HI GUYS,
 I HAVE BEEN UNFAITHFULL.............   Fishing off shore Baja on a 58 research boat!
But.......
Back now just in time for rockfish season!
Steve

June 18th, 2011

Hello Adam, Mooch, Bill, Jed  et al....
I've been diving abroad most of the past year....and miss you guys.
 But to tell you the truth, I  fear...er respect....no I guess its FEAR  the SMC more then any place I've been to.
With most reef sharks...you have a sense you can beat them up in a face off if you had to......but not with our sharks here.
I remember drifting out to sea talking on a cell phone half way between Bean Hollow and the point of no return.... all alone and a number of times . Thats not happenin anymore.
20 lbs of rockfish is not worth missing your kid grow up.
Steve
ps. I found this old post and reactivated it below....

     


  February 08, 2009,

I grew up diving at Greyhound Rock, New Years Island and Halfmoon Bay because as a kid with little money, I had to stay close to home. I mean, back then Woolco gas cost 25 cents a gallon !
My brother and I dove these spots dozens of time, speared many rockfish [ especially big grass rocks] lings and cabezon and never had a shark experience at all.

I think that since then, the ever increasing biomass of pinnipeds in the water [ thanks Marine Mammal Protection Act] and of course the ever increasing biomass of hominids in the water are ever so steadiliy ratcheting up the threat matrix.

I grew up unafraid of the possibiliy of my own shark story in the Bay Area...and yet as I grow older and wiser, I am starting to consider them as a greater issue.

I am rational to fault and yet I thank the odds are slowly shifting.
 If he ever read this post, I am sure that the diving communities best spokesman, Randy Fry [ RIP] would argue against me.

When a GWS took him and I suddenly felt a lot less invincible.
 Steve

My goodness Adam....
 I just read this from the beginning [ out of the country].
Of the dozens of thoughts that come to mind, my overriding concern is simply....I'm sincerely so glad you are OK.
Your life, health and family ....I mean, really...what else comes close?

According to Sommeran, "safety while in the ocean is a matter of familiarity and possessing some situational awareness."

Well, the best of us have just survived this kind of thing; the nightmare we all harbor in the back of our mind as we paddle out.
Adam has shown that ones odds of survival increase with a rational will to fight, scramble and survive. Adam gives a hope and an example that inspires me.
 I have no doubt that if the shark actually got a hold of him, it may well have lost an eye or got a gill branch pulled out..

Wow, I have another hero now from the NCKA besides Mooch.
Steve

I bury fish guts in the gopher holes where ever they occur and seal off the openings with dirt.[ gopher cod works best]
 It:

1. Stinks them out in organic fashion.
2. Turns into fertilizer/compost
It really works!
[patent pending]
Steve

BP ought to thank its lucky stars that its a huge oil company and Packard co-hort..
 Otherwise the Packard Foundation would be all over them for causing a million times more real damage then their working class foes.

Attempted and pending environmental genocide has got to be at least a misdemeanor in their selective playbook of eco-terrorists as are fishers, divers, kayakers and the like.

They are not in this fight for the Gulf of Mexico of course but they were in the fight to whitewash and certify BPs policies as benign and responsible. Selling safe credentials and green /whitewash papers  for BP however is a matter of record.
That alone speaks for itself about the limits of their sincerity about the marine environment..

Imagine if the Packard Foundation put their money to good works instead of thinly vieled corporate interests.

Hello John
I've been stuck in Baja all spring !
I wanted this weekend but it does look bad.
 Tomorrow may be the only window for a while.

Reality?
 Hey.....be unrealistic once in awhile!
I want to go to the Pie Pt. tomorrow......Or Stillwater South but far up the coast to Yankee Pt
Whos off tomorrow?
 Lets go!
 this weekend looks terrible
Steve

And Jerry [ remember him?] would have yelled at you for violating the marine mammal protection act ie. attempting to hit a marine mammal.... and not being more accomodating to the seal.
Steve