WAVES Alumni diving report
What is a WAVES Alumni? The definition of Alumni is “A group of people who have graduated from a school or university. Alumni is usually used to refer to a group of graduates of either one or both genders”.
There are many different terms that properly describe someone who has graduated or participated; either singular or plural, male or female, so we have chosen to use the very improper term “alumn” for an individual who has been involved in or graduated from a WAVES Project Program. Check back often to see more adventures of WAVES Alumni divers!
WAVES alumni divers have not been staying dry even though it is winter. We tracked some of them down to share their experiences, many say the water is most beautiful this time of year. The trend is to switch to drysuits this time of year but there are plenty of us still diving in 7mm wetsuits. Here are some of their recent dive reports.
Shore diving with WAVES Alumn: Patrick Runion
Southern California offers year-round diving with endless opportunities for adventure; whether you charter a boat or as a more affordable alternative explore our vast coastlines on your own, like me. I will report on the dives I embark on throughout the month. As a newly certified diver, most of the locations will be new for me and possibly for you also.
This month, I explored Divers Cove in Laguna Beach and Reef Point at Crystal Cove State Beach.
Divers Cove 
Divers Cove
Divers Cove was our second choice because the waters were too rough in La Jolla. To our pleasant surprise, the beach in Laguna was very calm. During our first dive as we skirted around, we found a few small reefs and little sea life. As we took our break, we noticed the water breaking on rocks and a reef on the north side of the cove, and so chose that for our second dive. After a short surface swim, we descended and almost immediately began to view sea life. As we swam closer to the reef, it became much more exciting! The reef was quite large, depths from 10-30 feet and with overhangs and tunnels throughout. On a day it seemed bad weather would prevent us from diving, this ended up being an excellent dive.
A couple weeks later, I explored Reef Point with WAVES alumn Jose Mendoza and a couple of dive buddies. This was the first time any of us had been to this location. The weather was beautiful with waves probably a foot or less. It is outside of protected waters so there is a lot of activity in the area. We saw free-divers spear fishing and boats setting lobster traps. The reef covers a large area, allowing us plenty of room to stay clear of the other divers and boats. On our first dive, we saw all the local varieties of reef life including eels, starfish and even a guitar fish. The second dive was even more exciting, with holes in the reef and plenty of overhangs; the sea life was everywhere! As we came around one edge of the reef (the area we had explored on dive one), we found a huge anchor. How we missed it on our first dive, I have no idea! When I got home, I learned from research there are two anchors and a World War II plane of the end of the reef in about 120 feet of water!
Reef Point Pat and anchor 
Close up of the anchor 
guitar fish at Reef Point
These dives were great fun that I look forward to experiencing again. So when you need a quick fix and want to get in the water, the shore is only a short drive away! Grab a buddy, one from the WAVES Alumni or any other dive buddy and get out there and dive!
Boat Diving with WAVES Alumn, Kris Moorehead
Kris Moorehead went out of San Diego on the Horizon dive boat to Santa Barbara Island. He reported the maximum depth was 87 feet and the average was 53 feet. His dive time was 50 minutes. These great photos are courtesy of Xavier Michalet (Uwxplorer), you can see more of his photos on Facebook. Kris is the one with the lime green color accent on his DUI Drysuit.
WAVES Alumni join a group at Veteran’s Park
Jose, Dave, Kris and Paul were among the group of divers at Veteran’s Park. 
Kris and Dave
These photos were taken at Veteran’s Park – Redondo Beach, with a group of WAVES divers, submitted by Jose Louie Mendoza. He reports that the visibility was good; approximately 30 ft, water temperature 65°. Their max depth on this dive was 73 ft. The group saw a baby horn shark some nice starfish (large and small), and a large octopus by the monument at approximately 55 ft just to the left of the canyon.