Interested in setting up a dive trip based out of SF

[doctormike]

Hey, my son moved to San Fransisco a few years ago. I just went out to visit him and I had a great time.

I'm thinking about coming back for a dive trip, but maybe centered around SF rather than just heading straight to Monterey. Looking for any advice - a liveaboard sounds appealing from the gear management point of view, but not sure if that's a big thing in your area. Not averse to shore dives either. Wrecks?

I'm a technical CCR diver, mostly do dry suit diving in the NYC area.

Thanks!

 

[runsongas]

no liveaboards operate in norcal unless if you count the sporadic big sur trips. but that still involves driving down to morro bay to board the boat.

for tech, most in the area either head to florida/mexico for caves. BAUE runs some closed charters if you run with the GUE crowd to dive the carmel pinnacles.

pretty much zero wreck action, closest is SD for wreck alley or just go all out and fly to truk for 2 weeks.

 

[azstinger11]

no liveaboards operate in norcal unless if you count the sporadic big sur trips. but that still involves driving down to morro bay to board the boat.

for tech, most in the area either head to florida/mexico for caves. BAUE runs some closed charters if you run with the GUE crowd to dive the carmel pinnacles.

pretty much zero wreck action, closest is SD for wreck alley or just go all out and fly to truk for 2 weeks.

LA has a few good wrecks too, UB-88 comes to mind as particularly interesting one. Lots of good info at Wrecked in my rEvo about wrecks in most of Southern California.

Who is doing the Big Sur trips? I thought that was almost exclusively done by Truth Aquatics, who obviously aren’t around any more

 

[Guille G]

I’m new to the area, and just back from a trip to Mexico for one last dip in the caves for the year. I’m all for starting to dive locally! I’m in the “needs an intro” crew though, so useless as a source of information

 

[runsongas]

channel islands expeditions bought the two remaining boats from truth aquatics

Big Sur Diving Adventure - Channel Islands Expeditions

Experience 4-days of diving on the Big Sur coast from Monterrey to Morro Bay! Book this bucket-list California diving trip today!

explorechannelislands.com

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

All multi day charter boats will be down south starting in Ventura and south from there. It’s getting late in the year so many are doing bug trips. Then after that the boats will be down for a few weeks to haul out.
Monterey has day trips but I haven’t been on a boat there in years so I’m not good on info about them.
Like was mentioned earlier, BAUE does all sorts of dives at Point Lobos. They have a pretty strong GUE community that are tech oriented.
Up north from there past GG bridge there’s the wild north coast where hardly anyone goes. There are no boat charters or dive services along the coast. I dive there but I’m weird.

 

[doctormike]

Thanks, everybody! I guess it's not such a great idea to try to combine a dive trip with a visit to my son. Maybe I'll just try to do a day trip to Monterey the next time I'm in town and rent OC gear.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Up north from there past GG bridge there’s the wild north coast where hardly anyone goes. There are no boat charters or dive services along the coast. I dive there but I’m weird.

I started a new job a few months ago with a company based in San Rafael. I expect to travel to the area on occasion and would be interested in combining those trips with some diving. Where do you dive up north of SF? What type of diving?

I’m familiar with Monterey as I’ve dived that area a few times. That is an option as well.

 

[Cthippo]

Is there any diving in the delta or is it just too murky??

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I started a new job a few months ago with a company based in San Rafael. I expect to travel to the area on occasion and would be interested in combining those trips with some diving. Where do you dive up north of SF? What type of diving?

I’m familiar with Monterey as I’ve dived that area a few times. That is an option as well.

The diving really starts in Sonoma County. I’d say pretty much at Fort Ross State Park. The beach there is accessible by car to drop off your gear but then you have to park up in the lot and take the trail down past the fort and down to the beach. It’s not a terribly long hike.
It’s a pretty good beach dive with lots of fish. There is a wreck in the cove (The Pomona) but it’s more or less a pile of rubble with a boiler and a big drive shaft and some plating. There’s no whellhouse structure to go inside, it’s all broken down.
The area is very rocky with a lot of underwater structure.
Going north up hwy 1 there is Stillwater Cove Regional Park. I like this spot, it’s an easy beach dive with lot’s of possibilities as far as what to see and how deep. I’ve hit about 75’ or more but I was way out there. This is where I do a lot of purple urchin removal work. There is also a lot of rocky structure. The whole north coast has a lot of rocky structure.
Going north from there you have Gerstle Cove state park which is a reserve. The purple urchins have pretty much destroyed that cove completely and not many people dive it anymore. It used to be absolutely beautiful to dive there because it was an untouched reserve with monster abalone to look at, but nothing can be removed or disturbed so it is illegal to do any urchin removal work and it shows.
There is also a lot of even better diving further north in Mendocino County which is far superior to anything in Monterey IMO. Partly because it is wild, pristine, and because we can hunt. Monterey to me is overrun.
There are some areas closer to Bodega Bay that we are exploring because they are closer to get to but they are not really official dive sites so I don’t talk about them yet. Some are also kind of dangerous too so I don’t advertise or talk about them.

That kind if gives a very simple overview. There is a lot more but it would be a very long write up.