Posted by Jason on February 03, 2000 at 19:48:44:
In Reply to: Monterey Diving posted by Ken on February 03, 2000 at 13:29:32:
The Breakwater is a guaranteed encounter if you're
willing to swim. Kick out along the wall until you're
well past the elbow. When you are 100 yards out from
the final fence where the sea lions take over, drop to 25
ft and keep going out. They'll find you.
I think it inadvisable to surface in that region; some
might consider you intruding, so I enter underwater and
then leave underwater. You might see them one by one, or
perhaps 3 or 4 at a time. It all depends on viz. I
was there last month and viz was < 5ft. But since they
like to get a look too, they got close - it was like
a wall of their faces peering in.
If you can get to LA, Santa Barbara Island is definitely
the place. I was there 2 weekends ago and had 3 to
40 of them around me at any given time. 12 of them
acted as my dive buddies on the 4 tank of the day.