Awful/Great Report Dec 15&16

This was the last full weekend I had to dive before leaving to see my family in Hawaii this coming Sunday. On Friday, I finally got around to cleaning my wet suit from all the poison oak from last weekend in Big Sur. I ended up going to Urgent Care on Wednesday for some shots due to all the oak rash that was covering my body... EVERYwhere....  I did a 3 tub hot water and blue dawn rinse just to make sure I got it all off. I guess by tomorrow I'll know if I got it all or not!

SATURDAY: The swell was definitely up and I was getting reports of 5' vis all around the peninsula. I took this picture just to show wave strength.

 I drove to a more protected spot and figured I'd do some deep drops in hopes that the water below was clearer than the surface. As I was surface swimming out, I couldn't see the bottom even though I was only in 6' of water. Crazy surge was pushing me all over. I got to what I figured was about 40' so I breathe up and keep one eye on my watch and one on the darkness below. I was descending, 35', 36', 37', it was getting darker, 38', 39' and WHAM. I dive straight into the bottom and never saw it coming. I turned on my light to see if that might help, nope. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face and it was pea soup green. Felt wayyyy too sharky for my taste (forgot to charge my Shock Shield). After diving with a Great White a few months back in similar conditions, I decided to call it a day after 1 drop. Got back to the surface, bobbed around for a good 15 minutes making sure to time the wave sets so I don't get hammered again on my way in and finally made it back to shore (still got pounded by waves). What a bust.

SUNDAY: Woke up at 6a, spent the next hour in bed debating if I wanted to dive. I had several people tell me to stay in because the swell was supposed to be dangerous. I checked all the different forecast and live cams hoping to see that it was too big to dive (#lazy), but alas, I decided to head out to a local spot despite the waves. Time the set, hop in, and wow. Crystal clear water. Even though there was a decent long point southern swell and a decent W swell, there was not much surge. There was only a narrow corridor of ocean that didn't have huge waves crashing so I primarily dove that area. I thought I'd stay in less than 30' because the lings are supposedly in shallow now. I found all kinds of fish in shallow, but no lings. Decided to go out deeper. My first drop down to 45' and I see 3 lings all swimming together. Not much size to them though. Then another drop and I see 2 more lings. Dang, I found the colony but still couldn't find the big one. Checking holes, something caught my attention, FINALLY I found a trigger fish. It was a terrible angle and I could hardly see my shot but was confident enough to pull the trigger. When I tried bringing the fish out, it felt really big and my shaft was bending pretty good - weird. Turns out I got a two for one! See the shot in the butt of the 2nd trigger fish (pic below)? This was my first time shooting a trigger and first time getting a twofer. Nice. I did get a decent ling just under 28" but still not the 35"+ I'm looking for. Another notable event was when I shot the olive, I had a cab and a ling battling for it at the same time! Ended up finding a lot of neat animals like diving with a friendly otter, playing with rock crabs and sheep crabs, salps, moon jellys, and a sea lion. I kept diving until I was too hungry to keep going. Made it back in by 1130a with some very respectable fish and overall the dive was just plain enjoyable! Unfortunately none of the fish were upgrades to PBs this year... They were all close or the exact same size, but looks like I might not do as well in DOTY as I was hoping.

I am going to do something special with the trigger meat but in the mean time, I made some Ling Tortilla Soup. It was super bomb. The rest of the ling, RF and cab meat will get gifted to some co-workers as Christmas gifts.

Crazy how conditions can flip on a dime! Just goes to show, I shouldn't debate about getting in the water! Here's to hoping next Saturday is dive-able!

Hey K

Looks like u got ur fix on sun!!!
And fish too!!

Goood stuff...what island is your family on?  My momma is from Maui

Goood stuff...what island is your family on?  My momma is from Maui

Big Island. They've been building a house for like 3 years in Kona and we finally get to use it for Christmas! It will be nice to dive off the back porch and I'm even getting to sneak in a blue water trip. Hopefully get some tasty fish for Christmas!

Goood stuff...what island is your family on?  My momma is from Maui

Big Island. They've been building a house for like 3 years in Kona and we finally get to use it for Christmas! It will be nice to dive off the back porch and I'm even getting to sneak in a blue water trip. Hopefully get some tasty fish for Christmas!

Shakah den and Mele Kalikimake

Thanks for the diving report and picture TK.

Goood stuff...what island is your family on?  My momma is from Maui

Big Island. They've been building a house for like 3 years in Kona and we finally get to use it for Christmas! It will be nice to dive off the back porch and I'm even getting to sneak in a blue water trip. Hopefully get some tasty fish for Christmas!

Shakah den and Mele Kalikimake

Mele Kalikimake, Eddie!

read this one      twofer !!!

haha I made sure to have lots of paragraphs for you

Goood stuff...what island is your family on?  My momma is from Maui

Big Island. They've been building a house for like 3 years in Kona and we finally get to use it for Christmas! It will be nice to dive off the back porch and I'm even getting to sneak in a blue water trip. Hopefully get some tasty fish for Christmas!

Shakah den and Mele Kalikimake

Mele Kalikimake, Eddie!

read this one      twofer !!!

haha I made sure to have lots of paragraphs for you