Kris,
The boat left from the fisherman pier (not too far from Breakwater). It's just a boat dive. The boat goes out, anchor, and divers jump in. Then when the diver surface, we do a little swim back to the boat where the crew helps the divers get back in. There were no divemasters (guides) on the dive. In our group, we paired up in buddy teams. However, one team was with three divers since our group adopted a really nice diver (Tom?) who turned out to be very helpful.
My first dive wasn't that great and only lasted 17 minutes. My wife was having problem descending in her new drysuit. Also - the surge was really strong, and we kept on fighting it. My tank (LP steel 80) only had 2400psi. The second dive was much better with a lot less surge. They also filled my tank to about 2600 psi. Our third dive, lasted quite a bit longer since this time, my tank was filled to 3000psi and we learned not to fight the surge.
It was also great meeting so many divers from Davis as well. BTW - if anyone is from the Davis area, we have a mailing list started. Just PM me if you want to be on the list.
Minh