Nor Cal Roadtrip!

About a month ago now, my family ventured far up to the Mendocino coast of California to dive for the delicacy, abalone. We have made the pilgrimage almost every year since I can remember and this was only my second time diving for the snails, since warmer waters and grouper usually out vote the icy cold, sharky waters of Northern California....

About a month ago now, my family ventured far up to the Mendocino coast of California to dive for the delicacy, abalone. We have made the pilgrimage almost every year since I can remember and this was only my second time diving for the snails, since warmer waters and grouper usually out vote the icy cold, sharky waters of Northern California....

We had fairly decent conditions, however only was able to take the camera out a few days, since the thick kelp made normal diving near impossible, coupled with an abalone iron, gauge, and a bag was a seriously dangerous combination.

I never pulled anything smaller than 8.25 and biggest went 9.125. For you who don't know a 7 inch abalone is legal, and a 10" is a trophy. I was very happy with what I came out with each day, although pops had the larger ab four out of the six days we were there.

I was able to dive with a true legend of the sport and a true family friend, John Yantis, each day and in his 70's, can still put anybody in their place. His stories are truly awe-inspiring.

On my first abalone of the trip, while filleting it, I was approached by another diver who asked if I had ever found any pearls. I replied "not yet", looked down and, there, sitting atop the snail before me was a very large abalone pearl! Believe me or not, that is how it went down. The pearl is very big and oddly enough, shaped like a shark's tooth...

I enjoyed showing off my youth on this trip as well. An elderly diver from our group had dropped his weightbelt off the side of the Zodiac before hitting the water. I had already pulled my limit for the day and was back on the boat when I hear people yelling "Davis, where's your dad? There is a weightbelt in 40' of water and we can't reach it", now my dad is a great diver, but I had to one up him on this. So I put back on my fins, mask, and headed towards the boat. There were three gentlemen on the boat telling me twenty different ways of how deep it was, yatta, yatta, yatta. I knew they were in the general vicinity of the belt, so down I went. It must have been luck because I landed RIGHT on top of the belt. A very large belt. Twenty five pounds easy. There was no nylon left on a larger than average belt using old pinch weights. But I grabbed it anyways and headed up, or tried to.. I jumped and felt as if I weighed 250lbs. I managed to get up to 20', where the load already felt much lighter, and aimed for the starboard side of the boat. I popped up and in the same moment for breath, threw the weightbelt in. All I heard was hoots from the old guys and had a question thrown at me that I was not ready for, since I was practically seeing stars. "What kind of beer do you drink, kid?"

To which I replied "anything cold"....:cool2:

The pictures you see of the pelican was truly one of those things in life you look back on and makes you feel and look great, although in the moment, we were just acting. The pelican had not moved since the early morning the day prior, and after a few calls, we were able to connect with an animal rescuer to take the injured pelican off our hands. The pelican had two hooks in it, about two feet of HEAVY fishing line, and bugs all over it. We captured the pelican (the net was overkill), removed the hooks, and wrapped it up in a blanket awaiting the animal rescue. We tried feeding the pelican some sardines that were laying around camp, however the pelican did not want anything to do with it. Pelicans are much larger than I had thought (even though I see them daily, never super up close though) and much heavier!

Hope you enjoy the video!

The set up I used was a Go Pro 960, with a PURSUIT flat lens, and both a head mount and a pistol grip setup. I used Nero Vision 10 to edit the video, great program!

http://vimeo.com/29128053

I'll be adding more pictures later, so stay tuned..

Glad you liked it!

He is living in Los Altos, just inland os Santa Cruz. He and his wife Janet are both doing well.