exploring north coast wed

Was planning on taking advantage of the drop in swell by taking a novice friend out for her first ab dive, but that fell apart at the last minute. Fortunately my crazy pup, Skipper, had an opening in her calendar, so Wed was on!!

Headed up to Mendo. Just for the hell of it, decided to try a new spot. Was a pretty hardcore descent, but I had packed a spike and a rope, which I needed. Skipper is always in 4WD.

From the bluffs (first photo) I could see the normal NW swell was already shifting, as predicted to the SW. Decided to try diving off the NW side of some wash rocks that probably are normally getting hammered from the north.

Vis wasn't as good as I'd hoped, probably 8 -12 feet. But it was really cool exploring some new structure. Almost zero urchins and no kelp or bull kelp - an indication of how rough this winter has been. Found some really good holes and ledges, which seemed like they might hold the mythical loch ness ling, but she either wasn't there or evaded me.

It was cool trying out my first carbon fins ever, super light and felt really good. Definitely noticed my two months of no dives. Somehow either my weight belt needs another weight or I need to stop rewarding myself with beer every time the Warriors win! There was a reasonable amount of decent abs in the 8 1/2 - 9 1/2" range but nothing clicked as a 10. But put some decent fish on the stringer, including probably the biggest black I've personally seen or shot.

Butt kicking climb (took two trips) out of there, but good times! My pup was snoring within 10 minutes of rolling toward home, so I knew it had been a good day!

Sounds like a fine adventure. 

Sounds awesome!!

Where's the pics???

We want fish porn!!

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Hey can someone tell me why photos don't show up when I tried to post them? Thx!

8-12 ft vis, 4wd pup, spike and "Fresh" Rope , makings of fine day in Mendo area.  But....NO PICS  ,  I get it, gotta keep it secret  . Thanks for the report.

I tried to post a couple pics, but they don't seem to load. If anyone can advise me that would be great. Thanks

I tried to post a couple pics, but they don't seem to load. If anyone can advise me that would be great. Thanks

hhhmmm....

Maybe make them smaller?

You loaded them down beneath right??

See attached screenshot...

We want fish porn!!   

I keep trying- put them into photo program and shrank image size....

Nice!!

Looks like a really cool area!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

thanks for the help guys! yes the photos have to be really small, something under a megabyte, I think. strange that this site doesn't give you any error message, just nothing happens. it's all good in the end.
and one of these days I might even join the whole gopro movement, well that might be a stretch..