Moving to SF Bay Area - bring my tanks?

[guruboy]

Hey All,

I am moving to the SF Bay Area soon and am hoping to get some feedback from local divers. Specifically, whether or not I should bother moving all of my tanks with me.

1) How is the used tank market there? I can sell my AL40 and AL80 tanks (in hydro, made 2010) for probably $120-130 each before I move.

2) Is there a reasonably priced hydro testing facility there? I pay $20/tank here for hydro.

3) Is diving there mainly boat or shore entry and is it doubles friendly?

4) Are there cheap tank rental options? I use AL80s, AL40s, tanks with L/R valves for sidemount, doubles (AL80, LP85, HP100).

5) Is there a good source for banked Nitrox? I have little interest in O2 cleaning tanks.

6) Is it mostly drysuit diving out there?

TIA

 

[guruboy]

2) Is there a reasonably priced hydro testing facility there? I pay $20/tank here for hydro.

Saw @runsongas mention Acme fire extinguisher in Oakland. Anything in the Mountain View or San Jose area?

 

[runsongas]

1) al80s frequently can be found cheaply, al40s are more rare. i would keep your al40s. consider selling the al80s. most either dive lp or hp steels for backgas. diver dans will sell you a used al80 with fresh hydro and vis and 10 air fills for 100.

2) acme is 19.50 a tank last time i went. the place in emeryville is similar and can do a psi/pci vis, but they don't dry the tanks as well. the place in san jose charges significantly more such that you might as well go through diver dans or anywater sports if you didn't want to drive to oakland. i think they quoted 36 a tank or something.

3) both day boats and shore but due to the weather, booking a boat in advance means it ends up being hit or miss. the more developed dive sites like pt lobos and breakwater are doubles friendly. butterfly house is definitely not.

4) diver dans and anywater rent steel tanks (limited availability though). pricing is somewhat reasonable but adds up quickly if you dive frequently.

 

[guruboy]

Thanks. I'll try and unload my AL80 tanks then.

 

[padoink]

5. Any Water Sports and Aquarius have banked 32.

 

[outofofficebrb]

You may want to look into getting steel tanks when you get here. There is shore diving along Monterey/Carmel areas as well as the Sonoma coast. You can get boats that are essentially water taxis and some are doubles friendly. @sea_otter can give you more insight on those boats. Water usually runs 45-55F so drysuit is ideal (to me..). I don't go out often (or much at all) because I get cold easily, even in a 7/8 semi-dry. Depending on where you are moving to, Marin Dive Center in San Rafael has banked nitrox (32%) if you are looking to go up north to dive the Sonoma Coast or are coming through North Bay on the way to Lake Tahoe. Speaking of Lake Tahoe.....crayfish diving!

Diver Dan's quotes $50 for their scuba cylinder hydros. The Bay can be quite large, especially with traffic thrown in there. Have you decided where you are settling down yet?

 

[elgoog]

Banked 32% - Anywater in San Jose will fill while you wait, Bamboo Reef in Monterey will most likely make you come back the next day but one of my buddies just leaves his tanks there, picks them up morning of the dive and drops them off before heading home.

Tank rentals - As mentioned above, if you're diving regularly, it'll work out better to own your own tanks. I've never seen sidemount friendly tanks with L/R valves for rent. Renting doubles is also not the norm unless one of the shop divers will lend you their own set. I would keep your steel doubles and sidemount tanks and sell the AL80 doubles. Single AL80 and AL40 can be used as stage/deco.

Boats - Escapade and Beach Hopper are doubles friendly. Phil Sammett's RIB as well but that's more of a full charter you'd have to get in on with a group. Escapade and Phil's boat are used by our local GUE chapter so they're good with stages, deco bottles, scooters, etc as well. Depending on the plan for the day, you can do 2 dives on 1 set of doubles (this is what I usually do), 1 long deco dive, 1 deco dive followed by a shallower rec dive, etc.

Doubles from shore - Pt Lobos is excellent and doing one long shore dive on doubles means you only have to deal with the ramp and surface swim once. Breakwater is easy entry for doubles as well. Monastery Beach can be insanely hard entry and exit in doubles (or singles, for that matter) depending on conditions but the dive itself is amazing.

Drysuit vs wetsuit - I only dive dry here, singles or doubles, especially now that I'm on DPV. I can't imagine doing a dive longer than an hour even in a semi dry. Looking at my log book for 2017, almost all dives were in the 51-55F range, with a handful in Feb and March where my computer read 48-49F. The coldest I've seen is 44F which was in June 2016 but IMO that's unusual these days.

 

[guruboy]

I'll bring my LP85 for sure. Probably keep the AL40 and LP45 as well.

My AL80 doubles work well with my 5mm wetsuit, but for sub 60F water I'll probably just dive dry.

I'll be in the South Bay area.

 

[Shasta_man]

Not sure where you are coming from but just a note that diving can be better in winter than summer because there is less kelp and algae at that time due to less sun. The sun is relatively warm during the day as well so can be nice conditions.

And bring all your money with you if you want a home to live in. Housing and rentals are ridiculously priced. Oh and patience for the traffic.

 

[runsongas]

we need more kelp currently. algae not really an issue yet since the water is still fairly cold.

5) anywater, bamboo reef, aquarius, and MDC all have banked 32.

6) if you don't count the open water classes at breakwater, about half the local divers are in drysuits. other half mostly in semidrys.