Dive Sites Near Sacramento?

[HappiPaws]

Hello!
My husband and I took advantage of some cyber Monday sales and purchased most of our own gear! We are fairly "new" divers, with just 28-ish dives, most being tropical, but we did dive our local lake once (Tahoe), and have been to Monterey once.

We are hoping to find somewhere calm and easy where we can get in the water with our new gear to test it and get familiar with it.

We live in South Tahoe, and have heard Folsom Lake might be a place to check out? What are the water temps like, will 7mm wetsuits cut it? Where in the area do you rent tanks from? Is there any sort of map on where you can/can't dive and entry points?
Our other option we know of would be Monterey (not as ideal because we would probably have to stay 2 nights for it to work for us and it can be $$ there and we just spent all our money on gear), we did 2 dives at Breakwater, but are not super familiar with how to know if the conditions are good or not, so would also need to hire a guide. Is it possible to hire a private DM without going through a shop? We basically just want to go with someone who can tell us the best place for the easiest conditions so we can fool around with our gear and practice skills with it.

If anyone knows of anything else diveable this time of year, or has any tips, we'd appreciate it!

 

[Thrutch]

I'm still diving Tahoe this time of year, but then I am fully suited up in a drysuit with thick undergarments. As far as I know, Monterey/Carmel is the closest for us (I'm in Reno). Hopping onto this thread in case I've been missing some amazing alternative.

If you want any additional info about diving the lake, check out my website: divelaketahoe.com. I've got almost fifty dive sites around the lake described with depth charts and access info.

 

[Chavodel8en]

Re Breakwater, a guide can help you find the pipe and the metridiums, and other special features, but if you're just wanting to dive somewhere in calm water, and if you feel that you can dive safely as buddies, I dont know that a guide is needed. You can dive along the wall, or dive in the middle of the little bay. And make sure that you swim out far enough to get to deep enough water.

As far as I know, aside from making sure you're not hooked by an angler along the wall, and knowing your compass headings for egress, there's not really any specific safety concerns. I suppose there is sometimes boat traffic, so be careful if you surface out in the bay.

For checking conditions I like: 3 day wave model its easy to use, blue means go, dark green is iffy, lime, yellow and red means no. And 3 days is good for advance notice. You can see today that the weekend through Monday look very sporty for diving.

If you want a guide, any of the local shops can arrange a DM. Or you can find the guides that are always posting on the local scuba facebook page. Or you can just find another buddy who knows the site from facebook.

 

[NorCalDM]

Folsom Lake and Negro Bar below Folsom Lake are about it in Sacramento but both suck for Visibility. Dolphin Scuba can rent you anything you need, they are on El Camino in Sac. Personally I would go to Monterey, Breakwater and McAbee Beach are both easy to navigate. I use the NOAA Buoys for conditions but it takes awhile to really understand how the information affects the dive sites. There are also webcams you can look at, Adventures by The Sea have one that looks at Breakwater and The Fish Hopper has one that looks over McAbee Beach. The winter in-between storms is the best for Monterey visibility.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

There’s Monterey Breakwater and Metridium Fields as has already been mentioned.
The other very underrated area is the North Coast north of GG Bridge in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. Mendocino Bay has some great protected diving. As well as Russian Gulch State Park. Vandamme state park (Little River) has a great beach and is a well known shore diving spot with free parking. There are several protected coves in Sonoma County as well. There are a lot less people diving the North Coast than in Monterey and you’re pretty much on your own, but it is an alternative.
There are a lot of great lodgings too, more B&B’s than Monterey and better value too.
A prettier drive for sure.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

If you love Crawdads, then there are some great opportunities in the Sierras. Prior to moving from Berkeley, CA up here to the PNW / Puget Sound 25 years ago...... our family had a small cabin in Truckee that we would frequent all year..... In the spring, summer and fall, I would leave on a Friday afternoon for the 3-4 hour drive. On the way into the Truckee area we would stop on the North shore of Donner Lake. Lots of easy entry points. We had a few spots where there we're trees or other deadfalls that had fallen into the lake. We'd take 5 or cans of cheap catfood, poke a few holes in the cans and then toss them into the lake around the deadfall... then go to cabin and get some sleep. Then return the next morning with our gear and goodie bags. First order of business was to retrieve the now empty catfood cans. 2nd order was to grab and bag the hundreds of dads that have gathered over night... Just love eating those little fresh water lobsters and nice to know they are coming from a source that you could basically drink.

Also...here's the full thread on other NorCal fresh water sites...

NorCal Freshwater Dive Sites

My summer plan is to do some freshwater diving in the California Sierra mountains and I'd like a few suggestions. I've done more than a dozen dives in Tahoe and a few in some surrounding lakes. There have been a lot of positive comments about Whiskeytown Lake near Shasta as well. Decent...

scubaboard.com

 

[Cthippo]

It never ceases to astound me that in a body as large as the Sacramento Delta and San Francisco Bay there is nowhere suitable for diving

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It never ceases to astound me that in a body as large as the Sacramento Delta and San Francisco Bay there is nowhere suitable for diving

Not unless you like a mud bottom and near zero vis all the time.
There is too much farming dust and runoff that affects the water to be divable.
The central valley is responsible for roughly 25% of the nations food supply.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

It never ceases to astound me that in a body as large as the Sacramento Delta and San Francisco Bay there is nowhere suitable for diving

Yeah......I can totally see why anyone have that perspective....... but the fact is that the SF Bay and Delta are just not that great.....and mostly due to very limited to zero vis and basically no coral / reef structures..

As an old hippie from Berkeley CA..... I did my original cert with the Original Steels and we still did our checkout OW dives in Monterey.

Now there is some great diving on the North Coast anywhere from Pt Reyes up to North of Eureka......but then there's that darn "Landlord issue" that will concern many. I grew up free diving for abs with my dad in the Fort Brag / Point Arena area and the diving was awesome. We avoided any dusk or dawn diving and never saw the Landlord but pretty sure that he/she probably saw us.

Also..... the Farallon Islands just 26 miles out the gate would be some pristine diving but once again.....it's a major pinniped rookery and that's where the "Landlord" lives and thrives..

 

[HappiPaws]

I'm still diving Tahoe this time of year, but then I am fully suited up in a drysuit with thick undergarments. As far as I know, Monterey/Carmel is the closest for us (I'm in Reno). Hopping onto this thread in case I've been missing some amazing alternative.

If you want any additional info about diving the lake, check out my website: divelaketahoe.com. I've got almost fifty dive sites around the lake described with depth charts and access info.

I don't think we are that brave! We do plan on hitting up those sites in the summer tho!