@ 0 fsw; 54F @ 102 fsw
Viz @ 80 fsw: 30-40 feet

La Jolla Shores, Sat July 5, 2008

seastaradventures — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:55:55 +0000

We had an interesting dive this morning at La Jolla Shores. I wasn’t expecting much since this was my second dive without my strobe (should be back Monday, the battery had a loose wire). I decided to take along my 18-70mm lens to see what I could do with it with ambient light (not by choice). When we arrived at LJS at 6:30 am, you couldn’t see the surf from the parking lot, partly because it was such a low tide and partly because of the fog. Rob warned me that the waves were rather large, but I was jonesing to dive, so we went out regardless. Getting out was exciting, with overhead waves, surfers and fog. We had to duck under a few (waves) and it was a wide surf zone.

We made it out and started the long surface swim out. Soon, we realized that you couldn’t see the shore, let along Scripps pier. No lineups today. After seeing a couple of other divers stop and drop down, we decided we had gone far enough. Soon after reaching the bottom, I found that my flashlight wasn’t working. Hmm, first time for everything. We kept going out and down until we hit the first shallow wall around 50 feet. I noticed that the dive wasn’t as quiet as it normall is when I’m not exhaling. As it turns out, I had air leaks coming out of both my regulator and octo. The octo was leaking pretty bad, but with a little purging and jiggling, it slowed down to a steady trickle. Since I was focused on two leaking regs and wide angle shots, I have no idea what Rob saw during the dive. A little less than halfway through my air, I let Rob know that my regs were leaking so we could head in early.

Our swim in was pretty uneventful, other than ending up really far south (past the boat ramp). The waves were still there, but with patience and timing, we got in ok. With 3 pieces of degraded equipment, I was really concerned about my next trip to my local dive shop. Fortunately, the flashlight works now (no idea what fixed it) and neither reg was leaking after soaking for a bit. My guess is that a few of those waves on the way out were pretty rough on the gear.

Scott

Map to Dive Site at SeaStarAdventures.com
Max depth: 62 ft
Min temp: 56 F (Aeris), it’s usually a few deg colder than it reports
Vis: ~20+ at 50 ft, 5 ft above that.
Surf: overhead

La Jolla Shores, Fri July 4, 2008

seastaradventures — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:09:43 +0000

So we met on V street at 5am, okay a little earlier than that, and the street was already crowded with folks unloading their cars and moving on. The 15 min parking did not deter us from parking on Vallecitos due to the fact it is only enforced 11am to 5pm they just haven’t posted the signs yet!!

Low tide, 1 ft surf, glassy calm surface conditions, and sunrise clouds gracing the sky made for an easy and enjoyable entry and kick out. We dropped into 50ish feet of water and began exploring. Not sure how we ended up so far north considering where we started but we eventually came upon the 50ft contour and then continued south towards the Point.

Little Octos, Sculpins of all colors and shapes, juvie Vermillion Rockfish, schools of Perch, Senoritas, big Sheephead and Brown Rockfish, the nudi formerly known as Frondosis with eggs, Hermissendas, Porostomes, SD Dorids, the Sea Hares are looking a little tired from all the mating frenzy, Yellowfin Fringehead, Cuthonas with eggs, and the tiniest Doto Amyra I’ve ever seen.

As we were exploring a large wall on the Point I was looking over to Terry to show him a Yellowfin Fringehead being very frisky and brave popping out of his hole in the wall, in the corner of my eye something in the water, oh my gosh, big huge long Fried Egg Jellyfish. I started pointing up and beyond Terry and he caught sight of it. I’ve not seen one this big, bigger than a dinner plate and the stingers were at least 4-5 feet long trailing behind. We hovered with it as it slowly was making its way west, and Terry just snapped away trying to get pics.

It was time to turn in so we did. Not much on the swim in, we stayed about 10-20 feet off the bottom for most of the swim in hoping to catch sight of Bat Rays but didn’t spot any. Tons of kids swimming greeted up when we popped our heads out of the water, actually, I think we startled one of them.

Thanks for coming out early on your day off to beat the crowds and get a great dive in. Wish I had thought about bringing another tank so we could have done a second dive.

Kim

Map to Dive Site at SeaStarAdventures.com
Viz: 20′+ in canyon – 6′ shallow
Temp: 52
Surf: 1′ -2′

South Wall LJ Shores, Fri July 4, 2008

seastaradventures — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:07:28 +0000

Just returned from a dive along the South Wall. Very nice conditions! Mirror-like surface, 1ft waves, mild current. Viz in the 40-50ft range below 30fsw, enough to enjoy the landscape formed by all those wall-ettes and ravines. Dropped down to 90fsw during initial descent, but remained between 60-70fsw for most of the dive. Lots of the usual tiny critters, but unfortunately no bigger fish to be seen (bat rays or something like it). Highlight for me: a probably 1ft long kelp (?) pipefish sitting on some old kelp leaves. These animal are pretty hard to spot!

Happy 4th,

Michael.

PS: Parking is a _bit_ challenging today – there was not one spot in the big lot at 7 a.m. and the park looked like Tent City.

Map to Dive Site at SeaStarAdventures.com
Viz: 20′+ in canyon – 6′ shallow
Temp: 52
Surf: 1′ -2′

La Jolla Shores PM, Thurs July 3, 2008

seastaradventures — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:44:06 +0000

Buddied up with Mike B. and Jimbo S. this evening for a leisurely dive. As Vallecitos proved to be more of a parking challenged area now, we parked in the parking lot.
By the way, exactly at 10:00 pm the police strongly encourage you to leave the parking lot, and they start handing out citations.
A new pre-dive issue for me – turning on my air, a not-what-you-wanna-hear hissing sound screamed from my low pressure hose connection to my pressure gauge. Crap. Long story short, took the thing apart, and the most minuscule of O rings had imploded. Lucky for the save-a-dive-kit. We replaced that one, and a second one for good measure. Note to self: it is now a good idea to also carry an Xacto knife or similar sharp and very pointy tool as they are real hard to loosen off.
Kicking out the discussion turned to how it’s a good idea to take note of a distinguishing feature of our buddies as to recognize them u/w.
So of course as we hit our depth, my mask leaks, I stop to fix it – then join the diver with the distinguishing dive suit pattern and their buddy. So why are we headed back to Shore? Finally I realized I am with the wrong crowd, I did a 180, and re-grouped with Mike and Jimbo who were patiently waiting for me.
Onwards then, usual fauna and flora were out in force – baby Thornbacks, Cusk Eels, lotsa crabs, flatfish, Octos, Sarcastic Fringeheads in their dens, and, those Kamikaze fish are baaaack, ouch!
Mike finally took off for the warmth of terra firma (whine ), so Jimbo and I toughed it out for a bit longer, and communed with all the life in the shallows.
Great dive!

jackie

Map to Dive Site at SeaStarAdventures.com
Time: 8:00 pm ~
Viz: 20′+ in canyon – 6′ shallow
Temp: 52
Surf: 1′ -2′
Current: only at entry – that strong backwash