Monterey Bay April 2021
Monterey Bay April 2021
Howdy
Scuba Jess and I just got back from a road trip to go dive with our Instagram buddies @dslaterphoto and @mansonfotos who live down in Monterey, CA! We had recently hosted them for some puget sound diving (showing them lump suckers, octos, wolfeels etc) and now we wanted to go visit their turf.
It was a great trip! It was our first time down there and I'm kicking myself for not going down there sooner. There's some GREAT cold water diving down there! Right up on par with some of the best best BC and WA diving.
It takes about 13 hours of driving to get down there. We drove it in two days each way with some stops along the way.
We did five dive sites over 4 days of diving:
+ The Breakwater (2x)
+ Perkin's Park tide pool (36.633469, -121.939192)
+ Monastery Beach
+ The Wharf
+ Point Lobos (4x)
Viz was highly variable, from 2'-50'!
Our guides were excellent, not only giving us great site briefings but also diving with us and pointing out all the good places to eat tacos and burritos!
The breakwater is an amazing dive. It reminds me a lot of Ogden Point Breakwater in Victoria in scale and structure. Dozens and dozens of sea lions make their home on this breakwater. Unfortunately, viz was very poor during this visit. Beautiful kelp, fish eating anemones, sea lions, lightbulb tunicates, hopkins rose nudibranchs and colorful bat stars steal the show here. Mola Molas and Sea nettles can also be occasionally seen at this location but we did not see them.
The tide pool is a great place to dive when conditions are rough elsewhere. Vizibility was fantastic! Beautiful algaes, bat stars and a few fish lined the pool. The entry is very rocky and can be a difficult scramble.
Monastery Beach is a famous Monterey Bay dive which has an entry known to be extremely difficult and unforgiving. Nicholas Ta (who really wants to meet JanK) led that dive and gave us a great briefing. Kelp and an open ocean feel rule the scene here. We met several friendly locals at this site and Nicholas took us all to a killer Chinese food place to eat outside afterward. So fun!
The wharf is another dive in town that can be dove when conditions are bad elsewhere. Unfortunately viz was about 2' with tons of mysids swimming about when we went. I was floored by the carpets of surf anemones and strawbery anemones at this site. Fringheads (kind of like mosshead warbonnets), ochre stars, opulescent nudis and other nudibranchs were also at these scene. David told us of a recent dive there were he had fantastic viz and thick sea nettles. Sounds so cool, I'd love to go back and see that!
Point Lobos was the star dive site of the trip. This is a nature preserve park that you have to pay a small fee to get into. They require reservations and only accept a limited number of divers a day which is nice. This dive site is a diver's playground... easy shallow diving, exquisite topography, beautiful kelp and many sightings of sea otters and seals from the shore. I even saw a seal and its baby pup underwater!
I almost had no photos from this trip... on the very first dive (at the breakwater) somehow my strobe cable got disconnected from the housing during the dive. Oof! Instant corrosion and dead strobes. Luckily the Backscatter Underwater Photo and Video store was a short walk from the dive site! @mansonfotos gave them a call to get us an appointment and to put in a good word for us. They came thru and were able to wipe out the corrosion from my connector in the housing (they recommended and used an alcohol cleaner) and loaned me a replacement cable for the rest of the trip. Talk about a life saver! Backscatter rocks! Really nice store and staff.
We got our fills at Bamboo Reef Dive Center. Really great shop, and we planted a NWDC sticker there!
Here were some of my snaps:
Try diving there sometime if you haven't!
Scuba Jess and I just got back from a road trip to go dive with our Instagram buddies @dslaterphoto and @mansonfotos who live down in Monterey, CA! We had recently hosted them for some puget sound diving (showing them lump suckers, octos, wolfeels etc) and now we wanted to go visit their turf.
It was a great trip! It was our first time down there and I'm kicking myself for not going down there sooner. There's some GREAT cold water diving down there! Right up on par with some of the best best BC and WA diving.
It takes about 13 hours of driving to get down there. We drove it in two days each way with some stops along the way.
We did five dive sites over 4 days of diving:
+ The Breakwater (2x)
+ Perkin's Park tide pool (36.633469, -121.939192)
+ Monastery Beach
+ The Wharf
+ Point Lobos (4x)
Viz was highly variable, from 2'-50'!
Our guides were excellent, not only giving us great site briefings but also diving with us and pointing out all the good places to eat tacos and burritos!
The breakwater is an amazing dive. It reminds me a lot of Ogden Point Breakwater in Victoria in scale and structure. Dozens and dozens of sea lions make their home on this breakwater. Unfortunately, viz was very poor during this visit. Beautiful kelp, fish eating anemones, sea lions, lightbulb tunicates, hopkins rose nudibranchs and colorful bat stars steal the show here. Mola Molas and Sea nettles can also be occasionally seen at this location but we did not see them.
The tide pool is a great place to dive when conditions are rough elsewhere. Vizibility was fantastic! Beautiful algaes, bat stars and a few fish lined the pool. The entry is very rocky and can be a difficult scramble.
Monastery Beach is a famous Monterey Bay dive which has an entry known to be extremely difficult and unforgiving. Nicholas Ta (who really wants to meet JanK) led that dive and gave us a great briefing. Kelp and an open ocean feel rule the scene here. We met several friendly locals at this site and Nicholas took us all to a killer Chinese food place to eat outside afterward. So fun!
