frontiernurse
Contributor
Whoa, whoa, whoa - you're based in SF, and your local diving isn't Monterey/Carmel?? For shame! (In all honesty, I've been to a few places around the world, and the kelp forests of Carmel stand up to anything I've ever seen (Galapagos, Cocos, Fiji, Bahamas, etc.).
Yeah, I've dived two times in Monterey and got unbearable unrelenting dive-thumbing leg cramps both times (never had that in 200 warm water dives so assuming it was the cold). Both times the 20 minutes I was under was magical, but the pain was traumatic. One time I actually had to be towed in by my buddy. Soooo embarrassing and bad. I wish I could reliably dive Monterey. Maybe I'll try again at some point.