New to California

[dirtybit]

Hi all,

I recently moved to the bay area from Chicago and have finally gotten settled enough that I want to start exploring the local dives. First a bit of background. I am PADI AOW with ~50 logged dives mostly in warm water. I have done several quarry dives etc in the midwest but nothing to write home about. I have my own gear including a drysuit (no tanks so I will need to find a dive shop for gas in the near future). Monterrey is especially exciting to me but I would also be interested in exploring other dive sites in NorCal.

I was hoping people here might be able to point me in the right direction on a few questions.

1. In the next few weeks I want to do some intro dives in Monterrey just to get to know the area and get accustomed to a new drysuit. I gather there are some great beach dives for this type of thing but the biggest issues are not knowing any divers in the area. I was wondering if there are social groups that go every weekend (or even twice a month) which aren't directly associated with dive shops (and charging silly prices for guided dives).

2. I want to find a good dive shop (preferably near San Mateo for things like gas, service, and in the next few months (once I am accustomed to the environment) to do rescue diver with. I would prefer a shop that will also eventually be able to take me through divemaster and hopefully some day into technical diving (Making the right choice on the first try would be awesome). Any suggestions/shameless self promotions would be much appreciated.

3. If anyone has any other suggestions, recommendations, or has gone through the same assimilation process in the past drop me a line and let me know.

Thanks for any guidance you can offer.

 

[aquaregia]

People here are super helpful. I posted looking for a buddy once and got more responses than I could believe, then I had to cancel due to work deadlines!

I'm a new diver myself, and my buddies have all taken off to exotic locations for the summer, so I'd be interested. Of course, work deadlines often get in the way I have a mysterious deadline on July 4th marked "RA" that I need to figure out what it means...

 

[dannobee]

This site will likely find you more dive buddies than a shop. We try to have a meet and greet every couple months, and everybody's invited. Once you get a few dives with some of the regulars, you can either post here your intentions or call/email someone to go diving. Someone will likely dive with you.

Quite a few of us try to go diving at least one day each weekend.

There aren't wrecks here like in the Great Lakes, but we do have incredible underwater life. The colors of Carmel are beautiful.

Use some of Chuck's links to find out what you're getting yourself into.

Diving here is year-around and only stops for the big storms that roll in (usually during the winter months).

I believe Wallin's is your local dive shop.

 

[dirtybit]

Thanks for the responses guys

I'll check out Wallin's. Dannobee, is there a site for the meetup or is it pretty ad-hoc? Sounds like a good time.

 

[Adobo]

Hi all,

I recently moved to the bay area from Chicago and have finally gotten settled enough that I want to start exploring the local dives.

Welcome to the area and to Scubaboard's Norcal Forum.

1. In the next few weeks I want to do some intro dives in Monterrey just to get to know the area and get accustomed to a new drysuit. I gather there are some great beach dives for this type of thing but the biggest issues are not knowing any divers in the area. I was wondering if there are social groups that go every weekend (or even twice a month) which aren't directly associated with dive shops (and charging silly prices for guided dives).

I think someone answered this pretty well already.

2. I want to find a good dive shop (preferably near San Mateo for things like gas, service, and in the next few months (once I am accustomed to the environment) to do rescue diver with. I would prefer a shop that will also eventually be able to take me through divemaster and hopefully some day into technical diving (Making the right choice on the first try would be awesome). Any suggestions/shameless self promotions would be much appreciated.

The two dive shops that you will want to be familiar with are Wallin's in San Carlos and Any Water Sports in San Jose.

Both dive shops will be able to provide you with the services you need to do recreational diver training up to DM and to do technical diver training. Both shops also offer the gear you will need in to follow either direction in diver training.

It is important to note that DM training (and gear requirements) are not forward compatible or applicable to technical diver training. I say this in a general sense. DM work and technical diving are very different activities. It is useful to know this up front as gear and training expenditures can be made more efficient if you know what your end goal is up front. I guess for full disclosure, I should say that I am neither a dive master nor a technical diver. But I did sleep in a Holiday Inn a few years ago.

I personally prefer Any Water Sports as they have a wider selection of gear and a deeper understanding of technical dive equipment. Wallin's is a ton more convenient in terms of proximity (to both you and me) but Any Water Sports being in San Jose is not as bad as it might seem. It is about a 10 minute detour for the drive home from Monterey. So my personal usual routine is to stop by Any Water on the way home from a dive on Saturdays. I get my tanks filled and then head home.

 

[DiverInSF]

Hi!

Welcome to Northern California - you'll love it here (in every way, including under water). Moved here from Chicago myself 11 years ago.

