{"id":176,"date":"2010-05-17T04:54:19","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T11:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/?p=176"},"modified":"2018-07-31T10:12:27","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T17:12:27","slug":"diving-at-fort-ross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/17\/diving-at-fort-ross\/","title":{"rendered":"Diving at Fort Ross"},"content":{"rendered":"

I met Steven Liu at Fort Ross Saturday to free dive for abalone and do some spearfishing. I’ve dove with Steven several times, mostly freediving and once on scuba at Ocean Cove. He’s great to dive with and we usually end up taking our limit of abalone and\u00a0 spearing some fish.<\/p>\n

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Steven and I preparing for a scuba dive at Ocean Cove<\/p><\/div>\n

Steven is deaf so getting to know him has prompted me to learn some ASL<\/a> fingerspelling which I can get by with, barely, but often we just resort to notes our iphones. I’ve downloaded a couple apps to help me learn it better as once we’re in the water I don’t have the iphone option. My signing is kind of like my Spanish, I can say a few things but then often can’t follow what’s said back. We seem to communicate well enough and it just seems we are usually on the same wavelength and have a great time diving together. Steven is a very capable diver and he’s taken some great video of abalone diving and spearfishing, often just filming himself!<\/p>\n

Here is a great short video that pretty much shows you what taking an abalone looks like.<\/p>\n

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I left for Fort Ross 5:30am to meet Steven there at 8:30. Fog on the coast slowed me down a little so rolled up to the gate at 8:40. A familiar face greets me from the booth at the entrance and Jaquee looks at me and says ‘Where do I know you from’? I have to explain it’s from last year at Reef Campground when the friends I was camping with got so drunk they kicked us out. She laughs about it and I remind her I was the sober one. She jokes about loving us divers and not the ‘rock pickers’.<\/p>\n

Shortly after parking Steven arrives. We quickly catch up by iphone and then are suited up and walking down to the south cove. We had an epic time together last year diving with Felix and took our abs and lots of Black Rockfish. We’re hoping for a repeat. Arriving at the cove the water is flat! I don’t see any kelp though so there may not be as many fish out there. We’re in the water by 10am. I bring my polespear and my Riffe speargun<\/a>. The visibility isn’t as good as I hoped. Steven anchors his tube and I clip to it. We start out in around 15ft. My first time diving since a ruptured eardrum in November so taking it easy. I feel good though and soon have my first ab. After about 30 minutes I’ve got my 3 abs and take out the polespear. I drop down and just comb the cracks and crevices for any hiding fish. I’m using my Oceanic Geo<\/a> wrist computer which measures the depth and duration of each dive. My initial dives for abs rarely last for more than a minute but when I’m hunting for fish I get into this zone where a 2 minute dive seems easy and I surface comfortably, like while snorkeling in Hawaii. I should probably just fish first as through the course of fishing I usually see huge abalone in the 20-25 foot range.<\/p>\n

Soon I surprise a nice size Black as he comes out from a hole and in a split second he’s on the end of my polespear. I’m happy to get one big one so now the day is really looking up. I get him on my stringer. Steven has already speared an even larger Grassie. Back to hunting I soon see movement in a hole that looks like a big black at about 20 ft. when I get near a harbor seal pokes his head out with big puppy dog eyes. We stare at each other until I need some air. The visiblity is a little better in deeper water. I’m ignoring schools of perch, intent on the biggest black I can find. Finally I see a nice size one but with no kelp to cover me he stays just far enough away. After attempts with the polespear that land short I return to the boogie board to fetch my speargun. It has about a 10 foot range. Back to the spot and after a while I see one but he has my number and stays pointed away. I’m on him hoping he’ll turn but doesn’t. I finally shoot holding on him but it’s a miss.<\/p>\n

By about noon I see Steven is back at the tube and I swim back. We decide to call it a day and swim in to shore. Another great day diving at Fort Ross. Saturday night Kari and I enjoy some delicious fried rockfish and abalone. It’s great to be back diving again.<\/p>\n

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I met Steven Liu at Fort Ross Saturday to free dive for abalone and do some spearfishing. I’ve dove with Steven several times, mostly freediving and once on scuba at Ocean Cove. He’s great to dive with and we usually end up taking our limit of abalone and\u00a0 spearing some fish. Steven is deaf so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,86,8],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diving","tag-abalone","tag-diving","tag-spearfishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}