Dive Buddies: Martha Ornelas, Jon Weaver Power Scuba meetup group. Found the big halibut at Vallecita's! Went snorkeling with Jon and Britney after, saw the green sea turtle and lots of leopard sharks.

Dive Buddy: Angela Steinway First cove dive! Swam through the kelp forest videoing fish while Angela navigated us. Saw a group of half a dozen giant sea bass.

Dive Buddies: Trevor Tracy, Jacob, Eli Chavez Attempted to dive in the kelp again, but had difficulty keeping it (and 3 buddies) in sight with the low visibility. Ended up in sand desert and reef, but saw tons of garibaldi, kelp bass, and smaller schools of fish! Met Britney and her friend Seth afterwards for snorkeling (finally saw a bat ray!) and lunch.

Dive Buddies: Joe Vechinski, Taylor Wren, Amera Bishop Morning dive from the marine room to south canyon and heading north. Visibility was great! Not a ton of life, but lots of rock crabs and moustache slugs. Joe wrestled a crab and tried to grab a lobster. Saw one small octopus resting and a decent size horn shark on the way back in. Also spotted someone's red Sola dive light and mounting bracket in the sand while snorkeling on the way in and found its owner (Adam Pierce)! Yay!

Dive Buddy: Rebecca Riley Rebecca wanted to see the kelp, so we braved the cove. Visibility started alright (for cove) but got gradually worse as the dive went on. We had to surface halfway through because I lost our bearings and the wind had picked up quite a bit. Didn't see much other than kelp bass and garibaldi, but it was good to see the kelp again and practice navigation.

Dive Buddies: Emily Strand, Evan Walsh Early morning dive with Emily! And Evan from the Two Divers Below group showed up randomly as well. Emily brought me a home made french toast latte and I baked blueberry scones for everyone. Evan plays Rocket League! Even though the sun was coming up as we swam out, the bioluminescence from the unusual red tide we've been having was still visible. Not much to see in the shallows as we did the surface swim, but once we descended there was lots of life. Octopus were still out and loads of sea hares including the biggest one I've ever seen! (Emily described it as being the size of a puppy) Spotted a few rock fish and scorpion fish, still more octopus, soles and halibut, and one Spanish shawl. Got photo-bombed by a cormorant while filming a decorator crab on the way in!

Dive Buddy: Jamie Managed to sneak in a dive with the Two Divers Below group before kids' Saturday soccer class. This was a pre-dive before the majority of other divers arrived for later morning dives, so there were only four of us (Adam, Doug, and Jamie). We decided to do the north wall. Viz in the shallows was pretty bad, but cleared up quite a bit by the canyon. Saw lots of nudibranchs! Two spanish shawls, a clown nudi, and a few mimic dorids (the yellow ones). Adam and Doug were kicking along at a pretty fast pace and Jamie was intent on following them so I burned through a steel 100 in just 30 mins. We ended up having to do an early ascent, but saw the fabled angel shark just before going up! Great dive!

Dive Buddies: Konor Sacks, Tim Another early morning dive 0 with the TDB crew! Adam and one of his AOW classmates, AB, buddied up and I joined Konor and Tim. Tim only had 2800 psi in his cylinder, so he was our turn signal. Didn't see much on this dive other than two giant sea bass below us on the surface swim out! I could hardly make them out in the murky shallows and wasn't fast enough to get my camera, but they were unmistakably GSBs. I saw a video of them from Ian of SD Shore Dive Buds group later confirming I want imagining things. We went north on the wall per usual. Saw a couple sleeping octos in the wall, some big sculpin, the same clutch of lobsters I saw hanging out in the sea grass last weekend, and a few rock crabs on the swim back. Viz was also all over the place this dive. Horrible in the surf, patchy in the canyon, and crystal clear in the sand on the way back in.

