Hey Everyone!

Long time no see 

So I feel after an FII Cert and as my experience has broadened a main limiting factor in my performance while diving is my fins. Particularly as 50-60ft becomes more normal, I'd like to be as comfortable down there as possible.

Now I'm close to pulling the trigger on the Mako Carbons (Gasp Mako ), as you can't beat the cost. But the little things matter to me, so I'm not opposed to spending more if improvement will be drastic.

What do you all think?

Thanks!
Jesse

On a two week hiatus between jobs and been jonesin to go dive to clear my head before pursuing an amazing  Oppurtunity in my career field.

None of my dive partners are around, oh well, modify my longjohns to a high waist and get rollin to my favorite zone by 10am.

Waters looking the calmest Ive seen all summer, no shorebreak but still some leftover chop from the incessant non stop summer wind. Does anyone know what the deal is with all this wind? Like really...

Cruise down and hop in and was surprised to not see a ridiculous amount of kicked up sediment, a pleasant surprise; still undivable conditions for some of my buds- but Im quite comfy in the murk thank you very much.

I kick out and thankfully my shallow water reef isnt a giant closeout, its swelly but not too bad. Go to the crack where the infamous large grey and white cab is and he darts past me at the end of my breath.....
Frantically scour the area, Say a few curses and move on my way.Wherever you are cab.... I will find you.... And I will kill you  

Motor out deep because I was getting annoyed with the swell, but I have no light; mine is so bad Id rather just not even dive with it. Dive deep.... Dont have a watch, but deep enough where the water temp drops 10 degrees; deep enough to where Im equalizing 3-6 times- its super dark and green today- too spooky.

Its Eery as I descend by myself, as i look down while breathing up I cant see much past 15 feet. Descend into the darkness until around 30ft and then the water clears and negative buoyancy takes over.

For whatever reason, the outside zone here just doesnt feel very fishy, no mussels/ab shells, bad cover, too much sand; but there are some giant crevices and boulders providing some good cover and schools of large rockfish to prey on.

There are probably some serious monsters out there, but theyre probably out deep during the summer or seriously hold up way past my non flashlight assisted vision. The only reason I check is because a scuba steve pulled a 29lber about a month ago; hes the worst. Must be nice to be able to scour every single crack and hole thoroughly. I digress....

Slam a darting away from me 15" greenling. And take probably 30 dives, no lings or cabs to be found. Plently of black and yellows though 

This is where some serious apathy kicks in. I literally just use my greenling as chum and start letting the schools of rockfish swarm around me. 2 olives, a blue, a black. Were taken like this. Now I know how those guys off the charter boats feel hammering blue fin huddled around a dropped line. So weak. Hammer a black and yellow and decide to head back in to check the whole inside shallow reef since the waves are relatively mellow.

Make a parallel line from the cab crack to a washrock and man this area is so fishy. 5-25ft deep, littered with holes, tons of algea, tons and tons of empty ab shells, lots of kelpies and grassies with bite marks. And this is where I scored a 32" ling and most my cabs. Strange because its so shallow.... Or maybe I just need a watch and Ive been diving much deeper than previously thought. Its always felt fishy, but scuba steve must have gotten into my head with his shallow water heckles and lured me out deep 

The water is nice and clear but swelly. I scan the bottom trying to spot anything holding still as the kelp sways to and fro. Boom a pair of red eyes standing still in swirling red kelp. Thought it was a large grassy, and went for a closer look only to have it vanish in the thick algea as a wave passed. Hold steady and wait for the outward motion and boom; big face and red body- cab time. Stoned and pinned on the rock: 17". This place is loaded with um, but none that are crazy big like the lings.

Put him on my gun with the rest and cruise over to the wash rock. Great great habitat; im glad its small enough so I can thoroughly check it out. I keep on the surface and occasionally j hook. I find a nice stretch of reef with a large crack that goes into a hole with a perfect overhang. As I follow the crack on the surface an enormous ling swims under me heading to that overhang. "Holy Shit!"

He of course tries to stand me me up as I anxiously dive down. Hes big, and I try my best to control my nerves. Like seriously.... How do you guys slam 40" ers. Like these things are sketchy. Awesome predators. My gun sucks, so I need to make sure my shot is perfect but hes not lining up for a stone shot and I dont want him to swim away.

Get a decent angle and blast him above the cheek. My shaft doesnt deploy all the way(which I usually plan knowing Ill get a stone shot) and he breaks away from the pin and alligator rolls 30 times but cant break free. In the process the 31" pig breaks the circular guide on my spear that threads the shaft and holds it in line with the gun body.

Hes too big to reach around and wont let me in his gills. Finally I get a grip and thread him down my line. Pull my spear tip up and end his misery.

As Im gathering my thoughs and letting out some solid hoots another slightly smaller ling comes out to check out the commotion. Holy shit! Go to load my gun and see that the guide is broke. Fumble for a few seconds with 7 fish flopping on my gun line and try to keep an eye on him. Loaded and he vanished....

