Fun Filled Weekend!

Saturday morning Valentina had a soccer game from 9-10 so got a later than usual start to my dive day.

Met up with mikemcg and my Australian buddy Andrew and we paddled out to the first spot.

Pretty strong swell in water, but viz was stellar. 

Found a nice 30 inch Ling in a crack and called Mike to come over and shoot it, but he didn't hear me so I had to shoot it myself. 

Found another 28 inch Ling and took him too and popped up to see Mike with two nice Lings of his own on his stringer! 

Moved spots and took another 24 inch Ling before both Mike and Andrew paddled back in and I decided to stop at one more spot I wanted to explore.

Great structure and ton of blues and small/legal lings...took an 18 inch cab and two blues and then headed in.

At the beach Andrew's wife and son were stoked to check out the fish (the smallest Ling had a whole perch in its stomach, and the cab had a cool little abalone shell that I gave to the son), and we had a few beers before heading home.

Here's a quick edit of the Lings and you can see how nice the water was:



Sunday I loaded up Valentina and Jayme and headed down to Monterey to meet my buddy Martin to go out with his kids on his beautiful Sailboat.

When I got there I found out that Martin's brother Jeff had gone out earlier and gotten some crab pot lines wrapped around both his props...he had tried to dive down and cut them but couldn't...luckily I had a wetsuit in my car so suited up, jumped in and had both props clear in 10 minutes.

We launched out and started sailing and trolling for salmon when we heard on the radio that there was a pod of orcas near by!

Reeled up and booked over and found a ton of orcas putting on a killer show!

At one point they came RIGHT next to us and went under the bow and we could see them underwater as they swam by!!

The kids were freaking out and martin and I were in awe at how awesome it was...feel very fortunate to have had this experience and to have been able to have both my daughters there as well!!

Here's a little instavid of some of the action:

https://instagram.com/p/BEVa23gMya0/

After the Orcas we tried fishing for rockies but the wind came up strong so we headed in...on way in came across a kayak angler in a hobie struggling against the wind...asked if he wanted a tow and he said yes so we threw him a line and gave him a ride all the way back in to the harbor. Guy was in jeans and a t-shirt and no PFD...hope he decides to up his safety gear in the future.

Here's a bunch of pics...such a fun weekend!!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

More pics...

 

Hell yeah!! Imagine seeing one of those wolves of the sea on a kayak!

Sounds like a great weekend Jim!!

Epic weekend.

great pics Jim! Thanks for sharin'!

wow. I've always wondered if I should be excited or scared to see a pack of those oracs in the water.
Heard they are really smart and I wouldn't want to be the toy they want to get playful with.  Thanks for sharing.
 

Epic trip with the fam! Thanks for sharing.

-Eliot

Wow, what an awesome trip!  Nice to hear that Orcas are around... supposedly while they're around, the Landlord stays away.

Now that is how you spend a weekend! 

Thanks for sharing the good time with us Jim.

You make the sh%t look too easy

you're a beast Jim....thanks for sharing all the pictures. It sure was a fun filled weekend!! Great shot on those Orcas. Like Keith say, very cool to see it in person but my other half brain was like what if they want to play or think I'm a dolphin or something haha

Awesome shots of the orcas! How fortunate to be with your daughters when you seent 'em!

That's good stuff right there !!!