What is the best dive site in California?

[Akimbo]

Do you own a scooter? Point Lobos on a good day with a scooter is pretty hard to beat.

To me, the thing that makes most dive sites in Carmel Bay so interesting is the high density of life. It is not hard to spend an entire dive closely examining a 10'x10' patch of the water column. Unfortunately, only a tiny percentage of the Bay (which includes Pt. Lobos at the south end) is accessible without a boat and good weather.

 

[drbill]

My two favorites on Catalina are Farnsworth Bank and Ship Rock. Add San Miguel Island to that mix. I don't dive north of Pt. Conception because I'm really a warm water wussy.

 

[dannobee]

I don't have many dives in So Cal (maybe 75-100?), so I can't make a recommendation other than Farnsworth Bank, but I do have a lot of dives in No Cal.

If you're shore diving, Point Lobos has a lot going for it. If you're boat diving, I wouldn't even waste my time with Point Lobos. As others have mentioned, the Big Sur coastline is very impressive and what I would call "better" diving than Point Lobos.

If you're talking something close to Monterey or Carmel and diveable without too much trouble, the Local's Ledge area and Lobos Rocks (the eastern wall on the eastern rock-closest to shore) would rank right up there and are within recreational depths.

 

[mikemill]

Anyone know if Big Sur can be reasonably done from the shore? Quick internet search only came up with a couple spots that involved long hiking and steep trails.

I'd love to be able to find a spot in that area that I can easily pack the doubles and scooter into

 

[Thalassamania]

Most of the really good spots on the coast from Carmel south involve unmarked trails and bit of playing "Guns of Navarone." For example, I'd recommend what we used to call four-two-five, a spot that's 4.25 miles south of Lobos, but it would take me the better part of a page to describe how to find it, how to get to the water and then how to enter and exit without getting creamed.

 

[spoolin01]

Almost everywhere I've seen on the south sides of Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa, all of Anacapa, Talcott Shoals, that fabulous network of lobster caves, all over Carmel Bay, the plateau offshore of the Ocean Cove bluffs. Let's see, that's only 7... have to come up with some more.

 

[dannobee]

It would be tough with doubles or a scooter, but I can show you some single tank diving spots in the Big Sur area. You could probably do an internet search for "Moby Ling Cove," "Mile Marker 66," Mile Marker 67," "Waterfall Beach," or "Soberanes Point." As Thass points out, "Three two five" is also a site, so named because it's 3.25 miles south of Point Lobos. The one place that you could do it with doubles and a scooter is the Marine Station, but the gate is frequently closed. You could always ask for access, or slip under the fence but don't tell anybody.

It's easier to befriend someone with a boat who usually goes south.

Anyone know if Big Sur can be reasonably done from the shore? Quick internet search only came up with a couple spots that involved long hiking and steep trails.

I'd love to be able to find a spot in that area that I can easily pack the doubles and scooter into

 

[mikemill]

It would be tough with doubles or a scooter, but I can show you some single tank diving spots in the Big Sur area. You could probably do an internet search for "Moby Ling Cove," "Mile Marker 66," Mile Marker 67," "Waterfall Beach," or "Soberanes Point." As Thass points out, "Three two five" is also a site, so named because it's 3.25 miles south of Point Lobos. The one place that you could do it with doubles and a scooter is the Marine Station, but the gate is frequently closed. You could always ask for access, or slip under the fence but don't tell anybody.

It's easier to befriend someone with a boat who usually goes south.

Thanks for the info. I guess for trips down there you launch from Stillwater Cove? Seems like it'd be a long run to do it from Monterey.

 

[Farty]

I vote for Butterfly House. It's truly breathtaking during winter (when there is not much kelp)

 

[dannobee]

Nope, we do it from Monterey. We just go "around the corner" and head south. Because of the route across Carmel bay, it isn't much further than going to Point Lobos from Monterey.

Thanks for the info. I guess for trips down there you launch from Stillwater Cove? Seems like it'd be a long run to do it from Monterey.