Northwest Dive Club

Hey folks,

I am headed down to the SF Bay next week and was hoping to do some Monterey diving. I was wondering if anyone had some good contacts, charters, guides, site information etc. from down there? I have never dove there and would love some input. My goal is Point Lobos if I can find a buddy (thought I had one but fell through) but I'd be happy with a charter or guide through a shop too. Anything really.

We have a like button?? And I've liked something? It's been a long time since I posted...

I've dove with Seven Seas Scuba the last two times I was in the area. They have a good shop right at the north end of Cannery Row. They can hook you up with gear and a guide.

Seven Seas Scuba
225 Cannery Row
Monterey, CA 93940
(831) 717-4546
www.sevenseasscuba.com

Most of the diving is from the shore. San Carlos Beach is just across the street from Seven Seas and has a couple sites.

Point Lobos requires reservations for diving, so it's best to arrange this through a shop.

You used to be able to reserve dive days on the Point Lobos website. It would be worth checking. There is an awful lot of good diving there, and some of the best shore diving I have ever done. Are you taking the boat?

You can still reserve a dive team spot at Point Lobos, but the weekends are full through May 10th. They only accept 15 teams per day...

You can find the calendar here: http://pointlobos.org/point-lobos-exper ... e-calendar

If you call Seven Seas during the week you'll probably get me on the phone...

-Adrian

Thanks for the info everyone. I had looked at the Pt Lobos reservations site but it required a buddy's name and cert # so I was attempting to find a buddy before reserving. I'll be there on Thursday so hopefully not too crowded. I'm going to call Seven Seas today and see what they can hook me up with. Maybe I'll be talking to you Adrian??

Bob - I'm not bringing the RIB but that is a trip id like to do sometime. There are several places on the California coast I would like to check out with the boat.

You can probably find a buddy via Scubaboard. Most of the folks in the northern California forum are from around the Monterey area, and they tend to be as helpful as the folks here, so you might give them a holler.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/norcal/

Just did that last night, crickets so far. We'll see if anything comes in today.

Lobos requires that you have a buddy, and I believe that person has to be present when you go through the gate.

Other good sites are Monastery (inadvisable except in very calm conditions AND with a local who has dived there before), and Carmel River Beach. The Breakwater is central and easy, but reminds me of Coves 1 and 3.

The Escapade (http://divecentral.com/) is an excellent dive boat, but I don't know what their schedule is.

We have gotten our fills through Bamboo Reef. The people were very nice and, if all else fails, you can hire a DM there to do some diving with you.

Regarding Monterey dive boats, I can recommend Beachhopper II http://www.beachhopper2.com/, looks like they still have spots for next Friday, tanks can be included into reservation. They do occasionally go to Point Lobos area, but it all depends on conditions, you never know.

Regarding shore diving, Breakwater is not that bad, if viz is decent, old cannery pipe leading to metridium fields is where I go most of the time. For tank rental I can recommend Aquarius Dive Shop, http://aquariusdivers.com.

Also, just FYI, reservations at Point Lobos are not that strict. I've never filled cert # of my buddies, never had any problems. They do check your cert card on entry, but may let you in alone granted that you promise to wait for your buddy.

All that said, the conditions of diving there are not that great currently. I just did a dive at Monastery, it was ok. Surf was reasonable, but vis was 15-20 ft. Based on reports Breakwater was even worse. Hope things improve next week.

So far I'm not planning any dives for next weekend, but this may change. PM me when you are here.

vlad wrote:Also, just FYI, reservations at Point Lobos are not that strict. I've never filled cert # of my buddies, never had any problems. They do check your cert card on entry, but may let you in alone granted that you promise to wait for your buddy.

I don't know when you last dove at Lobos Vlad, but I was talking with Joice (the Park agent responsible for booking dive reservations) this evening while making a shop reservation. She explained (since I asked) that since they had 7 diver deaths there this past summer their policies are *extremely* strict and that they in no way allow single divers into the park to wait for anyone. Both buddies must be present in order to enter.

-Adrian

AdrianSmith wrote:

vlad wrote:Also, just FYI, reservations at Point Lobos are not that strict. I've never filled cert # of my buddies, never had any problems. They do check your cert card on entry, but may let you in alone granted that you promise to wait for your buddy.

I don't know when you last dove at Lobos Vlad, but I was talking with Joice (the Park agent responsible for booking dive reservations) this evening while making a shop reservation. She explained (since I asked) that since they had 7 diver deaths there this past summer their policies are *extremely* strict and that they in no way allow single divers into the park to wait for anyone. Both buddies must be present in order to enter.

-Adrian

Last time I was diving there in December. I was 10 min late and my buddy was waiting for me at the parking lot next to the boat ramp. Maybe this was an exception, I don't know, but this is my personal experience.

vlad wrote:

AdrianSmith wrote:

vlad wrote:Also, just FYI, reservations at Point Lobos are not that strict. I've never filled cert # of my buddies, never had any problems. They do check your cert card on entry, but may let you in alone granted that you promise to wait for your buddy.

I don't know when you last dove at Lobos Vlad, but I was talking with Joice (the Park agent responsible for booking dive reservations) this evening while making a shop reservation. She explained (since I asked) that since they had 7 diver deaths there this past summer their policies are *extremely* strict and that they in no way allow single divers into the park to wait for anyone. Both buddies must be present in order to enter.

-Adrian

Last time I was diving there in December. I was 10 min late and my buddy was waiting for me at the parking lot next to the boat ramp. Maybe this was an exception, I don't know, but this is my personal experience.

I'd say that was an exception. I've seen rangers ask divers at their vehicles gearing up where their buddies are and caution them that if they step into the water without their buddy they'll be ticketed. I also had a customer the other day who had left his buddy on deco at 20' when he completed his own deco and surfaced. He was ticketed for surfacing solo by the ranger who was standing nearby.


-Adrian

The Breakwater is really best as a night dive. Eighty bajillion kinds of rockfish, perch, and if you're really good at looking into crevices, a masked prickleback or two!

The best diving is imho, in Carmel though. Much better viz, though I think a lot of the dives are boat dives.

Carmel River Beach is a great dive, although we did it with scooters, and I suspect you have to have relatively tranquil water to make a reasonable entry. Monastery is a great shore dive, but don't even attempt it without someone who knows the area. Water that would be absolutely ignorable at Edmonds can cause you GREAT distress at Monastery.

There are other shore diving sites -- Macabee is one -- but I don't know them all. I've done most of my diving at Lobos, and you can spend a whole weekend there and not have seen the whole site. If you have a scooter, you could spend more than a weekend, and if you have helium . . . well, I have friend who've been diving there literally for YEARS and haven't gotten bored yet!