Scubaboard Westward Surge - Cool People, Cold Water, Warm Vibes

[Eric Sedletzky]

Just wondering, how come there are never any scubaboard surges in California. Socal has some great dive boats and some of the best values and freedoms anywhere.
Every place the surges take place I can never go, too far away, too expensive to get to, too long, etc.
Why hasn’t there been anything or any mention of one in Cali. Do you guys not like us?
Or has there been one and I just can’t find it.

 

[diversteve]

Name a dive resort with on-site dedicated dive boats in CA. One able to handle between 50/100 divers, spouses, children etc. Notice there's never been any surges to Hawaii either...we look for all-inclusive properties that package diving.

Except the original ITK's but those were held at Keys resorts based at marinas with several dive operations on-site.

 

[captain]

Cold water.

 

[Akimbo]

How about a mini-surge? It isn't that hard to fill a charter liveaboard to the Channel Islands. Keep in mind that these boats tend to be 2-5 day runs with bunk-rooms rather rather than 1-2 person cabins. There are plenty of day boats with short rides to dive spots in San Diego. Same with Monterey, but more demanding conditions. Lots of things on shore to do in all cases.

I would say that San Diego is 5-7mm wetsuit territory and Monterey is at least 7mm-drysuit territory.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

A West Coast mini surge.
The Truth/Vision/Conception boats out of Santa Barbara have 4/5 day trips sometimes. It depends on who sets up the trip, where they want to go, and for how many days.
So the water is cold, so what?

 

[AdivingBel]

Sounds like a great idea. Could be the initial run of SB's new Cold: Surge... It would be an opportunity for the cold water segment of SB to breakout their dry suits for a get together. SB is a worldwide audience and there's probably a "cold water Card & Rox" that could drive the boat. Think of all the new locales & divers it would bring into the fold...not me of course, I'm a tidy bowl diver...brrr , but it might be a nice inclusive project. Might even get @Marie13 over her fear of sharks if she can bring her dry suit along. Hey Pete...

 

[Akimbo]

Sounds like a great idea. Could be the initial run of SB's new Cold: Surge...

Cold water??? WetPixel did an expedition to Antarctica in Feb/March 2018. Now that's cold water.

Southern California, or even Monterey, would be warm water for @Storker.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It wouldn’t be for everyone since cold water diving is a specialty in a sense and generally for the hardier divers.
But I think there should easily be enough cold water divers in SB to fill a boat or two for a 4 day trip.
The value is there for sure. A couple hundred bucks a day on average for all the diving sleeping and food.
How hard would it be to get 25-30 divers together from SB to fill a boat?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Cold water??? Southern California, or even Monterey, would be warm water for @Storker.

Storker would probably be in a 3 mil.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The other boat I thought of would be the Peace out of Ventura. They have a salt water hot tub!