Wallin's is the closest dive shop to San Mateo - they have a relatively good selection of gear. I bought most of my gear from them . They also have a very friendly and helpful staff (one of their guys called every dive shop between Monterey and Sacramento for me, coz they didn't have the specific piece of equipment I wanted). The alternative is to rent your tanks from a shop in Monterey the day(s) you plan to dive. There are 3 shops down there: Aquarius, Aquarius II (aka Glenn's), Bamboo Reef. All 3 have about same quality of equipment. I usually drive down from SF the morning (read 5am) of the day I plan to dive and go back in the evening, so I've found it more convenient to drop by a shop there to pick up whatever I need. Bay Area shops open too late and close too early for that.

My advice to you is to get in a couple of dives with experienced locals and/or a local DM. The Pacific is more challenging than warm waters and you want to be sure you're comfortable.

The other thing to be aware of is that there's a good number of charter boats in Monterey that take people out diving on the weekends (Beachhopper II, Escapade, Sanctuary and Silver Prince to name a few). Some of the best dive spots are only accessible by boat and going out with one of them is a good way to get to know the dive spots on the bay and further south. It's also a good deal if you have no one to go out with - they'll always pair you up with someone in the same situation.

Regarding major dive spots - Monterey is by far the best place to dive in Northern California, but if you get a long weekend or can take a couple of days off work, head down to Channel Islands and/or San Diego. There's some great diving in those areas.

And finally - relax and enjoy. You now live next door to a premier cold-water diving destination. You're going to have a blast.

 

[FishDiver]

Dirtybit, welcome to MoCal. The good news is that the diving conditions don't vary much on average from month to month. Its just as cold and murky in the summer as the winter!

 

[parabuzzle]

Welcome! I too am pretty new to Norcal Diving. I'm from Florida and only recently got a drysuit and in to the water in MoCal. I have been kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Here are some things I have learned about the area.

First: The biodiversity is outstanding.

Second: You will probably want/need this stuff for enjoyment.

1) springstraps - These things are awesome when doing beach dives. Trust me
2) good dive light - The kelp and murkiness creates quite a canopy and shuts out light.
3) drysuit - some people will tell you otherwise (they're just secretly saving up for one)

Third: If you get a chance to hit up Carmel do it! The sealife is out of this world.

Lastly: Go with some experienced locals when checking out a new shoredive site. There are "Tricks of the Trade" that they can show you to make it a lot less work for the area like the "Kelp Crawl"

Aside from that, I have loved all my dives in the area so far.

Enjoy the world-class cold water diving

 

[dirtybit]

Thanks for all the advice. I think I have done fairly well so far keeping my purchases compatible with my goals but I am sure I will run into issues at some point down the road. I have a dive rite harness and wing (which can be used with either cam straps for a single or a back plate for doubles) and hollis regs (DIN to stay compatible with HP tanks). Dry suit-wise my whites fusion should be delivered this week (pretty excited about it). I am sure under garments are going to need to be tweaked to get right but we will see when I do my first dive. I am also planning on making the switch to a long hose in the near future as I have never much liked the clipped off octo hanging. For the moment I am using a Gecko computer and I realize I will need to change this out eventually. The big compromise I made so far has been pressure and depth gauges. I currently have a somewhat bulky console but I do want to switch this out for a small brass pressure gauge and wrist mounted redundant depth gauge.

Experienced divers feel free to jump in at any time and tell me I am an idiot. In the next year or so I'll probably buy tanks and the plan is to get dive rite's modular valves so that I can switch between singles and eventually doubles. I also eventually want to do a canister light but I have waaay to many expensive hobbies. If anyone has suggestions on future gear purchases I am all ears.

I've been reading up on the area (obviously no substitute for experience) since I found out I was moving a few months ago so I feel like I have some notion of the hazards. That being said boat dives with a shop may be the best way to go for the first few times (although I would really like to get to the point where I don't have to pay boat fees fairly soon).

Also, if anyone if going diving in mid July - early Aug and wouldn't mind showing me some of the ropes msg me, I will buy you a beer or 5 afterwards. I get the feeling there is a lot of overlap between dive nerds and computer nerds so hopefully i'll fit in nicely.

 

[pacificgal]

Saturday I was on the Sanctuary with Paula and I was able to see what happens to warm water divers who jump into a place that's cold with kelp. I wouldn't recommend jumping off a boat for your first cold water dives with an insta-buddy.
I'm not a DM but I don't mind taking new divers out to Breakwater to get them acclimated to our waters. Send me a PM if you're interested, I'm in Monterey almost every weekend.