Somebody call the Sultan of No CA?
Can anyone explain what is really going on? Sven?
Connor
Well, I can't explain it totally other than it's a sad, recurring theme.
My take on it, with 30+ years of being here doing it is that people show up with the mind-set that since they've gotten out of bed in the dark and driven sooo damn far, well then by Hell and highwater, they're gonna go in. They'll go in for the whole limit and they'll go in for "just one for dinner". Regardless of how it looks, they'll always "be OK 'cause I'm just going in shallow and tight". Trouble is that's where the impact zone is.
A goodly portion of the fatalities, and it's turning out the case here as well, is that these are people that may have done this thing many, many times and they develop an invincibilty complex or at best develop a laissez faire attitude that it won't happen to them. More often than not, the divers and/or rock pickers are out of shape and under-geared- as in wearing nothing more than jeans and sweatshirts, the thinking is that as long as they're gonna get wet, well, then why go through the hassle of suiting up? At least this faction is on the decline, possibly because they've all died off. More and more I see divers going out in ill-fitting surf suits of less than thick neoprene, and often hoodless and w/o gloves. You take a 50-something accountant, put him in his kids old surf suit, put him on the kelp covered rocks and ask him to bend over and put on his fin, it's akin to a stress test out of the Dr's office. Hell, I've seen them go out without fins!
I was party to a rescue involving the chopper and all last year when a guest of a friend went out with a suit that might have fit here kid 20 years ago and the taut neck induced and beauty case of vertigo. I hauled her wrinkled ass 100 friggin yards up the beach and hit 911 after testing the sharpness of my blade to get her out of the suit. The Sheriff's showed up in 10 minutes, she was in the hospital within 25 and she's now $10K in debt. And with no suit left.
And it sadly doesn't just nail wannabe's. A very close amigo back in the 70's was a Asst Instructor at the dump I got cert'd in, and went in just for a quickie. He was found 60 miles So a week later. You'd figure he'd know better, but then again we talk on cell phones while driving, so... everyone is prone and next.
So you have the combination of out of shape and bad gear. Mix in bad judgement and we get this. :head
Abalone have the mystique of expense and rarity and so many of the local populace have become the go-to folks to feed the fam or for that soiree with the hottie down in 3B. I can liken it to cocaine back in the 80's- you got abalone, you're gonna get some. Trust me.
They inhabit everywhere from the intertidal areas to well below 100' for some of the rarest specie, but for the most part here it's all about the red abalone, incidentally the largest. I've got them past 11" and the record has me by a few.
It's damn good tasting, better than conch, as decried by every FL native that I have over, and without trying to minimize those that are still struggling with the techniques, are ridiculously easy to get- the village rumor of needing a crowbar is not correct. Like the marine version of your garden snail that they are, you merely have to break the suction of the foot against the rock. POP!, and there's a $120.00 entree in your Yamamoto'd palm. But as with getting the clip off the side-dish's bra, it's a matter of style and practice. Trust me on that as well. :king
As I do when I'm in a new area, like in Baja next week or if I'm just not feeling it, I'll ask the locals for the read on the place. Having pulled out more than one/year and having been present at a few memorials, not even abalone is worth it. I write all this with some frustration as the season has been open since the 1st of April and I've yet to go out due to weather. Others might take heed. Or not.
