Sunset Dive

Been way to busy with midterms to write about the epicness that occured a week ago TO THIS DAY. The midterm was tough, but I got through it, so now I can BLOG. Anyways before the ocean off the coast of SB turned into the mushroom soup that it was today when I went for a swim, it was crystal clear mushroom soup before you add ANYTHING. Soup-er nice. (hehe) but seriously. After class last Tuesday, I get this call from Mark, captain of the Jolly Jumbuck.

"Hey Doug!" he says to me.
"Hey Mark!" I says back.

And then this whole convo goes into stage about how we should go diving, but the Jumbuck's got a cold, so hes out. So we decide on the Ye Ole Fashioned shore dive from the goodland. It's about 4:20 when we were finally suiting up, and by suiting up, I mean putting on my board shorts. The days are getting shorter and the tide was getting lower so we bust out and take a dip. We drop our faces into the drink and all I can see is EPICNESS. Sand fo dayyysss. We swim around, play with a couple bat rays, dig for doubloons (didn't find any), and then we get to the SPOT. The kelp was standing tall and the bugs were RIPE for the picking! Mark was in full bug hunting mode, and I was in that "I wanna shoot things" mode. So I had my trusty GAT out fully rigged with the GoPro. The vis was incredible. I could see bugs waving their hands in the water from 30 feet up. I was reel. (hehe) Take a few looksies around the kelp, and its just Rock city, Rock Rock city. Tons of em, all different shapes and colours. Opies by the dozen, and perch for dayzz. But I was not hunting them tonight. No. I was looking for a different type of monster. One more elusive, one more keen. One with a color so blue, the sky would be jealous. The LINGCOD. or honestly anything pretty big and ugly looking.

I'm doing my thing, searching in the most deepest crevices; my eyes peeled for the elusive monster, whilst also keeping my perifs on the red creepy crawlys that taste oh so wonderful dipped in a pot o butter. But THEN I look in this HOLE, and I see these eyes. Eyes so deep, it was like peering into the soul of Paul Watson. I pointed my gun at the Megalodon's fat head, and pulled the TRIG. WHAP! Nailed um! Pulled that spear out of the hole and that beast was Stone Cold Steve Austin. Blue as could be. Strung him up and then dove for more.

Mark in the meantime was pulling up shorty after shorty, so I decided to try my luck. I dropped the gat and stuck my hands in some holes. I pulled up one red, that was close, so I let him swim. My next grab was SOOO close, but to no avail, I was duped yet again. Mark pulled up one legal and bagged him, but then I just went back into "I wanna shoot things" mode. It was getting dark now, no more sunlight. The flashlights were our only hope in protecting our faces from rock to face collision. I see the faint outline of the blue beasts' counterpart, so I shoot its brain out. BAGGED.

I am now freezing my balls off, and Mark too has had enough, although as soon as we get out, he wants nothing more than to get back in. We take a couple snapshots and start to swim. I reach for my snorkel....

"WHERE'S MY DAMN SNORKEL?!?!" shouts Doug.

It slipped away into the dark abyss. Forever lost to Poseidon's kingdom. I count my losses and backstroke back to the beach.
It's Late-ish and I have some things to do, so I'm not trying to cook these fishes up right now. We stop by our local favourite CAL TACOOO! Mmmmm char burger with jack. DANK. I gave one of my lings to Alex, the best chef in town cause he's a straight up G, and makes the best lunches at Sandpiper GC, my place of business. And then we call it a night. Great Dive, Great Fish, Great Everything. Now back to homework....

This was Instagrammed.

LOBSTER HEAD!

DOUBLE LING MADNESS

Just SO raw.