The wharf is another dive in town that can be dove when conditions are bad elsewhere. Unfortunately viz was about 2' with tons of mysids swimming about when we went. I was floored by the carpets of surf anemones and strawbery anemones at this site. Fringheads (kind of like mosshead warbonnets), ochre stars, opulescent nudis and other nudibranchs were also at these scene. David told us of a recent dive there were he had fantastic viz and thick sea nettles. Sounds so cool, I'd love to go back and see that!
Point Lobos was the star dive site of the trip. This is a nature preserve park that you have to pay a small fee to get into. They require reservations and only accept a limited number of divers a day which is nice. This dive site is a diver's playground... easy shallow diving, exquisite topography, beautiful kelp and many sightings of sea otters and seals from the shore. I even saw a seal and its baby pup underwater!
I almost had no photos from this trip... on the very first dive (at the breakwater) somehow my strobe cable got disconnected from the housing during the dive. Oof! Instant corrosion and dead strobes. Luckily the Backscatter Underwater Photo and Video store was a short walk from the dive site! @mansonfotos gave them a call to get us an appointment and to put in a good word for us. They came thru and were able to wipe out the corrosion from my connector in the housing (they recommended and used an alcohol cleaner) and loaned me a replacement cable for the rest of the trip. Talk about a life saver! Backscatter rocks! Really nice store and staff.
We got our fills at Bamboo Reef Dive Center. Really great shop, and we planted a NWDC sticker there!
Here were some of my snaps:
Try diving there sometime if you haven't!
Visit pnwdiving.com for viz reports, slack planning, galleries and more! Your fellow diver will appreciate any viz reports you can add!
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
Wow, what else to say. As usual, great trip report and of course, Great photos to accompany it.
Thanks for whetting my appetite !
Thanks for whetting my appetite !
http://JanKocian.smugmug.com
I take photos because I like it, not because I'm good at it. by Unknown
I take photos because I like it, not because I'm good at it. by Unknown
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
Talk about a small diving world, Laurie and I had Nickolas Ta as a guide when we were diving off a boat down in Monterrey in September 2019 -- he's great. The first thing he asked when he heard we were from Seattle is whether we knew JanK (who we hadn't met at the time.)
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
What a camera save! Isnโt it awesome when things work out that way? Glad to hear it saved the photo aspect of the trip and my, what beautiful colors!
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
Beautiful photos Yellow Eye!
That was such a fun and beautiful Away Mission!
I miss California already. I hope we can get a group and storm Monterey NWDC style!
๐
That was such a fun and beautiful Away Mission!
I miss California already. I hope we can get a group and storm Monterey NWDC style!
๐
Live Long And Prosper!!!
Stay Warm underwater with the Weezle Extreme Plus undergarment! Please let me know if you would like to order one or have any questions.
Stay Warm underwater with the Weezle Extreme Plus undergarment! Please let me know if you would like to order one or have any questions.
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
Here are a few of my snaps!
Happy Spring everyone!!!
Happy Spring everyone!!!
- Attachments
Live Long And Prosper!!!
Stay Warm underwater with the Weezle Extreme Plus undergarment! Please let me know if you would like to order one or have any questions.
Stay Warm underwater with the Weezle Extreme Plus undergarment! Please let me know if you would like to order one or have any questions.
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
A few topside snaps
- Attachments
Live Long And Prosper!!!
Stay Warm underwater with the Weezle Extreme Plus undergarment! Please let me know if you would like to order one or have any questions.
Stay Warm underwater with the Weezle Extreme Plus undergarment! Please let me know if you would like to order one or have any questions.
- stphnmartin
- Amphibian
- Posts: 821
- Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 4:52 pm
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
Thanks for the awesomely detailed trip report! Looks like a very fun trip. You had calmer water than when we were there. Monastery wasn't doable. Love the fringeheads!
View dive videos on my youtube channel. GH5, Nauticam housing, Big Blue 9000s, Sola 500, 1200, Scuba Lamp Snoot, Mavic 2 Pro, Osmo, Final Cut Pro X
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
Thanks for the great trip report!
This is a road trip I'd like to do -- just waiting for a buddy to do it with. ***HINT TO ANYONE!***
This is a road trip I'd like to do -- just waiting for a buddy to do it with. ***HINT TO ANYONE!***
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
thanks!!! I was so excited to see it.. I had no idea they were even a thing I saw 4 on that dive at the breakwater and one at Point Lobos... are you still in California? You should totally go there to dive , its really fun
Live Long And Prosper!!!
Stay Warm underwater with the Weezle Extreme Plus undergarment! Please let me know if you would like to order one or have any questions.
Stay Warm underwater with the Weezle Extreme Plus undergarment! Please let me know if you would like to order one or have any questions.
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
Great report and photos! Nice, Ive wanted to dive that, and know I know what to expect!
Well done!
Well done!
Re: Monterey Bay April 2021
Gdog, you'd go crazy there with those tacos and burritos.
Hope we can replicate them soon at ththth.
Hope we can replicate them soon at ththth.
Visit pnwdiving.com for viz reports, slack planning, galleries and more! Your fellow diver will appreciate any viz reports you can add!