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A Deceptively Calm Woods Cove, Laguna, CA, Before the Big Sets Began Rolling In
Hi folks,
Went down to Woods Cove this morning to assist Nancy in locating and obtaining abalone in order to assess the extent of the Withering Foot Disease in our local population. Besides Nancy and myself, Dirk, Josh, and Ruth were among our local OC divers, and Mikey and Jim showed up from SD along with Barbara who conducted some surface video and interviews.
The weather was beautiful, but the surf was a bit high which presented some concern. Dirk and Nancy decided to snorkel and provide beach support, Barbara chose to stay dry and surface video, and five us decided to give it a try for a good cause. Josh lost a fin on the way out, so only four of us ended up searching for abalone on SCUBA. Ruth was familiar with the area so we followed her for awhile, but ended up terminating the dive because the surge was bad, and conditions seemed to be worsening. Ruth, Mikey, and I made it out with a bit of assistance, but Jim had on doubles and decided to stay out longer. We were kind of worried about him because the surf was building and he had on a lot of gear. Jim finally surfaced and started back in, and luckily for him there was a group of Campfire Girls on a beach outing who were able to assist this floundering diver from the surf zone. They seemed a bit disappointed, however, because they first thought they were rescuing a beached whale and rushed to shove him back from the beach. Things may not have happened exactly like that, but at my age I take a few liberties with reality. Anyway, we didn’t find any abalone, but we’ll try again when conditions improve. We went to Ruby’s for a great lunch. Dive details follow for those interested:
1. Dive # 1
2. Date: 03/20/10
3. Location: Laguna Beach – Woods Cove
4. Surf: High, 6-8 foot sets with 1-3 minute lulls.
5. Swell: Mixed swells which combined resulted to bad conditions
6. Surge: High
7. Currents: High to the east and significant backwash at beach
8. Water Temperature at Surface: 59 F
9. Temperature at Bottom: 59F
10. Maximum Depth: 17 Feet
11. Visibility: < 5 Feet
12. Comments: This reinforced why I don’t do a lot of beach diving, but everyone made it out OK, and it was a fun morning.
Dive safe,
Wayne
