It was one of these days.

The morning started slowly, I made it on time to the Vons parking lot for the SOCDC Saturday morning beach dive. Two other divers were already there, two arrived later and our fearless leader showed up last. The South swell made us pick Shaw's Cove. That's probaly dive #125 there for me.

I found parking not too far from the steps which was quite a challenge this morning as the heat wave we've been having for the week drove plenty of divers and diver wannabees to Shaw's. I love my small car.

We all geared up, glad the temperature had dropped down in the 80's from the 100's we had earlier during the week and made it to the beach. There was a LOT of divers down there... A few timed the waves a little off and ended up on their knees but a three footer is still a three footer, even when you're on your face... We did not have any trouble going through the surf zone and all met 200 yards off the shore, near the entrance to the archway/crevice.

My buddy and I argued with our leader at that time that we should not sissy out and go through the crevice and let the current carry us through Star Wars Canyon like the Millennium Falcon on a tractor beam. We lost the argument and decided to do the leisurely stroll on the North-South route along the reef. I told everybody not to worry about me if they loose me, I would be fine by myself here. It's not like I don't know this reef.

Anyway, we dropped down and the viz sucked. Not sucked like pea-soup sucked, but pretty close.

We missed the entrance to the crevice, which was not a big deal since we did not intend to go through it anyway. I was rather confused by the amount of kelp that grew since I last dove there and was taken by surprise when I realized I had reached the split rocks where there used to be a family of eels hiding in the cracks. Only one was there today and I stopped for the shot. And I lost the rest of the group.

Since we were doing the North-South route, I was not really worried. At turn-around-rock, I caught up with 4 of them, none were my buddy. I was not worried. One signaled that he was going back. I wondered why since we just started, but I figured out he did not like the surge which was pretty strong in the area.

I stopped to take a picture of a cute flounder on the sand and lost the group again. But I was not worried.

Then I met Gigantor.

This was the biggest baddass spider crab I had ever seen. I think its claw-span was 3 to 4ft. Amazing. As he saw that I had spotted it, it started hoping, waving its gigantic claws up and down. I had never seen any do that before, so I set the camera in video mode and started filming. Of course it stopped immediately and took off. Oh well.

I kept heading South and caught up with the group. The leader, wearing red fins and a GoPro on a stick was easily identifiable. He had stopped next to a outcropping of kelp and was looking at something floating around... I came closer and... Damn! A Mola-Mola! I had never seen one of those while diving! Wow!

I filmed it for a while and the group signaled that we were going back. At that point I was 30 minutes into the dive, still at 2,200 psi (150 bars), I was not worried. I start following everybody when my eye caught a tiny blue spot: A Porter's Chromodorid! This dive is getting really cool!

Of course I stopped for the money shot and lost the group.

As I was making my way back towards the beach, I met a very large turbot and a small ray! Wow!

I surfaced not too far from shore and had no problem ducking two deadly two-footers before making it safely to the beach.

I met with the rest of the group and start telling them about the Mola-Mola and nobody had seen it! Then I realized that our leader was wearing black fins and had no GoPro... Hum... Did I just dive with strangers?

Sure enough, a few minutes later, a group of three divers, led by a guy wearing red fins and carrying a GoPro on a stick surfaced... I wonder if they thought anything about that unknown guy that just tagged along with them...

Anyway, even though the conditions were pretty bad, I had one of the best dives in Shaw's Cove in years. With people I did not know. Oh well.

As far as photography goes, I shot macro 1/125s for the close ups and 1/250s no flash for the Mola-Mola shot.

And since I did not write anything about my solo dive at Mountain Road last week in crystal clear waters I've added a couple of shots and a videos to that posting.

Go diving! It's great out there... And you can meet new people!