Orange County Advice

[scubadobadoo]

I have not yet done any OC shore diving and would like to do some. Looks like conditions might be nice this weekend. So my question is, what is the "best" site in the northern OC area. I'm coming from The Valley (Tarzana/Encino) and will have a newish diver with me as well as my wife and 4 year old. So by best, I mean good for the family and a new diver. Thanks!

I am guessing Heisler Park would be on the short list...but the parking on Saturday...ugh.

Or maybe back to Old Marineland again. We shall see.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Spg01]

Woods Cove, Crescent Bay and Shaw's Cove are nice dives and have some small tide pools the family can look at. I am not sure if Heisler does or not, but it has a small park up top. You can't really go wrong with anything in Laguna. But since you did not mention what time you are planning to dive I am betting you are planning on late morning? 9:00-10:00am?

Usually anytime after 7am and parking can start to get tough. Not impossible, but you may have a small hike. Especially with nice weather and close to a holiday. But then again you might get a group of divers leaving just as you show up and get a great spot. I am not that lucky though.

I have seen the 133 backed up to within about 2 miles of the 405 trying to get into Laguna as I am leaving.

Good Luck!

 

[FrankPro1]

Marineland has had pretty stellar topside conditions for the last two days, but unfortunately this doesn't always equate to good visibility down below. This morning Long Point had 5ft of green soupy visibility, moderate current and little life. With the forecast continuing to show flat conditions, visibility should improve by Saturday, but your best bet might be Laguna.

 

[Hatul]

For a beautiful area with reasonable parking, I'd vote for Montage Resort beach. The far beach from the parking lot is the nicer for diving.

 

[Rainer]

I really like these two:

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Deadman's is great (especially now with all the kelp), but it's really best done with a scooter. The kick isn't worth it to me (relative to the other sites that are so much less work). Heisler can be quite nice as well, but the kelp beds are a bit of a kick there, too.

 

[keithbt]

I did a night dive last night at shaws....15 - 20 visibility....1 foot surf.... we had a 5 foot leopard shark circle between us, tons of thorbacks, a huge bat ray and a curios octopus just to name a few.....But to bring your family to a dive spot for the day it does not get better than Heisler Park. Bathrooms, barbecues, Picnic beach, Divers Cove, and Fishermans are all within walking distance.....

 

[SPKelpDiver]

I have dove Laguna a few times and only Shaw's Cove. I didn't see any kelp at all. I was surprised to see that much kelp in the videos. I guess I imagined Laguna to be mostly kelp-less.

 

[Hatul]

There is now quite a bit of kelp in Laguna and it can be a problem when swimming on the surface. You do have to look around to avoid swimming into it. If you do swim into it it's best to back out and swim around it.

As far as Deadman I do like it as it's a long swim and you get a good workout-- just take your time and swim around the surface kelp, and because it's relatively deep so surge is less of an issue there. It's handy to have a hand held depth sounder to know when to descend (at around 45 ft).

 

[scubadobadoo]

Anyone want to dive this weekend in the Heisler area? I just posted another thread in this forum trolling for buddies...

 

[Spg01]

I am supposed to meet a buddy at Crescent around 7am on Saturday. We dove it for the 1st time in months Monday night and figured it would also be nice to see it during the day since it has been so long