Experience with Mendocino / Van Damme State park area

[cmburch]

I freedive Van Damme SP, Russian Gulch SP, Casper Cove, etc. It is against the law to carry compressed air while freediving for Abalone. There is a tunnel at Van Damme that you can swim though with a boogie board if it is not too rough. The Abalone is relatively dense on the Northwest facing areas such as the northwest tip of Casper Cove since these tend to be the roughest. The protected areas have the most freedivers so have smaller abalone and lower densities.

It is probably best to hook-up with a dive shop that have outings for Abalone. This way you can go out and learn the ropes in relative safety.

Go to this Fort Bragg dive shop and they will answer all your questions.

http://www.subsurfaceprogression.com/

 

[Brewski]

Sorry you feel we've been ridiculing you, If your serious I apologize. You have made many statements which have been hot button issues on this board for a long time. anyone whose been reading posts here for any time would have reacted as we did.

Lets take a look shall we?

I am considering trying to check out some caves, do some light intro to the area discovery dives just to see how I fare in the cold waters. I'm new to diving and don't have a boat and just sort of want to spend some time getting used to diving and coming up controlled, and have relaxed practice before I just run out into the large swells of the pacific and get my ass handed to me out of exhaustion or something.

Your new to diving, just been certified, and are considering checking out caves. you are not trained to dive in caves or equipped for this task, your instructor would have made that clear. Fact is you should be looking for buddies to mentor you and help you build skills rather than try something as dangerous and foolish as entering a cave untrained with less than 24 dives.

Does anyone have experience maybe abaloney searching or anything like that off the north coast, preferably mendocino city/ van damme state park area or casper, maybe even as far north as the lost coast, like kings range/ shelter cove area. I want to dive pretty local to where I live without being exhausted driving there and then back after the dives.

perfectly reasonable question, I'm sorry I can't help you with this tho.

Unfortunately the buddy system won't be possible yet but I'm not going very deep. I'll end up getting a small tank for emergency back up also. Before everyone jumps all over me with why I shouldn't go alone please don't. I understand the risks. I'm just rec diving and won't be going into weird places, I just simply want to get comfortable iwth my equipment without worrying about other people. I would like any advice otherwise though for the 'if you go that route'.

Again you propose something you are not trained to do and do not possess the skills for. seriously considering diving with no buddy at your skill level? I'm sorry but that is such a bad idea the north coast has taken the lives of more experienced divers. this is a very bad idea, please reconsider.

I'm going to get a dive watch and chill on the beach in between dives. I'd love to meet people at some point but I'm not really ready to do that just yet. I just want a relaxed low exploration dive for comfort building in a real environment.

why do you need a watch to chill on the beach?
do you mean your going to use the watch to dive from a beach?
To clarify, a watch is used to tell time, are you maybe referring to a computer as a watch?
What other instrumentation do you plan to use?

The other question I had is the local shop in Novato a good shop to arrange finishing my master diver certification once I get there. I have 9 dives logged of the 30 I guess I need. I want to get that before the end of the year so I stay fresh. I do feel pretty comfortable with all aspects of it so far. I haven't been attacked by a mako or a great white yet so I don't know about that kind of stress, lol... but I think I'm pretty competant in most scenarios like getting stuck, things popping out of my mouth, damage repairs, executions under stress, etc.

So you tell us here you have 9 dives what you should be doing is working on honing your skills. Look for other divers to buddy up with to mentor you, show you where it is safe to dive, help you dial in your weighting, your trim. this is a time when you are still learning and should not be diving alone.

Go to northcoastdivers.org there you can meet divers from your area, who can mentor you develop friendships with and dive with.


I see above you said you did your training dives in Belize. Am I to understand your 9 dives were all done in Belize? If so you have no idea what your proposing here. You will be wearing much thicker exposure protection here, hood, gloves, additional weight. I suggest you ask your local dive shop to include you in one of their local training dives and get an idea what it will be like. It sure won't be like Belize.

 

[Ben_ca]

Happyinmendo,
I would recommend going over local dive conditions, entries and precautions before jumping into Northern California waters. The differences in diving in Belize and diving in Nor Cal are drastic. The gear choices alone would take up a good chunk of a day.
There are even some Monterey divers who think twice about diving some of the North Coast sites so take their lead and throttle back and get a professional to help you out.

Ben

 

[Gombessa]

happyinmendo,

Please consider the possibility that the people responding to your honest question are not trying to ridicule you. Everyone who has replied so far is highly experienced and knowledgeable about diving in local conditions, and they are trying to help get you the information you seek. However, if one may allow for a brief moment the possibility that they are not just dog-piling you for the sake of entertainment, one might step back and consider why it is that your words have gotten everyone's back bristled.

