New Diver Visiting San Diego This Weekend! ~need advice~

[machuchi]

Hey everyone,

Sort of new to SB, but had some questions. Just got certified this summer in Monterey (have 5 dives) and am planning on going to San Diego (woohoo!) with my girlfriend who is also new. Have some questions for you all and please bear with me since I'm new! We were hoping to do about 3-4 dives on Saturday.

1. Any thoughts on La Jolla Cove vs La Jolla Shores in terms of difficulty, stuff to see, etc.?
2. Thinking about doing a guided tour for just 1 dive and then exploring the same site ourselves for the rest of the dives? What do you think?
   • wanted to save money but still get acquainted with the area with the help of a DM
   • we feel very comfortable with our skills
   • need some work on navigation skills though
3. Logistically how would this work if we wanted to do 4 dives in a day, for example? Would we each rent 4 tanks? Go to a shop to get them refilled?

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

Looking forward to seeing what advise you get. Sorry I can't offer any.

 

[BreeAbyss]

I would do a guided dive at the shores and a guided dive at the cove and you can pick which one you like best for the afternoon dive!

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

If you don't turn up a FreebieBuddy, when I was out there last September and looking for the same thing, I ended up hiring Rod from Scuba San Diego for a couple of 'guided' dives. He supplied tanks and weight (and could have supplied other gear if necessary). Welcome To Scuba San Diego I felt that in my case it was worth the $$ to have an appointment arrangement with someone instead of leaving it to chance. If I had more time to dive I would have looked for one of the regular groups that seems to meet up there to dive with after getting my intro to the area.

We did Shores one day, and the Cove the next. I bailed on the 2nd dive at the Shores due to blowing out a calf muscle on the long surface swim.

Rod's been diving longer than I've been alive and is a no-nonsense kind of guy.

Did you see this?

 

[machuchi]

Thanks for the reference!

 

[pasley]

Not a San Diego Resident but have dove there a few times. Hopefully natives of the area will chime in. For what it is worth here are my thoughts:

I would suggest a guide. I also think that beach diving is very demanding physically (I mostly beach dive) and you will be pretty tired after 2 or 3 dives. 4 dives would be a stretch, particularly at the Shores where the swim is usally very long. A boat dive to Point Loma would be very nice, and a lot eaiser than swimming out at LaJolla Shores.

LaJolla Cove - Park at top of stairs to the beach. Short walk from stairs to water and some very good diving. The diving starts just feet from where you entered. Depth Zero to 50 feet. Dive sand, kelp, rocks, what ever you want. One of my favorite places in San Diego to dive.

LaJolla Shores - Several places to dive here (see below) but it is a long wide shelf and the swim can be quite long. The shores is primarily sand and you are looking for small stuff in the sand.
Shark City is located at Roseland just past Spinthrift at west end ofLa Jolla Beach & Tennis Club in shallow water 5 feet or so,
Pipefish Patch is in front of the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club The secret garden is not too far from shore in 10 feet of water but is a bit of a swim of about 100 yards or so.
LaJolla Shores Scripts Canyon. This is the big draw here where you can see nudibranch, flatfish, octopus, pipefish and maybe sharks or whales if you are lucky. Please note this is a very long swim out and back. Depths run from 20 feet at the edge of the canyon and drops down (some places vertically) to over 100 feet. Just a little longer swim out you hit depths of 400 feet going to 500 feet.

 

[diversteve]

On a Saturday in summer you should plan on being at the Cove at probably 6am to get a parking space. Seriously...or wait and try it mid-morning - we've gotten space around 11 or so when the 2-tank divers are leaving or going to lunch. But that was a Saturday years ago so things may have changed - I suspect for the worst as far as traffic/tourists in the park etc. The Shores has a big lot so it's less of an issue there.

Check the attached aerial view. Notice Prospect in the lower right corner "Y''s off and becomes Cave then Coast. Come in that way and grab any parking you can find along the Cove cliff edge or the park.

If it's all full by then drop gear and buddy and drive up the hill on Coast. It's barely apparent in this view but as you do there's a wall that diverts traffic to the right only. So get past it then double back on Prospect - the building I've marked with a red X is some sort of bank/financial facility but on the North side is underground parking. Exit and take the stairs to the left? down - they literally end up just across the street from where your buddy will be waiting.

Even more fun is that Coast from the south ends in front of the Cove as a turn-around - coming in from the right like I suggested is all one way to that point. So have your stuff prepped to drop-off.

All about San Diego diving, shops, dive site pictures/directions etc. - www.divebums.com

As I'm sure you're probably aware, all the Sport Chalet stores closed recently so get tanks at IBDivers LaJolla. Welcome - other options are on the divebums site also. Might see if you can reserve tanks now also, I'm not sure of their capacity/demand now that the Sport Chalet at UTC nearby closed.

As far as diving there, you shouldn't have much trouble. My original buddy and I dove the Cove somewhere around dive #10 decades ago and we did beach cert. dives at the Shores a year earlier. Lots of classes are taught at the Shores since it's an easy entry and pretty benign site. Something about the topography there makes diving possible even when other sites are blown out.

I believe Dive California is one option for a guide but I have no experience with them other than being in the store once. Another thing to notice is that most shops seem to be 10AM-... so you might plan to get tanks the day b4 if possible if your plan is to get an early start in LaJolla.

The Shores Canyon can be pretty cool since big stuff cruises thru there occasionally but it is a longish swim out and drops quick so watch your depth while going down the wall. Bring a light to spot the critters hiding there.

 

[tep]

As others have said, a guided dive might be good. The Shores and the Cove are the two most popular beach diving spots.

The Shores site is a long flat extension of the beach, until the steps start downwards at about the 40-50 ft level. From there it can hit 130 or more pretty quickly. Viz and current are kind of variable sometimes, but rarely bad.

The Cove has kelp and more critters. Max depth definitely less than 40, with patches of kelp forest. A lot more sea life. Lots of steps down. Just as many walking back up :-(

Here's the dive shop I've started gong to since I started diving again. They're reasonably(?) close to La Jolla.

San Diego Divers | Sharing Your Passion For SCUBA Diving Tel. 858-458-1348

Good luck and enjoy the dives.

 

[merxlin]

Try contacting Power Scuba Power Scuba: San Diego Scuba Diving (and Beyond) as they are a very active San Diego based group and have members that dive La Jolla a lot. I'd be surprised if there were not several diving there this weekend that could help you out. They also have a forum here on Scubaboard Power Scuba and a facebook page.

 

[mdb]

There is a shallow reef about 50-60 meters off the North end of Wind N' Sea beach. Nautilus street has easy street parking. Very few divers use the site. Lot's of nice kelp, marine life. I lived there for several years. I always had lobster limits and rarely saw other divers.

As mentioned before La Jolla cove is a great dive, Early on a Sunday morning one of my favorite dives, If you are new to the area that would be my first choice.