San Diego

[RickI]

I having been hearing about California diving for decades and am finally heading out that way for a few days in the coming week.

For someone coming from Florida, Land of No Kelp, what would you say would be a must see dive spot in the San Diego area? Do you have suggestions for dive charters for the spot as well?

Would it be worth trying to put together a short trip to Catalina instead of hitting the local spots if you had only one or two dives to spend?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[wetrat]

Hi Rick,

Local diving is fun at wreck alley or the Coronado Islands. Visibility on the wrecks averages around 15 ft and at the nados probably 25 ft.

Try these operators:

http://gottadive.com/

http://www.divebliss.com/

If you can spare a whole day I would take the Catalina Express http://www.catalinaexpress.com/over to Catalina to dive the Avalon Underwater Park or take a dive boat out of Long Beach to dive other sites on the island: http://californiadiveboats.com/.
Catalina is awesome and diving doesn't get much better here in So Cal.

Have fun!

John

 

[RickI]

Hi Rick,

Local diving is fun at wreck alley or the Coronado Islands. Visibility on the wrecks averages around 15 ft and at the nados probably 25 ft.

Try these operators:

http://gottadive.com/

http://www.divebliss.com/

If you can spare a whole day I would take the Catalina Express http://www.catalinaexpress.com/over to Catalina to dive the Avalon Underwater Park or take a dive boat out of Long Beach to dive other sites on the island: http://californiadiveboats.com/.
Catalina is awesome and diving doesn't get much better here in So Cal.

Have fun!

John

Hello John,

Thank you for the excellent, detailed info! If you had to choose, ignoring travel, would you rather dive Catalina or Coronado?

Thanks again,
Rick

 

[divinman]

hands down...Catalina...and for the record, I really like the Coronado's

 

[kelpmermaid]

You might want to check on the hours of operation of the Catalina Divers' Supply fill station at Casino Point if you are headed that way. They curtail mid-week hours post-season, but I'm not sure when that begins. You can still get fills in town, though.

 

[divinman]

The fill station is closed completely during the week. It's a long walk back for tanks. Better to rent as many as you think you will dive. Also, Scuba Luv closes at 5pm so plan on having your tanks back by then if you rent there. Not sure what time CDS closes.

 

[wetrat]

Hello John,

Thank you for the excellent, detailed info! If you had to choose, ignoring travel, would you rather dive Catalina or Coronado?

Thanks again,
Rick

Gotta go with Catalina there Rick . You won't be disappointed!

John

 

[riguerin]

There are several dive possibilities to consider in the San Diego area. A few of the local highlights are:

* Wreck Alley - various wrecks (Yukon is the main attraction)
* Local beds - dive La Jolla kelp forest
* La Jolla Canyon - series of walls/ledges
* Isla Los Coronados - easy diving with juvenile sea lions in Mexican waters
* Guadalupe Island - cage diving with Great Whites


It depends on what your interests are and how much time you have for diving. In general, the kelp diving off the backside of Catalina is better than the local kelp beds. San Diego is exposed to open ocean swells. In particular, that area tends to pick up winter NW swells. Alternately, Catalina backside is protected and tends to have better dive conditions, less swell/surge and better visibility. You're also away from the Humbolt currents off San Diego, so the water temps are a little warmer.

As previously mentioned, there's some fun shore diving in the Underwater Park off Casino Point in Avalon. The park can get pretty crowded on weekends. The fill station on the point is not open midweek during this time of year ... you need to shuttle tanks back and forth from town. To minimize the number of trips you need to make, I know that Catalina Diver's Supply will let you take as many tanks as need and charge a rental fee ($10) for 1st tank and only the refill fee ($5) on the additonal tanks. You can get to Avalon via the Catalina Flyer. From San Diego, the closest mainland port might be up here in Dana Point ... just a few miles north of the San Diego/Orange County border. Alternately, there are several charter boats, based out of Long Beach that make day trips to Catalina's back side.

Hope you have a great trip. Let us all know what you end up doing.

 

[RickI]

Wow, sorry for the slow come back on this one. I really appreciate all the good input. I ended up doing a road trip up to Long Beach to cross to Catalina and did some free diving off of La Jolla. It was a great experience. Some UW photos from the preserve off the Casino appear at:

http://fksa.org/viewforum.php?f=38

Under Kelp!?

There are a few interesting shots from a recent trip to Niihau that may be of interest at the same spot under "Forbidden Island."

Thanks again!

 

[Skull]

Unfortunitly you have picked the worst year to dive the kelp forests...due to winter storms and unusually warm water temps this summer the kelp in san diego has been reduced to 10% of the average forest that is reduced "to" not "by" 10%. It is incredible ..really ..in june while fishing south of the coronados my buddy and I commented that it was as if some swept the ocean clean of kelp. All summer fishing has been degraded due to lack of kelp paddies ..produced from adult forest tops being released and set adrift. However, diving wreck alley and some of the hot dive spots around san diego is still epic.