Dive buddy: Emily Strand Another early morning dive with Emily! She seems to be the only one that'll get up early enough to squeeze in a dive before I take the kids to school. She brought me another homemade latte and I brought a partially consumed box of Reese's Puffs my neighbor gifted me for helping her move out of her apartment yesterday. What a step down from last week's scones lol The surface swim out from Vallecitos was nice and easy. I spotted a medium size leopard shark in the surf before we were even waist deep in the water. The red tide is still in full effect so visibility was pretty bad at the surface, but the bioluminescence was still visible even in the early morning sunlight. We dropped down just past the first shelf of the canyon into a patch of sea grass filled with life! I almost came down on top of a baby horn shark resting only a few inches from a nudibranch I hadn't seen before (Emily later identified it as a cockscomb). There were lots of navinax, more cockscomb, octopus, and at least half a dozen baby horn sharks! After we took in all the sights, we headed north on the shelf until it ended, finding big octos tucked into holes, a spanish shawl dancing on a blade of sea grass, rock crabs, and flounder. At the end of the shelf, we ventured up the sand a bit until reaching the murk of the red tide above the thermocline where we hung out for a bit. I saw a huge bait ball swirling around the edge of our vision which I had fun herding around with my dive light. Then we returned back downhill and across the sand flats a ways not finding much until I saw a bright spot reflecting my light back at me. We didn't have to get very close for me to recognize it as the eye of an angel shark, burrowed gently below the sand. I let Emily snap a few pictures of it before deciding it was a good place to turn the dive. We didn't see much new on the way back - more crabs, flounder, octopus, and a couple more cockscomb and of course the swim into shore was very murky. I signaled Emily to ascend when I hit reserve pressure and we were greeted on the surface by four large pelicans bobbing for bait balls about 10 yards away. Great dive to start the week!

Dive Buddy: Emily Strand Another early morning dive with Emily before taking the kids to school. The red tide was more prevalent than on Monday, so the bioluminescence was extra bright on the swim out! We went out from Vallecitos and managed to drop into the same grass patch as before. Still lots of baby horn sharks, navinax, a large scorpion fish, sole, and bait balls around. Tons of octopus, too! As we started swimming north there wasn't as much life, but I did spot two squid swimming side by side. They darted off pretty quick as I got close, but I still managed to video them for a few seconds. Emily kept stopping for photos of nudis, so I played with my buoyancy a bit. I also found her the tiniest little mimic dorid hanging out in the sand. I hit turn pressure sooner than Monday, but I think we spent more of the dive deeper as well. A ways into the red murk on the way back in, I spotted someone's GoPro Hero 9 Black in the sand! Complete with housing and selfie stick! Emily gave me a snap bolt to clip it to my BCD since my hands were full. I had to safety stop and surface before we swam all the way in because I was at reserve pressure, but all in all it was a good dive. However, I lost the GoPro before we made it to shore!! I went to pull off the snap bolt and all that was attached was the lanyard. I was so frustrated. I never seem to make it back when any treasures I find... oh well!

Dive Buddies: Emily Strand, Britney Pellouchoud Early morning dive with Emily! Britney got up early with us to tag along, too. After some confusion over meetup location, Emily and I moved from Vallecitos to the parking lot when Britney was (which was okay since vanlife people were taking over most of Vallecitos). Emily brought me another latte and I brought some peach scones from Jimbo's (she said they weren't nearly as good as mine). After gearing up, during which two beach bums got extremely chatty with us, we had a brief freakout moment because Emily couldn't find her keys! After searching around for a few minutes, she finally discovered them in her undergarments and we were off into the water! Surface swim out was fairly uneventful, but Emily suggested we descend a bit earlier than normal so we could have more bottom time since we were a little late getting in the water. Britney had some difficulty making herself sink, but after a few tries and suggestions from me and Emily, we were finally down and off to the canyon! Visibility was pretty bad throughout the dive, but it didn't stop us from finding plenty of crabs, halibut, a few horn shark babies, Spanish shawls, and the big monster halibut that I haven't spotted since AOW when I didn't have my camera! Both Emily and Britney posed for pictures with it, but the water was so murky that Britney's didn't come out very well. Emily turned us slightly early, conscious of the time and that I needed to get back to take the kids to school, and we headed back. It felt quick, but we still had a good time. Yay diving!

