Diving the Channel Islands

[slackercruster]

Hope this is the right spot for this. I may be going to Ca is a couple weeks. How does one go about diving the Channel Islands? And is it a rough trip for those that get seasick?

Thanks

 

[JMdiver]

Hi Allen,

Here is a link to the So Cal dive boats:California Dive Boats : The Official Page
As for the crossing it all depends on the weather & the waves. The Spectre is an excellent boat you might want to try them you get 4 dives & a great BBQ lunch.

John

 

[Clammy]

It CAN be a rough trip, but the last few months have been great. It's not lake flat the last few weeks like it had been in May but conditions are still pretty good. I personally recommend the Peace boat. It's a bit pricier than the spectre but the crew is top notch and everything, including air and food, is included. They also fill nitrox for an additional fee. The spectre may have an all inclusive price as well depending on who's chartering the boat but they may also have non all inclusive prices. They DO have a short order cook type galley and bbq though! That's out of Ventura, along with the spectre, raptor, explorer and a few others.

What part of SoCal will you be? Long beach and San Pedro has several boats (Great Escape, bottom scratcher, sun diver boats, sea bass, Magician (my favorite of those), etc.), many going out more towards the southern Channel islands such as Catalina and Santa Barbara Island. Ventura boats tend to head out more in the middle such as santa cruz and ana capa. On occasion they go for San Miguel/Santa Rosa but these trips leave at midnight. Santa Barbara also has the Truth Fleet.

If you are further south such as Laguna or San Diego, then you have a plethora of boats down there in SD that dive the wrecks and kelp forests. They only need like a 20 minute ride out for most things. You can also go down to the Coronado islands down in Mexico on a 1/2 to 3/4 day trip on the same boats. They have the Marissa (highly recommended), Louis Ann (also a great boat AND fills nitrox), Humbolt (fun but no compressor), DnDII, and a few others.

Hope this helps! If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

 

[liuk3]

I personally recommend the Peach boat.

Peach boat?

 

[Clammy]

Peach boat?

Yeah, The "Princess Peach" with Captain Mario and the DM Toad!

 

[JMdiver]

Louis Ann (also a great boat AND fills nitrox), Humbolt (fun but no compressor), DnDII, and a few others.

Hope this helps! If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Is that a new boat the Louis Ann.

John

 

[liuk3]

 

[diverrex]

I think Erika must be helping Brian with his typing.

I also really like the Peace boat.

 

[fnfalman]

First of all, which part of SoCal is the OP going to be in? The Channel Islands run all the way from San Diego (San Clemente) to Los Angeles area (Catalina) to Ventura/Oxnard (Northern Channel Islands). We are not even talking about Santa Barbara Island or San Nicholas Island.

But a quickie brief on the Channel Islands:

San Clemente, San Nicholas and Santa Barbara are way the heck out in the blue water so crossing could be rough or even uncrossable by a typical dive boat. Not to mention that San Clemente sometimes get closed off because of US Navy exercises.

Catalina is accessible most of the time. Sometimes the trip could be rough but most of the time it's easy and once you get to the island, a dive boat can usually find a nice cove to duck in even though weather may be crap. Alas the sweet dive spots around Catalina are out in blue water and getting there/diving there is highly dependent on the weather. These major sweet spots are Farnsworth Banks, Little Farnsworth and Ship Rock.

The Northern Channel Islands are also dependent on weather as well:

1. Anacapa is more of a series of isles than an actual island. It's the closest to mainland and a very popular spot to go to. A lot of the areas are marine preserves so you get to see a lot of big fishies and monster lobsters plus kelp forests that are thick enough to play in but not too crazy thick.

2. Santa Cruz is arguably the biggest and there is an outfit called Island Packers that schedule backpacking/camping trips to this island. It's also easy to get to.

3. Santa Rosa is further out and it's starting to get rougher with the crossing. Colder water here too, but has some sweet dive spots just because most boats don't quite make it out there for a single-day trip.

4. San Miguel is the furthest out and getting there is entirely weather dependent. Water is also the coldest, but sweet mama, some really beautiful dive spots out there. And you also run a better chance of seeing bigger pelagics out there too.

But don't forget to check around with all of the dive boats. The Sun Diver, the Sea Bass and the Great Escape are well known for making runs to the Palos Verdes peninsula for some diving. Since that there are no islands to break the wind or the wave, Palos Verdes diving could be rough but if do-able, it's easily the best diving in California outside of Farnsworth Banks.

Also don't forget that we have oil rig diving out here too. If the sea is amenable, oil rig diving is hard to beat.

It's pretty tough to do crappy diving in SoCal. We may not have the viz and the warm water of the tropics but scenery exoticism doesn't take second to any place on earth with maybe the exception of the arctic and anarctic oceans.

Whatever you do, gotta make sure you dive in the kelp forest. That's something you won't experience but at a handful of places in the world other than California.

 

[slackercruster]

I am going to be in central L.A. Was thinking about Anacapa Island.

How long a boat trip is it?