Technical Scuba Diving
Introduction I've always loved the F-4 Phantom. There is a well-known F-4 Phantom wreck in the Torrey Pines area of San Diego (actually, very close the P-38) that is about 150 feet deep. I've dove it a couple times and it is usually dark and limited visibility. For my upcoming book, I had gone further [...]
Introduction One of the wrecks that I am writing about for "Aviation Wrecks of Southern California" is the F4D Skyray that crashed in the 1950s. The pilot, Leo J. "Pete" Colapietro bailed out at 650mph and living to tell the story. I had previously posted some great photos I recently received from a family member. [...]
There has been plenty published about the Georgia fishing boat (which was originally mis-identified as the Retriever). For background, I would recommend reading the California Wreck Divers web page on the Georgia / Retriever. I had gone with Ray & Kyaa at Sundiver back up to the F4D Skyray in Santa Monica Bay to work [...]
Intro Tyler and I had been planning a trip to the Coronado Island with Lora at Marissa Charters for a very long time. It was deferred at least 2-3 times due to weather, unplanned trips, etc. We finally got down there in early February 2026. Tyler had a friend who had seen an airplane wreck [...]
Summary I went diving with Steve Lawson & Chris Gilmartin on their boat right before the rain and storms hit Southern California. It turned out to be my last dive of 2025. We had good weather in the morning but the swell and wind picked up later in the day. We found one new shipwreck [...]
Introduction If you have been following along, we have been trying to find the S-3 Viking that crashed off Point Loma in 1978. A brief rundown of previous posts: Original AUV Search Second AUV Search First Day of Dives - Mystery Plane First Day of Dives - Wing Section Second Day of Dives Third Day [...]
Background I had been to Osborne Bank once before in 2020 and really enjoyed the dive and wanted to return. I finally got a chance when Anton had arranged a trip with Danny at Triton Diving Charters. Osborn Bank is a very picturesque formation a few miles outside Santa Barbara Island in the Channel Islands. [...]
Introduction Sometimes readers only see the big successes and don't realize that we do a fair number of dives that don't result in finding a new airplane. We have been diving targets in search for the Ables S-3 Viking for quite some time. We recently conducted some additional Iver3 AUV scanning with UCSD on board [...]
Background NB: This post was written a while ago and we have made more progress so I wanted to get this published before I publish some additional updates. 🙂 We have been searching for a S-3 Viking for years and recently conducted two days of searching with UCSD/Scripps using their Iver3 AUV and then did [...]
Introduction There is an engine block off the West End of Anacapa Island near Cat Rock that has been dove many times but, as far as I know, never been conclusively identified. It reminds me of the Atlas engines on other typical early-to-mid century fishing vessels such as the Nightingale, the New Saturnia, the Vashon, [...]
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