Dive Buddy: Darren Hunter Darren asked in the TDB group for a buddy to do cove and I heeded the call! Except cove was extra choppy so we relocated to marine room. The surface swim out was a bit rough (saw two horn sharks chilling) and we couldn't find the buoy, so we decided to just descend once we couldn't see bottom anymore, but we ended up descending right into the amphitheatre which was my target! We followed the wall north to turn pressure. Visibility was pretty patchy, but descent enough to spot some critters including tons of octopus (including quite a few big ones), rock crabs, an angel shark buried pretty well, and some dive bombing cormorants. We also found the old mooring line which had a few rock crabs hanging out around its base. Once we turned the dive and started heading in, I spotted a horn shark, a lone giant sea bass, and almost got skewered by a diving cormorant. The surge was pretty heavy close to shore and we took a bit of a beating getting out, but overall a great dive!

Dive Buddy: Emily Strand Weekday morning dive ritual with Emily! Shallows were super clear, but didn't see much on the swim out besides one lone horn shark. There was a slight southerly current that moved our descent point a bit south of our usual grass patch. We dropped just south of Vallecitos Point a bit past the canyon. Saw TONS of octopus (both red and a couple two spot) and side gilled sea goddesses (which I thought were mimic dorids), a medium sized halibut, and some foraging rock crabs. Also saw a pretty massive male sheepshead, possibly the same one I saw way back in OW. I hit reserve pressure a bit early on the swim in (Emily was snapping lots of pictures of nudibranchs after we turned and I didn't want to rush her), so we had to ascend a bit early to do a swimming safety stop. But when we surfaced there were hundreds of cormorants flying north right over us! It was pretty magical. When we got back to our cars Emily said her knees were wet under her dry suit which was weird...

Dive Buddy: Doug Wagner Decided to try cove again after a week or so of hearing decent dive reports from Brian Zach. Unfortunately, we didn't have as much luck. The beach and shallows were absolutely overtaken by sea lions (both adults and pups) sleeping, playing, barking, and wrestling with each other. It was pretty fun to watch while getting in the water! But as soon as I get my mask and snorkel on, I could tell it was going to be a murky dive. We swam out to the buoy and dropped in the kelp per usual, following it west/southwest. We really didn't see much. The usual kelp bass, a few sheepshead, lots of smaller fish, and I spotted an eel of some kind before it slithered into the kelp. Turbidity on the bottom was just frustratingly cloudy. We eventually ran into reef, garibaldi, and a few lobsters, but viz just continued to worsen as we got nearer shore. Eventually we ran into a rope leading up to a small buoy and decided to surface where it appeared we had run into the end of the marine preserve. We swam back most of the way on the surface, popping back down for a few minutes just to break up the monotony. Always good to get in the water, but I hope next time I do cove it lives up to the reports!

Dive Buddies: Matt Wilbur, Vishal Kunnil I wasn't planning on diving, but rain is in the forecast for this week, so I made a last minute decision to get a dive in before it shows up. I was going to dive with Rick Clayton, but he decided to go with Ian an hour earlier than planned so I ended up finding Matt Wilbur gearing up with Herb and a few others in the parking lot and he graciously allowed me to tag along. We decided to go easy and do Vallecitos. The surf was pretty big, but there were generous breaks in between, so it wasn't hard to find a window getting out. Visibility on the swim out wasn't too bad, but Matt wanted to drop a little early to try and spot baby GSBs in the sand (we did not find any). We swam out to the canyon and found the usual suspects - rock fish, kelp bass, quite a few sheepshead (including one massive male), one baby horn shark, some two spot octopus hiding in burrows on the wall, and one decent sized Spanish shawl (about where I hit turn pressure). We didn't see much on the swim back which got perpetually murkier as we neared shore. A few moon snails, sheep/decorator crabs, and a sandflat elbow crab.

