Cali divers take things for granted, methinks

[drrich2]

Here you can hop on any boat every weekend, maybe even Wednesday. Or schlepp your gears down to the various beaches.

For me, diving southern California would be a flight in from out of state to dive a few days, then fly back. I wouldn't want to miss any diving. So I booked a Truth Aquatics multi-day trip for next year. Looking at the regional day boat options, I got the impression they tend to focus on weekends more. And boats may not go out if they don't have enough divers to make it worthwhile.

So, the day boat diving scene in SoCal...is there reliable boat diving to be had all week, or are you really taking your chances where Monday through Thursday are concerned? What's the practical reality?

This is a big deal to out-of-state fly-in tourists, who often plan dive trips flying in one Saturday & out of the next; if there was just diving Friday & weekend, just a person would dive Sunday, Friday morning...and that's about it.

Richard.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

For me, diving southern California would be a flight in from out of state to dive a few days, then fly back. I wouldn't want to miss any diving. So I booked a Truth Aquatics multi-day trip for next year. Looking at the regional day boat options, I got the impression they tend to focus on weekends more. And boats may not go out if they don't have enough divers to make it worthwhile.

So, the day boat diving scene in SoCal...is there reliable boat diving to be had all week, or are you really taking your chances where Monday through Thursday are concerned? What's the practical reality?

This is a big deal to out-of-state fly-in tourists, who often plan dive trips flying in one Saturday & out of the next; if there was just diving Friday & weekend, just a person would dive Sunday, Friday morning...and that's about it.

Richard.

If you're flying in on a Thursday, then book a day trip for a Friday trip. Stay the night before on the boat then dive all day. Then book yourself onto a couple day trips for Sat and Sun or a two day trip on another boat (or same boat) and then stay on that boat again the night before. No lodging charges for three days. You would have to check but there might be multi day charters running during the week. The reason California dive boats are weekend centric is because our boats are mostly filled with locals and we work during the week. It's not really considered a "dive destination" like Cozumel or other warm water paradise.
Cold water isn't for everyone.

You could also meet up with someone on Scuba board and do middle of the week shore dives at different spots up and down the coast. If you plan it right and the weather cooperates you could dive every day.

 

[fnfalman]

For me, diving southern California would be a flight in from out of state to dive a few days, then fly back. I wouldn't want to miss any diving. So I booked a Truth Aquatics multi-day trip for next year. Looking at the regional day boat options, I got the impression they tend to focus on weekends more. And boats may not go out if they don't have enough divers to make it worthwhile.

So, the day boat diving scene in SoCal...is there reliable boat diving to be had all week, or are you really taking your chances where Monday through Thursday are concerned? What's the practical reality?

This is a big deal to out-of-state fly-in tourists, who often plan dive trips flying in one Saturday & out of the next; if there was just diving Friday & weekend, just a person would dive Sunday, Friday morning...and that's about it.

Richard.

the Peace Boat specializes in local multi-days trips. Unless it's a hurricane happening, they don't cancel their outings. And they also go
to the further Channel Islands too.

 

[socaljohn]

I feel incredibly blessed for getting to dive as often as weekly with only a couple gallons of gas, 5 bucks per tank oh and money for a breakfast burrito.

 

[drrich2]

The reason California dive boats are weekend centric is because our boats are mostly filled with locals and we work during the week. It's not really considered a "dive destination" like Cozumel or other warm water paradise.

the Peace Boat specializes in local multi-days trips. Unless it's a hurricane happening, they don't cancel their outings. And they also go
to the further Channel Islands too.

Good to know, guys, thanks. An out-of-stater having to put in for a week's vacation (hence the Saturday to Saturday time frame, with a day home after to recover & unpack, that seems typical for many vacations), book airfare & a spot on the boat (and maybe rental gear), often books a few to several months in advance. We can stack the odds by booking particular times of the year & so on, but reliability of diveable conditions & the boat going out is key.

From what I understand, Great Escape Dive Charters out of San Pedro offers 1 to 5 day trips, so along with Truth Aquatics and the Peace that makes 3 options for multi-day.

Preparing to book a trip next year, I did some research, got info. from people on the forum, etc..., and put together a guide to picking a California dive trip destination, from my perspective, which I hope to post alongside a trip report if I'm blessed with a fine trip August 2016 with Truth Aquatics. I still tweak the details a bit. My point is, California has a long, irregular coastline, near shore & off-shore options, a range of conditions, and the sheer range of options was bewildering.

I ultimately chose to leave the non-diving family home, which opened up the path to a multi-day live-aboard trip. Otherwise I'd have planned Saturday to Saturday, diving Sunday - Thursday, Friday off with family, day boat trips while family did whatever. Once I saw reliable weekday boat trips might be problematic, Catalina Island with the option for shore diving at the park looked like the main viable option.

Especially traveling as an 'only diver,' and not great at social networking.

Richard.

 

[fnfalman]

From what I understand, Great Escape Dive Charters out of San Pedro offers 1 to 5 day trips, so along with Truth Aquatics and the Peace that makes 3 options for multi-day.

The Great Escape is a big boat (relatively speaking here, 80-something feet long, 30-something feet wide) and doesn't take more than 36 divers. Plenty of room to lounge around and good bunks. It doesn't have Nitrox so for multi-days trips is kind of rough if you want to hug bottom times.

The Truth Aquatic boats are very well set up for multi-days trips and have recently added Nitrox capability to all three boats.

For multi-day trips, my preference would be the Peace, then one of the three Truth Aquatic boats, then others just because of Nitrox capability. Do a few 60-80 feet dives on air and see that N2 build up real quick on your computer.

Anyway, the Peace has a hot tub, which comes in handy at the end of the day not just for winter but year round soaking. LOL. Food also seems to be better than the other boats as well, though the Truth Aquatic boats ain't no slouch. I must say that even on the Peace, the grubs isn't the same ever since Joe the galley cook left a couple of years back.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I think the Peace still does the Santa Maria Tri Tip in the evenings after they tuck into a cove and drop the pick at one of the islands for the night.
The hot tub is ocean water, it's actually the engine cooling water that circulates out of the heat exchanger and it feels great on your skin plus it continuously fills and runs over as the engines are running so it replenishes.
I haven't been on that many boats down south, but from what everybody tells me and from what I have seen personally it's one of the best run operations in Socal. Between the food, nitrox, and the professionalism of the crew, which is a full crew time BTW, one of the only boats down there that is. They also have a chase boat which is really nice to have (I found out the hard way once just how nice they are)
The other nice thing about the Peace and Ventura Harbor in general is the parking is free with validation (which you'll have), and there are other boats parked there as well. Like I said, you could jump on the Spectre for a day trip out to Anacapa and work it around a Peace trip. Once you're at the harbor all of them let you stay the night before on the boats so there would be no motel for those days. And the Harbor has some great restaurants and bars, shopping, gift shops, galleries, a dive shop, etc.

Unless the Great Escape has changed in the last ten years, I wasn't as impressed with it as the Peace. Tim Burke is a great captain and all, friendly and knowledgeable but his boat was kind of shabby and seemed a little run down, like he didn't want to put any money into it. The bunk room was mildewy and had an odor, the carpeting was worn and shredded in spots, overall the interior was kind of dirty like it needed a good house cleaning. The fill whip was so badly rusted and pitted it looked scary. It looked like it was ready to grenade at any moment and somebody could get hurt. Other than that the service and the ride was great.