What is the Scuba diving scene like in California, especially southern (Los Angeles: live in, areas)

[thelopez2]

Originally Posted by infinitekid

i did some snorkeling off catalina - yeah yeah i know -- didnt see much fish; probably not very good

Did you go where the scuba divers were? If you didn't see a 4 foot fish or orange fish, you were at the wrong place.

Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133

Also i forget to ask, how is the visibility off SoCal shores? is it like the Caribbean?

Nothing like the Caribbean.

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Originally Posted by oddstray

San Diego: Scuba Diving in San Diego, Ca.

Do you know any good outfitters?

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Originally Posted by thelopez2

Did you go where the scuba divers were? If you didn't see a 4 foot fish or orange fish, you were at the wrong place.



Nothing like the Caribbean.

Then is it not very good visibility at all? how many feet ahead can I see?

[marcopolo666]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

There is some great beach diving off Laguna, San Clemente and San Pedro. The islands are always fun but a one day boat will cost $100+. A easy trip is to take the high speed boat to Catalina from Long Beach or Newport, rent a wheelbarrow and take your gear to the Casino to dive. They have a truck with a fill station so you can get air fills a few feet from the water.
I prefer the northern coast to dive, a little colder but abalones are legal in season. Monterey bay is a great dive, I camp in Mendocino at Fort Bragg and can enter the water twenty feet from the truck, makes beach diving very nice not to have to carry gear a half mile like most So CA beach diving.

I would like to point out that :

- you must have a CA fishing license to take abalone

- there are specific rules for taking abalone (look here : Abalone Report Card Data and Information )

- you cannot use SCUBA to hunt or even to 'locate' abalone - you must free-dive

- you cannot even have SCUBA gear on the boat when taking abalone

[marcopolo666]

Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133

What is the Scuba Diving Scene like in California, especially southern California? I hear there is something called the underwater giant kelp forest. Is this where most of the scuba trips take place? What are the ports of call for the scuba divers? Is it Catalina Island or San Clemente Island? I am assuming there is a pretty big Scuba diving scene in Southern California. Thank you for any responses.

There is SCUBA diving all along the coast in CA (which is very long). The water is warmer in the south (Santa Barbara and south, warmer the further south you go). I have only dove in SoCal over one long weekend (live-aboard boat out of Long Beach that went out to the channel islands for 3 days, whose name I forget) so I can't advise you. Water is a LOT warmer in the summer in SoCal - there's a fairly shallow shelf (shallow in OCEAN terms) and that water warms up. IIRC, the water varies from mid-60s to low-70s in August (depending on depth) in SoCal. I enjoyed diving around the channel islands, but it was expensive.

In Monterey Bay (where I have don't most of my diving in CA) the water is colder - it is actually colder in the summer than in the winter, but year-round the temps probably vary between 48-55 degrees. So you are either wearing a very thick wetsuit (7mm w/ a 9 or 11mm hood) or diving dry. Conditions vary all the time during the year up here. You may have low swell, or 8 foot waves. Viz can suck (I've dove with as little as 5 foot viz) or it can be OK (20-30 feet). The viz is rarely great like in the Caribbean or Hawaii. I love diving up here, but people used to tropical diving tend to hate it - lower viz, cold water, thick suits.

Further north (from SF up to the Oregon border) SCUBA diving should probably be reserved for very advanced, athletic divers. There are relatively few protected coves, the waves are often bigger/more energetic, and there's really not that much to see.

Why don't you ask specific questions, or say what it is you want to do and when you'll be out here, instead of asking generic, open-ended questions?

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Originally Posted by marcopolo666

Why don't you ask specific questions, or say what it is you want to do and when you'll be out here, instead of asking generic, open-ended questions?

It looks like I will be going to San Diego County close to Orange county is where I want to stay. I want to be able to check out both Mexico, and LA. I am coming soon this month. I would like to do some diving. If you know any outfitters, I appreciate naming them.

[marcopolo666]

This might help : California Diving News - The Premier Website for California Divers

I'd always read this at the dive store while waiting (it's a hard-copy paper periodical) but it also exists on-line (obviously). They list dive operators.

A few questions that (may) narrow down recommendations from posters :

What *sort* of diving do you want to do?

How much and what type of experience do you have (# of dives, type of cert, when were your last dives, where/what type of dives do you ususally do)? I have a 'rescue diver' PADI cert and well over 100 dives (I'm ashamed to say that I stopped logging my dives when I filled up my first log book about 10-12 years ago). While I enjoy diving in Monterey, most of my dives (about 70%) were tropical (Bali, Hawaii, Honduras, ...) which is a lot less stressful than cold water CA diving.

Again, I *really* enjoyed diving the channel islands, but that may not be convenient for you. First, it's expensive, 2nd the travel is time consuming (several-hour boat trip to get there and then the same back) so unless you basically have a weekend to spare it's not practical.

San Diego has a couple of wrecks close-by (purposely sunk artificial reefs), but if you haven't dove wrecks before I wouldn't recommend it. I'm almost positive all of the wrecks are over 60 feet deep, and I think that most are in the 80-100 foot depth. My local (Montery/San Jose) diver club have (in the past) recommended San Diego's "Lois Ann charters" if you want to boat-dive (San Diego Scuba Diving,San Diego Dive Boats,Lois Ann Dive Charters Home Page,San Diego California,san diego scuba diving boats,san diego boat dives,san diego scuba diving,san diego scuba diving charters,scuba diving san diego california). I almost went beach diving at La Jolla cove years and years ago, but I don't know if that's even still allowed (they were trying to get beach diving stopped). (La Jolla is just north of San Diego.)

Posting in the San Diego forum will probably get you a lot more helpful info from locals ( //www.city-data.com/forum/san-diego/ ). But I'd be pretty specific about what you want (type of diving, time frame/how much diving you want to do, experience) and I'd probably also ask about local dive clubs or how to find locals who would like to dive with a visitor. I've found that good shore dives are often the best way to ease in to exploring a new dive locale (although it's a heck of a lot more work, in general).

When you visit northern CA I highly recommend diving Point Lobos (if you are an experienced/advanced diver). It's an ocean preserve and so it's FULL of local life, and well as being fairly sheltered if you don't leave the cove area. You *will* need (at least) a 7mm wetsuit - the water is COLD.

[marcopolo666]

DOH!! I can't believe I forgot to provide a link to a dedicated scuba diving forum! Here's the link to the portion of their site for southern cal : SoCal .

I would spend a while reading threads about San Diego before asking any questions. There's even a thread already started for somebody who was looking for a dive buddy in San Diego : San Diego Buddy needed 7/25-27

[marcopolo666]

And you will prob find this thread very useful : Five days in LA ....

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Oh gosh darn it, I have to push my trip back into September or even early October.

What is the weather in SoCal like in September and October? Can I still hit the water? Is there any Scuba diving going on then too?