Mac Meda Destruction Company

La Jolla Abalone Diving – Bird Rock, Casa Pool and Cove

Dennis Downie shows how it is done. Here he is with his mother, Tony Downie, on her back porch in Bird Rock with 18 "BIG"green abs taken in 1969. That was a good day, claims Dennis - photo provided by Dennis Downie

Back in the good old days, La Jolla abalone  diving was just a matter of getting into the water and searching for these  uniques creatures. Or in the area of Bird Rock, at low tide one could walk out and over turn rocks and there would be these wonder creatures.  The prime spots were Bird Rock to North Bird and anywhere in the general area of the Case Pool and Cove areas (which is now a marine reserve) due to their rocky bottom. In the early 1970s,  Richard Krug organized the 1st Abalone Dive Contest that was held off Point Loma, were the best of the best divers, free dived, and afterwords have a huge ab party.  Read more... (568 words, 1 image, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

La Jolla Abalone Dive – Mac Meda Contest

Why would anyone brave cold and potentially dangerous surf, unpredictable currents, and stories of bull-shitting, man-eating sharks for abalone?

Strangely enough, ab divers spend an estimated $6,000,000 and $10,000,000 for abalone and at $100 per pound in places, we are talking a serious shellfish.  Presuming it’s unlikely that all of the estimated 40,000 recreational abalone harvesters are quite simply crazy, there just might be some reasonable explanation for this madness.

Well, Craziness is Mac Meda’s motto!

The giant snail inches its way across the rocks in relatively shallow water. Even so, diving for abalone has become one of California’s most hazardous recreational activities, over 10 people a year die from ab diving.  Read more... (463 words, 2 images, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Dave Calloway, Eber, and Jeff Mullis – Mission Bay Landing

Would you like to run into this group in a dark alley? Hell No!

This infamous group looks like a bunch of bikers that would have you shitting your pants if you ran into them in a dark alley. Needless to say, you could not get a better group, providing you fished, dived, surfed, body surfed, played Over-the-Line, volleyball, raised hell, hung out at Tugs (defunct PB bar) and/or Ocean Fresh, and drank a ton of beer.

Dave Calloway (l-RIP) Eber (m) and Jeff Mullis (r) are sucking down a few cool ones at Mission Bay boat landing – priming themselves to go on the famous Ab Drive – Picture taken in early 70s.