Diving near Anaheim?

[Backwoodsdiver]

Hi,
I will be in Anaheim for a few days and would like to do some diving. The only day I will have available to dive is March 25, which is a Thursday. Are there any dive boats that operate during the week or should I just plan on shore diving? Any recommendations for a good dive site? What are the water conditions like this time of year? All of my previous diving experience has been in Georgia and Florida so this should be a nice change. I will need to rent some gear since I won't be able to bring my own. Are there any good dive shops you could recommend?

Thanks,

Randy Black

 

[xSandman3]

Check out www.pacificwilderness.com
They are in the city of Orange, about 5 miles from Anaheim. Great shop, and they will have all the current info, rentals, whatever you need.

 

[gj62]

The submarine ride in Disneyland is closed, but I don't think it is drained yet, maybe you could sneak in there?

 

[pasley]

Dive site informaiton:
http://www.sandeaters.org/ and go to the dive sites page for descriptions of diving within 1.5 hours of Anaheim depending on traffic, it could be 3 hours who knows. Laguna Beach and Palos Verde/Redondo are closest but Mailbu is within easy driving range of about 1.5-2 hours and offers some good diving too.

http://southcoastdivers.com/SOCDC/dcdsites.shtml anothger good site but it only covers Laguna Beach.

http://www.lagunaseasports.com/conditions/conditions.asp Laguna Dive store with good information on local diving and daily dive conditions based on a diver actually going in the water.

http://www.ladiver.com/

Dive boats: http://californiadiveboats.com/

Most area dive boats do not operate during the week that I know of but you can always take the shuttle over to Catalina to dive the underwater park there. http://www.catalinaexpress.com/

Water temp should be 55-57F or so and visibility like most places varies. Shore diving in SoCal 10-15 ?Vis is common but then we do get many days of 20-30 VIS too and the islands are usally better with 30 being fairly common. Winter swell is out of the north and summer is out of the south. Late March and April is about where it starts to shift so who knows.

Local conditions:
http://cdip.ucsd.edu/models/socal_now.shtml
http://www.nwsla.noaa.gov/marine.html
https://www.navo.navy.mil/cgi-bin/graphic.pl/metoc/81/21/0-0-1/2
http://meteora.ucsd.edu/climate/calif_disc.los_angeles
Winds blowing offshore (from shore to ocean) and paticularly Santa Ana winds (strong hot winds from the desert) tend to make for a flat ocean near the coast and after a few days great visibility and diving.

I have to be in uniform and at Los Alamitos at 5:00 p.m. so I could dive between 07:00 and 1:00 p.m on Thursdays but a moringing dive could work. A post to sandeaters.org using their mailing list will most likely get you a dive partner.

 

[Backwoodsdiver]

Thanks for all the good information. Catalina Island sounds interesting. What can you tell me about the dive park there? What sort of stuff is there to see?

 

[Arnaud]

Actually, the Peace has a trip on 3/25. It's a bit of a drive from Anaheim but you can sleep on board the night before departure.

The dive park fill station is closed during the week. You'll have to bring several tanks or arrange for any of the two LDS to help you. And your chance of finding a buddy will be close to none...

 

[pasley]

Thanks for all the good information. Catalina Island sounds interesting. What can you tell me about the dive park there? What sort of stuff is there to see?

http://www.ladiver.com/
This site has all the information you could want about Casino Point (dive park) including a map of the park. The park has kelp (lots of it), rocks, wrecks (real ones), what do you want to see. Depths from 10 feet to 135 feet. During the week you may have to schlep tanks from the pier over to the park which will take time away from the diving.

The Peace boat is in Ventura and as been pointed out has a dive on Thursday (and Wednesday) as one of the only places around that operates during the week. http://www.peaceboat.com/peace.htm

Good luck and good diving.

 

[Diver_Jan]

Hi Randy,

I LIVE in Anaheim and I DIVE in Laguna Beach. Forget Malibu or Redondo, for the LA Traffic will kill you!!! Not only that, I think there is better diving to be had in Laguna.

If I were you, subscribe to the OCDiveBums email list, you most likely will be able to find buddies to dive with through that group. I know a couple that dive during the day, during the week. Here is the link: http://divebums.com/mailman/listinfo/orange_divebums.com

I could possibly dive with you in the afternoon, and for sure Thursday night. There are several great spots in Laguna. I dove Deadmans Reef last night and got up to 60' in depth and saw all kinds of marine life including a Horn Shark and a couple of morey eels.

If you are able to dive Wednesday night, there is a Squid Dive planned in Redondo Beach that I plan on attending as well.

There are three dive shops close to Anaheim. Sea Ventures in Fullerton, Scuba World in Orange, and up the street from Scuba World, Pacific Wilderness. All three shops are great with super service. I use them ALL!

Feel free to email me privately if you need more info.

Cajan_2002@yahoo.com

PS. The marine park at Casino Point is awesome....but since you are restricted, I would just plan a day of diving in Laguna. You could also rent your equipment from Laguna Sea Sports which is just up a short hill from one of the more popular spots in Laguna called 'Shaw's Cove.' You will want to have a 7mm full wetsuit or drysuit to keep you warm.

Regards,

Jan

 

[Diver_Jan]

Oh.........one more thing, depending on where you are staying...I presume Disneyland Resort area? Laguna is only 30-40 minutes away!!!

Cheers,

Jan

 

[Backwoodsdiver]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I made reservations on the Peace boat yesterday. Shore diving at Laguna was my second choice, but I prefer diving from a boat.

Thanks again,
Randy