Everyone here dives because it's fun, but we also recognize that there are certain risks, and ways of mitigating those risks. Jumping in out of the blue as a new diver, talking nonchalantly about not diving with a buddy, checking out caves (you never mentioned what caves or what kind of structures you meant in your original post), etc., just gives the reasonable person the impression that you are either unaware of the safety standards and best practices taught during certification, willfully disregarding them, or simply trolling the forum.

In short, perhaps it isn't the case that everyone in the Norcal forum is a huge jerk just waiting to jump all over new participants any chance they get, perhaps something you said really struck a nerve with everyone, and deserves a bit of contemplation as to whether the ideas in your post need to be rethought, or perhaps merely reworded in a way that doesn't confuse your actual intent?

 

[fisheater]

Trust me. There was NO piling on.

I, too, know almost all of the divers who have responded to your posting. I know them, BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALL TAUGHT ME HOW TO BE A BETTER DIVER ON THE NORTH COAST.

A couple of years ago, I showed up at a North Coast Divers club dive as a brand new certified diver. I had my gear and was ready to get wet. Didn't happen. No one dove that day, as conditions weren't right. We went to six different coves on the Sonoma Coast and these expert local divers decided that each of them, in turn, was too dangerous to dive, due to the direction and intensity of the intermittent swells.

And yet, there were times at each of them, where the ocean looked tame and I, as know-nothing newbie, would have dove and likely would have been killed when the big south swells hit.

In short, there's every reason to believe that these posters saved my newbie life.

I came back the next month and started diving with them, when conditions sucked, but weren't inordinately dangerous. Thus, started my learning curve on diving the North Coast.

We're ALL still learning how to dive the North Coast, as the ocean isn't always (or often) predictible. We rely upon each other and trade tips, techniques and observations.

None of us is going it alone and we wouldn't consider trying to learn how to dive the North Coast alone. Heck, a couple of weeks ago I had to assist my dive buddy out of the water, as he got caught unawares in the shallows when a large south swell hit. He likely would have drowned in only a couple of feet of water, a couple of feet from shore, due to the weight of all of the gear we all wear. This isn't a place to dive alone.

Your enthusiasm is great. Your plans are dangerous and foolhardy. We don't want to see you killed.

That's not ridicule. That's sage advice. Advice for which people have given their lives.

If you don't believe us, ask John or Rich at Pinnacles in Novato. They'll tell you same thing.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Happyinmendo,

You need to go back and study your first post carefully. The way it was written would make anybody believe it was either a game, or the person that wrote it was stoned. This is the first reaction I got and probably many others too. You had many typo's, the sentence structure was horrible, many of your terms seemed odd or inaccurate, and your subject matter flipped all over the place. What are we supposed to think? Everybody can have a bad writing day, and I'm not bashing you for not being the best writer or not the best at conveying your message, but the internet IS all about the written word. You might be a totally different person if we were physically standing in front of you talking, but this is all we got.

Let's start over.
Why don't you give us a little more info about yourself like age, background, what your class was like, what gear you already have, etc.

Here's what I recommend:
Get everything you need to freedive for abalone. Go to Sub Surface Progression dive shop in Ft. Bragg and befriend them. They might have abalone outings or organized group trips.
Much of the success of North Coast diving has to do with comfort in the water and being in shape.
If you skindive (freedive) for a season and really get comfortable and in shape you will be that much better of a scuba diver later. Find some buddies to go out with on freedive outings.

Meanwhile, take your scuba classes if you want (it can't hurt) and also ask them about their policies on solo diving and see what they say.

For the record: I do not recommend solo diving for a new diver.

 

[Anti-Hero]

North coast diving is for crazy people.

 

[Gombessa]

Not crazy, just Chuck Norris

 

[kathydee]

Hi there,

Even though others have voiced their concern I wanted to add a few thoughts. I hope you are still reading .

I learned to dive in the tropics too, and found No Cali conditions much more challenging than in SE Asia and Honduras. The diving here is fun, but trust me it takes more gear, skill and much more awareness of the additional hazards in the environment.

I really started diving our local cold water with over 200 warm water dives and was very appreciative for mentoring which was freely given by some of the highly experienced local divers/dive instructors who have offered you advice in this thread.

I followed their advice, and learned as much as I could. Because of their generosity I am fortunate to have the skill/knowledge/partners to now safely enjoy the beauty of our local diving every weekend .

Diving can be a fantastic adventure if you learn how to do it safely. But as others have warned every new environment has it's dangers. Even with hundreds or thousands of dives it is only wise to learn about unique site-specific hazards before you feel too confident and find yourself in trouble. (Every OW class should stress this). Even now with over 300 dives and 100 cold water dives I would definitely not enter the Mendocino waters without a knowledgeable local partner.

That being said, I think your idea of connecting with the local shop is a good one. Perhaps they will be able to orientate you to the local dive environment and help you gain the skills you need to enjoy diving the California coast for a long time .

Good luck!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

North coast diving is for crazy people.

I'll take that as a complement.