Technical Scuba Diving
This is an update to a post back in September 2021 about a "WW II Airplane Junkyard" off of Point Loma. As we have been looking for new targets in the south Point Loma area, we are "plagued" by finding and diving more dumped airplanes. They show up on the sonar similar to real airplanes [...]
Original post is here: F8F-1 Bearcat (Point Loma, CA -- 230 fsw) When we first found the wreck and identified the airplane as a F8F-1, we started working to identify the specific aircraft. In the post, we stated that we had "high confidence," based upon some specific characteristics of the wreck site, that we though [...]
This is a short post to document another new wreck target we dove recently. On 10 June 2022, while searching for targets (which ultimately led to finding the F8F Bearcat) one of the targets turned out to be a sailboat. Based on the condition of the wreck, I believe that it was probably abandoned and [...]
Background We have located the wreck of a rare F8F-1 Bearcat airplane deep in the waters off of Point Loma, California. This post details the discovery of the wreck, identifying the type of airplane, and background information on the F8F Bearcat. While we haven’t yet conducted a follow-up dive to confirm the identity via a [...]
Background Sounds like a band name, doesn't it? It somewhat reminds me of that 80's band "Hootie & the Blowfish." People often think that diving new targets is sexy and exciting and always results in finding a cool new WW II era airplane. Well, it isn't always that easy and this is a short tale [...]
This is another structure that Tyler had mentioned a while ago that has been on my list to go explore. Tyler and some dive buddies had first found and dove the target back in 2007/2008 but didn't have great visibility and I doubt that anybody has been back since then. The target is located relatively [...]
A few months ago, Tyler and I were out with Lora on the Marissa and she said to us "hey, have I ever told you about the wing section that somebody found?" Tyler and I looked at each other with some confusion and jointly say "uhhhh, no!" So off we went to go find this [...]
Background During my ill-fated trip to Bikini Atoll, we ended up diving quite a few WW II airplanes that had been dumped near Kwajalein Atoll. Tyler and I had seen some ROV footage of something similar off Point Loma and we decided to charter the Marissa with Lora and Chris to investigate and perform a [...]
MFV High Seas History After the dive on the Unknown Sailboat, we had a decent surface interval and motored a short distance to the MFV (motor fishing vessel) High Seas. The High Seas has an interesting history. It started life in the Navy as the YP 621 (yard patrol) and was built in my "hometown" [...]
The plan was to locate and dive a(nother) "virgin" Corsair that Tyler Statler had some coordinates for that is about 230' deep. We motored around on the Marissa and couldn't locate it on the sonar system. It obviously hadn't been moved -- but it was definitely playing hide-and-go-seek. 🙂 After all, a Corsair is a [...]
Wrecked in my rEvo 