Advice on diving in SoCal in late Feb.

[Leejnd]

Personally, if I was here on business and only had a day or two that I could sneak away, I'd book a trip or two on one of our local dive boats. Some of them are affiliated with dive shops and you can get your rentals right through them, and you are also assured of a great day of diving, and not quite as vulnerable to bad conditions (as you would be if you were going to try to get in some beach dives).

My personal fave is Peace out of Ventura Harbor (if you're going to be in this northern part of SoCal). Really comfortable boat, GREAT food (best dive boat food I've ever had!), you can rent your gear through them, onboard hot tub, nitrox. Peace just got out of drydock for a refurb, so it's probably looking pretty good right now! They have a couple of mid-week trips to Anacapa within the dates you mentioned. If your time is more limited, you could do the Raptor (also out of Ventura) - it's a more minimalist experience, but it's a faster boat so you get back to the dock way earlier.

I've been on several of the dive boats out of Long Beach/San Pedro, and they are also a good option. You can get info about all the SoCal dive boats here: California Dive Boats : The Official Page

 

[fuggler]

Personally, if I was here on business and only had a day or two that I could sneak away, I'd book a trip or two on one of our local dive boats. Some of them are affiliated with dive shops and you can get your rentals right through them, and you are also assured of a great day of diving, and not quite as vulnerable to bad conditions (as you would be if you were going to try to get in some beach dives).

My personal fave is Peace out of Ventura Harbor (if you're going to be in this northern part of SoCal). Really comfortable boat, GREAT food (best dive boat food I've ever had!), you can rent your gear through them, onboard hot tub, nitrox. Peace just got out of drydock for a refurb, so it's probably looking pretty good right now! They have a couple of mid-week trips to Anacapa within the dates you mentioned. If your time is more limited, you could do the Raptor (also out of Ventura) - it's a more minimalist experience, but it's a faster boat so you get back to the dock way earlier.

I've been on several of the dive boats out of Long Beach/San Pedro, and they are also a good option. You can get info about all the SoCal dive boats here: California Dive Boats : The Official Page

Does the Peace offer unlimited dives or does the charter decide?

 

[Bottom Snatcher]

fuggler, the charter generally decides. Usually the dive boat will move to different locations so you will only have time for one dive at each location. Sometimes if the site is good and they're running short on time you do two dives at one site. I always get my fill of diving on the Peace.

 

[fnfalman]

Does the Peace offer unlimited dives or does the charter decide?

On a single-day trip, there are usually about 3-4 dives depending on which Northern Channel Islands the boat goes to. Anacapa is the nearest to shore so if the boat were to go there, 4-dives a day is very typical. Usually the boat leaves the island so that it can get back to the dock between 5-6 PM.

On multi-days trips, you can easily squeeze out 6-7 dives (including night dives) a day, if you can hack it. Multi-days trips tend to visit the more advanced sites (deep, possible current), so you gotta be in pretty good shape to conk out more than 4-dives. Usually everybody would do 4-dives + night dive. Some of the hearty type will do 5-dives + twilight dive + night dive.

 

[Leejnd]

Does the Peace offer unlimited dives or does the charter decide?

I've never heard of a dive boat anywhere in the world that allows for unlimited dives on a day trip. They'd have to just drop anchor somewhere and leave the gate open the entire day and let divers come and go - and I've never seen a day-trip dive boat do that. Perhaps there are some liveaboards that do that? The downside, of course, would be that you'd have to do all your dives at the same spot, instead of moving from spot to spot for a specific number of dives, which is what every day-trip dive boat I've ever been on does.

Peace offers different day trips - some offer 3 dives, some 4. I believe that on their site they have a schedule of upcoming trips which lists the number of dives they'll do that day.

I did a lobster-hunting trip out to Santa Barbara Island in December and we did 4 dives. I've also done mid-week Anacapa trips on Peace that only offered 3 dives. Depends on the schedule, I guess.

 

[fuggler]

I've never heard of a dive boat anywhere in the world that allows for unlimited dives on a day trip. They'd have to just drop anchor somewhere and leave the gate open the entire day and let divers come and go - and I've never seen a day-trip dive boat do that. Perhaps there are some liveaboards that do that? The downside, of course, would be that you'd have to do all your dives at the same spot, instead of moving from spot to spot for a specific number of dives, which is what every day-trip dive boat I've ever been on does.

Peace offers different day trips - some offer 3 dives, some 4. I believe that on their site they have a schedule of upcoming trips which lists the number of dives they'll do that day.

I did a lobster-hunting trip out to Santa Barbara Island in December and we did 4 dives. I've also done mid-week Anacapa trips on Peace that only offered 3 dives. Depends on the schedule, I guess.

