Technical Scuba Diving
Intro I first wrote about the P-38 in Torrey Pines back in mid-2020. It is a well known wreck that was discovered a number of years ago and has been deteriorating due to multiple factors. After our dive on the deeper P-38 in Solana Beach, we were headed to this wreck. Since I started building [...]
Intro / Background We initially dove this P38 in 2022. Lora @ Marissa Charters recently ran a trip to visit this deeper P38 off Solana Beach and then a shallower but more visited P3-8 off Torrey Pines. It was a "double P-38 day." I had a very specific dive plan since I wanted to be [...]
Intro I published a Top 10 Diving Recap in 2020 and then again in 2021. This year I am making it a "Top 10 Dives and Projects" list since quite a bit of my diving this year has been working on more longer-term projects that involve multiple dives on the same wreck. It has been [...]
Original Post is here: P-38 Lightning "Skip Bombing Mission (Solana Beach, CA -- 180 fsw) Based on the location and type of airplane and the fact that it was largely intact, we made an initial identification that we found a P-38 with BuNo 42-66617. We contacted the Air Force Historical Research Agency to get a [...]
About six months ago, Tyler sent me some bathymetry data of a possible target off Solana Beach and said "I've been looking at that target up there off Solana Beach. It's in 180 looks aircraft or some weird rock reef but I was researching if any planes went down off the area." One limiting factor [...]
We aren't the first to find or dive these two wrecks, but I believe that no information has previously been publicly released about them. Captain Ray Artnz first located and identified the wrecks back in the 2000s but the location isn't publicly available. On Thursday July 1st, I went with DJ Mansfield and Tyler Stalter [...]
This P-38 crashed during a training flight near Torrey Pines State Beach in May 1943. There were three planes engaging in a practice attack drill when one of them had the right wing hit the surface of the water, damage the prop and then he tried to limp home on the remaining engine. However, the [...]