Pt. Lobos In Late May / Early June

[Dermochelys]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what diving conditions are like at Whaler's Cover in Pt. Lobos in late May to early June. A friend and I are planning a trip to do some diving there and hoping that the El Nino storms are well gone by then (which they should be). Is the spring time green water in full effect that time of year?

On a related side note, I've dove Monterey twice and my buddy hasn't been there. He has done cold water diving off San Diego though. We both have about 25 dives logged. Whaler's Cove is a bit of a "white whale" (yes pun intended) for me personally. When I was very new to diving I went there with a diving group and got matched up with a random buddy. Unfortunately, it turned into a day from hell and I had my only bad....no bad isn't strong enough....horrible experience while diving there. I've heard it's the crown jewel of Monterey, so I really want to give it another go really badly. We won't have a small boat, and part of my bad experience before involved a long surface swim (long story short, I didn't leave my buddy when he starting going the wrong way despite me telling him to stop), so avoiding that is high on my priority list.

If anyone can provide tips on the best place to drop down to work our way from mid-reef back to the boat ramp that would be great. Would getting a guide be necessary / a good idea? My buddy and I have done shore dives before in Hawaii in water no more than 60' deep, and we don't plan on doing anything deeper than that on this trip. I know Monterey is another beast, but during my certification check-out dives we dove with a 5' waves breaking on the beach at Breakwater and about 2' viz on the bottom with a pretty good swell banging us around and I had no problems back then.

Anyway, any advice would be really appreciated, and thank you in advance!

 

[runsongas]

sometimes conditions can be good to great, but it is highly variable. it is kinda the one problem with the reservation system as you usually need to book a spot about a month in advance if you want to dive on the weekend. if you are diving during the week, you can probably just drop by when conditions are good. June is when it can start to get green. you have to enter at the boat ramp at pt lobos. most people then do a surface swim through the channel and drop on middle reef. you can also hit hole in the wall or granite point without getting too deep. if conditions and the tide work out, it is possible to get over to bluefish also.

 

[Dermochelys]

sometimes conditions can be good to great, but it is highly variable. it is kinda the one problem with the reservation system as you usually need to book a spot about a month in advance if you want to dive on the weekend. if you are diving during the week, you can probably just drop by when conditions are good. June is when it can start to get green. you have to enter at the boat ramp at pt lobos. most people then do a surface swim through the channel and drop on middle reef. you can also hit hole in the wall or granite point without getting too deep. if conditions and the tide work out, it is possible to get over to bluefish also.

Thanks for the info. At least if conditions are bad we can cancel our hotel, dive gear rental etc. and only be out the reservation fee. Not ideal, but not horrible either. If we are there and find the conditions unacceptable, then I think we would look for another spot to go try out. I know Breakwater gets super busy, so we'd perhaps have to find some other locations to try.

 

[Dermochelys]

How are conditions in late April / early May? Would that be a better time to try it out or is the swell too bad that time of year? If we had to cancel our dives for some reason at Pt. Lobos, what would some other back-up spots be that wouldn't be too much of a hike down to the water?

 

[elgoog]

Monterey Sea Conditions at a Glance is a great resource for Monterey area divers to check swell and wave forecasts - it only goes a week out though. For a list of other shore diving sites, check out Monterey Dive Sites

 

[runsongas]

if lobos is washed out, monterey can still be diveable. usually lovers pt or breakwater are good backup locations. april can be less green in the water, but swell still changes greatly. there really is no time of year to guarantee flat seas.

 

[Dermochelys]

Ok, well knowing that it might be a crap shoot, it looks like we're going to aim for a weekend in May before Memorial Day.

Couple more questions....

1) Would hiring a guide be a good idea? If we do, would they be on our "reservation", or would they have to do that separately? If a guide is a good idea, are there any outfits in town you'd recommend? We would almost certainly just be staying inside the cove, I don't think we'd swim farther north than the northern end of middle reef (if that).

2) Would a getting on a boat dive be a better idea? Would the local boat operations just end up at Whalers Cover anyway?

3) Any suggestions on where to get air fills in Moneterey? I'm sure all of the shops would be fine for something like that, just wondering who might be the fastest / easiest to get in and out from.

Thanks!

 

[3D diver]

Any guide would have to have a reservation too.

Any boats at Lobos have to be launched from Lobos & all divers have Lobos reservations. Boats can dive Whaler's and Bluefish coves.

Bamboo Reef and the Aquarius on Del Monte are popular...I get my flills closer to home...

 

[Dermochelys]

Any guide would have to have a reservation too.

Any boats at Lobos have to be launched from Lobos & all divers have Lobos reservations. Boats can dive Whaler's and Bluefish coves.

Bamboo Reef and the Aquarius on Del Monte are popular...I get my flills closer to home...

Thanks.

On the boats I was wondering about dive ops that might run tours out of Monterey instead of shore diving whalers cove. Do the local dive boats just end up at whalers cove anyway?

 

[runsongas]

not commonly because you actually still need to board the boat from the boat ramp in pt lobos to dive in pt lobos and everyone diving from the boat would still need a pt lobos reservation.