Monastery In Monterey

[Scubaroo]

I know it doesn't hurt on exit to fully deflate your BC, and crawl out of the water on the bottom from behind the surf zone! If the surf's big, it's not worth even trying to enter, as you found out. Instructors like it because it's a shore accessable deep dive, which saves students the cost of a boat trip, esp. on AOW classes.

 

[Dryglove]

cyklon_300 once bubbled...
as a rank newbie...we were on a road trip from OR and stopped by a LDS who invited us to join them there for a class dive.

Gorgeous sunny day, but I got Maytagged in the surf and lost mask, snorkle, and a fin. The gravel sanded my face down to hamburger...neither me nor my buddy (a very experienced diver) got down.

I don't think anyone from the class made it in either...I've always wanted to go back and see what I missed.

Ouch!! I feel your pain.I have been pretty lucky there and usually do the monastery crawl till i get on the beach.Its frustrating watching the experinced divers from there walk right out with out getting tumbled.....

 

[Kronos13]

boomx5 once bubbled...
Butterfly house looks like it has some good diving. Do you know anything about it?

Never been there myself but, here is a write up on it from the Sept. 2000 edition of California Diving News.

Butterfly House

 

[Scubaroo]

Geez - we were trying to get down from the wrong spot. D'oh! Can't see the supposed trail in the aerial photo though.

 

[scuberd]

I will go to butterfly house in the next couple of months and write a report. also, one beach up from monastery is Carmel Rver beach, another good dive with usually lighter surf. lots of thick plants like sea palms (our state alga) and kelp

 

[nradov]

boomx5 once bubbled...
Butterfly house looks like it has some good diving. Do you know anything about it?

Butterfly House is really one of the best shore dives in the area, definitely worth the effort. You want to enter the water from the small cove to the right of the house (as you face the ocean). You will have to climb down a short, narrow trail a little further off to the right. I prefer to dive this site in a single tank due to the risk of falling down on the trail, but some of the "tough guys" have been known to do it in double 104s. Swim straight out from the cove until the kelp gets so thick you can't go any further, then drop down. Generally it gets better the further out you go: around 80-90ft deep there are some huge rocks with lots of vertical relief. After you turn the dive don't try to swim back too close to shore underwater or you may find a slight current has pushed you near the wash rocks. Save plenty of reserve gas in case in case you have to drop down a few feet and swim under the kelp.

The charter boats sometimes visit there and will drop you on the offshore side of the kelp forest.

 

[SARmedic]

Monastary is a great place to dive, but you need to be very comfortable and secure with your skills. It can be very dangerous, I have personally pulled out a half dozen divers from the surf there. The waves don't look bad, but they tumble you like mad.

It is also nicknamed "mortuary" beach, because it can have dangerous surf and is very deep. People do die there, but usually because of stupidity. You will see the signs warning you about the surf as you walk to the beach, make sure to read them.

I have no problem taking students there, but if the conditions aren't good, I will take them to another site in monterey.

If you do want to dive there, go with somebody that is familiar with the site. It really is a fun place to dive, I like the kelp field on the N side of the beach.

 

[kenduc999]

I have done many dives in monastary, and have learned the hard way that the best way for me to enter and exit the water when there is surf (without losing all my gear), is to deflate my bc, and swim along the bottom to te beach until my tank sticks out and then pretty much just stand up. you can also try to body surf in, but when I try that I usually end up gathering a collection of sand in my hood. entering isnt as bad, just walk in, but be sure to have your bc empty and reg in, and walk in until you fall (pretty much inevitable) and the when your out of the surf inflate your bc. these tips are pretty basic, and you might have to try another method if there is more or less surf. have fun!

 

[Scubaroo]

A hands and knees crawl until out of the surf and on the beach might look ungraceful but is the safest way I've found to exit at Monastery. Did a 130' dive there about a fortnight ago, saw lots of nudibranchs at around 100' - not many large fish though.

 

[pterantula]

(-posted in another thread as well, sorry for the repetition but I thought I might include my tale...)

A bit late in the game here, but I just dove Monastery for the first time today....

So we started @ Monastery, then went up to San Carlos Beach (my the 5th time); 55 degrees actually isn't as cold as it once felt, and I got to chase some interesting fishies - elusive little buggers; it was a strong surf, and really surgey (I've been told that Monastery on a good day is the best dive in NorCal, and on a bad day is a real deathtrap...); got tangled in plenty of surge-blown kelp, and saw lots of neat orange, pink, white and blue anenomes; starfish for days.... Vis was about 15 ft at first, but gradually dropped to about 5-7 (the smidge of sun was overcast within minutes).

The fun part: the surf was pretty strong from the get-go, and we got knocked down on entry, and then upon my exit I got smashed in the face with a wave which tore my mask off; we crawled on our pathetic hands and knees out of the surf on to the beach... I was doing surprisingly well on air and energy today, so it didn't worry me like my last San Carlos Dive (tossed against the rocks in the surf with less than 100 psi to breathe...).
Nice to know that it wasn't just me, that this beach has a rep already.

cheers,
t