Freshwater Dive Sites in CA???

[SwimsWithSharks]

http://www.hammerheadcove.com/ is supposed to be in Shasta Lake City .

I suppose if I was a bit more on the ball, I'd reach out to the ski club that mentioned them as the shop they use when they dive (in the off season) http://www.weski2.org/

Hammerhead Cove is a new shop in the area. I wasn't familiar with them. A benefit that they are filling nitrox. As Peter C. mentioned, Whiskeytown is the lake that is more often used for diving in the area. I have done quite a few Whiskeytown dives and it is a nice place to dive.

You will probably want to stake out a good place on Lake Shasta to park the houseboat. Cruising around too much will eat you alive in gas $$ and you risk losing your nice beaching spot. Hopefully, you will have a runabout of some sort to get you about the lake and to go pick up supplies if you need them. Have fun!

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

What shop did you find in Shasta Lake City? The only one I am familiar with in the area is in Redding.

Have you got a URL for the shop in Redding so I can add it to my database of
NorCal dive shops?

 

[Peter_C]

Google is your friend http://www.hammerheadcove.com/

 

[LakeScubaDiver]

If you are going to Shasta Lake, be ready to meet GIANT cat fish. You will also need to dive really early in the am, at like sun up. Remember the canyons are deep too. This time of year there is still probably bad visability as the run off from snow melt is going strong.

Whiskey Town on the other side of Redding towards Trinity Lake on 299 West is known as the mini Lake Tahoe, is very clear water with large boulders.

There are tons of lakes in CA, but if you want treasures find out where the parties happen, and dive the sights for sun glasses, beer cans, beer bottles, and anything else people drop or throw overboard.

Good tips, thanks!

 

[BOBBYR]

Maybe the group in this thread could help. Have any of you dove or heard about the diving at lake camanche? I read something one time about it being a descent lake to dive.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Google is your friend http://www.hammerheadcove.com/

Not Hammerhead Cove in Shasta Lake, which I already have, but rather the one in
Redding.

 

[Peter_C]

Lake Camanche is a ghetto lake. I have been there once and felt really out of place rolling in with a Suburban and a Super Air in tow. Not really sure what you want to see in our local lakes. The only reason I want to dive them is for treasures. Aye...there must be a new pair of sunglasses around here somewhere. The visability is not going to be very good until the runoff slows down later on in the summer. As soon as the first boats start coming out in the morning visability drops to zero as in non. Maybe around 50 feet depth it is a couple of feet, depending on the lake and location.

Tahoe and Whiskey town along with many other mountain lakes are the only one that have more than a few feet of visability. Even Shasta Lake only has a few feet of visability. I have never dove it but been wakeboarding on Shasta for ten years. You can only see the trees go into the water a couple of feet and then they disappear. On a really good day I have seen Shasta Lake turn from 10 ft vis to red in a couple of hours.

Chuck here is another one?? http://www.howellsdiveshop.com/

 

[Ishie]

Ta-hoe. Haven't dived Shasta Lake. My old instructor also has dived Donner Lake, but when asked about it, would *only* say "cold". Apparently that distracted him from viz, air, life, etc. Just "cold".

I'm not really a freshwater person, but I imagine if I were, I'd go back to Tahoe. This time of year, I'm guessing it'd be mindnumbingly cold, but I went in early fall, where the water had been warming up all summer, and the temp was 64, which is pretty dang warm for a mountain lake. The visibility where I was diving was easily 60', probably more.

I've also dived Folsom Lake, which is useful if you want the worst case scenario for the underwater search section of the Rescue class because it's six inches of visibility makes the occasional 5' in Monterey look like a luxury, but otherwise, blech. Lots of boaters and fishermen, nothing in particular to see, and a whole lot of blinding muck.

 

[SwimsWithSharks]

Howell's is the other one I was thinking of. It is a funky little shop. Half Scuba, half art framing supplies. Nice people.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Howell's is the other one I was thinking of. It is a funky little shop. Half Scuba, half art framing supplies. Nice people.

http://www.howellsdiveshop.com/