Scuba dive Horse Shoe cove 7-14-08
Monday, 7-14-08
Melissa and myself met up with a buddy of mine Mike Rogers At 7am at the Jenner "c" store. With total excitement we loaded up our gear into Mike's truck. We began our trip up the coast on Hwy 1. As we came around the corner we saw that we were blessed with table top conditions, like a sheet of glass. At 7am the only down fall was the morning fog. We went to our favorite campground and boat launch at Ocean Cove campground. We were the only ones there, no waiting, we had the campground to ourselves.
We jumped out and we proceeded to get ready for our dive. We did all the checks and balances with the gear and the boat and a breif plan of action for this was my wife's first tank dive on the North Coast. At 9:30 we were on the boat and on our way. Mike stated that he wanted to hunt some red vermillion. At my suggestion we headed toward Horseshoe Cove. We set anchor at 60 ft of water in the front of the cove, suited up and headed down the anchor line.
When we hit the bottom we saw Blacks and Reds all around us. We had about 15-20 ft. of vis and began to shoot fish and hunt for scallops, which I did find. The first dive was in depth range from 45-65 ft. with all kinds of cool topography and swim throughs. That first dive lasted only 31 minutes because I am an air hog and surfaced with only 300 psi. ( My wife with a 1000 psi.) Gee, who was doing the hunting? Can you tell? My wife and I sat in the boat and enjoying the sun while waiting for Mike to surface. When he did he had a stringer full of Reds and Blacks.
After a 45 min. or so surfance interval Mike and I strapped on a 95 and head down for another tour of the jungle. To our pleasure we saw more shcools of fish and we were on the hunt for some Lings. As Mike was trying to string a Red , what comes out to say hello? A nice legal Ling. Pow! You know where he ended up. I hunted for some more and surfaced.
In all this was one of those dives that you remember. My wife is stoked on North Coast tank diving. I could not have arranged or imagined or asked for any better conditions for some one's first Scuba dive on the North Coast
- matt mattison's blog
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Hey Matt, Do you find
Hey Matt,
Do you find scallops very often? I will be looking for them on future outings, but from what I have read, they seem to be few and far between. That is, unless you know where to look. Also I am curious if the novice freediver, me, has much of a chance at taking a few.
Mike N
Scallops.
Scallops are just about every where, I typically find mine in 15 to 50 feet. They tend to like to be in the crevices where it is sergy with lots of water movment, due to the fact that they are filter feeders. The hard part about scallops is getting them off the rock, it makes getting an ab look easy. That is another reason why it is such an accomplishment to get them free diving. I have only gotten two while free diving, most have mine have ben on scuba. The other tip I could give you is look for the pink lips on the out side of the shell, no joke I know it sounds funny but it is true. I have found several on the southern end of the cove at still water out beyond the kelp bed alos out front of ocean cove. Hope this helps, good luck and happy hunting and be safe.
Well that's nice to hear
I'll be looking out for the lips the next time I'm out. I might just have to get certified, or bring a hammer and chissle. :-) The videos I've seen on line of nor cal scallop freediving look like they are a chore to get off the rocks, but they were all in relatively shallow water. I was thinking about scuba cert for next year. I haven't tried still water or ocean coves yet, but I probably will eventually. Thanks for the info and safety first.
MN