You have a wonderful place to dive in your back yard, for sure!
The one time I had a chance to dive there was in the mid 80's when I went out for my little brother's wedding. He and I went down to Monterey, so he could show me one of his favorite dive sites.
When we arrived, the Pacific Ocean was dead calm, less swell than a medium size lake, which in all his years there he had never seen. We actually took his little 17' boat out of the bay, and a bit south for one dive, which he said on a normal day would have been suicidal.
Viz was spectacular, especially in the kelp forest where it is in the 65 to 70' range.
Had a seal swim in and kiss my mask on one of the dives in the bay too, THAT was a thrill!
Hunted some Lin Cod(?) and grilled them at our campsite. Good memories.
Only bad memory is of the first dive we did there, as it was my very encounter with the new fangled BCD concept, and while I did understand the principle behind venting the things, I needed a bit more practice, before I dropped to 75' with one of those things on my first time in one.
Got myself hurt on the ascent, and learned a harsh lesson about retraining when making major changes in gear set ups!
Still, all in all Monterey Bay is a wonderful dive memory. (AND, it was the first time I was ever in WARM water! Compared with the MA and ME coastline, where I had been diving, your waters
are warm. )
