Thank you all for the warm welcome!
Welcome to ScubaBoard. Post us some trip reports when you get out there.
Richard.
Will do. First order of business will be Casino Point.
In Socal many divers can get away with a 7 mm wetsuit. Something like a one piece back zip with a hooded vest, gloves, booties will be fine. Some use a two piece john jacket with the top having an attached hood. Two piece freediving suits work well too, they are very warm as long as you don’t go too deep for too long, then they can crush out and you will get chilled. Freediving suits are generally made out of softer material for better fit and comfort.
Or if you have the $$ you could go drysuit if you get cold easily. Take a drysuit course if you feel you need some training.
Eric, thanks for the advice. I think I've seen your posts already in the many exposure protection threads I've dug up. I do get cold relatively easily, so I probably eventually will want to buy a drysuit (especially if I ever make it up north to Monterey). In the meantime however, I've been fascinated by the idea of using freediving suits. I have an order in with Elios for a 7mm (high waist rather than farmer john). With any luck it will be here in the next couple weeks. I also picked up some inexpensive 7mm boots and 5mm gloves from Cressi. With the larger footprint of the 7mm boots, I also managed to talk myself into ordering some Deep 6 Eddy fins...
For dive boats I like the Spectre and the Peace out of Ventura. Somebody else down there will need to fill you in on other boats.
A ride on the Peace out to Anacapa is queued up on my boat dive wishlist, so I'm glad to hear your endorsement. I'll look into the Spectre's schedule as well.
Hi Welcome to the area! I’m based out of San Diego but frequent the LA/OC often for diving. What certifications do you currently have, what are your Dive aspirations locally?
For diving here in Southern California 7mm semi-dry wetsuits are the most common, a drysuit is also a popular choice but more expensive. Depending on your current BCD you may need a weight belt or some other way to carry additional lead. For that reason, many here also prefer steel backplate/wing setup, however a more traditional BCD works just fine!
Thicker boots may be advisable for some of the more rocky shore entries for some beach dives. I dive year round with 3mm gloves, personally the warmth to dexterity trade off isn’t worth it for thicker gloves.
Hi! I have OW + Nitrox certs. I will probably do my AOW in 2023. Most of my diving has been warm water boat diving, so first priority is that I want to do is get more experience shore diving (I did some OC shore dives as my cert dives years ago, but no local shore diving since). I want to check out all the major dive sites around here accessible only to boat dives as well though (only have done front side catalina, and again years ago).
My BCD is a back inflate travel BCD, so some of the buoyancy characteristics of a bp/w setup minus the modularity benefits. It's pretty light on storage, so I've always carried whatever weight i need on a belt (besides a couple # in trim weights).
Good tip on the dexterity impact of the gloves. I just bought 5mm's and have been playing around with my flashlights, etc at home to see how hard it is to use them. Girlfriend is rightfully concerned on whether i've totally lost my mind.
Steel tanks are the generally preferred type here, as they don’t generally become appreciably positive bouyant at the end of a dive. Faber HP100s are probably what I see most often. Just note many dive boats in the area can’t give you a good HP fill on the 2nd/3rd dive you are won’t have a “full” tank like when a good local shop filled it.
For other resources they’re a few active dive clubs up and down the coast. West Coast Dive Club (Facebook), Power Scuba (meetup.com / Facebook), and then a few more regional ones (mostly on Facebook).
San Diego and Los Angeles both host Rocks, Rips, and Reefs series during the summer. These free events will give you a lot of good information about local dive sites. Just show up with snorkel gear, and a good attitude!
Happy to pass along any other info or particular recommendations if you want any.
Happy Diving!
Yeah, I'm thinking I'll want to buy a high pressure steel tank. Based on the dimensions and gas amount at full pressure the HP100 sounds perfect to me. I almost bought one off craigslist before I realized it was PST and is currently in legal limbo. I feel bad for the guy who listed it, sounds like he has 3 PST tanks in current hydro. If my math is right, an hp100 with a 3,000 PSI hot fill should end up with about as much gas as the AL80's i'm used to diving, so that doesn't sound terrible. I am definitely curious about tanks like the faber 117 though. I figure they would be a lot more suitable for single tanking some of the deeper dive sites around here. Anyone tried diving the local boats with 8" diameter tanks though? Is it a PITA?
If you've read the full wall of text above, you can see that I've made a bunch of gear changes at once. Any recommendations on LA area shore dives that are pretty easy entry? I want to do a checkout dive soon to adjust buoyancy and get used to new gear. Same question also stands for easy going boat dives for the same purpose. I'm thinking of spending a weekend out in catalina and getting my **** figured out at casino point. I figure it's not too crowded in the winter for me to be up and down the stairs a few times adjusting weights.
Thanks everyone
