Scuba Diving club,
Southern California
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The Santa Barbara Alps by Eric Maiken |
Bathymetry
Looking southwest across
Southern California's Santa Monica basin, the Matterhorn pinnacle, Santa
Barbara Island, and Osborne bank rise from a common buttress in the Santa
Barbara Alps. Vertical scale is approximately
30 times horizontal. |
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Matterhorn
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The three photos give you an
idea of just how much stuff is clinging to the Matterhorn... "Life piled
on life!" You can make out purple, red, orange, and pink Corynactis
anemones --many the diameter of a silver dollar. Besides the clingy things on
the rocks, there are all kinds of big fish, including Wolf Eels, Yellowtail,
Mola Mola, Starry and Rosy rockfish. |
The following article was
published in a substantially different form as "Matterhorn" in the
"Image" section of aquaCORPS N.10 Imaging the Deep
(Summer 1995). The slopes
of Southern California's western mountains rise from abyssal rather than
coastal plains. Along submarine ridges, some peaks clear the sea's surface, forming
the Channel Islands. Others lie below surrounding waters as seamounts. These
blue water oases provide technical divers with some of the best reef diving
off the West Coast of North America. Towering as much as a mile above the sea
floor, a few sentinel peaks and ridges form pinnacles and banks that offer a
reverse mountaineering challenge. Two
submerged summits ride the same buttress as Santa Barbara Island. Osborne
Bank is a long ridge with miles of terrain between 200 and 120 feet deep. The
Matterhorn pinnacle is aptly named for its extremely sharp profile--only a
few square yards lie shallower than 200 feet. First dived more than twenty
years ago by an adventuresome few (including Cousteau), Matterhorn was even
the subject of an article in the bold Skin Diver Magazine of the
Seventies. In the ensuing years, the sharp pinnacle eluded casual divers who
searched in vain for the feature mischarted as only 17 fathoms. With the peak
actually lying nearly 130 feet deep, twenty nautical miles offshore, Matterhorn
long remained far from the sport diving itinerary, with most of the boats
plying the area loaded with fishermen rather than divers. Enticed by rumors of big
diving, Jim Baden led the first group of technical divers to the site in
1992. A strong current often flows over the uppermost ridges of the mountain
as water blown by wind and drawn by tide funnels through nearby channels. The
easiest diving is near sheltering walls and bowls, well below the ridge lying
perpendicular to the one-to-two knot flow. Due to the difficult terrain,
currents, and opposing surface winds, it is prudent to count on diving in the
200-foot range, at nearly twice the charted depth. Divers should personally
carry all decompression gas because anchors have slipped off the mountain
during hangs. While Osborne Bank's location behind Santa Barbara Island
isolates it from the heavy flow of the near-shore channel, currents are still
a factor there as well. The underwater mountains offer divers challenges and
beauty that are unmatched by any of California's nearshore diving
sites. Though currents hazard
divers, they bring nutrients and animals to the banks. Taking advantage of
the overdriven engine of life, the most spectacular concentrations of
invertebrates found in Southern California cover the mountain walls.
Creatures normally ranging far to the north and south are stranded on the
lonely outposts, while some of the most common plants and animals of the
nearby islands are absent. The severe yet fragile environments of the seamounts
are hospitable only to those creatures with the ability to match a strong
drive for survival. It is incumbent on those who go down to the mountain tops
to ensure preservation of these underwater islands --along with their own
hides. |
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Decompression
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The profile
compares stops calculated by the Varying Permeability Model (VPM) to the
schedule calculated by aquaCorps' editors using a commercial program.
All times are run-times in minutes, depths are in feet. Note that the VPM
starts your stops much deeper than the published profile, and gets you out of
the water a bit later. The dive modeled, shown as the magenta line, expressed
as depth/run-time is: 200 ft/13 min -- 160 ft/26 min -- 130 ft/37 min on air.
The ascent is on air until 20 ft, where the switch to oxygen is shown as a
green line. Even thought the VPM plot shows a 10 ft stop, I'd pull it at 20
ft. If you'd
like a copy of the nitrox VPM program, see the bubble model decompression program page
for details. |
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Trip
report by Michael Kane, December 2, 2000
We have finally successfully
completed a trip to the elusive Matterhorn!!!!!! We once again teamed up with Captain Tim Burke of the Great
Escape for a Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber benefit trip with our destination this
time being the Matterhorn. The Matterhorn
is a series of pinnacles that lies ~ 45 miles off San Pedro between Santa
Barbara and Anacapa Islands. Given the
remoteness of the site, the unpredictable weather patterns, the strong currents
and the extreme depths this is a site that is not often visited, in fact, I
have had several trip cancelled in the last 7 years that I have been trying to
dive her. We monitored the swell models
throughout the week leading up to Saturday’s excursion and we watched the swells
creep down from a Wednesday high of 10’ –12’ to Friday’s prediction of 2’ – 4’.
