Big Sur Platform, California - (1/16/05)

Big Sur Platform is a deep platform that is west of Point Sur Lighthouse, about 20 miles south of Carmel. The diving here is offshore and reachable only by boat. On this dive, we chartered the Sanctuary out of Gilroy. This is a great boat for a small group of technical divers.

This dive was made with Marcos Perreau Guimaraes, Denzil Wessels, and Ken Gwin. The dive profile on the first dive was multi-level: 160 fsw for 20 minutes, followed by 130 fsw for 15 minutes. Visibility was quite high - in the 80 - 100 foot range, but there was a lot of plankton high in the water column making this a "twilight" dive on the bottom. The second dive of the trip was in Carmel Bay because the seas had risen high enough to make diving in all that gear a real challenge.

The wildlife here is extraordinary and rivals any cold water dives that I have ever made. I have heard from several sources that Jacques Cousteau called it one of his favorite places to dive. It is certainly one of mine.

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China Rockfish	Copper Rockfish	Dueling Cameras - I Lost	Denzil On His Way To Deco	Fields of Hydrocoral	Guarding The Anchor Chain
Lingcod	Marcos Filming	Rosy Rockfish	Starry Rockfish	Vermillion Rockfish	Point Sur Lighthouse from Divesite