Anticipated mid-August Southern Channel Island conditions?

[zf2nt]

I'm due to fly out August 15th for a 5-day limited load Southern Channel Island trip aboard the Vision.

OK, so we're not going to be on the same trip. You booked a good one, and you will love it. The Vision is the largest of the 3 boats and you will have a bit more room on it than I will on Conception. But the difference is truly minor. We go on a Truth Aquatics trip every year about this time. It's the best value in dive travel I know. This 5 day trip will set us back about $2K. OTOH, we're going to Raja Ampat in December for a 12 day trip and I think I'm already out a little over $14K and we haven't even left home yet!

 

[Dark-Thirty Diver]

Richard,

Seems like your wet-suit set up will work well, but you may get cold if the thermocline brings in colder water. Also, it's being in your wet suit all day and doing 4-5 dives that starts to chill you off. Remember to eat allot of calories to keep your furnace stoked. I shed as much of my suit as I reasonably can when I am on the surface as the evaporative cooling of the suit will chill you off. Surf-fur dive coats are very popular out here to wear over you suit to block the wind. Or, this all could all be for naught as it could be in the 90'sF. You have selected a good trip for your so-cal visit. If I could share a tip on kelp forest diving and that is to streamline your gear. Traversing through the kelp is one of the great highlights of Channel Island diving. Kelp strands will find every little hook and knob on your gear, so tuck everything in. And you'll need a good light to look in the nooks and crannies as well as to signal to your buddy. Bring sound canceling headphones or ear plugs for the bunk area, they assign bunks, so let them know you need a "big guy" bunk and maybe you will get a double one to yourself. Enjoy!

 

[jscan1]

5 mm on a So. Ca. Dive boat.....brrr, I think you'll be fine dive one and two of the day I think dives 3 and 4 you will be very chilly on the surface interval.... Of course a lot of it will depend on if you get typical 60's and overcast, or if you get lucky and get sunny and warm! As for the Great White look up the stats on shark fatalities in the U.S. ...I think you are pretty safe, although I'm sure the shark will pick the big guy in the 5mm, less to chew through, then the diver sporting a drysuit or 7mm.......have fun it's not the Caribbean, but So. Ca. Diving and dive boats have a charm all their own!

 

[drrich2]

Hi:

Quick update. Just got home from the trip yesterday evening. Haven't downloaded dives to computer yet, and work's busy. I plan to write-up a trip report, but that's going to take awhile, as well as post a write-up from my research notes planning out this trip. In the meantime, I wanted to say thanks to you guys. A few comments:

1.) 24 Dives over 5 day. Stuck with my 5 mm full wetsuit, 5 mm gloves, 7 mm hood, 7 mm Neosport boots. Yeah, it got cold, but I didn't shiver underwater (at times almost did topside, though). The evaporative chilling effect onboard the boat is significant. A Vet also on the trip told me for treating heat stroke in dogs, wetting them with water or alcohol & putting a fan on them can be more effective than applying cold packs. Also, in my 1 trip experience, there's constant wind. It can be a fairly mild breeze or a fairly strong wind, but it's always there and always cool. At times I peeled my wetsuit off at least to my hips, & noticed others doing so, too. Staff sometimes wore jackets, and they weren't getting in the water much.

2.) Oh, I ate a lot of calories, alright. I was fearing the scale and praying when I got home...and was blessed to be no fatter than when I left, far as I could tell.

3.) I was in the bunk under the stairs. I'm told that's the best place to be; I liked it.

4.) Anybody with less 'bioprene' and more cold sensitive better have on a 7 mm wetsuit or a dry suit. I saw decent numbers of both wet & dry suits. It was a limited load trip, 6 people cancelled and 1 no-showed, and there were only 18 passengers on our trip. We spent 2 days at San Clemente, 1 at Santa Catalina, 1 at Santa Barbara & 1 at Santa Cruz. I dove every time there was a dive on offer, & came out with 24 (dove nitrox). Curiously, no one else that trip did as many, and only one person was fairly close. But they had a number of repeat customers, so I imagine some of those folks feel more at liberty to dive or not, vs. me thinking it could be my only time.

Oh, yeah...loved the trip, great time, glad I did it & that I did it with them. Friendly people, Captain was the owner & very approachable/easy to talk to, fellow passengers were fine people, overall a wonderful value and strongly recommended.

Richard.

 

[jscan1]

How was the kelp? Was at the dive park on Saturday, and there was very little, but sadly a nice thick mat of sargassum, by dive buddy was in anacapa a few weeks ago, and said the kelp was great! Hopefully you got some on the northern channel island days?

 

[drrich2]

Varied a lot. Some dives were pretty 'kelpy' and some featured more plain rock structure. I don't have a 1st hand prior experience to judge it against.

Richard.

 

[Dark-Thirty Diver]

Darrich,

Good job buddy, 24 dives? You got your moneys worth. Glad you had a great time!

 

[laikabear]

I am really looking forward to your full report. I love your vacation reports; they are so detailed. I live in So Cal but haven't been on any of the Truth boats yet.