Recommended dive sites in Laguna and La Jolla?

[calwolf]

Hey group,

I'll be leading a small group of divers (a university scuba club trip) to southern CA next week (May 4-8) to dive around Laguna Beach (Mon-Wed) and La Jolla (Wed-Fri), and I'm hoping to get some feedback on potential shore dive sites, since none of us have been diving in the area before (we've recently done Monterey though). We don't have the funds for boat trips. I'd appreciate knowing if any of these would be bad choices, or if there's any "must dive" sites I've overlooked:

Laguna Beach area:
Crescent Bay
Shaw's Cove
Fisherman's Cove
Divers' Cove
Rocky Beach
Woods Cove
Moss Cove

La Jolla Area:
La Jolla Canyon/Shores
Marine Room
Goldfish Point
La Jolla Cove
Children's Pool

If you see a couple vehicles with Utah license plates at any of your local dive sites, feel free to say hi and/or join us for a dive!

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[ligersandtions]

I can only give you some advice on the Laguna sites, as I have not made it out to La Jolla yet.

Crescent Bay - great dive site with facilities! You can do either Seal Rock, or make the long swim out to Deadman's....but if you choose to go to Deadman's, you may want to see if you can get a local diver to go out with you cause it can be missed...

Shaw's Cove - fantastic site, with absolutely no possibility of getting lost! The problem with it is that it's a simple entry/exit, which means that it's usually fairly crowded, and sometimes with a bunch of classes. Unfortunately, it does not have facilities.

Woods Cove and Moss St - both are great sites that are off the beaten path. However, neither have facilities, AND if the conditions are not right, the entry/exit can be scary at best, dangerous at worst.

Heisler is another good site - the reef is easy to find, the entry/exit is simple, and there are facilities there. Unfortunately, it's another very popular and sometimes crowded site.

All the sites in Laguna are fairly shallow - if you want to be deeper than 40 feet or so, you have to swim a long ways, or you need to bring your shovel.

Enjoy your socal diving! I'm sure you will have a great time!

 

[Teamcasa]

La Jolla Area:
La Jolla Canyon/Shores
Marine Room
Goldfish Point
La Jolla Cove
Children's Pool

If you see a couple vehicles with Utah license plates at any of your local dive sites, feel free to say hi and/or join us for a dive!

Thanks for any suggestions!

I hope to be diving with my wife and some other ScubaBoard friends Thursday in La Jolla - I hope we run into you and your group!

 

[muddiver]

I like Woods because it has a lot of rock and eel grass in shallow so you dont have to swim way out to get good visability. Conditions at have been pretty good this week. Laguna Sea Sports has the conditions posted on their site and it is a good indicator of what you will get.

I also agree the Cresent and Shaw's Cove are really well known and tend to by very busy so parking can be difficult. If you want to dive there you need to arrive eariely.

 

[calwolf]

If you want to dive there you need to arrive early.

I've read a lot of statements like this about the area... is it true on weekdays also, or is it easier to find parking then? (compared to weekends, when I'm sure it's packed)

 

[ligersandtions]

From what I've seen, week days are usually okay in terms of parking....with the exception of some Fridays. It seems that all of socal has Fridays off and choose that day to clog up the freeways and the beaches....sigh.