Dive Buddies: Adam Pierce, Sean Forbes The rains earlier in the week staved us off for a bit, but I was itching to get back in the water. And Adam's back! After his tech dive trip to Cabo, he and Sarah caught COVID and weren't diving for a couple weeks. We did marine room after hearing reports all week of great conditions all around La Jolla. Saw some two-tank rebreather divers with DPVs going out as well. Surface swim was easy, with visibility starting bad and then suddenly opening up to around 25 ft. No signs of life in the shallows, though. We descended right at the edge of the canyon and headed southeast. Not much big life, but lots of little nudibranchs (San Diego dorid, opalescent, Spanish shawl, and lots of navinax), some baby sheepshead, lobsters, and sleeping two-spot octopus in their dens. We turned earlier than normal for Adam (maybe Sean was at turn pressure, he was finning a lot and silting up the water quite a bit) and headed uphill to the edge of the sea grass. Lots of kelp bass swimming around in the grass and a few old buoy heads with strawberry anemones and other life and them. We surfaced with still a little ways to go back to shore, so I veered towards the reef with my snorkel to see if there was any life over there. Sure enough, I heard some other snorkelers sounding ecstatic and found they were observing a large pack of leopard sharks! I counted two groups of about a dozen each. All in all a good dive and great to go out with Adam again.

Dive Buddy: Emily Strand Up bright and early again with Emily. Air temp was 47° this morning and my gear was still wet from the previous morning, so I'm finally experiencing what cold weather diving is like and it is not great above the water! But it was pretty good below! We swam our normal route out, but decided to go south on the wall rather than north like we usually do. Visibility started out pretty good, but then a fairly dense and deep thermocline crept in and it got pretty murky for the second half of the dive. We still managed to find a few sleeping two-spot octos, lobsters, sheepshead, and Emily found quite a few very tiny nudibranchs. We also spotted a lone sea lion twice, though I didn't get a great video of it. We came across a very decorated rock with a healthy gorgonian growing on it. I spotted a tiny three-lined aeolid for Emily plus a decorator crab and a baby prawn on the gorgonian. Emily also found a sorcerer's nudibranch on the swim in. I wish visibility had been better because everyone says it's great this time of year, but it seems I haven't quite found it yet. Still always great to start the morning/week off with an Emily dive!

Dive Buddy: Emily Strand Post-Thanksgiving morning dive, back in the water with Emily! We picked up at our usual spot, an easy kick out to Vallecitos. Right off the bat, we encountered a playful sea lion in about 15 ft of water during the kick out. He swam circles around us, spinning all the while, veering towards us and away from us, blowing bubbles at us, pausing on the sand, and then darting back up. He was quite fun to watch and put on a great show for a few minutes! Visibility in the shallows was pretty decent, so much so that we could see the slope down towards the canyon before we descended. We made for the canyon and then headed North. Lots of good sized Spanish shawls out, rock crabs, red octos foraging, two-spot octos lurking in their cubbies, the big boy sheepshead, and all my other usual sea buddies. I also saw a new type of sea star that Emily identified as a rainbow star. I hit turn pressure shortly after we found Vallecitos Point. Not long after, Emily found a medium sized horn shark. The rest of the way in was fairly uneventful, though I saw two types of nudibranchs I hadn't seen before (one burgundy colored one with red feathery protrusions almost like algae and another smooth-backed grey one with just two little rhinophores sticking up in front). Emily wanted to surface a bit early because the currents were bothering her, so we went up at around 14 ft and we swam the rest of the way in. During the kick in, there was a suspicious looking blue pleasure boat hovering awfully close to shore with three people visible, including one wearing a red jacket. We didn't think much of it, but later on while we were breaking down our gear, I saw two lifeguard vehicles screaming down the beach towards the Marine Room. Later in the morning there was a report that the blue boat may have been involved in a human trafficking incident and that it had been beached and abandoned by no less than 8 people who fled from it and piled into 3 vehicles waiting for them by the restaurant...