Rockpile

The rockpile is a dive site located just north of the main street beach in the seaside town of Laguna Beach, California. I dove with my son, Spencer, for the first time at this site on August 29, 2020. It was a beautiful Southern California morning, the air temperature was in the high 60's and the surface water temperature was reported by the lifeguards as 66-70 degrees. The skies were overcast when we started the dive at about 9am but the sunlight came through towards the end of the dive which lasted 54 minutes. A shallow dive site the deepest point of our dive was 20 feet.

Most of the dive sites in Laguna Beach have one thing in common - Stairs. We parked on Cliff Drive at Heisler Park, a popular cliffside municipal park overlooking the ocean. We suited up at the car made our way across the park and down the stairs. This dive site is highlighted by a rock that emerges out of the water about 200 yards from the shoreline, once in the water we kicked out to the rock. The rockpile is popular with surfers, so much so divers are not allowed to go into the surf at this location after 10am. Surfers favor this location because of the waves generated by the rock formations. The same waves can challenge the diver. At our shallow dive depth the wave surge was moving us around forcibly as well as stirring up particulate in the water. Bottom line - photography was challenging.

At the site we spotted numerous Panamic Christmas Tree worms. I think these are some of the prettiest things you can see on a local dive. And for second time I spotted the mystery nudibranch! This particular nudibranch has so far evaded sufficient identification so as to warrant a "research grade" classification. This particular nudibranch was tiny and the accompanying photographs are marginally acceptable - certainly not stellar. This site also features numerous large California Sheepshead whom I assume are well fed by divers. They are aggressive and act in a way that they seem to be demanding that you feed them, which I did not. So I paid. One pecked at my head, another at my hand and yet another at my camera. One of these perpetrators has been identified in the accompanying photographs. They seem to know that they are dwelling in a no-take marine park, a fact of which they take full advantage.

The dive done, we stopped and got a bagel in Laguna Beach. Everything bagel, toasted, with plain cream cheese, a slice of tomato and a dash of lemon pepper. Very good.

Spencer is a great dive partner but has terrible taste in bagels - Jalapeno Cheddar?

Posted on August 30, 2020 04:40 AM by darrellsdives