See what Beach Cities/Riviera has going on this week. They charter the boat often which is based in Dana Point nearby.
Boat Dives | Beach Cities Scuba Centers ? Your premier Orange County Scuba Diving experience
Otherwise I think you'd have to drive to either Long Beach or down to San Diego harbor to get on a boat. San Diego is bout an hour, Long Beach closer to 90minutes. San Pedro is also a few miles farther than Long Beach if you can find something there.
California Dive Boats : The Official Page Drive times can be a lot longer during rush hours.
There's also
Oceanside Scuba & Swim Center - I know nothing about them except that they exist. That's probably the closest shop I know of. Lot's of divers also at Shaw's Cove or Heisler Park in Laguna Beach as well. Beach Cities has a shop there also.
Power Scuba also has a Meet-Up group that may be more current. Check there - at various times they offer a Thursday night dive at LaJolla Shores.
The really good shore dive option is La Jolla Cove just north of San Diego. At the Cove or La Jolla Shores it shouldn't be too hard to find a buddy. Parking at the Cove
is however since all the
divers take it early most mornings. divebums.com lists all the options for that area. Also see if Lois Ann, Waterhorse (Humbolt as posted below) or one of the other San Diego boats are diving the Point Loma Kelp Beds. That's an unbelievable experience if there's Kelp there now.
Nice thing about winter diving in SoCal - as long as there's no storms (like next week) the water is often colder but clearer. It's also usually a good idea to call on any scheduled trips as they can cancel if a minimum diver load isn't met - that's more likely to happen in winter.
You're probably going to get a better response in the generic SoCal forum so I moved this post there. The link here will be active till you leave next week also.
A last thing is tanks are available at many of the Sport Chalet's in SoCal. Not all of them so view the store details to find out which ones.
Sporting Goods | Sport Chalet
