Anyone dove Russian Gulch?

[Anti-Hero]

Like the title says, has anyone ever gone diving at Russian Gulch? The Cove looks nicely sheltered and there is camping / showers available. Looks like a nice spot. Thoughts?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Like the title says, has anyone ever gone diving at Russian Gulch? The Cove looks nicely sheltered and there is camping / showers available. Looks like a nice spot. Thoughts?

Russian Gulch is a wonderfull spot to dive and to camp.
It is best to use a kayak or you could drag a small inflatable down to the beach. Go out under the bridge and stay to the right. There is a sloping bank out there 25 to 60 feet deep. I've seen giant pacific octupus, lots of rock fish, lingcod. It's good for abs too if you're freediving.
In the cove itself I don't think would be to good. I've always gone out to the outer reefs on my kayak but I know people who have shore dove it and say it's a long surface swim to get out to any decent diving. The cove is shallow, sandy, and murkey.

But if you have water transportation of some sort I highly recommend it.

Eric

 

[zinmaker]

I dove Russian Gulch last October and really enjoyed it the vis was not the best at the time, but there was some real nice diving. My buddies an I did the surface swim and hung towards the left and dove around a rock, had a lot of nice colors and interesting sea life. Max depth was about 45 feet or so. The camping is good, very protected, and there is a nice hike up to some waterfalls. Overall good camping, diving and hiking. As Eric says below, it is a bit of a surface swim, take your time and enjoy the dive, lots of abs if you are into freediving.

 

[Anti-Hero]

Russian Gulch is a wonderfull spot to dive and to camp.
It is best to use a kayak or you could drag a small inflatable down to the beach. Go out under the bridge and stay to the right. There is a sloping bank out there 25 to 60 feet deep. I've seen giant pacific octupus, lots of rock fish, lingcod. It's good for abs too if you're freediving.
In the cove itself I don't think would be to good. I've always gone out to the outer reefs on my kayak but I know people who have shore dove it and say it's a long surface swim to get out to any decent diving. The cove is shallow, sandy, and murkey.

But if you have water transportation of some sort I highly recommend it.

Eric

Thanks for the replies everyone. One more question: You stated to go out under the bridge and stay to the right. From all the pictures I've seen the bridge is behind the beach entry, opposite to the cove. Is there another bridge not shown?

Also, approximately how long is the surface swim to the good stuff? I'm used to doing pretty long surface swims, but if it's totally unreasonable I'll need to look into other options.

Thanks again!
-C

 

[TaoH]

The bridge actually runs through the beach; the parking area is behind the bridge and you'll be walking past it to get to the water.

Here's a photo shot from the parking area:
North Coast Divers - Album

And here's a photo shot from the water looking towards the beach, just beneath the trees behind the bridge is the parking area:
North Coast Divers - Album

Russian Gulch is nice diving, there are lots of abs when you go below 25 ft, and they'll be in clusters. Also a nice place for collecting urchin and there are some fish here as well but you'll find them more easily the further you go from the beach.

Fairly easy to access location.

 

[Peter_C]

We have surface dove it and kayak dove it multiple times. Never have we been able to go outside the outer cove due to rather LARGE swells every time we have been there. It is a nice protected site, but with big swells can be surgy. If you can get out past the wash rocks there should be some spectacular diving. The depths inside the outer cove are not over 60 feet. There is an anchor with a giant chain just off center to the left as you are headed out. There is not much else to see in that section though. Continuing on the right towards the open ocean will lead you to some rocks that go up to about 20 feet with the bottom about 40 feet. The center outside edge has some good rock formations with lots of fish in the 55 foot range. We usually anchor in the sand channel where there is no kelp in 55 feet of water.

I have wanted to dive the cove just South of Mendocino. More like at the town of Mendocino. I have heard it is an excellent kayak dive.

 

[Ben_ca]

Sounds like a great place to bring the scooters

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Sounds like a great place to bring the scooters

Everyplace would be a good place to bring scooters provided you're shore diving and the haul from the car to the beach is not too much of a PITA.

 

[Ben_ca]

True...

where what that one incident last winter (or was it this winter?) where someone went in with a scooter... lost it it washed up and some beach comber called for rescue? Guy continues on dive and surfaces to the whole county looking for him??

 

[mtbrider]

True...

where what that one incident last winter (or was it this winter?) where someone went in with a scooter... lost it it washed up and some beach comber called for rescue? Guy continues on dive and surfaces to the whole county looking for him??

Yeah scooters are great, I have some Harbor Freight wheels I stick on my Gavin and I just roll it to the water.

I've used my scooter at Russian Gulch but my buddy (Peter) was on a Kayak so it wasn't really a scooter dive.

So when you gonna come up here and scooter? I'm going to the NCD club dive on 2-16 but I'm probably going to be playing with the camera. I'd bet Peter would be up for it though.

Here's the thread about the lost scooter:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/norcal/190406-mob-scene-south-area-sat-sonoma.html


Ryan