Cave diving in Southern California?

[TSandM]

The long, complex cave systems that people love to dive form in limestone karst, and I don't believe there is any of that in Southern California. There is a huge formation of it that begins in south Florida and extends across the Caribbean to the Yucatan; most of the cave diving in the Western Hemisphere is done in that structure.

 

[limeyx]

Blue Cavern at Catalina Island is as close to a submerged cave I think you will find around So. Cal.

There are a LOT more caves and cave-like things here than that if one is willing to go to the effort to find them...

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

... or pretty much anywhere else.

I think there are submerged cave, cave-like things in all but a small handfull of states(like two of them).

 

[LiteHedded]

which two? i'll check those off my list of places I would move to

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I think Louisiana was one of them? maybe not though...

I can't remember off the top of my head.

 

[MarineResearch]

There are two long caves offshore San Onofre, CA. One is a warm spring while the other is a cold siphon. The siphon cave leads to a fairly large cavern with an exit point in the ceiling and another one back to the ocean. People rarely dive these caves, and typically wait for periods with no flow, which occurs about once every 18 months.

 

[textilet]

@MR: have you been there? that sounds interesting...

 

[MarineResearch]

@MR: have you been there? that sounds interesting...

I have not been in the caves, but did work on a project to replace the steam generators at the end of the cave system. C&W Diving Services has explored the caves:

As the contract diving company for SONGS for the past 15 years, C&W has carried out numerous penetration dives requiring as much as 1500 ft.of penetration. C&W's dive crew, aboard C&W diving support vessels, has conducted underwater video inspections,cleaning operations and repair activities of the plant's reactor cooling intake pipe.

Then there is John Vincent, cave diver extraordinaire:

Scuba diver John Vincent sensed something was wrong when, fishing for lobster one night off Playa del Rey, he felt a strange current. It grew stronger. Seconds later, Vincent, 49, was swept into the mouth of a huge intake pipe for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Scattergood power plant. He tried to kick against the flow, but it was no use: Down the pipe he went, clutching his flashlight and his limit of lobsters, a long, fast journey through the dark. "I was flipping out," he said. "My air supply was running out."

Personally, I find these siphon caves to be creepy...

 

[textilet]

heh. whoa. did he pop out of a faucet in Santa Ana or what?

 

[Grover48]

He was saved after he was able to climb to a ledge just above the water line in a catch basin at
the end of the pipe. He saw a grate 30 feet above him and banged his diving weights against the wall to signal a passerby. Pulled out by firefighters, he got a free tour of the plant. The experience left him with a fear of narrow places under water.