Diving With Harbor Seals | Treasure Island Montage Laguna Beach | Scuba Diving vLog Dec 8 2021

[@stitch3163]

Labrador Retriever sea cousins. As long as you know they are there, it’s awesome. When the first indication of the seal’s presence is a large grayish body whooshing by you… bit unnerving. This is not the first time that I’ve seen seals trying to chew on fins, but it is always entertaining. Superb viz! Glad you had the opportunity to enjoy a dive before the storm drains muck it all up. Thanks for the new background music, Matt. That was a fun video.

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

We had a harbor seal buzz us on a night dive once and scare the crap out of Jack and I. Daytime it tends to be more of a pleasant surprise but I did do a bit of a spit take when I felt something cuddling with my leg and turned back to see one of those seals.

[@Mikehikes71]

Haha Mass you walked the entire East Coast and beyond and scared of 100 step stairs!! Video was great, thanks for takin me along!

[@brendadiver]

I love this video!! I dive at Crescent Bay frequently. We have 3 harbor seals there.But you captured their interaction beautifully. When conditions improve, I am heading down to Montage again. You really had great conditions here

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

It was pretty much the best conditions of the season that day

[@NieblaCostera]

Beautiful! I love the colors!

[@marleenvos4126]

those seals are awesome. Love the new background music too :D

[@quirkykindalife2948]

That new camera you have is really impressive. The seals were super cute. I'm not sure why but it surprises me how much life there is so close to shore.

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

Thanks! Latest model GoPro. Laguna has been a marine protected area for a number of years and my understanding is it really turned things around as far as density of sea life. It’s still somewhat eye opening every time I go down there though

[@fatmanhikes]

These videos are way better than really good!! Thanks

[@veeschannel5539]

Beautifull dive, and so cute those playfull seals!

[@MousesAdventures]

Well, that was just the coolest. Underwater bears! 🐻🦭 Except they don’t steal your food. I generally catch up on hiking videos while I am on the treadmill training for my next section hike. Your dive videos are a welcome change of pace.

[@SMjerZgirl]

Beautiful dive!

[@Boardupman]

Great footage. I'd love to get some harbor seal interaction like you have here on a future dive.

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

It’s pretty common. You just need to catch them when they want to play. Other times they just sit around in the rocks napping

[@NordikSmeelyCooter]

Thats awesome, thanks for sharing

[@theblueblazebeyond4766]

The seals are so cool!

[@briantasse5257]

A stunning dive! Well shot and nicely edited.

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

Thanks! Basically the best conditions of the year

[@gregwicks51]

Beautiful!

[@garrycollins3415]

I enjoyed that, thanks.

[@butchbinion1560]

Thanks for the names of the fish. ✌️👊

[@butchbinion1560]

Awesome. ✌️👊

[@butchbinion1560]

Like the music. ✌️👊

[@clm2417]

So beautiful, The first harbor seal looked like he wanted you to play with him. I guess that particular shark doesn’t come after you? What do you love more, diving or hiking?

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

Hard to say since I really enjoy both. It’s easier to do hiking in a sustained manner while diving tends to be in spurts due to its nature

[@raymaroney8355]

Nice vid

[@MegaLitefoot]

This is one of my favorite dive videos; maybe my very favorite. How far was the surface swim? Were you wearing 5 mm or 7 mm wetsuits? Is the surge manageable for a relatively new diver?

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

7 mm and it’s still cold. Surface swim isn’t bad but you have a bit of a walk to the beach where you go in. Also conditions usually aren’t this good

[@echols2010]

Looks like nice dive, wish viz was always this good lol

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

That would be nice. This was probably one of the top 5 dives I’ve ever had in Laguna. It’s going to spoil me

[@echols2010]

@@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes I have only dove once up in laguna once I am down in San diego I really like laguna area though

[@bird.1980]

too cool matt. do you have to use a dive flag and what camera are you using?

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

Camera is a GoPro Hero 10. No dive flags needed in Laguna which is good since we’d have a hell of a time getting them tangled in the kelp and rocks

[@nuggethikes]

Nice dive. Have you been diving in the Bahamas? You would be hard pressed to find water so clear and blue. The colors are incredible compared to the keys or miami. the large number of sharks is an issue. Have you run across any white sharks on your dives?

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

Closest I’ve done to the Bahamas was Florida. I have done a bit in Indonesia and Thailand which were both really impressive. No great whites yet unfortunatly

[@oxbluepandaxo]

This makes me want to learn diving so bad!!

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

It’s an amazing activity. Closest you can get to flying

[@nightfall2965]

Great video! Shame I only found it just now. I snorkel and freedive treasure island a lot, but the farther beach by Goff Island, and I’ve never found any good size caves to dive into. What part of the beach was this?

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

It’s the beach at the base of the big ramps. We go in, swim out and to the right around the rocks

[@nightfall2965]

Ah ok, thanks so much! Just subscribed and exploring your channel. Love your dives. Cheers to further adventures, yeah?!

[@annelawson1966]

Harbor seals are so friendly and curious. Do you ever think they are trying to get you to follow them?

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

Anytime we did they generally just took off

[@annelawson1966]

@@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes swim faster, blahaha

[@chuckoffcampus9738]

Thanks for putting in the fish names. What were the seals finding to eat down in the rocks?

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

I’m really not sure. They never popped back up with anything visible in their mouths

[@amrmoubasher3992]

I've been diving Laguna for years but I want to start diving in the winter. What app do you use to check the bacterial level?

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

OC Beach Info website shows tested ocean quality. Green your good to go, yellow it’s recommended to stay out, red usually means a sewage leak

[@janetl7981]

So beautiful

[@taylorwright4555]

what app did you use to look at the vis, tide, and water temp?

[@FirstChurchofTheMasochistHikes]

There's nothing to predice vis. The local diving group has someone who tries but you basically just have to dive and see how far you can see. Water temp comes off of my dive computer. Tidal information I use an app called Magic Seaweed

[@surfskatefate]

Ya. Booster 😢