Visiting Santa Barbara, hoping to dive with sea lions

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Aotus

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Location
Baltimore, MD
I don't do a lot of ocean diving, but my wife is finally getting her OW cert next month shortly before we make a trip to Santa Barbara for a wedding. So, I'd really love to get a couple dives in with her at a site where we can see some beautiful scenery and sea lions up close. We're really hoping to dive the channel islands, where we've taken boats in the past to whale watch. However, she won't have her advanced open water cert, and I understand that is required by some boats to take divers. IF that's the case in Santa Barbara, are there shore dives where we could meet some friendly pinnipeds? I'm looking for recommendations for guides, boats, shops, whatever. Anything would be helpful.

More info about us and our trip:

Me - full cave diver...and a bunch of other stuff.
She - OW and probably sidemount specialty, prob not EANx
Dates - week of the May 25th
Time to dive - not more than 1 day total
Boat/shore - We'd prefer a boat trip if they'd be OK to take an OW diver without AOW cert.
Services - it would be nice to have a guide, or be with a group, we'd at least like to get a good briefing and perhaps tour of the site
Training - I don't think she's going to want to be taking any classes this trip, and we want to dive together (and I don't need the training)

Thanks for any tips!
 
I second the Spectre.
Great easy sites, very OW friendly, depending on who's on the boat they sometimes go into reserves and you can see a ton of fish and some monster size lobsters.
They also let you stay over on the boat the night before if you don't feel like scrambling in the morning.
they leave out of Ventura about 20 mins south. The Ventura harbor has lots of great places to eat and shops too.
Http://www.calboatdiving.com
 

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