Diving Point Lobos for the First Time

[ProfF]

Hi All,

I am visiting CA this week and plan to go diving with a friend in Point Lobos. We both have dive experience in warmer waters. Our CA experience was a couple of guided dives in Montery (Canery Row) two years ago.

Will appreciate pointers for sites that are easy to get to (and worth seeing ) in Point Lobos.

Thanks!

PS. Should we worry about the report of a shark attack in the area from few weeks ago?

 

[dannobee]

If you're shore diving, you must enter and exit from the boat ramp. Unless you have scooters, that'll limit your diving to spots near there, like Cannery Point wall, Middle Reef, and possibly the Coal Chute Point Cove on the other side.


http://pt-lobos.parks.state.ca.us/DiveSpots.htm


If you don't mind a Looonnngg surface swim, you can try going around the corner to the Cannery Point Pinnacles/End of Cannery Point in Bluefish Cove, but only if the seas are fairly calm. That is a very nice dive (except for the surface swim).

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

The shark attack was up in Monterey Bay. I dove today about a mile from the attack.

Take special note of the discussion of the sand channel. It is your friend. Be sure you
have enough air to get back to it UW at the end of your dive.

The beauty of Pt. Lobos is proportional to the distance from the ramp, at least until
the kelp ends (though the area past the kelp is great muck dive).

Read the "Information for the certified diver who is new to Monterey" on
http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/ba_diving/

 

[Ben_ca]

The last "Attack" in Lobos was the Marco Flagg Incident.... Good reading...

Also do not miss the rebuttal at the end...

 

[ProfF]

Thanks for the replies and the very useful pointers. We will be there tomorrow and hopefully have fun...

 

[jon m]

WELL? did you make it?

 

[ProfF]

Yes! (been offline today ...)

Thanks for comments and pointers. We got tanks and equipment from Aquarious (complete set for my buddy and wetsuite+weights for me), and headed to whaler's cove on a beautiful day with sun and almost no waves. It was weird to dive with these really thick suites and tons of weights :-( (I am used to diving with 4lb of weights in addition to my backplate, not 20+lb)


Took us a while to get rolling and felt very constrained. We swam out the sand channel and went in across from Canery Point heading west toward the wall. The visibility wasn't great and I was impressed by the huge amount of small bugs in the water (Krill?). Saw many star fish, sea animes, many fishes and of course kelp.

The sad news is that my camera flooded (noticed the housing was full of water when I decided to take a pic before our descent). It was clear that this camera would end its life this way, but not so soon....

We were a bit short of time on the second dive (my buddy had kids to pickup from daycare in the Bay Area), so we went for the middle reef. The visibility inside the cove was much worse and there was very noticble swell. It was a weird feeling to sway back and forth with all the kelps, especially in areas where the sand was covered with leaves and so we it seemed that the ground was moving with us...

Overall two nice dives. It was fun to dive again after two+ months of nitrogen deprevation. The dives were a bit short (my buddy is a large guy who gulps a lot of air). The think suites left me feeling a bit strangeled (on the otherhand I didn't freeze, so I can't complain too much). I also expected to see a bit more life (didn't see crabs or eels, or sea mammels). It definitely left me with the feeling that I would be happy to try it more.

Thanks again for the answers above, the guide to new divers in CA was very useful.