Posted by msblucow on June 11, 2000 at 14:52:36:
In Reply to: Monastery not that dangerous posted by Jason on June 11, 2000 at 01:57:39:
I strongly disagree with the opinion that Monastery Beach is an easy dive. I'm sure there are days where the sea is quite calm, but when I asked my more experienced dive buddy how the conditions compared to other times he's dived there, he said it was pretty average (in other words, strong surge, visibility about 20 feet). As far as it being a long, steep beach, I stand by that statement. Step for step, you might have longer walks on other Monterey dives (again, I'm from the LA area and don't have data to compare), but the beach at Monastery is made up of very tiny, loose pebbles, not sand. This makes for a very soft beach, which can make walking to the entry points fully loaded with gear an uncomfortable, tiring experience for a lot of people. The beach is quite steep that last 10 or 15 feet before the shore break, which means you have to exit the water crawling on your hands and knees (the locals even had a name for it, "The Monastery Crawl"). I don't say any of this to discount Jason's opinion. Everyone has different levels of stamina and experience, but since I was responding to a newly certified diver asking for advice, I couldn't in all concience reccommend Monastery Beach until he had more dives under his belt. Hope that helps clarify the situation.