Shit.... I scour the area knowing that it cant be far away. 5 minutes and no luck and as 10 minutes come up I dive straight down to where I shot the last guy and there he is; perfectly camoed on the side of the rock in the red Algea. I must pass hundreds every dive.

Streamline my mass of hanging fish that cant be strung because of the broken guide and line up a stone shot. He goes down easy. Hopefully they werent a breeding pair at 29".

Feel like I might as well limit on 30" lings if I can, but no luck and I head in.

Whats interesting is that all my big lings have been found in relatively shallow water. This is directly contradicting to most spearos I follow experiences. On that reef Ive gotten a 32", 31" and 29" all in 15-20 ft of water. Must be because its the only habitable reef out of the trench that isnt super deep. I dunno

The walk up was awful, but the cab and yellow were baked and the rest were fillet.

Once more if youre ever looking to dive give me a holler

Keep it real all,
Jesse

Instagram:jrsnyder91

Hey All,

Im living in Seaside now and thought it'd be cool to contribute to such a cool forum. Been a water sport athlete since I was nine and often times feel more comfortable in the water than out. I try to dive once a week; Nothin better!

Any-who, went out to my goto summer spot and realize that there was more south swell in the water than I thought.... After the fact I realized it was SSW at 3ft at 15s... This is concerning because my partner for the day gets very seasick, but we decided to go for it. He's been jonesin to hit up this spot and I'm level 10 excited that my new dive suit has come. I've never warn a dive suit and my 4/3 surf suit is becoming too cold; who woulda known that uncontrollable shakes are bad for bottom times. The XXL fits great, and is comfy; although slightly restrictive in the chest. I may turn it into a high waist, but you cant fix broad shoulders... I slightly resemble an upside-down triangle.

I lube up( which was super gross feeling  ) and we head down to the zone. Greeted by 2-4ft shore-break that was manageable as a surfer; but my buddy lost his fin and luckily recovered it. This zone has very dense kelp and a nice trench (350ft) about 100 yards off the kelp bed- this place is stocked, has a hard entry, and its off the beaten path; my kind of spot!

The depth drops to 20' right off the shore and there's around 5-10ft of silty viz that generally opens up to around 20-30' of viz at around 20-30ft depth. We motor and park our craft in the kelp, and the swell is tossing. Too much surge in the shallows; the entanglement factor was a little too high for me. The 15 second period has some real energy and my shallow water fish were all holed up in deeper water I assumed- so I kicked out to the trench. Well not kicked, but strategically dove and surfaced as the kelp is too thick to even army crawl through.

Now I'm not going to lie, I'm looking for big lings and cabs so I start my descents to around 40' swimming through the blues who have schooled around me. Down at 40ft my pittiful 225 lumen light is barely enough to light up the deep caves. It is superbly dark down there due to the thick kelp cover; a truly amazing feeling though. I do a couple of dives at depth, but I fear the consistent wind and consequent windswell this summer has them out deep.

About 30 minutes in my buddy comes up to me and is very sick, I make sure he gets out of the kelp safely and look to make one or two more drops to depth. I can only see 5 feet into the dark blue as a I breathe up and the kelp entangling me is slightly comforting; a warm embrace ha! Make my drop with kelp trying to hold my feet up and using slightly more energy to get down (with 24lb of weight) until 30 feet where the weight equalizes and I slowly start to descend.

Noone is home in the deep caves, cracks and caverns today; or at least noone that I can see with my dopey little light. So I start to kick up and see the biggest blue Ive ever seen just right out of range and much deeper than his fellow mid water companions. I slowly swim towards him with my gun tucked and chin down (camo suit ftw), and get within range.

Line him up with a side shot and aim for the head but he starts to dart as my shaft catapults through the water. Penetrated him in the gut and the flopper just barely deploys as he starts thrashing. I hate non-lethal shots for humane and entanglement issues, but this was my chance to come up with a nice hog for dinner and I was in a  time pinch as my buddy got close to the shorebreak.

Go to grab him at depth because a tear off seemed imminent and he dwarfs my 10inch hands, but the fun isn't over. I surface and the fish wiggles out of my hands and tried to tear himself off, my knife is in my suit pocket and Im starting to get slightly tangled and panicky. "Relax and take it easy" I say to myself, kelp is funny in that it slides off easy when youre calm, and can easily drown you with panicked sudden movements. I dont like to bleed before I brain, but he needs to calm down as my hands are tangled; so I rip the gills out and use my spear shaft to finish the job. I string him on my gun and grab our board and kick in to ensure the safe exit of my friend.

Caught a nice two foot closeout on the shore and fumble out of the shorebreak and into the sand like a true pro.

Ended up measuring out at 17.5" mouth opened( Sorry!!!), but mouth closed at a PB 17". Still got a nice filet off him for a blue who had his stomach imploded, and looking forward to a tasty dinner.

Ill attach another picture of my last haul from out there with a PB 32" ling and some rockies also.

See you in the water!
Jesse


Instagram: Jrsnyder91