Posted by Jason on July 30, 2001 at 01:17:02:
In Reply to: Monterey Diving posted by Jason Beem on July 27, 2001 at 10:57:12:
You probably don't know the Breakwater well enough to know what you're missing there. You have two excellent intermediate plans there to work with:
1) Metridium Colony: Go to the west end of the beach and head out along the big pipe. You probably want to kick out on the surface, take a heading identical to the pipe (I believe that is 30 from the concrete remains of the pump house).
In either event, drop down at the end of the kelp line and follow the pipe out. When it ends, keep going on the same course until you reach ~50 ft. You'll hit the main part of the metridium colony.
Take a reverse heading while you still have considerable air (turnabout is no less than 1250) so you can be within the kelp before surfacing. You must not surface out there unless it is a true emergency, so don't take anyone there that seems an unknown in this (I've taken freshly certed divers there, but I had seen them dive before).
2) Sea Lion dive: This is either a long kick, or for those with good air consumption. Basically you swim out to the end of the breakwater where you will nearly always be met by young pups. It is also a nice rock dive in general - many crabs, lots of audible shrimp, and most else of what is around Monterey. You can also drop down to the sand flats, but that's a bit deeper than the dive requires (50s).
Kick out beyound the elbow at a minimum. The wall isn't very interesting before there. The further you kick, the more air you can use to stick around at the end, or the less kicking you need to do coming in.
Drop down to the 20-30ft depth range and continue to motor along. At some point, they should find you. Then just sit there and let them fly by/at/near you. Consider entertaining them back. Viz can range from 10ish to 30, usually 15-20. Even at viz pushing it at 10, I've seen a half dozen at a time in my field of view. Other times just a handful.
Try to avoid surfacing at the end - I wonder if the bigger sea lions might see it as an intrusion of their territory. Turnaround anywhere between 800 and 1500 - at least enough to swim back a stretch before your long surface swim.
If you want somewhere else - Lover's on the ocean side is good for those that can use a compass. Go down the steps to what passes for a beach there, and go out on a 10degree heading. Then just jump from reef to reef. If you got on that line, you'll eventually get to a massive rock with a valley down the center in the mid 40s.
And of course, there is always Monastery. On a calm day, anyone can dive it. On a calm day.