Oakland>? Labor Day weekend

[beth_castroll]

All-

My husband and I are new to diving. We each have aprox 10 dives, but only in warm water. We'd like to drive south on Friday 8/29 and find a place to Dive on Sat and Sun, then drive home on Monday.

Ideally I'd like a guided boat dive with a shop that offers full rental equipment.
I'd prefer not to drive any furthur south then the L.A area and don't want to hit Monterey. I'd also prefer not to do Catalina as it is highly cost prohibitive.

Please advise.

-Beth

 

[Rickster]

All-

My husband and I are new to diving. We each have aprox 10 dives, but only in warm water. We'd like to drive south on Friday 8/29 and find a place to Dive on Sat and Sun, then drive home on Monday.

Ideally I'd like a guided boat dive with a shop that offers full rental equipment.
I'd prefer not to drive any furthur south then the L.A area and don't want to hit Monterey. I'd also prefer not to do Catalina as it is highly cost prohibitive.

Please advise.

-Beth

Hi Beth,

You may try this link:
Diveboats

It provides an extensive diveboat list.

Have a great time,
Rick

 

[pasley]

All-

......Ideally I'd like a guided boat dive with a shop that offers full rental equipment.

That might be tough to find as many shops only rent wetsuit, regulator, BC and dive computer but not mask, fins or snorkel. Also guided boat dives are not the normal in Southern California. You would either have to hire a DM, or hook up on the dive boat with a local dive buddy. Once at the dive site the DM gives a briefing on the dive site, what to see and where and after that it is jump in and swim around and come back to the boat in an hour.

I'd prefer not to drive any further south then the L.A area and don't want to hit Monterey.

Truth Aquatics - About Us will get you wet in Santa Barbara I have not dove with them yet. The next opportunity south of that would be Ventura and diving the Anacapa Island would work well. The Specter Diving Scuba Vacation, Channel Islands, California should be able to hook you up and be reasonably priced and they offer rental gear too. You might also look at Anacapa Dive Center offers guided tours on the Peace for an additional cost.

I'd also prefer not to do Catalina as it is highly cost prohibitive.

Catalina, Anacapa, by dive boat on a weekend, it is all about the same cost.

I know you said you did not want to dive Monterey. Boat diving out of there is terrific (I have only done beach dives buth they were great) and much closer to you. Monterey should be warmed up to 50F by then, Santa Barbara and Ventura will be 52-56 depending on the day, or could be as hot as 60F.

Good luck.