Working passionately for many years, a Los Angeles based group of scuba divers known as the Hardcore Dive Team is conducting current research dives for California Ships to Reefs (CSTR) in Santa Monica Bay’s Redondo Beach (aka “South Bay,”). Making it all possible is Captain James Benci of Diver City who provides the hands-down best dive operation in California.
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Photos and Story by Brian Wright, Independent Contributor and Hardcore Dive Team
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Hardcore Dive Team’s values have followed lines of change and different styles that continue to help us update the “core” of exploring our limits. Hardcore’s beginnings started with a trio of California divers seeking to find the boundaries that the Pacific Ocean was willing to share with us. These boundaries are, as of today, nowhere in sight. Valuable lessons and new ideas from Hardcore’s newest addition, environmental impact diver Demara Fletcher, is showing examples of how to reach out and experience our underwater world, while at the same time being sensitive to our environmental impact.
Hardcore Dive Team’s coordinating diver Jeff Wright puts us right on to site location with virtually no error. Captain James Benci, of Redondo’s King Harbor, brings our organized events to life while often supplying numerous support divers, and at the same time always participating in specific operations of “large fish relocation program,” in the event of a large fish lounging at the dive research sites. Then there’s Brian Wright, gear handler, deck hand, and organizer for Hardcore Dive Team. The South Bay project we’re working on has all the makings of perfect site analysis for CSTR to proceed!
From as far back as recorded history, California has mysteriously been the focal point in its culture, its natural resources and world changing events. Unknown natives, the highest mountain and lowest desert in the USA, the largest tree, the oldest tree, the oldest living organism on the planet, the explorers looking for the new world, the gold rush, cotton, oil, Hollywood, Los Angeles, San Francisco, La Brea tar pits, silicone valley, Tandy, Microsoft, Apple are all part of the wondrous California. All the while our rocky, sandy shores disappear into the world’s largest ocean. Where can you skydive, hike, water and snow ski, scuba dive and surf all in the same day, other than California? Here’s the real attention grabber: There is 3,427 miles of Ocean Shoreline, and 32,050 miles of Lake Shoreline in California. That’s a lot of California Diving! 
On the business end of most all dive attractions is structure. One cannot miss the sudden positive change in marine life and the thick dark clouds of schooling fish. These usually indicate reefs are nearby. It could take a lifetime to dive all of the natural and artificial reefs and shipwrecks in California. California Ships to Reefs (CTSR) knows that people are interested in these reefs and wrecks, just like Mark Zuckerberg knew there was a demand for social media. Hardcore Dive Team is part of California Ships to Reefs by membership, sink site analysis, and data collection dives covering Santa Monica Bay. Both Hardcore Captain James Benci of DiverCity and Captain Adam James of “The Goby,” and now “Serenity,” provide the necessary means for our extensive work. 
If you were in a boxing match with unlimited rounds, holding your ground, getting knocked down at times, and the ref never calls the fight, would you quit? No. CSTR never quits moving forward in their reason and their mission. Their strategy is crystal clear in obtaining reefing materials, small and large private vessels, and decommissioned military ships to use as artificial reefs, which ultimately enhances the marine life ecosystems. They do this in order to create a positive interest in diving, fishing and photographing these huge pieces of history. These will produce a future economic resource that lasts well over 100 years. That’s quite a few more generations of our family that gets to see our work. All California Divers that we’ve ever met or talked to about wreck dives have the same answers in description- totally cool, awesome, or best dives! You can read the expressions of diver faces just getting back from a wreck, always showing as “amazing dive!” Every one of those divers is be a big advantage to CSTR. Diver teams are forming along California’s coast in specific areas for sink site study. The need for more divers and team leaders that organize dives is always there. CSTR conforms to the highest degree of environmental preparations, cleaning materials of anything hazardous. 
As research divers, we get an opportunity to view a specific site, to be certain that there are no critters listed as endangered, on any level. We also record accurate depths, water movements and conditions, while also collecting bottom composition samples. These tasks keep us pretty busy. Getting a visual of a thriving reef that wasn’t there before is very emotional for me, especially knowing that many man hours went into creating this successful reef. Being apart of a successful reefing process, from start to finish, is challenging and rewarding beyond any Hardcore measure. It’s in our plans to do just that, create more artificial reefs! Hardcore Dive Team has been Santa Monica Bay’s leading divers, with more dives to come in control points and more potential site dives. We have coordinates divers, coordinating divers, marine life divers, conservation impact divers, safety divers, rescue divers, captain divers, public relation divers, tech divers, and instructor divers on Hardcore Dive Team. We all fit into the one most important category, California divers! 
Our interest in diving and fishing has been sparked by reefing defunct military war ships, oilers, buoy tenders, and destroyers. These laid to rest war machines have a vast history of world peace intentions. While in service, some have traveled nearly the entire globe. Women and men that were deployed on these ships spent their entire lives and careers of US military service, at the order of a call, from our US Commander in Chief, to defend the peace that ensures our freedom. Now these ships are mothballed, which is costing major bank. The idea of carefully cleaning and laying these tools to rest where they were meant to serve (in our oceans), to preserve their positive influx, is a hard concept to grasp. These vessels are complex pieces of history that should command major respect and honor. The other option at hand has an alternative means of disposal. They’ll whisk them away, quietly, to a Texas scrap yard, and create very temporary jobs, cutting them into pieces for melted memories. These military machines will be gone forever, without a second thought. ————————————————————————————————————– Photos and Story by Brian Wright, Hardcore Dive Team member ————————————————————————————————————–