I finally got around to doing a couple dives at La Jolla Cove this morning with a friend. We got in the water a bit after nine, and the visibility had already started to go, but it was still a great dive. We headed out to the yellow buoy, then towards the gray one before heading back. Aside from a few sand spots, most of it is thin kelp forest, and a lot of fun to explore. There was a lot of life out there this morning. We were barely on the bottom a few minutes before a 2 foot male California sheephead decided to adopt us. He seemed to follow us around for about half an hour. There were quite a few large kelp bass, lobsters sharing holes, and the other usual suspects about. But I was also able to see eight 4-5 foot tope/school/soupfin sharks. They were skittish and the visibility was only about 10 feet, so I didn’t get a good look at them. But it was pretty cool to watch them cruse through the kelp.
The second dive we headed out a bit deeper to the other set of kelp beds. Unfortunately the tides had started to change at that point, so the vis had dropped to about six feet, and the surge was picking up. Much less life on this dive. Just some garibaldi and a few schools of the inch long half orange half purple fish. Quite a few large star fish though. It was great to swim through the kelp, but man, those La Jolla Cove stairs are a killer after an hour of swimming and fifty pounds of gear on. I should get in on a boat dive to the Point Loma kelp beds – I’ve heard are quite thick and a very different experience.