One day in Monterey........

[runsongas]

I would hit up the bay area diver yahoo group first to see if any locals are around to dive with you. there are a few weekday divers who either have flexible schedules or are retired.

 

[lexvil]

I dive Breakwater often, August is usually pretty good with viz from 10 to 40 feet and you'll be hard pressed to get more than 50 ft deep.
Breakwater is a busy place but offers some really nice diving if you travel far out on the wall or shoot for the middle reef
Some of the sort f things you can see there

I'm not a photographer but all shot last August at Breakwater

 

[Chavodel8en]

I'm hiring a dive guide from Bamboo Reef and we are doing a two tank dive at Breakwater.
I have no interest in diving advanced sites while new to the area and area conditions.
I doubt that Breakwater would be underwhelming to someone who has never dived the area.
Thanks again

Absolutely agree. A lot of us locals ho-hum Breakwater b/c we have dived it dozens of times.

But it IS a pretty nice site, especially in terms of fish & other marine life. I'll preface by saying all Monterey/Carmel diving can be hit or miss. Sometimes you go down and there aren't that many fish; sometime's its like a fish convention. But I think of Breakwater as being fairly constantly reliable in terms of fish, crabs, nudis etc. And you may get buzzed by sea lions, which is fun.

Also, as you are going mid-week, you will likely have it all to yourself or maybe 1 or 2 other dive teams. Breakwater is really crowded on summer weekends, incl students, but not a problem here.

Finally, if you do the first dive along the Breakwater, and you feel comfortable and want a change of pace, you can ask the DM if he knows how to reach the Pipe & Metridium fields. This dive is on the other side of the same small beach. Its slightly more complicated, in that you must surface swim out into open water a bit (someone may want to bring a DSMB, although the chances of coming up under a boat mid-week are almost nil), and UW navigation is required. Moreover, during the summer, you may need to surface swim through kelp patches. However, unless there's heavy kelp, I don't consider this an advanced dive.

The pipe & metridiums do not have as much reliable fish life as the Breakwater, and no sea lions (you may run across a seal). But the sand around the pipe often have nudis. Every now and then something really cool can be seen on this dive. Also note that w/ the longer surface swim, this dive takes longer, so time may be an issue.

Just providing options, but a 2nd dive along the wall is also great.

Enjoy your dives, as the pictures posted above show, it can be a really cool dive.