First time Monterey area dive, any suggestions

[stlider]

Hey, me and my buddy are fairly new to diving. I am an AOW with ~40 dives, he is newly certified with only a handful dives. I am thinking of a dive in Monterey together since we live in the Bay Area.

1. Based on my research it looks everyone recommends pt Lobos. Would it be prudent to do it on our own or we should get a guide? With a guide it is also a bit complicated as we need two permits etc. Or anyone goes there on weekends and happy to take us?
The alternative is we dive breakwater first and do other sites later this year. But after reading about it, I kinda want to do Lobos...
2. We will be renting gears. My plan is dive shop first, everything (including 4 tanks) goes into the car, then we drive down to pt. Lobos. Is this how people normally do it?
3. It's been pretty windy this week in the Bay. Should I be worrying about the weather patterns? Are there good forecasts? I read some people do not recommend dive in the mid of summer as the viz can be bad. So we should try to dive before May/June?
4. My only experience diving in CA was in Channel Islands during spring time. It was really beautiful. How does Monterey/Lobos compare to that?

Thanks in advance!

 

[MichaelMc]

1) I would think the inner area of Lobos would be fine. Just plan on exploring around the inner reef fairly shallow < 50', and make a slow ascent safety stop and bearing check before your return to the ramp.
2 Yes, load up at dive shop, then drive to Lobos. Parking at lobos can get tight, so I'd work hard at getting to the dive shop early.
3. Vis varies, fall is often best. But its always 0' on land.
4. Big picture it is similar to catalina, in that they are dense kelp forest. Vis might be better off Channel Islands.

ETA: Viz at Lobos is generally better further out, so surface swim up the channel a bit before dropping down toward middle reef. And yes, vis has significant week to week (day to day) variation.

 

[Chavodel8en]

3. I like this wave model the best. 3 day wave model For me blue is great, green is iffy,

Re viz, even though some seasonal differences, there's so much variance day to day, that it wouldnt be determining for me. Maybe one thing you can do is look to the facebook local dive reports, to see if folks are reporting good/bad viz. You need immediate information to determine viz.

1. Breakwater is a great site, esp if the sea lions are frisky, but it can have bad viz - Lobos will generally have better viz. I agree that you can dive it w/out guides. Note that Hole in the Wall area, the left side of the cove, was an urchin barren last year. So maybe stick to Middle Reef. Make sure you wont need to surface swim through kelp (probably wont be a problem)

 

[stlider]

Thanks Michael, this is very helpful. We will give pt Lobos a try this weekend if the condition looks good. Apparently we grabbed the last permit

Btw, what do you mean by "bearing check"?

 

[stlider]

3. I like this wave model the best. 3 day wave model For me blue is great, green is iffy,

Re viz, even though some seasonal differences, there's so much variance day to day, that it wouldnt be determining for me. Maybe one thing you can do is look to the facebook local dive reports, to see if folks are reporting good/bad viz. You need immediate information to determine viz.

1. Breakwater is a great site, esp if the sea lions are frisky, but it can have bad viz - Lobos will generally have better viz. I agree that you can dive it w/out guides. Note that Hole in the Wall area, the left side of the cove, was an urchin barren last year. So maybe stick to Middle Reef. Make sure you wont need to surface swim through kelp (probably wont be a problem)

Thanks for the model! Looks like this weekend should be okay. Just someone reported temp of 49F last weekend on fb, which makes me a bit worried.

For Lobos, so we plan to swim out to the south end of the middle reef before descend. Then we will stay on the right side and do a circle between the middle reef and the "granite point wall". Does this sound okay? Any suggestions for variations for the second dive?

 

[Chavodel8en]

Thanks for the model! Looks like this weekend should be okay. Just someone reported temp of 49F last weekend on fb, which makes me a bit worried.

For Lobos, so we plan to swim out to the south end of the middle reef before descend. Then we will stay on the right side and do a circle between the middle reef and the "granite point wall". Does this sound okay? Any suggestions for variations for the second dive?

Sorry I didnt get to this. Hope you had good dives. I often used to do one dive HITW/Lone Metridium area (left side of cove) and 2nd dive at Middle Reef, but now I dont know that Id bother with the left side of the cove.

Does anyone know if Rock Garden is an urchin barren now?

Middle Reed & Granite Point Wall could probably support 2 dives.