Trip Report and Photos
Redondo Canyon Daytime Dive
February 1, 2009

Story and Photos © Elaine Jobin, may not be reproduced in part or whole without advanced written permission.

Sunday Jeff Shaw (AKA "evil Jeff", "eJ", etc.) and I went out for a daytime dive at Redondo Canyon. Jeff was decked out in his replacement scuba gear - most of his old stuff had been stolen from his garage a couple of weeks ago.

We went to this night time hot spot during the day because I had never done "The Canyon". I wanted to get a feel for the lay of the land before I wandered here at a future time to do a famous Redondo Canyon night dive.

In the parking lot we saw Phil Garner - cast, crutches and all.

As well as some of the "Dive Vets" regulars.

This is a great spot to dive as far as facilities are concerned because there are bathrooms and showers. I've been fighting some worn out cartilage in a major joint, but I thought that the walk from the parking lot, down the stairs, and across the beach was fairly easy. The waves during entry were small. Not as small as they had been over the past several days, but still very manageable.

We did a short surface swim to gain some distance from the beach and dropped down at about 11ft. I couldn't wait to see what Redondo Canyon was all about.

The first thing I noticed was a lot of sand. Then a field of sand dollars.

As we headed out to sea, the next thing I noticed was a lot of, well, I'm not sure exactly what it all is. Bottles strung up as markers, Lines traversing the sand, Small kelp plants seeming to grow from semi suspended man made somethings.

As Phil Garner pointed out (just from looking at the photos), there was an octopus in one of the bottles above. This is an enlargement of the bottle.

And, One of the markers had a large crab on it.

Baby halibut darted in front of us as we continued deeper into the canyon. A sarcastic fringehead jumped out of the shelter of an empty shell to inspect the sand disturbed by a near by fin kick. A pink starfish crawled by. Sea Pens dotted the deeper landscape.

There were lots of larger flatfish too.

Jeff found a baseball cap that had become a home for brittle stars.

At about 86 feet we found a small patch of squid eggs. Nothing like the fabled squid egg fields of years past.

Throughout the dive, I kept bugging Jeff to pose for some photos. He only gave in a time or two.

I thought that Redondo Canyon in the daytime is a perfectly nice dive. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was even written in one of the lines in the sand.

The hardest part of this dive for me was the last three feet of the exit. I hadn't been warned about the short, steep, pebbly, quicksand like cliff that must be traversed to get out of the water. I got stuck in it and pelted by a few waves right when I thought I was home free. Fortunately Phil and Merry were waiting patiently for us on shore. Merry made a mad dash into the water and made herself into a handrail so I could pull myself out. Jeff did a graceful unassisted exit (showoff!)

After the dive we visited with some of the "Dive Vets" regulars in the parking lot, went over to Phil and Merry's for post dive snacks (I got to meet the pet squirrel), stopped by Ruby's for a burger, and made it to a PV Superbowl party just in time for the third quarter. It was a really fun day with dive friends.

Thanks everybody!!!!!