Diving Designs

First Big Catalina Trip - June 2009

2009-06-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

We had a great trip! We made new friends Dan, Gretchen and their two children and hung out on Catalina Island for 3 days. What could be better? Thanks Dan for taking us to the reef and to shore. Hopefully we'll see you guys again soon.

Written by Brian:

This report is from our first Catalina Island trip with our 19 foot boat, June 18 – 22.

Day 1 - Nikki and I left Napa CA Thursday morning to trailer our boat to Long Beach for a 3 night Catalina trip over at 2 Harbors. All went well and the drive down was fine except the LA traffic. We got into Long Beach Thursday night and spent the night in a hotel before crossing over to Catalina in the morning.

Day 2 – We get up and out of our great Super 8 motel accommodations by about 6 AM and headed down to Davies boat ramp in Long Beach. We got all the gear loaded and the boat launched by about 8:30 AM and by 9:00 AM we are heading out the breakwater and setting a course for 2 Harbors. Weather was overcast and a light wind with 2 – 3 foot swells so we were able to keep a good speed of about 21mph on the crossing. Half way across the channel we can see the island, this is good. After the crossing we headed over to a cove around Indian Rock and started diving a kelp bed in the area. Water temp was 64 deg the whole trip, and the vis was a good 35 to 40 feet this first dive site. Nikki and I dove for about 3 hours at this site. No fish taken but lots of life out, small barracuda, sheephead, and calicos. All the legal calicos would not have any of the spear gun but the diving was great and Nikki and I were having a great time. Just as we were wrapping up and swimming back to the boat, 3 white sea bass swim by not even flinching, they were all just a bit short of 28 inches but great to see then for my first time. We packed it in to go back and get a spot at 2 Harbors.

Day 3- We get up and out early, and I had Nikki drop me at ship rock for a little live boat diving. I dove ship rock for about 1 hour, vis was a good 60 plus feet with lots of bait and a good current but no yellow tail to be spotted. Hopped back in the boat and we headed south a bit to Yellow Tail point to find a dive site that we both could dive. We hooked up at yellow tail point and vis was a good 25 -30 feet and bait all over. We dove in and out of this bait ball all afternoon. Barracuda, small calicos, bat rays, lobster, but not yellow tail. At times the bait ball would just encircle us as we made drops into it just looking for some fish to strike at all this bait. Well nothing. After being fishless yesterday I shot a sheephead that we prepped for ceviche and got marinating in some lime, salt and pepper for dinner. Top side weather could have been better, as it was overcast with a bit a light drizzle all day. By 2:30 we pulled anchor and headed back to 2 Harbors to get tied up and have a beer. Got the rest of the ceviche ready and had quesadillas, ceviche, and margaritas for dinner.

Day 4- Up and out of 2 harbors and started looking for a dive site. The sun was out but the swell was up and the wind was picking up so most all the sights on the west end had a great deal of surge. Ended up going back to Yellow Tail point but the vis was only about 15 feet now and I spent a few hours bottom hunting and pocking around looking for a calico. No luck so after it looked like the wind was picking up pretty good we pulled anchor and headed back up to 2 Harbors. Got some lunch on the island, walked over to the other side of the island and then jumped in for some diving in and around the harbors east wall. Low vis but a fun little reef dive. After Nikki and I were in the water for about an hour the owner of the boat next to us pulled up in his 13 foot Boston whaler skiff and offered to take us out to harbor reef so we could leave our boat tied up. We did some live boat diving at harbor reef for about and hour. The vis was a good 35 plus feet and lots of Calicos out. I figured this was it I was going to get my first calico here. I made a few drops and then as I was breathing up on the surface I spotted something that looked like the outline of a huge shark, I cut the breath up and dropped down 15 feet to see my first giant black sea bass. This thing was HUGE, just trolling the reef. After slowing my heart back down I went back to looking for that calico. Spotted a nice one from the surface so I dropped down behind a kelp stalk and lined up on him before he saw me and let the spear fly. Got a good shot on the fish and we now had a 2.5lb calico for dinner. Jumped back into our new friends Boston whaler and headed back to 2 harbors to get the grill going as it was 6:00 PM now. We had fresh calico on the grill for dinner, a last margarita and cleaned up the boat for and early 6:00 AM crossing over back to main land.

Day 5 – Up at 5:30 AM and left 2 Harbors by 6 AM for the crossing back to Long Beach. Headed out with little wind and by 1/3 of the way across the channel we were in a good 3 -4 foot swell with some 5 footers here and there. The nice part was the swell was at our back corner so with a little fancy wheel work we were able to hold about 25 mph for a quick trip back to Davies ramp. Got the boat loaded up on the trailer and headed out of Long Beach by about 9:00 Am for the 450 mile drive back to Napa Ca. All in all it was a great trip and we plan to go back soon. Would have liked to gotten a few more fish but we did not go hungry so all was well. 2 Harbors is an awesome place to spend a few days. Thanks for sticking it out to the end of this report.

