Looking for dive suggestions for southern california

[Captain_Bob]

I'm a diver from Chicago and I will be traveling to Cali for diving. I myself am a divemaster and my dive buddy going with is an instructor. We are looking to dive in the kelp, since we don't have anything like that here in Lake Michigan, but we both think that kelp diving my get a little boring for a couple of great lakes wreck divers, but I could be wrong. So, I need some suggestions for dives, dive charters and dive boats. We are looking to dive on Aug, 28, 29, and 30. The reason for this trip is to plan a trip for our dive shop to bring a group to. Things to do when not diving would be great. thanks

 

[diverrex]

I'm a diver from Chicago and I will be traveling to Cali for diving. I myself am a divemaster and my dive buddy going with is an instructor. We are looking to dive in the kelp, since we don't have anything like that here in Lake Michigan, but we both think that kelp diving my get a little boring for a couple of great lakes wreck divers, but I could be wrong. So, I need some suggestions for dives, dive charters and dive boats. We are looking to dive on Aug, 28, 29, and 30. The reason for this trip is to plan a trip for our dive shop to bring a group to. Things to do when not diving would be great. thanks

Well the big decison for you is do you base yourself mainland and take charters or go to Catalina for 3 days and dive the park and maybe a Catalina based charter. Pros and cons of each but luckily either way I don't see how you would get bored. You know there is fish and other sealife in that kelp. Look here for boat charters.

Some suggestons:
Peace two day trip to Begg Rock, most locals never get out there.
Double dip the Great Escape, 29th to Catalina, 30th to Santa Barbara for variety. You could sleep on board both nights and skip a hotel room.
Friday do some shores dives- La Jolla, PV, Malibu or my favorite shore spot: Laguna Beach, or go out on the Friday open trip on the Magician.

You can easily do three days of diving to make us locals envious.

PS - the regular So Cal section gets much more action than this one. I'd also ask over there.

 

[fnfalman]

Kelp diving isn't as dangerous as wreck diving, but I'm sure that you would love the feeling of swimming through a forest, not to mention checking out the marine lives that populate the kelp forests.

Of course we do have oil rigs so if you feel frisky and miss the deep dives to the wrecks in the Great Lakes, you can try out the oil rig dives. The deep deco dives, the upswelling and undercurrents could prove to be fun for the technical divers.

Santa Barbara Island is a challenging dive spot. Not deep per se, but nasty currents and surges yet has some interesting sceneries such as large populations of sea lions that will come play with you, possibly blue or thresher or mako shark siting, there's a spot that has like thousands upon thousands of brittlestars.