Posted by Ken Kurtis on July 09, 2002 at 15:57:57:
In Reply to: Corral Canyon? posted by Andy on July 09, 2002 at 15:39:06:
First off, you've got to make sure you dive the correct end of the beach. I always go in at the west end, across from the restaurant, next to the houses.
Another nice thing, especially if you arrive before 10AM - even in the summertime - is that it's rarely crowded. Although the vis can be crapola, I've also dove it on a day when there was 50' of vis.
The trick is being able to find the reefs. There's an awful lot of sand there. It's fine when there's kelp but if there's no kelp you have to know how to triangulate off the houses and the gas station to drop yourself on an interesting area.
But even if you're no good at that, just kick straight out from shore and you should run into something, although it is possible on low vis days to pass between two reefs and not notice them if you're unfamiliar with the area.
After the kick out (maybe 100-150 yards to hit the nice reef), you've got a series of reef running parallel to the shore that offer a nice variety of inverts and other critters. Not a huge amount of fish but I have seen electric rays and halibut there, along with the requisite kelp bass, sand bass, and barred sand bass.
Ken Kurtis
NAUI Instr. #5936
Co-owner, Reef Seekers Dive Co.
Beverly Hills, CA