Announcing a new Meetup for The Greater Bay Area Scuba Lovers Meetup!

What: Coral Street Beach Intermediate Dive

When: Sunday, April 11,[masked]:00 AM

Where:
Coral Street Beach
Ocean View Blvd and Coral St
Pacific Grove, CA 93950

Time for an intermediate dive closer to the mouth of Monterey Bay. Last intermediate dive was for seasonal re-entry and conditions were great, let's hope for more of the same for this dive.

This is a site with protected entry and exit. We park just past Coral Street in Pacific Grove on the water side, hand our cylinders to each other down the short wall to the beach, gear up on the beach, and stroll the few steps right down into the water.

Tide will be high at 9:30AM this date in which case we will know the location of few of the rocks around the entry channel. Meetup Photos under the Sites tab include an image for Coral Street Beach on which is marked the entry channel including the turn. That photo was taken at low tide which reveals all the rock locations. Familiarizing one's self with the photo is a good preparation activity an intermediate diver should do when such information is available.

If the host can figure how to add another photo then the entry photo will be shown in this Meetup announcement. For now we have the image of a cabezon we spotted sitting in wait ready to ambush its next meal. That photo was taken at Coral Street Beach and there is no hyperbole stating seeing another is likely.

We as skilled intermediate divers will be diving as independent buddy pairs. We will figure out buddy pairs on the beach while gearing up to account for those who did not arrive already knowing who they would buddy with. We will head out as a loose group, gather at a suitable location, and descend together. On the bottom we will get into our buddy pairs, be confident we are ready, and head north. We will swim out north and return south so bring your compass, refer to it, and get practice guiding yourself taking frequent bearings to veer left or right.

The site is populated with short pinnacles or mounds. The way to dive is to alternate veering left and then right around the bottom structure. We want to maintain the general direction in close association with our buddy and aware of where the others' bubbles are and not swimming away from them. The entry/exit channel between the diveable water and the beach makes this a good dive to consider your lateral drift and recognize whether return to shore under water should be a bit east or west of directly south.

The host intends to bring his camera system on the two dives. That results in him swimming for three to five minutes, then working around one spot to get a shot for three to five minutes. This means for the group we tend to alternate spreading out and regrouping.

When the host is photographing, it is sometimes worthwhile to swim up afterward and get a look at what interested the photographer enough to work getting a shot of it. Our host likes nudibranchs, known in some places as the butterfly of the sea for its myriad colors and shapes.

There is street parking but no bathrooms. The beach is accessible via a stairway on the left standing above the beach atop the rock wall. If conditions appear impractical for safe entry, exit, and dive; then we will relocate to a calmer dive spot.

Learn more here:
http://www.meetup.com/scubadivers/calendar/12976731/