Oregon Diver Looking for Monterey buddy.

[PDX]

Hello all,

I'm going to be down visiting the bay area next week and was hoping to do a couple dives on Thursday 3/27 in Monterey, hopefully Point Lobos if there is room. I would love to hook up with a local diver who knows the sites. Beers/dinner on me afterwards! I could also do Friday morning.

I have between 250 and 300 dives, almost all in cold water with a drysuit. Pretty solid in the water. Really looking forward to seeing the sites underwater in Monterey! Any additional advice on charters, other sites in the area, guides etc. is welcome too. Thanks in advance.

Dave

 

[dshorwich]

Charter boats generally only run on weekends, although the Beachhopper is running on Fri Mar 28th. You can hire a guide from any of the local stores (Aquarius, Seven Seas, Bamboo Reef), any of them should be fine. The Point Lobos dive calendar is here - Thu 27th looks wide open. You do need a buddy to dive there.

Shore diving sites other than Lobos...Breakwater is the entry-level/training site, and although it's not Monterey at its most spectacular, you can still have some nice dives there. Coral St, out near the end of the peninsula in Pacific Grove, is a personal favorite of mine, although it's often surgey because it has little protection from the prevailing winds and swell. Monastery Beach in Carmel is a fine site, but it has a tricky and potentially hazardous entry/exit, so I would strongly recommend you dive with either a guide or an experienced local diver if you wanted to give that a try. This is not an exhaustive list.

Also to mention, this page is worth taking a look at, although much of what it has to say is probably familiar to you as someone with cold-water experience.

 

[PDX]

Thanks for the reply. The link to Monterey conditions is very informative. Monterey sounds quite similar to our conditions up here. I went ahead and hired a guide for Pt. Lobos. I heard the vis has been crap though, hopefully we'll get some improvement in the next week.
I've heard about how "fun" the entry and exit are at Monastery. Maybe try that someday.

 

[Keith.M]

I'll be diving Point Lobos on Monday so I will probably post a trip report in the conditions thread.

The swell models show it starting to lay down. I hope you are able to have some great dives!