shale island

[Peter_C]

Seems like shale island would be a perfect candidate for a kayak dive. I'd take a dive flag, a hand held GPS like a little Garmin E-Trex, and maybe a handheld VHF radio.

All that territory off the Aquarium would be a great kayak dive too. I'm surprised more people don't use kayaks in Monterey or Lobos.

Eric is spot on. It is kinda amazing more people do not kayak dive in Monterey. Kayaks are fairly inexpensive, no maintenance, free launch, and easy to store. Plus the Monterey Bay is very conducive to kayak diving.

We have kayak dove off Monastery and that was easy enough. Lets you easily get to dive sites like Mono Lobos wall and other "boat only" sites. Although I think a few scooter divers have done Mono Lobo from shore. At Lobos you could dive most any site you wanted with a kayak.

 

[Adobo]

Seems like shale island would be a perfect candidate for a kayak dive. I'd take a dive flag, a hand held GPS like a little Garmin E-Trex, and maybe a handheld VHF radio.

All that territory off the Aquarium would be a great kayak dive too. I'm surprised more people don't use kayaks in Monterey or Lobos.

Kayak diving has always been a mystery to me. Do you have the same concerns with kayak diving as you would with say diving from a small boat which would be left unattended during the dive? Specifically:
- do you have to worry about securing the kayak such that you would find it at the end of the dive exactly where you left it at the beginning of the dive?
- do you have to make sure to dive up current of the kayak so you don't find yourself in a situation where you are down curren of the kayak at the end of the dive?
- for those of us who are navigationally challenged (like me), is there a need to run a reel during the dive?
- if a reel is required, what kind of gas planning do you employ?

I suspect that there are at least some key things to remember if doing a kayak dive. And yet I haven't seen any specialties or any kind of training that is offered in this type of diving.

Is kayak diving far simpler than what I am thinking?

 

[Anti-Hero]

I've tried diving off my kayak in our local water around town to see how it works, we wanted to test the viability for diving Monterey. It was a HUGE PITA. Part of my problem I believe is kayak related. I have a 10' Wilderness Systems Tarpon I use for river recreation, and it simply was too small to hold the amount of gear a cold water diver uses. It was literally popping a wheelie and was hard to steer and paddle.

We even had a rock island to dock at and use to gear up. I couldn't imagine trying to get all my gear on and sorted out on my kayak. A more stable ocean kayak might be a different story.

If I was going to dive Monterey from a kayak, I'd bring a small single tank, and a jacket BCD.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Kayak diving is a piece of cake and a joy.
I have a little anchor I made out of re-bar. It looks like a mexican rock anchor - 3 prong that kinda looks like a triple hook. On that I have about 6 feet of chain and then some line (about 100 feet) it's wound on a hand held spool and lives bungeed to the top of the bow. My rig is just a plate with an 18 lb wing, separate weight belt. When I get out to where I want to dive the first thing I do is straddle the kayak and scooch foreward an anchor. If the currents running the anchor will set and then I can see if there is any current by either tossing in another line and see if it goes out sideways. If there's significant current I pull up anchor and go somewhere else.

After the anchor is set and I ve decided to do it, I get my fins on, then I scooch back into the seat and lay down backwards and pull my weightbelt on. The alternate method would be to get in the water first then put your weight belt in the water by rolling it on. Next I pull my rig in the water off the back of the kayak and put it on and go diving. Super simple.

With kayaks it's all about keeping your center of gravity low. Getting back on would be like bellying back up onto a surf board. Once you pull yourself about half way up you stay low and pivot your body around, then turn over and flop yourself back in your seat.

Me and my kayak have been to a lot of places. If I had to give up either my boat or kayak I would honestly probably give up the boat. With kayaks there's no registration, gas, trailers, maintenance, tow vehicle and resulting decreased fuel economy while towing, etc.
Kayaks give you freedom and and I love the exercise.
They are a very green alternative.

I'd love to do a kayak seminar sometime down in Monterey. I'm not an instructor, but I could show people at least what I know and have learned in my kayak diving adventures.

I own an Ocean Kayak Scrambler XT that's about 10 years old and it's still in great shape.
West Marine has Ocean Kayak, and you can get a discount if you know someone with a port supply account.

 

[Peter_C]

My car gets about the same mileage towing my boat or with two kayaks on the roof. I prefer my Zodiac just because it can take 4 divers and go to most any dive site. Without it I would still be kayak diving or using my scooter.

I have two kayaks an Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro TW, that is one of the all time favorites, and a Hobie Revolution with the Mirage pedal drive system (Need to mount my Zodiacs Garmin on it). The Hobie is fast! Of course kelp stops it dead in it's tracks LOL The Hobie can carry double HP100's, and the weight does not phase it. The hard part is getting double back onboard without flipping it a couple of time and it requires two people. I use singles tanks, either HP100's or an HP130, which is what I have for single tanks (Off my boat I just use my doubles). I have a grapnel anchor with 3' of heavy chain, and about 200' of line. I have anchored in 100' of water before, fairly far off Monastery Beach. Awesome dive BTW!

No one I know is deco diving off an unattended boat or kayak. Just like diving off a boat the preferred method is to return to the anchor line. My boat has a thicker anchor line which helps locate it over the thinner kayak line (SMB off the bottom would make the kayak line easier to spot). The Sport Tracker is a nice toy to have for locating the boat, and although not considered by the DIR folks it will allow you to swim up under the boat even if you can not see the boat. Good navigation is the key to boat diving. The underwater GPS system coming is going to be interesting.

I keep a reel with #36 line (Came with 400' of #24) in my scuba gear at all times just in case I ever want to run a line.

One of the key things is to always make sure you can swim to shore in case something does go wrong. Anything inside the Monterey Bay is fairly safe and even off Monastery if you started drifting South you could always come out at Lobos. Of course most of you already know that.

At some point I have been considering getting an EPIRB to attach to my back plate because I do dive the more rugged and less traveled North Coast were the current can be strong.

Eric, if you ever do a free clinic so to speak, let me know. I could bring a couple of kayaks down and walk someone through the process on a dive. Aquarius on Del Monte has a kayak for rent too.

BTW if anyone wants to buy a hand held depth meter PM me.

 

[pacificgal]

Alright, 3048 ft. is a bit too far. I was trying to compare it to kicking out to the barge, twice, since isn't the 13 mark at about a quarter mile (i.e., 1300 ft?).
I enjoy kicking out to the end of the wall and wouldn't mind going twice as far, at least once
Now, considering having my buddy with me, I could most likely talk him into it, but would I want to carry/tow him a half mile back? That would take a long time and if he were in trouble enough where I would have to tow him, time is pretty important.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Global Mapper says 1316 feet to the Barge, one way.

 

[bbianchi]

I know ive been crazy a few times and swam to Mono Lobo... around the summer kelp. Quite a long swim .

 

[pacificgal]

Chuck, but that's a straight line from shore, right? Not along the wall and out?

 

[mikemill]

Looking at the aerial shot from the BAUE site I'd try to do it from the Del Monte Beach and not Breakwater (if I was going to do it at all). Quick measurements on screen show it as far from that beach as it is from the end of the Coast Guard pier.