Snorkeling in La Jolla

My last snorkeling trip was to CA while on a visit to see an old friend. It had been quite a few years but anticipating a dive or two before I left to come home.

Of course, I had packed my swim fins, mask and snorkel. I couldn't wait to hit the water with my Canon S45 in a new Ewa-Marine digital camera case. I hoped to get some nice shots with my new compact digital camera and what better time than now?

I met my old buddy in his living room when he got home from work. I'd been waiting a couple of hours since my flight came in early that morning and checkout and car rental were a breeze - not my usual experience as of late. I had 3 nights and two days to spend as a houseguest so I broke the news right away that we had to go for a dive at least once before I headed back. Bob (my host) said sure let's head over to La Jolla and snorkel the kelp beds a bit. I agreed.

Bob took the next two days off to reacquaint me with the area - things change so quickly when you've been gone for an extended period of time. So the balance of day one was spent being a tourist and seeing the sights. Yes, time had sure marched on since my last visit but it was nice to be back in CA with an old pal.

On day two, Bob let me know after morning tea that we'd be heading for La Jolla and to throw my gear in the trunk of his car. I think my driving made him a bit uneasy? I loaded my small kit of gear into his car as he came out and added his. We drove out to the Pacific, filled with anticipation but were disappointed when we arrived to feel strong wind and some pretty stout surf breaking into the rocky shoreline. We had driven this far and by golly we were going diving. Bob is pig headed like me in these situations, so we carried our gear (sans camera) down the rocky ledges, to where the surf was breaking hard into the razor sharp rocks.

I recall, as we slipped our gear on that maybe today was not such a great day for snorkeling, but kept that to myself in the face of Bob's grinning wink as he headed in. A strong base dive got us out far enough to swim into calmer water. Well, this isn't bad at all I remember thinking as we made our way through the forest of nearby kelp. After popping my head up and looking towards shore, I could see that the action on the shoreline was picking up IMO anyway and looked to be a dangerous undertaking when we decided to "pack it in".

Visibility was very poor due to the churning of the wind and sea and I couldn't see much further than 20 - 30 feet tops. This was not so much fun since the currents were so powerful and the kelp looked like a forest of willow trees bending and swaying to the motion of the water and aquatic life was not to be found other than a few small, darting fish amongst the kelp.

Surfacing about 100 yards offshore, we both decided that the dive was "a wash" and that we'd need all of our strength for swimming safely up to the rocky shore where the current was still increasing. We slowly made our way to shore against the heavy undertow and as we reached about 20 yards from shore it became apparent that we were going to be dashed into chopped liver if we continued in and broke free of the current and let the waves deposit us into the rocks.

Change of plans. Bob and I agreed to let the undertow draw us back out and try for a different landfall. We just floated along and allowed ourselves to be carried South for a bit with no letup in sight. We did spot a finger of rock jutting out into the water that was quite near and not taking quite the beating as our entry point. We decided to go for it. You only live once and here was our best bet for a crash landing with minimal carnage. So we again began to swim strongly against the currents and just as I would pull myself gingerly up and onto the rocky little sliver a wave would crash around me and pull me right back in. After three attempts I was able to finally pull myself out of the deep blue sea and lay gasping for air on the sharp, barnacle encrusted piece of land.

My life didn't pass before my eyes or anything like that - but that was one of the hairiest dives from shore I'd ever been on. Bob had the same problems but made it in two attempts, where we both sat laughing and bleeding from our hands and feet (minor cuts, bumps and bruises). We didn't speak much on the way home until we showered and drained a few beers. Bob (a much more experienced free diver) said "you know, I had doubts that we would make it in without getting really trashed dude"! I know buddy, I definitely know!