Diving Monterey questions

[the nerve]

The breakwater is right on Cannery Row. You can do a dive there and also visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the same day. Lovers cove is pretty good too, although a little more surgy. Vis has been crap every time I went to breakwater, but there is still cool stuff to see.

I also love Monestery beach but it's not really suitable for beginners unless you are comfortable in surf and cold water, or you have someone experienced showing you around.

This is a good time of year to dive Monterey. The water is warm (high 50's), the vis is decent, and it's usually not too rough.

 

[raposarose]

I just realized that I had accidently posted my trip report as its own thread instead of in this one! No wonder there were no replies...

Thanks again for the advice!

We had a great trip to Monterey. It is really beautiful up there. Quite a different feel than the San Diego beaches. We loved the Monterey Cypress and Pine trees.

We visited some of the beaches you mentioned like Mcabee and Lover's Cove. Lover's seemed really inviting because it was so incredibly calm there. At Lover's Cove we walked around the tide pools and enjoyed the sea life there. We thought we would dive once there and once at Breakwater, but we ended up diving twice at Breakwater. We did one day dive and one night dive (our first).

Compared to our few local dives in San Diego at La Jolla Shores and Cove there was quite a lot to see. We especially liked the huge lingcod and sea cucumbers way bigger than any I have seen in San Diego. We also had one of the resident sea lions decide to play chicken with us, which was kind of fun. The wall was a nice point of reference for the night dive and we were able to see a nice different set of animals then.

Also, I was able to try out a backplate/wings set-up as my rental BC, just out of curiosity. It felt pretty good. The Monterey Bay Dive Shop was good, a bit on the expensive side, but quite conveniently located.

As a side note, we greatly enjoyed the Pumpkin Pancakes at a breakfast spot called "Rosine's."

Finally, it was a great trip because I got engaged while up there!

All in all a wonderful trip and two fun and successful dives.

Thanks!
Raposa