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Dumpster Diver hasn't been on this board for some time - note his profile pic says "Banned".

Most Common Critter: these days, probably Purple Urchins (sigh) Just a few highlights: Big Fish: Mola Molas: only dead'uns Leopard Shark: Pt. Lobos (inside Whaler's Cove) California Halibut: in the sandy shallows at Breakwater White Sturgeon: Coral St Saw basking sharks on the surface off of...

I would recommend you read these pages: New Monterey Diver Information Kelp Diving Information The information about the number of shops and boats in the area is a little out of date, but otherwise it's very good advice.

Sorry to say it will be in the 50s - unless it's in the 40s. Water here doesn't really warm up in summer the way it does in a lake.

Here are a few pictures, taken August 2016, that might help people visualize the boat's layout. The first shows how the wheelhouse sat in relation to the main and lower deck. In the second photo you can see the steps leading from the main deck to the sun deck. The last photo was taken from the...

I had a brief glimpse of a turtle off Anacapa last August. Never seen one in the Monterey area.

You can't really predict visibility just based on a swell forecast - there are too many other variables that play into it. The best way to predict the vis at a given site is to find out what the vis was like there the day before. But conditions can change quickly - it'll be good one day, pea...

Acorn barnacles, most likely. Spotted sanddab.

Did a pair of dive at Pt Lobos this morning; my buddy and I were the first ones in after they reopened the park. First dive, to the west of the sand channel not far outside the cove, was nothing special: 10-15' of pea-soupy vis, kinda dark at times. Water was warm, though (55F), and fairly calm...

The second (and hopefully last) time I found myself in an out of air situation, it was entirely my own fault. I still think about this incident fairly often, to remind myself how I got myself into that predicament, and to review what I could've/should've done differently. The short version of...

I've been in out of air situations twice in 20+ years of diving. Both situations were resolved without incident. I'll write them up separately, as they were rather different events: The first time was very early in my diving career, dive #22. I was diving with my brother, who was a little more...

I would want to take him to the Monterey area, rather than the North Coast. ;)

I recall that when I took a Driver Ed course at age 16, we were shown a fairly graphic film to illustrate the risks of drunk driving.

I've been using a watch from the Timex "Sports 1440" series for the last 4 years. They run $15-20 on Amazon. It's rated 'water-resistant' to 50m; I've taken mine down to 35m without a problem. And if it floods out someday...well, it was a $15 watch.

We did a Reef Check survey at Coral St on Sept 26; the kelp was extremely sparse. There were plenty of these guys, though: It's been like that since at least June. It'll be interesting to see if the kelp makes a comeback there next year or not.

Had 10-15' of vis, along with a strong long-period surge, on the reef at Breakwater yesterday morning. Water was quite warm - 59-60 F according to my Oceanic. There was one class in the water; otherwise I had the place to myself. Ah, weekday diving...

I've done this dive three times; the first time I did it, I was at roughly the same stage of my diving career as the OP (had done ~130 dives, all warm-water). It was definitely the most advanced dive that I'd done to that point. Our dive op had given us a good idea of what to expect (props to...

I always pick up trash underwater unless, as others have noted, it's become habitat, in which case I leave it be. I've found all manner of things in addition to straight-up trash: weights, masks, a 5-lb anchor, etc. On my last dive I came across one of those orange two-gallon buckets they sell...

North Monastery had 15-20' of vis yesterday morning; fairly calm surge and surf-wise, temp 49F. Lover's in the early afternoon was much warmer (56F), but the vis was pretty milky (7-10').

Seems to be Chromodoris macfarlamdi, at least based on the photo in Behrens and Hermosillo's Eastern Pacific Nudibranches. Monterey is apparently the northern edge of their range. Cool find.