Greetings from Bakersfield, CA!

[Old Salty Dog]

Howdy scubafolks! Newly certified OW diver here looking to expand my knowledge base and meet some scuba people. I just finished a trip around southeast asia, during which I had no plans to dive. In fact I had no idea that I even had an interest in diving. However after being blown away by some snorkling in Thailand, I couldnt stop thinking about getting into the water and seeing more. By the time we got to Malaysia I was set on it, and did my OW course on Tioman. Now I've got the bug bad.. and just want to learn more and get more dives under my belt to get more comfortable in the water. I hope to be not too much of a nuisance around here whileI learn the ropes!

 

[Peter_C]

Welcome to Scubaboard

Do you plan to dive the California kelp forests? We do have some amazing reefs here.

 

[Old Salty Dog]

Welcome to Scubaboard

Do you plan to dive the California kelp forests? We do have some amazing reefs here.

Hi Peter,

I'm still reading up on CA dive sites to see which ones I might be able to handle at this point. I'm certainly open to suggestions. At this point I want to keep the dives relatively simple and work up in difficulty slowly. I must admit that when I hear "kelp forest" I have visions of myself becoming hopelessly entangled in a mess of kelp.

 

[Peter_C]

You can thank Chuck for this informative website, that although more for the NorCal diver does covers lots of info for SoCal, as conditions are very similar. You will probably be doing a lot of SoCal diving around the Channel Islands area.
http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/ba_diving/kelpdiving.html
http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/ba_diving/newmontereydiver.html


Kelp is not a big deal and can be very beautiful as it gently sways back and forth. Schools of Blue's tend to congregate around the kelp stocks.

I would recommend renting gear, if you do not already own any, until you get a better idea of what the local divers are using, and what you want to use. You will find most of the dedicated divers have switched to drysuits for warmth, and many dive Hogarthian style rigs. As for places to dive there are tons.

In NorCal the Breakwater is the training grounds for most everyone, and can entertain someone with thousands of dives. The Carmel area tends to be more interesting diving, although more exposed to the open ocean.

SoCal I do not know as well, but there are plenty of dive boats to take advantage of.

 

[Teamcasa]

Welcome and be sure and drop by your local forum. We have tons of great diving ready and waiting for you!
SoCal - ScubaBoard