Scuba Knights Specie Scramble

2009-05-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

The Scuba Knights dive club hosted a Cencal event this weekend at Ocean Cove. It was a specie scramble, free diving only. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend. The sun was out and there was no fog, no wind and very little swell. The water was a chilly 48 degress with a blessed 20 ft. of vis. Brian used his new Rob Allen speargun for the first time this weekend. I also tried out my new Yazbeck gloves which worked great. Thanks to Vanessa at the Freedive Shop for your great customer service as usual. Needless to say we had a great time, met lots of new fun people and we got to dive with guys from both of our clubs, Monterey Bay Tritons and Redwood Empire Divers. Thanks to Paul for bringing the kayaks.

Big Ab / Big Ling Event North Coast

2009-05-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

The 3rd Annual Big Ab/Big Ling Event was held last weekend and it was a blast! It was a soggy weekend and the diving conditions were, well, horrible but it didn't stop the hardy divers. The was great home brew, great prizes and lots of great people. Brian took 13th in the ab division with a 9.1 incher. We ate BBQ'd abalone for dinner with my dad's delicious potato salad and rhubarb-custard pie!

Bay Area Dive Show

2009-04-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at the Bay Area Dive Show this weekend. There was a great turn out and we got to catch up with many of our diving friends we haven't seen in a while. Above is a pic of our display case Brian built. Our jewelry was well received and we look forward to shows in the future. Thank you to Brian and MaryJo of Pacific Coast Scuba and the BeachhopperII for being our distributor and having us at the show.

Brian's First Fish!

2009-04-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

Brian and John Z. from Redwood Empire Divers went out a couple of weekends ago and went diving on the North Coast at Fisk Mill Cove. The wind was up but the viz was pretty good. Brian shot his first fish with his new polespear. He got a nice blue rock fish and as they headed in retrieved a nice abalone. Fish tacos and fresh ab, what could be better?

Ab Season Opener Success!

2009-04-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

Brian dove on Thursday April 2nd. For his first time out he got his daily limit. James from Redwood Empire Dive Club went as well and they both had a great time. The wind was up, the swell was down and the viz was 8 - 10 feet. All in all a good day on the North Coast. We grilled the abalone Friday and Saturday nights and it was delicious!

Sea Ranch Family Excursion

2009-03-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

Sea Ranch was our destination this weekend. Every year the family gathers for Grandpa's birthday. Sea Ranch is on the North Coast above Fort Ross and below Gualala. It's a beautiful area with rugged coast line, wild animals, abundant flora, and wild weather. The North coast is known by hunters and fisherman for abalone, ling cod, and crab. Brian braved the chilly water on Saturday. The sea was calm and the viz was decent. Brian dove for several hours. He caught a dungeness crab and released it. We saw harbor seals and even a sea otter.

Freediving Otter Cove March 3-7-09 Monterey, CA

2009-03-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

The conditions looked like they were supposed to be good so we drove down to Monterey to practice our freediving. It's been 6 1/2 weeks since I ruptured my eardrum and it was time to try diving again. It was a beutiful sunny day at Otter cove and a good 20 ft. of vis. We dove for an hour and a half and then let the dog out to play on the beach. Another great day! Check out the video we made freediving in Otter Cove here.

Beautiful North Coast

2009-01-24T16:35:00.000-08:00

We skipped out Friday afternoon and headed to the North Coast since it had been beautiful all week. We landed at Stillwater Cove. The sea was flat, the wind was absent and the sun was warm. The dog swam, we had a picnic and we watched the sunset which happened to be one of the longest sunsets we had ever seen. It's good to live near the coast. However, not yet close enough.

Freediving at Lovers - Monterey, CA

2009-01-24T16:20:00.000-08:00

Sunday Jan.18, 2009

We left at 5:00 in the morning to drive down to Monterey since the conditions were supposed to be nice. We practiced our freediving at Lovers cove. The weather was totally clear and sunny and 75 degrees. The visibility was 30- 35 feet and the ocean was calm. Talk about a beautiful day. All was going great until the very last dive when I ruptured my eardrum. So now I 'm out of the H2O for a while, total bummer. Other than that it was an awesome day!

First Diving of the Year-2009

2009-01-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

We went to Monterey to get a couple of days of diving in. Friday the 2nd we we were at the Breakwater Wall. It was raining but the water looked calm and fairly clear. So we donned our wetsuits to practice our freediving skills. We had a great time. Brian got down to 25 ft. and I got down to 22 ft. We had a friendly sea lion hang out with us for a couple of minutes. Saturday we met up with a group from Napa Dive & Sport. We stayed at the Breakwater Wall in Monterey. The swell was up, yes even there, but the skies were clear and we got to enjoy the sun for the first time in weeks. The first dive was to the metridian field and the viz was a lovely 7 ft. The second dive was on the wall itself and the viz improved to 10 ft. The sea lions were fun to watch and we saw lingcod, blacksmiths, great sculpin (on video), kelp greenling, lemon nudibranchs, rubberlip surfperch, kelp rockfish, decorator crabs, lots of starfish, scallops, jellyfish, and ringed nudibranchs.

Redwood Empire Divers

2008-12-30T13:49:00.000-08:00

My husband and I recently joined the local Santa Rosa dive club called Redwood Empire Divers. We went to their annual Christmas party and met the members. They are all friendly and very enthusiastic about diving. They mostly dive the North coast. Members both SCUBA and freedive. They like to do a lot of hunting and do 2 campouts a year. Can't wait to go diving!