h3o
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I dove Point Lobos yesterday and thought that was probably the best dive day I will see in Northern California in a long time. I was wrong, I dove Monastery today and it was out-damn-standing... better than the awesome day yesterday at Point Lobos. The viz was close to 60', the sea life was pumping, the water cool, and it was a sunny clear day like yesterday.
With the crystal clear visibility, the underwater forest views were AMAZING in every direction... I've swam through the kelp forests many times, but never with this much depth of field... the sun illuminating the kelp, the rays shining through the canopy, the orange light ambience beneath the sun-lit brown kelp leaves, the big schools of blue rockfish, the huge lingcods, all the practically tame fish that swam inches away from our masks, the huge crabs along the rocks, the colorful anemones, the variety along the outer wall, the neon nudibranchs, the swaying bright, shiny green grass, the viz, the weather... it was an AWESOME dive at Monastery!
The water in the shallows was even warm enough for me to take a swim w/out any neoprene. The water near the beach was also strangely turquoise and so clear you could see the tan sand below the surface, it looked more like the Caribbean than Carmel. If the weather keeps up, I'm thinking of going down there tomorrow just to hang out on the beach. Today's dive at Monastery is somewhere on my list of all time favorite dives in the world...
After Monastery, we headed to breakwater to check out the sea lions. The viz was okay, good for breakwater anyway, about 25' at the most... There were surprisingly very little students and divers there. We dove along the wall out to the jetty and swam with the sea lions for a while. We should've stayed at Monastery though...
The conditions are AWESOME
guys, if you haven't dove late this week or this weekend, get your asses down to Monastery beach tomorrow before it's too late! I am convinced that today's dive will be the best I'll ever experience in Northern California... it's hard to imagine a dive day in these waters that'll beat it... all the other divers we met up with there also said it has been the best day they've seen at Monastery.
:guitar:
With the crystal clear visibility, the underwater forest views were AMAZING in every direction... I've swam through the kelp forests many times, but never with this much depth of field... the sun illuminating the kelp, the rays shining through the canopy, the orange light ambience beneath the sun-lit brown kelp leaves, the big schools of blue rockfish, the huge lingcods, all the practically tame fish that swam inches away from our masks, the huge crabs along the rocks, the colorful anemones, the variety along the outer wall, the neon nudibranchs, the swaying bright, shiny green grass, the viz, the weather... it was an AWESOME dive at Monastery!
The water in the shallows was even warm enough for me to take a swim w/out any neoprene. The water near the beach was also strangely turquoise and so clear you could see the tan sand below the surface, it looked more like the Caribbean than Carmel. If the weather keeps up, I'm thinking of going down there tomorrow just to hang out on the beach. Today's dive at Monastery is somewhere on my list of all time favorite dives in the world...
After Monastery, we headed to breakwater to check out the sea lions. The viz was okay, good for breakwater anyway, about 25' at the most... There were surprisingly very little students and divers there. We dove along the wall out to the jetty and swam with the sea lions for a while. We should've stayed at Monastery though...
The conditions are AWESOME
guys, if you haven't dove late this week or this weekend, get your asses down to Monastery beach tomorrow before it's too late! I am convinced that today's dive will be the best I'll ever experience in Northern California... it's hard to imagine a dive day in these waters that'll beat it... all the other divers we met up with there also said it has been the best day they've seen at Monastery.:guitar:
