triton94949:
Go diving if you live in the garlic capitol of the world and a drive to Monterey is no big deal to you. Anything short of a hurricane is a go diving weekend for you.
I do not care to argue with you.
I'll go diving if the swell is NW and 8 feet or less, W and 10 feet or less, SE and 12 feet
or less, and any S swell. Wind limits are are a bit more seat of the pants, but I'd stay
probably stay home if it was NW and 30 knots or more. I'd generally go in a S or SE
wind. That's nowhere near a hurricane, even figuratively speaking.
The term "GO DIVING" (caps) comes from one of the local weathercasters (I think Pete
Gittings, now banished to UHF CH 35 in Salinas for some reason, I think) who used to
describe the really nice weekends as "GO DO IT" weekends. A "GO DIVING" weekend
generally means 5' or less swells. That's real flat, and only happens maybe 10-20% of
the time in Monterey.
The nice thing about Monterey is that there are usually places where there's shelter.
There's always the Breakwater and the Barge and Hopkins Deep. Now, if you want
to stay home in 94949 (Novato) and dive your hot tub, that's your business, but when
you start telling folks that a 5' West Swell is "if-fy" or "dicey", you do them a
disservice.
