Once upon a time, before I took up underwater photography, I was a hunter. Off San Clemente Island one day I happened upon a lobster condo bristling with a million (well, maybe not quite that many) antennae. Kicking like crazy, I rushed the reef, coming to a halt with twitching antenna only inches from my fingertips.
Immobilized, I watched all of the reef’s many inhabitants flip their tails and take flight. Lobsters zoomed by to the left of me and to the right; there were speeding lobsters overhead and under me. I tried to grab those living projectiles but all I got for my efforts were fistfuls of water.
When they were all gone, I figured out what had stopped me. A stringy frond of young kelp had gotten tangled on a fin buckle.
Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), the largest marine plant on earth, can grow as much as two feet per day. It is a staple of Southern California diving.
Which brings us to The Primary Premise of Diving in Giant Kelp: Sooner or later you will get tangled when you least expect it and always when it is inconvenient.
But there are ways to minimize kelp entanglement. First of all, streamline yourself and your equipment. Reduce the things on which kelp can catch. Tuck accessories in pockets or clip them close to your body. Keep gear worn on arms and legs to a minimum or eliminate it altogether. If you must wear a knife on your leg, wear it on the inside, not the outside.
Here’s a biggie: Don’t jump off a boat into the middle of thick kelp. Almost always the boat will swing into a kelp-free area if you’ll just wait a few minutes. If someone behind you gets impatient, let that person jump into the thick kelp. And if you do jump into thick kelp, don’t compound your mistake by trying to descend in it. While there are techniques that will help you do this, I have found it easier to swim to a clear area, then submerge.