Kelp posed skin-diving challenge

I took up skin-diving at just the right time. A few years earlier and face masks had not been invented. A few years later, and the kelp was gone.

It seems like just a few years ago that a vast kelp patch stretched from Corona del Mar to the end of the cape.

To someone who has never experienced it, it is difficult to explain the feeling one had when diving in kelp in the early days. You felt all alone in the world, as if you were the first man to have ever been in that spot. You felt as if you were some kind of explorer.

Then, of course, there were all those fish. Many had never seen a man before and were completely unafraid. Some fish were so unafraid that they would actually come up and look at you through your face mask until you felt that you would be cross-eyed if the rascal didn’t go away.

There was a measure of risk involved. The kelp was so thick that, at low tide, it concentrated into a mass 4 to 6 feet in depth at the surface, making it almost impenetrable. When you dove at low tide, before you went in, you first found an open spot where you were planning to surface.

Miss that open spot, and you probably wouldn’t be able to force your way to the surface through the kelp. You could drown with your face only a foot or two under water. However, there were just a few of us diving at the time, and most of us were excellent swimmers and surfers. We had few real misadventures. This can’t be said of the early scuba divers, many of whom didn’t know what they were doing and were inferior swimmers.

Then things began to change. Kelp harvesters showed up on the scene. We were told they were good for the kelp, as they thinned it out. I have serious doubts, but “progress” had its way, and the kelp harvesters chopped away.

One summer, we had a radical change in water temperature, and the kelp piled up on the beach. I remember well how we complained about the kelp flies, which arrived in droves, but we didn’t realize the true effect of the change. Also around this time, we began hearing talk about water pollution.

I don’t know what was responsible for the kelp disappearing. All I know is the kelp is no more. I’m just glad I was here when it was.