Ahh
excuse me for barging in to the S. Ca. forum, but I have a question.
I was born and raised in S. CA, and learned to dive at Aloha Dive Shop in Reseda in 1971. In 73 we moved to Santa Monica, to an apartment complex called Santa Monica Shores, a duel high-rise located exactly one mile south of the Santa Monica Pier.
Anyway, some of you old timers might remember an amusement park called Pacific Ocean Park (Link), referred to as POP, located on a pier split between Venice Pier and Santa Monica Pier. The pier closed down in the late sixties, and over the years the local bums (thats what they were called back then) took up residence in the old pier. The result was a series of reoccurring fires over the years that sent most of the pier into the water.
In 1973-1976, my brother and I (both teens) would drag our gear across the street to the beach and dive the underwater junk from POP. There were pieces of the old pier buildings, an old car, pieces of the old roller coaster including a roller-coaster-car, parts from other rides, and other neat assorted junk. It was usually dirty water and we never thought about the danger of swimming around in the surge amongst all that sharp debris. But there sure was a lot of cool stuff down there.
My question is, does anyone ever dive that site these days? Or has all the debris been buried or washed away? If not, I would think that there might be a nice artificial reef by now.
I was born and raised in S. CA, and learned to dive at Aloha Dive Shop in Reseda in 1971. In 73 we moved to Santa Monica, to an apartment complex called Santa Monica Shores, a duel high-rise located exactly one mile south of the Santa Monica Pier.
Anyway, some of you old timers might remember an amusement park called Pacific Ocean Park (Link), referred to as POP, located on a pier split between Venice Pier and Santa Monica Pier. The pier closed down in the late sixties, and over the years the local bums (thats what they were called back then) took up residence in the old pier. The result was a series of reoccurring fires over the years that sent most of the pier into the water.
In 1973-1976, my brother and I (both teens) would drag our gear across the street to the beach and dive the underwater junk from POP. There were pieces of the old pier buildings, an old car, pieces of the old roller coaster including a roller-coaster-car, parts from other rides, and other neat assorted junk. It was usually dirty water and we never thought about the danger of swimming around in the surge amongst all that sharp debris. But there sure was a lot of cool stuff down there.
My question is, does anyone ever dive that site these days? Or has all the debris been buried or washed away? If not, I would think that there might be a nice artificial reef by now.
