Laguna Beach

My fav is number 2. I never realized how beautiful it is right out in the ocean by home. Maybe its time to shut down my reef tank and pick up scuba diving.

Those are awesome shots Ram! Really great color and .. Wow.. Nice and sharp!

I'm surprised that these are just off the coast in Laguna.. Summer shots? Certainly not today..

InnerSpark wrote in post #17307412
My fav is number 2. I never realized how beautiful it is right out in the ocean by home. Maybe its time to shut down my reef tank and pick up scuba diving.

Laguna has some of the nicest shore dive spots in SoCal, parking and the hike to the shore with the heavy dive gear can be tough. Our waters are full of life and very diverse as it also is top side. No reason you can't do both, I did but have let my tank go(only have 2 fish left and no corals) and haven't been doing much diving(mostly because I've been working on upgrading my underwater housings).

joayne wrote in post #17307413
Those are awesome shots Ram! Really great color and .. Wow.. Nice and sharp!

I'm surprised that these are just off the coast in Laguna.. Summer shots? Certainly not today..

Thanks, the 17-70 is a really good underwater lens i think it may perform better there than top side. These shots are fairly old(Sept 2009) so it was summer but fall time is generally our best time of the year for diving. Visibility tends to be better more often(in warmer times of the year the plankton blooms can limit visibility to inches) also since it's cold water diving the cooler air makes the required exposure protection(thick wet or dry suit, etc.) and extra weight needed for proper buoyancy easy to deal with(hiking down to the beach with heavy dive/camera gear for these shots wasn't fun, but well worth it).

Very nice colours & I think divers need someone to be our caddy far more than golfers do.

Like every one > your pictures have nice colors

Thanks.

I didn't realize those large long spline urchins came in other colors besides black until I started diving, I has cool that there was a mixture in many of my shots from this dive.

Laguna Beach the land of urchin. You are brave for taking your camera in on a shore dive. I would never do that. Some people I know moved over 10k of urchin out to deeper water so that they could plate kelp. Part of the reason there was so many urchin in Laguna was due to all the spearfishing. Hopefully more sheephead will make Laguna home and reduce the urchin population.

lovemyram4x4 wrote in post #17308551
Laguna has some of the nicest shore dive spots in SoCal, parking and the hike to the shore with the heavy dive gear can be tough. <snip>

+1 I always hated the sojourn from the car to the shore and back... after a three-tank dive, the walk back to the car was a chore, to be sure...

I had no idea that Laguna had good shore diving! Thanks!!

Laguna has some awesome beach diving. Crescent Bay is awesome. You will get a work out though as you need to kick out pretty far to some of the reefs. Now that there is more kelp there it and a MLPA there is a lot more fish.

What do you wear for exposure protection there? I would think diving it dry would be the way to go or else it is a lot of neoprene.

6mm wet suit is usually more than enough for most, dry suit is better. Wreck dives are the only time I've ever gotten cold while diving locally, the minimal physical movements and cooler water at the depths most of our wrecks are at can make a wet suit just good enough, especially if you have to do a decompression stop.

Dry suit is definitely the way to go, easier to put on, warmer, dry.