California Diving Suggestions

[Macca5573]

During my holiday planned for next summer, I'm starting in San Francisco then driving down to LA before heading inland. I've never been to California before and would appreciate any suggestions on dive areas / centres so I can try to get at least one dive in before I have to take my non-diving girlfriend shopping!

[Rob Dobson]

What sort of diving do you want to do? Recreational fish watching or tech?

[Macca5573]

Forgot to mention that! I'm PADI AOW qualified so just rec diving.

[Simon TW]

Santa Catalina Island is okay. Apparently the viz iz very poor of the mainland coast so it's popular with the Southern California Divers.

I had a week on Santa Catalina earlier this year, It's a dive destination that gets really busy at the weekends when the ferries are full of divers from the Mainland. You can go in and dive from the shore or go out on a boat.

Cousteau was there and the foundation still has an affinity with the Island. When I was there there was a dive club from Texas, (we think we travel to a dive site this club had a local lake 400 miles away). they all had Northern Diver suits which I thought was odd as DUI are just down the road.

Giant Kelp and California Sea Lions are a main attraction but there are sharks which is nice as it's where Jaws was filmed.

I made good friends with a Marine Biologist who has been described in the states as "the worst paid Harvard Graduate" he taught me how to make beer shakes

Let me know if you need any further help the US dive forums like "scubaboard" are a great place for info.

[Macca5573]

That's a great start, thanks

[CotoChris]

I worked north of San Franscico many years ago and unfortunately before I dived. If you are heading south I think the best place for diving will be Monterey Bay, there you have giant kelp and sea otters. It's relatively cold water though, OK by UK standards. I reckon that will be the best diving between SF and LA. Google for dive centers.
It's a great part of the world, not the usual USA but a traditional beautiful area. Take the old main road that goes along the coast. If you can hire a convertible, you'll be like a pig in mud. I envy you!

[Macca5573]

Thanks for that
Coastal drive in a convertable already mapped with car booked! Long drive, but we've planned a full day just for 'travel' while we're going from place to place so plenty of time to do it. 3 weeks away - can't wait!

[tonhil]

I was on catalina island in late October for a week. The place is interesting in an almost Blackpool kind of way - maybe that is a bit harsh??

The diving is surprisingly good - well I was surprised. The kelp forests can be very impressive and there were tons (literally) of fish on most of the dives.

catalina divers supply looked after us very well. American Airlines lost our bags for the duration of the trip!

[limeyx]

Originally Posted by Macca5573

During my holiday planned for next summer, I'm starting in San Francisco then driving down to LA before heading inland. I've never been to California before and would appreciate any suggestions on dive areas / centres so I can try to get at least one dive in before I have to take my non-diving girlfriend shopping!

You can go to scubaboard.com and go to the local/SoCal section on there.
there is (or was -- hope it is still there) a huge thread on SoCal diving.

Catalina is a good place (unless you have to dive there every weekend and then it gets old

Special dives are
- Oil rigs
- Farnsworth Banks

Boats don't always go to those two spots but they are some of the best around. The rigs are quite close to shore, and Farnsworth is one of the few places in SoCal you can see the cold-water hydro-coral.

The outer Islands (Clemente, Santa Barbara etc.) have probably better diving but then you need an overnight boat trip.

Shore diving is possible. Vis is not that great (but probably pretty good compared to what you lot have to put up with for shore diving)

Vis on shore ranges from 2 feet to 30, with average 10-15 feet.
You can see plenty from shore, lots of fish, kelp, crabs, rays, guitarfish, nudibrancs etc. Depths from shore are shallow in most places (say 30-40 feet).