Posted by Bob on April 09, 2002 at 08:25:11:
I haven't been diving in California for quite some time (3 years or s) and have only visited shore diving sites in Monterey/Santa Cruz up north and La Jolla Cove down south. The only boat dives were almost 10 yrs back off Catalina off a private boat ... so now that I'm here in the LA Area for an extended contract I thought I'd try the something different and book a day trip on one of the BIG boats. I found the Peace off the CA Dive Boats page and they had a trip for the day that I wanted to dive (Sat 4/6) and also to a spot I wanted to dive (Platform Grace). I've had a chance to do some oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and also the old ABM structure on the edge of the continental shelf off New York called the Texas Tower. These were always FUN dives so I thought that maybe these would be a neat way to get into CA diving. I was a little reticent about the trip since it was sponsored by a shop (Anacapa Dive Center) and they said that they would be doing open dives and the boat would be full with 36 divers....can you say MOOOOOOOOOOOOO ... I found out that they meant the OW divers would be doing the shallow dives off Anacapa and not the oil rig! Initially I thought that PADI OW divers must be trained to a higher standard here than on the east coast if they could do their OW dives on the oil platform . Anyway ... I arrived Friday evening at Ventura Harbour after a quick trip up from Simi Valley, stowed my gear and set-up my equipment signed my life-away on the release form and hit the sack... a few others did the same. The next morning I was awakened as we were leaving the harbour ... first stop Platform Grace. We saw whales and dolphins on the way out. The DM did a good briefing and I was in the in the first group to dive the rig, surface swells were small and no real current vis up top was poor in the 10-15' range but improved as you descended. I'd guess around 30+ at 100' or so. Lot's of life around the rig, scallops, star fish and sea lions. After the 2nd group did the oil rig we were off to Anacapa .. the seas were up a bit driven by a pretty strong/gusty north wind so a few folks were uncomfortable for the ride. The sites at Anacapa were pretty unremarkable but I found a few lobsters (now out-of-season) one would have been a keeper the other two have a few years to go. More sea lions, lots o' Garibaldis, a small ray, an eel or two and some fish I couldn't identify. Don't look like no east-coast fish I've seen. We moved to a different site but only found poorer conditions and I didn't make the last 2 dives (really only the OW students did the last dive They had to! Water temps were comfortable at 52-54 or so (I was diving dry in a Whites 5mm denstek neoprene, with little thermal underwear) I was a little chilled after an hour or so. The boat itself was great ... loved the food and service, pillows and blankets, the crew were very professional. MUCH different from the east coast boats that provide no ammenities only transportation. Would've liked to do more dives on the oil rig ... next time I'll try and get on a boat that isn't being used for OW dives and one that's "limited load" to reduce the hearding factor. Overall it was a fun day and I look forward to some of the other boats and diverse locations of SO Cal.
Bob