4 DIVE RPTs Pics+Video and I HAD A BABY!!!

I'm finally back to work after 3 weeks of paternity leave (you may have noticed I've been a bit absent from the forums! haha). I am ecstatic to send a big update on a few dives, a few good fish and most importantly our little baby Bella Love!

The Best Catch first - Bella Love was born 2/5/19 @ 8#1oz, 22". She looks JUST like her mom and you couldn't tell she's even mine apart from her being pretty strong, tall and super gassy. She also sleeps identically to me which is neat. =P She's a great eater and nocturnal. We dig her a whole lot and are utterly exhausted 100% of the time. Here are a couple pics.








Diving! Thankfully the family that visited us here and there over the last few weeks all asked for fresh fish, so with a whimsical look aimed at my wife, she conceded that I could get get wet so long as a family member stayed to help with the kiddo. They weren't long dives and conditions were pretty awful most of the days. Dive 1 - Kayaked out of Carmel: about 10' vis at best, super surgey, not very fishy; Dive 2 - Kayaked out of SWS: wonderful day on top of the water, paddled about 2 miles before hopping in, very first drop got a decent ling at 27.5" and a 6.5" scallop. Then less than 30 minutes later the wind picked up to gusts of 45 knots causing really big wind waves and white caps. It got super hairy (I even puked a couple times in the water which rarely happens) so we hopped back in the yaks, and started to paddle back. The guy I was with wasn't used to super harsh paddle conditions and was getting pretty nervous (cut his anchor line - which I was able to grab and pull up for him) and was pretty close to getting flipped on a few of the big waves. I resorted to singing yo-ho-yo-ho-pirates life for me and hollering encouragement to help him keep a straight head. Once back into the cove, he was a trooper and we dove for another couple hours. He is a great diver so I'm glad we kept going. Ended up with a pretty big grassy inside the cove but again, not super fishy. Dive 3 - shore dive SWS: horrible conditions everywhere with reports of 1-5' vis. Decided to take out a young buck to SWS and dive inside the cove. We surface swam almost all the way to Ghost Trees and ended up getting a couple fish for dinner that night despite really bad vis and a ripping current from the double NW swell. Dive 4 - Big Sur: this was an excellent dive. Tried a new spot that I found a small remote shore access that required you climb down some big rocks and do a little jump to get in (and a climb to get out). Definitely wouldn't have worked if the swells were bigger but was just fine with the small 4-6' NW swell. I was specifically targeting a bigger black and yellow for DOTY since they get big down in Sur. This spot had really unique structure with huge walls that went straight down 30-40 feet from the surface... it some spots I could see all the way to the bottom. Also found this super eerie black hole. I was in 30 fow and saw a dark spot beneath me. Swam down to it and it was like a vertical cave about 15' wide and relatively circular/cylindrical. I kept going down to 50' (my limit for when diving alone) and still couldn't see the bottom with my spot light on full power. Totally creeped me out for some reason. I also swam into another "vertical cave" that was only about 40' deep and at the bottom it had a super small swim through. I hesitated for a moment and felt like I had plenty of air to try, so I fit my shoulders through and swam out the other side. You can see in the video that my gopro was starting to flood (I put some tissue paper in it to absorb any condensation from the cold water and I must not have gotten a good seal on it). Thankfully it's only a gopro 3+ so it wasn't a major loss... although the new ones are not cheap. This spot was frustratingly unfishy outside of a huge abundance of Black and Yellows and schools of baby blues. That being said, I got a 27" ling, and 2 B+Y at >13.25" which are pretty big for that species. It was a super fun day in the water and since I started early I was able to get home early and help with Bella.

I was fortunate to be in the water and even more fortunate that last weekend was so beautiful. It has been a treat to spend time with my daughter, wife and her family. Even got to make a few tasty meals for everyone! I'm especially grateful that my wife wants to eat fish again. It was something that made her nauseous during pregnancy. Here are some pics and video of the dives!

SWIM THROUGH AND FISH VIDEO LINK HERE

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

REALLY AWESOME

ALL OF IT!!!

Congratulations!

Congrats!!

First catch is definitely a KEEPER! Grats! 😁

awesum u got patrnity lv.  i feel jipt i got nunn!  congrats on bella

wen ur off the water 4 so long, it feels soooo gud 2 get back in, huh?  hope ur able 2 continue getting out - critical 2 being a good dad is being in the rt frame of mind, so u gotta do u

Congrats Eric on Bella and nice write up/video!

First catch is definitely a KEEPER! Grats! 😁

hahah Yep! Legal Ling sized baby... I'll take it! =P

awesum u got patrnity lv.  i feel jipt i got nunn!  congrats on bella

wen ur off the water 4 so long, it feels soooo gud 2 get back in, huh?  hope ur able 2 continue getting out - critical 2 being a good dad is being in the rt frame of mind, so u gotta do u

A new law was passed in 2018 saying that dads in cali can take 6 weeks paid leave. If you took yours in 2018-19, you might still be able to claim it via the ca gov website.