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Diver Name

HT Dang

Occupation: Gentleman of Leisure
Location: Where I sleep tonight
Hometown: Where the heart is

Lover, Diver, Poet.

 

 

Santa Cruz Island 21st June 2015

June 28, 2015

After six months of no diving due to back injury and moving away to Houston, I was excited to get into the water again.  Although I had some reservation about the water condition:  mainly it's just too warm.  Since 2014, California seawater had been inordinately warm due to El Nino effect.  The result is a dearth of giant kelps and a lot of invasive warm water fish species making their way up north from Mexico.  There's nothing more sad than a denuded kelp forest. 

Yes, water temp is warm.  Yes, viz is good (because of no upswelling from the deep bringing nutrients to the shallow water).  However, ecologically speaking, it was a disaster.

Anyway, enough rambling.  Though I expected the worst, I still was excited to get wet again - my gills are so dry that I think they might have fallen off some months back.  Anacapa was blown out with high wind so we headed to Santa Cruz.  As we were pulling up to the back side, I noticed clumps of kelp canopies - yay!!!  Not as plentiful as before, but there are actually giant kelps grown tall enough to reach the surface and form canopies. 

As expected, the water temp was about 64-F, which is like bath water to me.  Viz was a nice 40-ft horizontal if not more.  Depth around 30-ft.  I would prefer something a bit deeper but that will do.  Jumped in and descended to the bottom so that I can scour the sand for some flat fish or rays.  Didn't see any, so I headed to the reef and play in the kelp forest.  It was simply magical to fly between the kelp fronds, to glide with the surges.  I was afraid that six months of hiatus might have degraded my skills but after about five minutes of adjusting gears and getting comfortable, I was "in like Flynn" again.  Pink Ribbon was a sweet dive site with some nice reefs and kelp forests.  Love the Garibaldis and their belligerence while defending their nests.  The percussive "thump" sounds they make to scare away predators were distinctive and funny.

Perches, blacksmiths, kelpfish, treefish, lobsters, sheep crabs, rockfish, they're all good but I was looking for nudibranchs.  Where my nudies at?  Ah, yes, there they are:  Clown, Spanish Shawl, Porter's, McFarland's.  The usual suspects are all here.

Above the water, the condition was spectacular.  Sunny but cool with a hint of wind.  After two dives, I said the heck with it and got me some sleep and some sun instead.  Accompanied by the delicious grilled ham & cheese sandwich and soup from the Explorer's galley, what else can a man ask for? 

Oh yes, mermaids.  A man can ask for mermaids, and they were aplenty that day.

7 JUN 2014

June 12, 2014

Taking Kris Moncada to Catalina Island for his first dives outside of OW course. Faber M-series tank HP100, Halcyon Infinity BC, 4-lbs of lead on the waist.

Anacapa 24th May 2014

May 28, 2014

Anacapa in May 2014.  Warm water with good viz.  Lots of nudibranchs and navanax.  It was funny watching two sheep crabs fighting over a dead fish.