Surf's still up and viz still sucks, but nonetheless I went and dove Mountain Road again. It's actually how it's called, on my way back from my first dive, I noticed the name on the California Beach sign asking people to respect the tide pool. So "Mountain Road" it is.

Entry was not too bad. I struggled less than the day before and went past the surf zone in a few minutes. I guess I must have timed it right, because as I was swimming on my back away from the beach, I noticed a big badass rogue 8 footer that crashed right where I was standing a few minutes earlier...

I dropped down and startled a medium bat ray. I kid you not. I almost landed on it. Of course it stayed the whole time I got the camera ready and as soon as I raised it to point and shoot, it took off in a flurry of sand! But a dive that starts like that cannot be bad, can it?

5 minutes into the dive, another bat ray, 5ft this time, swam by me, and repeated the same routine. Damn it! They must be telepaths or something.

This time, I decided to go past the inner reef, directly to the outer reef. Right when I reached it, I saw the biggest horn shark I had ever seen. It was probably 5ft long and fat! I snap a pix that was hopeless, then switched to video and went after it. It free swam for a while and then landed on a rock. I was going to start shooting when I noticed a small ray in the sand nearby. I looked at the shark and it seemed to not want to move so I shot the ray instead. I stopped the recording too fast, I could have taped the ray taking off at the speed of light! The shark was still there, so I started shooting it as well. It took off slowly and I was able to follow for a few seconds, enough for a small scene...

I decided to explore more of the reef and ended spending most of the dive in this area. I found a swim-through that looked like a window in the rock. I don't know if it was *the* swim-through that my pals from SOCDC were talking about last time I dove there with them, but it was fun going through it after hesitating 1/2s (Tv) weighting the risk of going through a small hole with a 5kts current... Oh well.

On my way back, in the inner reef, I was shooting kelp sunbursts when a big 5ft bat ray swam right at me. This time I had the camera on, but in Tv 1/100s forced flash and the flash did not recycle... Argh! Anyway, I got two shots, and I'm only posting them to prove it was indeed bat ray city.

As I was ready to go back to the beach, I noticed something undulating in front of me. In the 10ft viz, this is usually a piece of kelp, but this time it was a moray! Right in the open! This dive was full of surprises!

Amazingly enough, I came back the right way and surfaced not very far from the beach... Am I getting better at navigation after all?

The second dive was also pretty cool. This time I startled a lobster when I landed. Well startled is not really the right term, as it decided to check me out. No fear. I video'ed it and it even went and kissed the camera. Awesome. After it finally took off, I turned my head to take my bearing and found a big abalone... Another good omen?

Apparently it was. After spending a good 10 minutes swimming above sand, wondering if I was going the right direction, I hit shark reef again. This time, I found a smaller horn shark resting on the bottom and what I think was a very nice Angel shark.

As I had reached half tank, I started to go towards the beach. The reef structure did not seem familiar, but I haven't dove that area that much so I was not to worried. After a while I reached what I thought was the inner reef and started feeling better. Until I saw the leopard sharks swimming around me... I counted at least 4 individuals, bigger than me, probably in the 6ft range. I was starting to feel tired from swimming back, so I couldn't hold my breath for too long and as soon as I exhaled, the sharks would take off very fast... Damn it! I finally found a few that would let me tape them... But, if I see sharks everywhere, it means I am probably not where I thought I was... Not good. I found a nice kelp and started to ascent following it. As I surfaced, I realized I was right. I was absolutely not where I thought I was! Navigation skills, back to normal!

I took a different bearing and went back down, and startled another big shark! They're everywhere!

After a long swim back, fighting the surge and the surf, I finally made it back to the beach!

Conditions were not great, so point & shoots do not perform very well whatever the settings. Tv 1/100s forced flash and auto macro for close ups (horn shark, angel shark, eel, abalone...) and Tv 1/320-1/500 ISO 100 no flash for sunbursts.

Two fills at Laguna Sea Sport and a special Swiss-Mushroom Burger with extra avocado at Husky's later, I was ready for the next dive. I think I'm going to chill out for the week end though... Parking sucks anyway.