Dive sites closer to San Francisco than Monterey/Mendocino (don't care about sightseeing)

[BeeBrown]

Wow - thank you all so much for chiming in!

I'd totally be down. Assuming that it isn't dangerous. I have often thought about taking a tank down to the Marina where people swim and try to just explore the area.

Awesome! I'll send you a direct message.

Tomales State Park mentions scuba I thought.

Will take a look to see what's available there!

I've heard about hunters diving in Pacifica. Not sure what they're hunting. You could call Anderson's scuba shop in Pacifica.

That's a good idea - will check into it!

Some loose knit groups of boaters (like the Facebook group "Washed Up Yacht club") in the bay area would be a good place to start, although a 12' Achilles air-floor inflatable with a 9.9 hp Yamaha motor would be something you could store in a closet and take out

I dunno why boat diving didn't occur to me as an option but I'm glad you mentioned it to remind me! Thanks for the tip on the group to check out!

Farallon Islands. Just wade out into the water and swim west. It is a long surface swim. Good luck.

Like most folks, the first thing I think of when I hear "Farallon Islands" is sharks (and I'm assuming that, also like most folks, any fear I might have about sharks is blown waaaay out of proportion). But I can't help myself - is it safe to dive around there?

Thanks again everyone!

 

[BeeBrown]

I'd totally be down. Assuming that it isn't dangerous. I have often thought about taking a tank down to the Marina where people swim and try to just explore the area.

Whoops - looks like I need 5 posts before I can send direct messages. So I'll just post it here instead.

Regarding safety: given my inexperience, I'm definitely not the best person to assess safety, but if we're able to get that question answered adequately then I'd love to do some local/exploratory dives with you! And, given that I don't really care all that much about sight-seeing, I'm more than happy just to follow along while you explore wherever you're wanting to explore!

 

[Scubagolf]

Farallon Islands. Just wade out into the water and swim west. It is a long surface swim. Good luck.

He’s joking. Cage diving for White Sharks in the Farralons. 12 hour round trip. Farallon Islands, California - Shark Dive Adventures
Monterey is your best bet, but buy a good dry suit, as water temps are +- 56 def F.

 

[MichaelMc]

Small sharks are fine and nice to see, but do not pester them, as any animal.

We try to stay out of the big ones waters, and try to ignore the fact that they roam widely along the whole coast. But we are generally noisy clunky creatures underwater that do not look or sound like their normal prey underwater, so not really on their intended diet.

 

[suricatasuricata]

Wow - thank you all so much for chiming in!


Awesome! I'll send you a direct message.

Will try to send you a DM as a placeholder.

So regarding Pacifica, I just talked to someone who dives in Pacifica. It is going to be more often than not 2 feet of viz. So that is there. Just sketches me out to be around someone hunting in that viz. Although I might do Pacifica just to try it out.


Farallon islands is basically private boat diving unless you wanna pony up for the shark cage diving, which seems kinda lame.


One option that might work for you is Stillwater Cove. Seals Watersports does fun dives there where they do urchin cullling, I've not been there yet because I haven't got urchin culling gear yet, but apparently you can just do fun dives with them.

 

[nauijim]

Heya folks - I'm a beginning diver in the San Francisco area. I'd like to do more dives, but I hate driving the 2+ hours I need to drive to get to a dive site.

A lot of what I've read about diving in/around SF is that visibility is awful and diving depths require long swims. The long swims are certainly tough, and something I'd want to minimize. However I get the impression that the low visibility what most folks consider to be the main problem. But I don't care about sightseeing - I just really enjoy being deep underwater (edit: my definition of "deep" is probably a lot shallower than y'all's -- for me it's just <= 20m) for extended periods of time. So I only consider low visibility as a problem when it compromises safety.

With that in mind, are there any dive sites closer to SF than Monterey/Mendocino that aren't prohibitively difficult to access for folks who don't care about sightseeing? Also, are there any folks who are like me and would be interested in buddying-up to do the kind of diving I'm talking about?

Bee- I posted for months seeking buddy to dive around HMB to Pescadero. beach entry dives. easy & fun & cheap. Prefer to dive on Sat 1 or 2 tank dives from beach we can go about 60-80 ft deep to see lots of sealife.
Call me if interested 415 775 6132- Jim

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

SF bay is not considered to be divable by any means. It’s mucky, contaminated, zero vis, mud bottom, really nothing. The only diving that happens in the bay is the Sheriff’s Dept. looking for dead bodies.

Monterey or North Coast are your options.
You probably already know everything about Monterey.
The North Coast has a lot more than just Stillwater in Sonoma County and Russian Gulch in Mendocino County.
The diving really starts at Fort Ross. There are a few access points between Ft Ross and Stillwater Cove like Timber Cove. Stillwater is where we are doing all of our urchin removal operations. You are welcome to PM me about that if you are interested and I can fill you in.
Beyond that, heading north there is Ocean Cove. Ocean Cove heading north out of the cove along the shoreline can get really deep close to shore like 70’ - 100’ deep close to the cliff, you need a kayak or a boat to get to that area. Then comes Stump Beach - sandy and probably not a lot, Gerstle Cove State Reserve, Fisk Mill Cove - great terrain and fishy. Then north it becomes an MPA. Going north further there are sites in Sea Ranch and parking for the public in lots off the highway but long trail hikes to get to the water. Then you come to Gualala. Nothing really in Gualala but just north is Anchor Bay and if you have a kayak you can paddle to fish rocks and that is good diving and great big lingcod.
North from there is a lot of private property but there are a few access points. Pt Arena is next and I’ve dived in the cove by the pier. We used to take my boat out from Pt. Arena using the pier launch and go to Arena Rock which on a nice day is a world class offshore pinnacle with amazing structure. I saw the biggest wolf eel there and also the biggest giant pacific octopus both at the same time and almost sh!t my wetsuit when the eel bolted out of the crack straight for me then took a hard left at the last second right in front of my face. The Octo was still in the same crack and the body was the size of a 5 gallon bucket with 4” diameter arms and probably 6’ - 8’ long ea. One big enough to molest you.
There is also Elk which used to be a prime abalone spot but no abs now. It would be a brutal hike with a tank.
Then north you have all the glory of Mendocino County which puts Monterey to shame with it’s sheer size and scope. Some if the best and most dramatic diving in the state.
Albion is great, Russian Gulch, Vandamme, Little River, Mendocino bay below the town which I’ve seen a lot of Humboldt State kids in the NAUI program go there to dive, so a lot of young energy which is always fun. There’s Land Bridge on Mendocino Headlands (super fun dive with big 25 lb. cabezon to look at).

You might have to make a weekend out of it but there are so many nice places to stay up there.
Mendocino is very artsy and a really cool fun town to walk around in.
Bring all your own tanks though because there is nothing up there for dive shops right now. The abalone closure put an end to the only shop we had in Fort Bragg.

I’m only here to help…
Cheers!