I was just curious because I've been on the Sanddollar boat to Catalina last year and it was pretty much "unlimited". They moved to different sites but there was no specific number of dives you're allowed to do. (I did 9 dives in 2 days the boyfriend did 11 dives.) I've been looking at the California dive boat schedules and I noticed that some boats/charters specify how many dives you can do. (Example: the horizon boat out of San Diego is going out to San Clemente for 2 days this month and on their site, it says "up to 8 dives" only.) I'm not sure if 8 dives in 2 days is a suggestion or a rule. Anyway, I booked a 3-day trip on the Vision this month. Hope I don't get too cold, otherwise the unlimited dive concern wouldn't matter.

 

[Leejnd]

Hope I don't get too cold, otherwise the unlimited dive concern wouldn't matter.

Yeah, that's definitely an issue! 4 dives in one day is usually max for me, before I start to feel chilled to the bone. I've done more dives in a day before, but only where it's warm...like bathwater warm.

I'm sure you'll have a great time on Vision.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

I was just curious because I've been on the Sanddollar boat to Catalina last year and it was pretty much "unlimited". They moved to different sites but there was no specific number of dives you're allowed to do. (I did 9 dives in 2 days the boyfriend did 11 dives.) I've been looking at the California dive boat schedules and I noticed that some boats/charters specify how many dives you can do. (Example: the horizon boat out of San Diego is going out to San Clemente for 2 days this month and on their site, it says "up to 8 dives" only.) I'm not sure if 8 dives in 2 days is a suggestion or a rule. Anyway, I booked a 3-day trip on the Vision this month. Hope I don't get too cold, otherwise the unlimited dive concern wouldn't matter.

@fuggler: If I were you, I wouldn't get too hung up on "number" of dives, per se. The Horizon, like a lot of other boats I've been on, will give you gate times. The gate times specify when divers can enter the water. On my last trip on the Horizon from San Diego to San Clemente Island, we anchored at 3 different spots. At the first 2 sites, everyone did one dive. At the third site, the gate time was 2 hours long. My buddies and I decided to do one long leisurely dive for 85 minutes at the third site. Some wetsuit divers rushed around and did 2 very short dives. In this case, number of dives was at the divers' discretion.

In my experience, when the Horizon lists "up to X dives" I figure that I'll be doing X-1 dives because I don't like to rush around and do 30-40 minute dives.

If you want to maximize your bottom time/# of dives on a dive boat like the Horizon, I'd recommend investing in a drysuit.

On a side note, if you know that you will be doing a long dive (longer than one hour or so), you should extend the courtesy of letting the DM know about your dive plans before entering the water. We are always pretty clear about that since we like doing long dives. I can imagine that this would be very important for rebreather divers since their bottom times can be significantly longer than those for open circuit diving.

BTW, the Horizon is a very professional dive op. The captain and crew are always top-notch.

Have fun on the Vision...

 

[fnfalman]

@fuggler: If I were you, I wouldn't get too hung up on "number" of dives, per se. The Horizon, like a lot of other boats I've been on, will give you gate times. The gate times specify when divers can enter the water. On my last trip on the Horizon from San Diego to San Clemente Island, we anchored at 3 different spots. At the first 2 sites, everyone did one dive. At the third site, the gate time was 2 hours long. My buddies and I decided to do one long leisurely dive for 85 minutes at the third site. Some wetsuit divers rushed around and did 2 very short dives. In this case, number of dives was at the divers' discretion.

In my experience, when the Horizon lists "up to X dives" I figure that I'll be doing X-1 dives because I don't like to rush around and do 30-40 minute dives.

If you want to maximize your bottom time/# of dives on a dive boat like the Horizon, I'd recommend investing in a drysuit.

On a side note, if you know that you will be doing a long dive (longer than one hour or so), you should extend the courtesy of letting the DM know about your dive plans before entering the water. We are always pretty clear about that since we like doing long dives. I can imagine that this would be very important for rebreather divers since their bottom times can be significantly longer than those for open circuit diving.

BTW, the Horizon is a very professional dive op. The captain and crew are always top-notch.

Have fun on the Vision...

Yep. The boats will let you know what the anticipated dive length is. If you want longer bottom time (assuming that your exposure suit can handle the time period) then be the first one in and last one out.

Because of the cool water, most dives averaged around 40-minutes though there are those who would push the 1-hr+ mark. Just let the DM know so that they're not overly worried about you if everybody comes up and you still haven't.

Since that the galley serves yummy snacks in between dives, and if you're the last one in, there may not be anything left for you. SoCal divers are chow hounds.

 

[Empty V]

On multi-days trips, you can easily squeeze out 6-7 dives (including night dives) a day, if you can hack it.

I've never seen anyone do 7 dives on any trip. You have to remember that the crew does not get paid extra for night dives and their usual day is tending to divers for 4 dives. So it's somewhat rude to ask them to perform the extra work for 3 more dives. The night dive is expected and if you go on it then you should be adding a little extra into the tip jar along with tipping for 2 days not just one.

Since that the galley serves yummy snacks in between dives, and if you're the last one in, there may not be anything left for you. SoCal divers are chow hounds.

I'm not sure what boats your going on but I've never been on one thats run out of snacks/food.

Billy