Posted by frazz on March 09, 2000 at 23:56:23:
In Reply to: Vacation Divers. Certified but not confident enough to Dive CA on own... posted by Jocelyn Clisti on March 07, 2000 at 12:26:35:
Hope you enjoy your stay in California. I can provide some tips for Southern California.
Keep in mind that weather has been very unusual this year. Typically during the month of June, water temperatures are still in the low 60s, it doesn't usually get to the low 70s until September. Plankton "blooms" can occur in mid-summer, which really affects visibility and limits photo opportunities.
I can't speak about north of Santa Barbara, but I've got over 1200 dives, mostly from Santa Barbara to San Diego. But I'll try to keep my comments to within driving distance from Santa Barbara: Several other folks have already mentioned Truth Aquatics. They have three boats out of Santa Barbara Harbor, two of which usually do only multiday trips, which is a great time if that is what you want. If you are looking for an easy trip, the Wednesday trip on the Truth is typically focussed on beginning to intermediate level dives. The Thursday trip is usually advanced level, hunter and deep oriented dives. Multi-day trips will usually have more advanced dives in the morning, and easier dives later on, so you can sleep in if deep and dark is not your thing. I got seven dives in on a single day of a multi-day trip, so you can get PLENTY of dives in, or pick and choose. Plus they anchor up overnight at the islands, and you will also be able to do night dives.
Thirty miles towards LA is Ventura, and it is also a nice alternative. There are two harbors there, Ventura and Port Hueneme. I don't know if boats are running out of P.H. anymore, but Ventura Harbor has at least four dive boats, of which I have dived off three of, and all of which are well skippered and operated. The Peace is one of the largest and has been doing a lot of Oil Rig dives lately, and this type of diving is for advanced divers only (my opinion, of course). The Liberty and the Spectre are also good boats, many dive shops use them for classes. Both the Liberty and Spectre have been running "three-quarter" day trips on either Monday or Friday (can't remember which one does which), and these are typically mellow days.
The next major harbor for dive boats is 100 miles south at 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro (Long Beach area).
Finally - there are plenty of good beach dives in Santa Barbara itself, and there is good campsites on diveable beaches (state-run campgrounds). The Paradise Dive Club is stationed in Santa Barbara. You can contact their president, Paul, at 805-967-2827 if you want to try to line something up with them.
I could go on, but I think that should be enough to get you started.
-Eric-