How busy is July on SoCal dive boats? Advice needed!

[scubavili]

My wife and I are coming to OC for a vacation on July. I was wondering how busy it is on July on dive boats? How early should the reservations be made? Or will there always be last minute spots on boats? We will stay in CA for 6 weeks and I would not like to program our vacation too much. The ideal thing would be to be able to decide "tonight" what to do "tomorrow" on our vacation. But will this work out concerning dive boats on July?

First I decided to ask this from the operators of dive boats, but then I realized that they all want to fill their boats as early as possible...

 

[Mo2vation]

Lots and lots of students. People learning to dive in the summer fills many of the boats.

You should be booking SOON. Like now. NO way you'll be walking on to any of the reputable boats the day before in the height of summer.

There is lots of walk on (errr... walk in) shore diving available in July, however!

---
Ken

 

[double80s]

Boats fill up pretty much year round. We dove the Island Time on the weekend with about 20 divers.

Eco Dive Center has some great dives coming up. You can grab some boat deals over at the DiveVets club as well. They add new boats all the time so keep checking as you trip comes closer.

 

[JodiBB]

I agree...I got my c-card last summer and the boats were filled with classes! Reservations are going to be needed and quickly!

 

[veek]

You can reserve spots now and cancel later. Most boats have a generous cancellation policy, and your credit card is not charged until the day of the trip.

For example, on the Spectre, you get a full refund if you give 7 days notice for a weekend single day dive trip and 3 days notice for a weekday trip. On the Peace, they want 72 hours notice for cancellation of a single-day trip.

 

[pasley]

http://www.sandeaters.org for local dive spots off the beach. Post a notice here about what days you want to go and you may get a dive hooked up. Dive boats, well with very few exceptions they are only on weekends and they do sell out weeks or even months in advance particularly in the summer.

Have fun.

 

[super opus]

best bet is to call dive shops they have most of the sit for the best boats between one or two dive shops fills the spicter easy