Becky (OrlandoRogue) is going to be in Sacramento at the end of november training some people in her company's product and as such is thinking of making a long weekend out of it. Being her main buddy and an inquizitive friend i am taking the liberty of asking about the diving possibilities out there and of course hope to also be able to make the trip too!! 
This is another in a long string of trips around the country, just a week before this should be in Gilboa quarry up in OH, but our plans for diving in SC fell through and i cant make the Mass dives over the halloween weekend - we will cover all the states/regions in our time!
It looks like the long weekend would be the weekend of 11/27-29 (maybe flying in on 26th and me probably leaving on 29th redeye back again like i did when i visited SoCal a few months back. So from flying into Sacramento, or possibly flying into SF if prices are better, what options do we have? It looks about 1.5 hours down the coast from SF to Monterey and about 1.5 inland of SF is Sacramento (obviously not as much diving there compared to the coast). I understand there is a very tough dive at Monestary, but i was wondering what the other shore dives were like around that same peninsular (all mentioned in this month's Rodales i believe - but i would prefer a local's thoughts over a magazine review) - i cant recall the names of the coves precisely, but can check tonight when i get home. What opportunities are there out of SF or north of there? What kind of temps might we expect at any of these locales? We are only equipped with 5mm's and hoods for our typical cavern diving and recall getting slightly chilly when the water got down to 55F @100ft out on the Channel Islands, but ok in the low 60's when i was higher up the water column.
Our other options are of course to skip the diving until summer time and do other things around that area or rent 7mm's from somewhere along with tanks and weights and brave the slightly cooler water on that coast. Our other activities might include mtn biking and kayaking or any other outdoorsy things. I see Big Sur is in that area as well a Tahoe, i hear they are both good for biking. What are the bays like for kayaking? We do need something to do on my no-fly day on monday, so could still do that, although the mountains inland might be slightly out of the question due to altitude.
So what say you locals, any options, recommendations, thoughts?
This is another in a long string of trips around the country, just a week before this should be in Gilboa quarry up in OH, but our plans for diving in SC fell through and i cant make the Mass dives over the halloween weekend - we will cover all the states/regions in our time!It looks like the long weekend would be the weekend of 11/27-29 (maybe flying in on 26th and me probably leaving on 29th redeye back again like i did when i visited SoCal a few months back. So from flying into Sacramento, or possibly flying into SF if prices are better, what options do we have? It looks about 1.5 hours down the coast from SF to Monterey and about 1.5 inland of SF is Sacramento (obviously not as much diving there compared to the coast). I understand there is a very tough dive at Monestary, but i was wondering what the other shore dives were like around that same peninsular (all mentioned in this month's Rodales i believe - but i would prefer a local's thoughts over a magazine review) - i cant recall the names of the coves precisely, but can check tonight when i get home. What opportunities are there out of SF or north of there? What kind of temps might we expect at any of these locales? We are only equipped with 5mm's and hoods for our typical cavern diving and recall getting slightly chilly when the water got down to 55F @100ft out on the Channel Islands, but ok in the low 60's when i was higher up the water column.
Our other options are of course to skip the diving until summer time and do other things around that area or rent 7mm's from somewhere along with tanks and weights and brave the slightly cooler water on that coast. Our other activities might include mtn biking and kayaking or any other outdoorsy things. I see Big Sur is in that area as well a Tahoe, i hear they are both good for biking. What are the bays like for kayaking? We do need something to do on my no-fly day on monday, so could still do that, although the mountains inland might be slightly out of the question due to altitude.
So what say you locals, any options, recommendations, thoughts?
