Question Dive sites between Pismo Beach and Vandenberg AFB?

[eightytwenty]

Hey all, doing some work with the Chumash heritage National Marine Sanctuary where they want our team to collect footage from the South of Diablo Canyon down to Vandenberg AFB. Ideally looking for depths of less than 100fsw, rocky reef, kelp, really anything to show off the natural beauty of the area. Any local divers know of any sites accessible by shore or boat between Pismo Beach and Vandenberg that are worthwhile?

 

[Still Kicking]

I dove Jalama Beach once (great campground). There are extensive kelp beds but very little fish life. Strange because it's a long way from any fishing ports (Santa Barbara or Morro Bay). Hope you find more life there.

 

[Still Kicking]

I dove Jalama Beach once (great campground). There are extensive kelp beds but very little fish life. Strange because it's a long way from any fishing ports (Santa Barbara or Morro Bay). Hope you find more life there.

Looking at the bathymetry, there are two areas of extensive reef between Pismo and the AFB:

Point Sal and Purisima Point

I would invest in a Navionics Boating subscription so you can see your boat's real-time position on the reef.

I would love to hear what you find. Please report back! Btw do they need volunteers? I would love to help out.

 

[eightytwenty]

Looking at the bathymetry, there are two areas of extensive reef between Pismo and the AFB:

Point Sal and Purisima Point

I would invest in a Navionics Boating subscription so you can see your boat's real-time position on the reef.

I would love to hear what you find. Please report back! Btw do they need volunteers? I would love to help out.

I was seeing this on my bathymetry grids as well. I know plenty of others who have cited that reef between Purisima and Mussel point as being pretty amazing. The issue there is Vandenberg clearance. I know of scientific teams who have sneak dove there, but the military doesn't like it when boats swing by inshore and drop divers in the water (wonder why lol). I've been on the horn with the folks at Vandenberg the past few days and gaining clearance seems like slow but possible work.

Pt. Sal has been mentioned to me by a few spearos from the area. Apparently when it's good it's great, and when it's bad it's terrible. The reef there is supposedly mindblowing there, but I've also heard that said about Jalama, which you've been to. Was it mindblowing? Either way, myself and a few others will be scouting a handful of these spots before we charter boats and send dive teams with expensive cameras in.

Regardless, I'll post what I find. This part of the state is a deadzone as far as diving goes, and that seems unfortunate to me. There's more to CA than the North Coast, Monterey, Laguna, PV, and the Channel Islands.

 

[leavenotrace]

I dove Jalama Beach once (great campground)

And better burgers.

I've always wanted to dive the area but nobody has wanted to explore, as most of the coasters either accessible via a good swim and boat or a decent hike.

If you're looking for more divers I'd be interested to join.

 

[leavenotrace]

Hey all, doing some work with the Chumash heritage National Marine Sanctuary where they want our team to collect footage from the South of Diablo Canyon down to Vandenberg AFB. Ideally looking for depths of less than 100fsw, rocky reef, kelp, really anything to show off the natural beauty of the area. Any local divers know of any sites accessible by shore or boat between Pismo Beach and Vandenberg that are worthwhile?

Shell Beach and Pirates Cove have a ton of kelp forests, I've only explored them once, but the kelp is within 10 m of shore.

Port San Luis has been murky in my experience but I've not frequented the area in more than a decade.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Shell Beach and Pirates Cove have a ton of kelp forests, I've only explored them once, but the kelp is within 10 m of shore.

Port San Luis has been murky in my experience but I've not frequented the area in more than a decade.

I used to live in Shell beach when I was a kid, two house up from the beach on Cuyama Street. I was not a diver then in the mid 70's, I was into skateboarding and chasing girls.
Now in my later years I've had thoughts of jumping in there to take a look to see what's down there after all these years. I remember fishing off my rubber raft out from Cuyama Street beach as a kid, there is a wash rock way out there that I rowed out to a few times. I remember extensive kelp beds along that whole stretch of coastline.
Another place to dive would be Montana De Oro state park. I've also seen rocks and kelp beds heading north from Cuyucos up towards Cambria.

The whole central section of California is kind of featureless and nondescript as far as divable territory. Seems like a lot of sand and shallow way out.

If you want rocky structure, Norcal is where it's at.
North of San Francisco is Monterey on steroids.

 

[eightytwenty]

I used to live in Shell beach when I was a kid, two house up from the beach on Cuyama Street. I was not a diver then in the mid 70's, I was into skateboarding and chasing girls.
Now in my later years I've had thoughts of jumping in there to take a look to see what's down there after all these years. I remember fishing off my rubber raft out from Cuyama Street beach as a kid, there is a wash rock way out there that I rowed out to a few times. I remember extensive kelp beds along that whole stretch of coastline.
Another place to dive would be Montana De Oro state park. I've also seen rocks and kelp beds heading north from Cuyucos up towards Cambria.

The whole central section of California is kind of featureless and nondescript as far as divable territory. Seems like a lot of sand and shallow way out.

If you want rocky structure, Norcal is where it's at.
North of San Francisco is Monterey on steroids.

Well familiar with Monterey and North Coast diving. Unfortunately, that's not where the National Marine Sanctuary is located.

The same goes for Montana de Oro, which is just a little too far North to be included. It's a real shame because I've done extensive fieldwork with camera sleds in the mid-depth rocky reef offshore of Montana de Oro and Diablo Canyon, and the relief and kelp cover there is beautiful. Taller walls and pinnacles than I've seen anywhere else in the state, and dense beds of hydrocorals and gorgonians reachable in recreational (<100fsw) depths. I've truly never seen anything else quite like it.

From what I've seen of Southern Central California, viz is poor more often than it is good, and it's not exactly bouldery or pinnacle-y like we see further North, but the rocky reef is low slung and incredibly rugose, allowing for species to take full advantage of all the surface area there is. Not any better or worse than the rest of the state, just different.

 

[Still Kicking]

Very cool terrain from Pismo north. One of these days....

I was lucky enough to dive Big Sur a few times when Truth Aquatics ran special trips out of Morro Bay. Mindblowing pinnacles with insane amounts of life. Good times.