BRIAN G!!!!!

Where is your diving report from this past weekend?
Since I couldn't go I need to live it out vicariously through you.

I was down with the flu  so much for the flu shot! I didn't have the energy for the drive and dive. I have one more chance on friday.

I think Agarcia was the only one that might have gotten out.

-Brian G

I was down with the flu  so much for the flu shot! I didn't have the energy for the drive and dive. I have one more chance on friday.
I think Agarcia was the only one that might have gotten out.
-Brian G

Damn! 
Well Agarcia; give us the scoop.
I did get this photo in my email from Ft Ross this weekend. It will make you cry if you missed it.
No it isn't me, but I wish it was.

11/24 ab dive report  (shore dive)

I’ve never met any of you all (except Sean, I bought my marauder from him) but I did get in an ab dive on Saturday.  I really feel bad for Brian and Tote missing a great November dive.   So here’s a report along with some other thoughts that were bouncing around in my head. Hope you don’t mind me butting in like this.  I just saw the pics Tote posted, the direction and shape of the swells made some areas a bit rougher than those pics.

Here’s my 2 cents for the day

Learned some stuff today, I gotta get some exercise, but I knew that already,

I had developed a theory that November swells are different than summer/early fall swells, and yep they are, buoy 13 and 14 were showing 3-4 ft seas at 5am, by 10 am they were about 5ft (total seas on the buoy report) and no wind,,,sounds great for the areas I go, but not so good this time.  Had planned on diving my current favorite shore dive spot which for safety requires really calm conditions, but after a JSA (Job Safety Analysis) at the waters edge, we decided to hit plan B and ended up diving off the south end of Fisk Mill cove. Even there the kick back into the protected exit point was a pretty good workout, that spot, while protected does have a rip that comes out right thru the safest part of the opening.  Just after we got out the lifeguard was telling people not to dive there, didn’t seem that bad but the swell was on the way up.  So 2 cliff climbs for one ab dive and man my legs are telling me about it.

Visibility was about 12 ft in about 15-18 feet of water, surge wasn’t too bad except every once in awhile a good swell would come thru and push you around a bit if you were down under and not expecting it.

Plenty of abs there, nothing to write home about, some 8 inchers (fatties this time of year), but the weather was beautiful with no wind to speak of all day.

Had lunch at the point just below the Fort Ross store, (where you can drive right off the cliff if you so desire) this is where I confirmed my suspicion that the November swells do indeed carry more power, the breakers there put on quite a show even though the swells were hard to see at all until they started to build in the shallows, but then the power behind them caused them to build to an impressive height before they broke,

While there we found a ranger that was checking licenses and abs, in 23 years of diving I have never seen a ranger do that, wardens yes but rangers no.   Personally it’s OK by me, the more oversight we have on that particular resource the better, as long as it doesn’t get to be harassment.

So at least for me I got to close the season with a good dive,

dale

Sorry to hear you guys didn't make it out.  I wanted to go out with agarcia but didn't make it back from the valley on time.  I'm just glad I got to do a couple of dives this year...it would have killed me to have had to wait until next year.

dale, glad you were able to get out and had a successful dive.  Those are some nice looking abs...way to close out the year.

Can't wait till next year.  I hope that I get to do a lot more exploring.  In the mean time I'll be out there chasing fish around with the polespear.