OK, it was probably not my 103rd dive at Shaw's. Or maybe it was. I have lost track a couple of years ago. It was certainly not the first one, but every time I dive this place, there's something new. This time with my buddy who drove 140 miles on his bike to come diving in our beautiful waters, we went all the way down to the Southern part of the reef, almost to the end where the tubular anemones are. The reef has dramatically changed since the last time I dove it. Instead of a barren rocky flat, now there's a kelp forest. Sure it's not as dense and thick as in Catalina but still a good beginning. What's really cool is that all the ecosystem seems to do pretty well. The urchin barrens are gone, the kelp is growing and spreading, bringing tons of kelp bass which were mating like crazy on the sand, a few of fairly good size and very large sheepheads. The combination of making Laguna Beach a Marine Protected Area where no take is allowed, the efforts of volunteers who harvested urchins by the thousands to give kelp a chance and adequate climate over the last few years have certainly been beneficial and that shows.

The diving in Shaw's was good today, visibility was in the  hazy 30ft range in the kelp and inside the main reef structure and 15-20ft murky anywhere else. Surge was very strong, and with it a lot of particulates were floating around. The crevice was whited out past the tunnel to the main reef so we did not go further. The Hopkin's Roses were still all over the canyon before the archway. No octopus though. That sucked because that's what my buddy was after... I looked very hard but couldn't seem to find any. On the first dive we surfaced with a log of Spanish Shawl, cabazons, an eel covered in shrimps and a few crabs but no octopus!

For the second dive, visibility degraded a notch. The reef was hazier than on the first dive. At the entrance of the crevice, I finally spotted a small octopus hiding inside a crack. I could not interest it enough to get it out. Sometime, tapping just outside the crack where they hid will make octopus extend one of their tentacles to find out what the heck is going on, but this one did not want to.

Further down, on the right past turn-around rock going South, we found two small rays inside the reef structure. I get disoriented easily in this area so we did not stay very long and head back toward the beach with the reef on our left. Then I spotted it. The mother-load. A big baddass octopus was sunbathing outside its hole, right in the open. By the time I got my buddy's attention, it had already changed color twice. I think it's an indication it's not super happy to be spotted. My buddy managed to get a good look at it before it decided to get back into its hole. After that, similarly to the first one, no way to get it to come out. Must have been National Shy Octopus Day today...

Picture wise, the conditions were not optimal. Sun would have made killer kelp sunbursts but it was very foggy (and cold) so macro was the best bet. Tv 1/125s auto macro, forced flash as usual. Tv 1/80s no flash made pictures in the kelp forest sharp but dark. Post processing in near black and white of my buddy's silhouette in the forest rendered a cool gloomy scene.