News for Laguna Beach solo divers.

[Robert Phillips]

You must be joking right? Where do you dive in Laguna? I must have counted 481 of them in one morning last week Just in case you don't know what you are looking for, its a candy cane shaped plastic tube you breath through <g>.

I'm dead serious. How many divers have you seen on a reef USING a snorkel?
They don't work underwater. I don't need one underwater. Do you?

To complete a safe dive, a snorkel is useless

 

[miket]

I don't know what the big deal is, all the Lifeguards and beach police have been easy to deal with for me. We just make sure we all have a snorkel. Sometimes they ask what our plan is, and when we are expected to be done. One guy at Wood's Cove insisted we stick together and surface together, but that was about the worst of it?

While I prefer boat diving, shore diving in Laguna is great, always lots to see. It's well worth the snorkel police questioning and other rules. Crowds in the summer can be beaten simply by getting there early.

Looking through my 40 shore dives, it breaks down to:

Malibu/Redondo = 13
Palos Verdes = 4
Laguna Beach = 23

Laguna is the furthest away from me out of all three, so I must like it.

Deadman's reef off Crecent Beach is such a great dive, I need to do that one again soon. Woods Cove also seems to always be a good dive, I have seen GBSB there at least twice.

I do have to say that my best shore dive was at Marineland. I hope to do many more there, but it is alot of work walking all the way to the point, navagating a rocky entry (kind of scary sometimes), and then a killer walk back up the steep hill. Laguna Beach diving isn't so demanding to me.

- MikeT

 

[Robert Phillips]

I hope to do many more there, but it is alot of work walking all the way to the point, navagating a rocky entry (kind of scary sometimes), and then a killer walk back up the steep hill. Laguna Beach diving isn't so demanding to me.

- MikeT

Watch out, now Ken is going to start telling us how only manly man divers can dive in LA and that OC diving is too easy.

 

[DiverBuoy]

I'm dead serious. How many divers have you seen on a reef USING a snorkel?
They don't work underwater. I don't need one underwater. Do you?

To complete a safe dive, a snorkel is useless

I'm sorry I thought I read your post as "I've never seen a snorkel, in all my 160 dives" ... to that interpretation I replied "you must be joking, right?". Of course S.C.U.B.A. divers do not use a snorkel under water, but then again neither do snorkelers <g>. Do I see hundreds of divers in Laguna with snorkels attached to their masks enter and leave the water - of course I do ... I also find many of these masks and snorkel combinations at the bottom <lol>.

 

[DiverBuoy]

Deadman's reef off Crecent Beach is such a great dive, I need to do that one again soon. Woods Cove also seems to always be a good dive, I have seen GBSB there at least twice.
- MikeT

Both are fantastic dives, even better at night.

 

[Frank O]

I've been to OCal 4 times - each time the diving has ranged from very poor to just plain lousy. ... I realize I only did about 170 dives last year (doing 2 - 3 beach dives a week) - so I'm no expert.

Far be it from me to argue, Ken-san, but I think you're being hard on the old O.C.! Your sample sounds like it may be skewed. I've had my share of Braille dives at Malibu, Redondo and Marineland. And have had proportionately as many of those rare, great 30-ft+ vis days at Laguna as in L.A.

I try to have my folding snorkel clipped-off in my pocket when I head to Laguna. If I ever forgot and got nailed (which seems unlikely in winter when the lifeguarding is all but withdrawn), I think I'd argue that I'm diving within the standards I was trained under (you know what GUE has to say about snorkels).

 

[ItsBruce]

Not wanting to rain again ...I've been rousted by Bay Watch in Santa Monica Bay. They purportedly were worried about my boat being at anchor just off the MDR breakwater and didn't think my dive flag was big enough. In reality, they thought I was poaching lobsters. I've now got a dive flag that is so big it needs to be hoisted on the main halyard. In hindsight, though, I'm just as glad that they are around in the event of a real problem.

As to Laguna, the sign pictured somewhere on this thread is quite reasonable. Everything there is just a matter of courtesy.

And, Santa Monica has a rather odd ordinance about undressing / changing in the open or in their cars, though I don't know how vigorously it is enforced vis-a-vis divers.

 

[scubacalifornia]

DIVING IN O.C. RULES!




Kevin

 

[Mo2vation]

Watch out, now Ken is going to start telling us how only manly man divers can dive in LA and that OC diving is too easy.

I'm piping down... :10:
---
Ken

 

[LAJim]

Laguna Beach Diving: The Real Orange County Scuba
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Format Reality TV/Documentary
Running time 21 Minutes (without ads) / 30 Minutes (with ads) / 44 Minutes Country USA
Original network/channel MTV
Original run 2004 &#8211; 2005
No. of episodes 28 (to date)

Laguna Beach Diving: The Real Orange County Scuba (often referred to only as "Laguna Beach") is a dramatic soap opera on MTV. The show is heavily based on the FOX hit teen drama The D.M. It differs from most other reality shows in that it is structured as somewhat more of a traditional narrative than a documentary.

Overview

The Laguna Beach Diving phenomena started in late 2003, when MTV producers started scouting locations to film a reality show about scuba divers. The plan was to create a reality show that was shot in the essence of a prime-time drama. Originally, producers were to film at Casino Point Catalina. Producers then switched their main focus to Laguna Beach, California, a small unique town in Orange County, based on the popularity of the FOX T.V. show The D.M. (The Dive Master).