more Monterey newbies

[diverchuck]

We are going down to Monterey this weekend to do some diving. Looking for some suggestions on a LDS to talk to about where to go etc. Any recommendations on where to go for our first time diving in the area and also a place to crash for the night?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

dc

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

How much cold water (< 55F) experience do you have?
How much kelp diving experience do you have?

You should read the articles at http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/ba_diving/
on "New Monterey Diver" and "Kelp Diving". And "Links" will lead you to a list of
dive shops.

The usual Monterey introduction site is the Breakwater.

Any of the Monterey dive shops can set you up with a guide.

The Crosby Golf Tournament is on. Accomodations will be EXPENSIVE, and possibly
hard to find. The most common diver motel is the Lone Oak (nice gear clean up area).

And conditions for the weekend are marginal. By my standards, they keep flipping
between "barely diveable" "not diveable". http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/swell/wamglance.html

 

[diverchuck]

Thanks for the response. We didn't know about the golf tournament so we are looking into accomodations tonight instead of waiting until we get there. We just called on the Lone Oak and they are full for the weekend. Looks like we have more checking to do. I doubt we will be finding anything in the area from what the person said at the motel. She said the golf tournament started on Monday and finishes on Sunday. We may do a dive in the Monterey area and then head up to Bay area and spend Sunday to Monday up there. If there are any recommendations heading north, we would appreciate them as well.
To answer your questions on our experience: we have a lot of experience in poor fresh water conditions but are new to poor salt water shore diving. We just moved to CA from Minnesota and look forward to diving the coast.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

There's not a lot of diving (any?) diving in the Bay Area itself. Folks go to Monterey
or the north coast.

Remember that saltwater is 2.56% more dense than fresh water, so you'll need to add
weight.

 

[Ben_ca]

You can stay in Salinas if you really wantto get in 2 days of diving... It'll be a bit more reasonable... Otherwise Gilroy and points north also have some options.