As we approach the high pinnacle at 165’ we anxiously awaited as
Captain Tim expertly anchored directly atop the high pinnacle. The seas are flat calm, less than 1’ of
swells, and it finally sinks in that we are probably going to make it this
time. While Tim is navigating the boat
we are pleased to see three gray whales frolicking about 50 yards off the
starboard side. The whales seem just as
intrigued by us as we do by them and the hang about for atleast 15
minutes. By now we are anchored and are
hoping to see our friends down under.
We send the first team in at 8:00am after we allow time for
preparing the breakaway deco station, rig up lines and prepare the boat for any
possible emergencies. We are in the
middle of nowhere so we attempt all precautions possible in the event of a
problem. The first team’s goal is to
insure that the anchor is affixed properly and then enjoy the dive. All the best laid plans… About 9 minutes into the first teams dive the
anchor breaks loose but fortunately all team members immediately recognize the
problem and are close enough to the anchor to get hold and complete a drifting
deco on the line. I wasn’t part of the
first team so I’ll allow those members to provide their accounts, but no one
indicated that they were ever in any sort of problem. It was simply a dive fallen short due to a slipped anchor.
After we get everyone on board its time for my dive. My team consisted of myself and John Walker
with Terry May acting as support diver.
Terry agreed to forego an opportunity to join us in order to increase
our safety margin. Thank you Terry
May!!!!
Our dive plan is 350’ for 15 minutes. After several conversations with Jarrod Jablonski we agreed upon
a mix of 10/70. JJ was very generous
with his time as we developed contingency plan after contingency plan so I
wanted to take a minute and publicly acknowledge JJ’s efforts. As I noted above the site is so remote so
contingency planning is of the utmost importance. One of my concerns after we anchored was that the surface
visibility was somewhat limited due to a fog bank that stubbornly hung around
during the day. To the extent anyone missed
the anchor line search efforts may have been impaired by the limited vis.
Early reports from the first team indicated substantial
visibility but a fierce current. Our
plan was to descend the anchor after Captain Tim re-set it and secure the
anchor and then continue down the pinnacle.
The anchor was draped over the pinnacle at 165’ and sat in 195’. She sat precariously at the edge of a ridge
so it took a minute or so to get her adjusted safely. This, of course, ate into our preciously limited bottom
time. However, as we descended the line
the pinnacle came into focus at ~ 90’ with bright red, orange, purple anemones
illuminating the landscape. Our HID
lights only served to further lighten up the expanse. As we continued our
descent I kept awaiting for the colors to fade and the reef to thin out. Fortunately this would never come to
fruition. The corals never depleted and
in fact grew in size and color the deeper we went, nor did the generous supply
of abundance disappoint us in any way.
At ~ 250’ we encountered a football field size shelf that resembled a
garden patch with all sorts of different colors, the reds mixed with yellows,
whites, purples sprinkled with white metridiums and scallops the size of large
dinner plates. I remarked after the
dive that the visual was very comparable to the wealth of life that cover’s the
oil rig pilings if you have ever had the opportunity to dive the rigs here in
SoCal. This reef greatly resembled in
scope the heavily encrusted nature of a piling. The marine life was abundant but I admit to expecting (or hoping)
to see larger than normal marine life but while there was larger groups of life
they were about the same size as the marine life that we normally see in other
reefs in and around Southern California.
The current was screaming at various points on our dive and made
for some interesting challenges. From
the surface to ~ 100’ the current was nearly non-existent. From ~ 100’ – 225’ the current was ripping
and it was only when we were able to duck behind a shelf at 225’ did the
current subside and from here to 300’ it was a pleasant, easy and enjoyable
exploration of the reef. The majority
of my deep exploration efforts involve wrecks and I clearly remember my
thoughts when the reef came into vision.
Usually as we descend we keep looking for a chunk of mangled up metal to
come into focus, but on this dive, coupled with the 100’ vis we enjoyed, the
reef sprang upon us like a welcomed breath of air with colors and life that are
clearly distinguishable from the outline of a wreck that I am usually focusing
in on at these depths. The difference
was clear as was the welcome freedom to explore a reef that only a handful of
people have ever explored at these depths.
Sadly our available bottom time had arrived upon us and it was time to
begin the slow and dilatory ascent to the surface. I recorded a bottom water temp of 46 degrees with a surface temp.
of 57 degrees and as noted we estimated 100’ + vis with mild to strong
currents. As we switched to our 190’
(19/25) bottles the current was so strong that both Walker and I were like flags
flying in the wind while tied off to the line.
Terry had arrived at the pre-determined depth and time exactly as
planned (120’) and remarked later that even he was able to enjoy the pinnacle
from that depth. By the time we got to
our 20’ stop, and had handed off all our deco bottles Walker and I were able to
complete the deco absent the need for a line on the anchor. No currents, no swells and we floated under
the boat and my vivid recollections were that we had just done a great dive, we
were blessed with great conditions and all I could think of is when can I get
here again??????
Special thanks to my buddy John Walker who is a joy to dive with
at these depths, Captain Tim Burke and the expert crew of the Great Escape who
instill a sense of confidence during dives of this nature and his contributions
to the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, Terry May for expertise as support diver
and the entire group that helped raise much needed funds for the Chamber.
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Posted September 16, 2003