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 We interrupt our regularly scheduled Antarctica posts to bring you (finally) some new post about rusted metal! Tyler and I found and potentially identified a new TBF about a year ago. We did two dives on the wreck and we had pretty bad visibility on each of those dives. I have a running "to-do" [...]
I am very honored to be awarded the Winner in the Wreck Category for the 2023 Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPY) contest. The "photo" that won is a screen capture of the final photogrammetry model I built of the F8F-1 Bearcat that sits 230 feet deep off Point Loma, California. To date, there have [...]
Background We have had absolutely horrible conditions since Christmas. Between the large swells, wind, rain and resulting run-off, diving has been non-existintent for weeks. I snuck in a couple dives to teach a photogrammetry class, but that is about it until this week. Dive 1 - 275' Target (South of Pt Loma) Tyler found a [...]
I recently gave a presentation on the Zoom Seekers series. It was focussed on Southern California Wrecks and coves some of the tools we use to find and identify new wrecks. It provides details on how photogrammetry can be used for multiple purposes in wreck identification. I hope this presentation provides a peek into what [...]
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 [...]
Intro I first dove the Bearcat back in June 2022 and it is an amazing wreck. It is very rare to find an almost completely intact single engine airplane wreck. When I first dove it, I was concentrating on getting photos for identification and documentation and not for building a photogrammetry model. I was alone [...]
Background It has been quite some time since I have been diving on the A.C.E. wreck (which is a bit crazy since it is probably the closest wreck to my house). For some reason, there was a mid-week trip going to the ACE on Tue, 13 December so I decided to join in with the [...]
Background The Ruby E was the second vessel intentionally sunk off of Mission Beach, San Diego as part of "wreck alley." She was built in 1934 and sank on June 18, 1989 so she has been down for a while. This post will give some history of the ship, pictures from a recent dive, and [...]