UTD Adventures - Buoy B, S. La Jolla Canyon, San Diego California

Dive Site: South La Jolla Canyon Wall

Location: North from Buoy B off La Jolla Shores Cove then west along the wall

Type: Wall - Top 100' / Bottom 400'+

Entry: Boat

Dive Buddy: John Walker and Jeff Seckendorf

Date: 4 September 2010

Time: 8:00 am

Swell: 2.6'

Max Depth: 160'

Visibility: 40'

Temp: 52 f

Dil/Bailout Gases: 18/45 & O2

Runtime: 75 min

Equipment: A/JS- MX 90 mCCR Rebreather / John Walker - Twin 130's and 2 deco's Nitrox 50 and O2

DPV: AG/JS- 2 x Sierra's / John Walker - CUDA

Gas used: AG/JS - 3 cft of Trimix and 4 cft O2 / John 200 cft / 30cft Nitrox 50 and 10 cft O2

Video - John Walker

I was very excited for this particular dive. First of all this was an official UTD Adventurers organized dive, secondly we were returning to the site I dove a few weeks ago with Roger Bly, but this time it was from a boat and therefore we did not have to turn back after 20 min bottom and we could keep scootering along the wall, exploring new ground and most importantly capturing some video. (Hopefully John W. will have it done soon) Thirdly, we were testing the new RB Bands (tank frames - http://www.unifiedteamdiving.com/photo/albums/rb-bands-1) for the MX series rebreather. We had used it in the pool the day before and this was the first time in a real dive, but more importantly using it to setup and breakdown before and after the dive..

So, I Met Jeff and John at the dock in front of sea-world around 8:00 am Saturday morning. After loading the boat we cruised out the harbor to find it bumpy. So it was a slower ride to the site, but we all chattered in anticipation of this world class wall, filled with monster vermillion rockfish, treefish, of course all the other usual suspects but most interesting in this site is the orange gorgonian's, the california golden gorgonian, reds and so on and so on, all plastered up on the wall. Just fantastic. I also love the sponges and of course the one "LONE" white plumed Anemone on top of this floating line about 7' off a shelf on the wall.

On the boat we also had a Dive Master Candidate, Sean Bullock, who was being put through the pacers learning about boat procedures, and so on.

Once we arrived at the site, Danny anchored us at the top of the wall in about 100'/30m. This depth is the top of the wall right in front of Buoy B. It does get deeper as you head west. We the put the scooters in the water, geared up and jumped in. There was a murk layer right around the warm surface warm but at depth it was clear and 52f. Just amazing visibility. The dive was super smooth and John W zipped around filming a lot of really cool shots including this incredible canyon like gully and waterfall from 10000+ years ago when then area as exposed to air. That is certainly one of the magical parts of diving at this depth 200'/60m or shallower, is see'ing how it was formed by the surface erosion caused between 8000 and 12000 years ago.

We concluded the dive after 30 mins of scooter allow the wall heading west and found ourself almost at the top of the wall at 130'/39m. So essentially the top of the wall gets deeper the further west you go from Buoy B. At that point we free ascended and drift deco'ed having Danny follow our SMB. Excellent day of diving, and excellent decompression. Thanks to John W and Jeff S for being excellent dive buddies.

Tags: Adventures, UTD

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Bullock on September 5, 2010 at 7:02pm

Awesome trip report and good photos ;-D I cannot wait until I am able to conduct T2 dives! This just sounds truly amazing down there!

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Seckendorf on September 5, 2010 at 9:18pm

This whole day went really smoothly. Special thanks to Danny Howard for a great ride on the yellow boat.
Thanks to Andrew and Johnny for a great dive, and to Shawn for all his hard support work.

This was a frantastic UTD Adventures dive. All the trips are listed at www.utdadventures.com. Next up is cave week in France Sept 13-17, then day trips in the Great Lakes and Croatia on Sept. 19.

Jeff