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Appeared on the front page as a feature article last week in the local five cities news paper. Written by a diver for those who maybe considering diving. Good boost for diving...
sdm
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Labor Day:
Weekend holiday may allow perfect opportunity to explore deep
By Josh Petray/Staff Writer, Five Cities Time/Press/Recorder (TPR)
According to local divers, harbor seals and sea lions, are a common sight along South County waters. Besides an abundance of sea life, the ambiance, accessibility and diversity of potential dive experiences draw people.
From Fossil Point to Pirates Cove to Thousand Steps, a plethora of scuba diving opportunities exist for the recreational sport scuba diver on the Central Coast.
For anyone in the Five Cities area who wants to get a glimpse of the underwater world that exists in our backyard, Labor Day weekend may be the ideal time to explore.
The sport seems to be catching on with the general public, according to local divers.
I think scuba diving is becoming quite popular,said Samuel Miller, a longtime diver, writer and scuba gear collector. It's a sport that has developed into a family activity, a vacation activity or a weekend activity.
With the proper facilities and proper promotion, this area could be a weekend destination for divers from throughout the state, he noted.
Terry Lilley, local scuba diver, added, Every square inch of water underwater here is covered with life. It's world-class diving here.
Bill Bookout, owner of Pismo Beach Dive Shop, noted, The Central Coast where we live has some of the best diving in the world its colder-water diving but we live here, and we should enjoy our backyard.
The doggish stare of a monkey-faced eel peering out of the crevice of an anemone-encrusted Shell Beach reef was just one reminder of the abundance of marine life present in South County waters on my own recent dive in an area referred to as Thousand Steps, around Dinosaur Caves Park.
Stark white matridium, fish-eating urticina, red and orange sponge, gopher and china rockfish, strawberry shells, kelp crab clinging to giant kelp, purple sea urchin buried in silver-dollar-sized holes in the reef and harbor seals frolicking to and fro, muzzle-to-mask, aren?t at all uncommon in local waters, according to local scuba divers.
The abundance of marine life alone, however, isn't what draws people for a below-the-surface experience.
It's the ambiance, accessibility and diversity of potential dive experiences.
We have a variety of underwater topography the sand, the rocks ... the reefs ... the piers, Miller said, ... easy entries and exits, great facilities for camping.
And if you're not going underwater to hunt, or take game on your own, he added, We have great seafood restaurants.
Equipped with a full, seven-millimeter-thick hooded wetsuit, about 3,000-pounds-per-square-inch of air and a full getup of scuba gear, braving the roughly 56-degree water didn?t become an issue, at least for me.
Perhaps one thing besides the elusive great white shark, though rarely observed in local waters that deters people from scuba diving South County water is its temperature.
The only drawback for this area is the cold water, said Miller.
And as Lilley put it, The sharks are flat-out not a problem. I have looked for them with my camera, trying to attract them underwater to get pictures, and I can't even attract them.
But with a drysuit or thick wetsuit and proper preparation, the cold doesn't have to be a factor, as the insulation of the neoprene-lined outfit will provide plenty of warmth, said Bookout.
Miller, a longtime diver who shares his stories through his writing, word-of-mouth and public speaking, said the local diving scene has changed over time.
It (South County) has gone from a diving capital to a has-been capital, he said, noting, The diving populous transitioned from homeboys diving offshore to diving in exotic places.
But if you put the near 80-degree water, visibility nearly the length of a football field and white-sand beaches found in remote scuba-diving destinations like Fiji and the Marshall Islands aside, there is hope for the local scuba-diving world and promise that it may grow in the future.
I know it's going to grow,said Bookout. Scuba diving is one of the biggest growing sports around, and as the technology for scuba diving advances, it makes it easier for even people in their 50s and 60s that have to never dove to dive today.
sdm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Labor Day:
Weekend holiday may allow perfect opportunity to explore deep
By Josh Petray/Staff Writer, Five Cities Time/Press/Recorder (TPR)
According to local divers, harbor seals and sea lions, are a common sight along South County waters. Besides an abundance of sea life, the ambiance, accessibility and diversity of potential dive experiences draw people.
From Fossil Point to Pirates Cove to Thousand Steps, a plethora of scuba diving opportunities exist for the recreational sport scuba diver on the Central Coast.
For anyone in the Five Cities area who wants to get a glimpse of the underwater world that exists in our backyard, Labor Day weekend may be the ideal time to explore.
The sport seems to be catching on with the general public, according to local divers.
I think scuba diving is becoming quite popular,said Samuel Miller, a longtime diver, writer and scuba gear collector. It's a sport that has developed into a family activity, a vacation activity or a weekend activity.
With the proper facilities and proper promotion, this area could be a weekend destination for divers from throughout the state, he noted.
Terry Lilley, local scuba diver, added, Every square inch of water underwater here is covered with life. It's world-class diving here.
Bill Bookout, owner of Pismo Beach Dive Shop, noted, The Central Coast where we live has some of the best diving in the world its colder-water diving but we live here, and we should enjoy our backyard.
The doggish stare of a monkey-faced eel peering out of the crevice of an anemone-encrusted Shell Beach reef was just one reminder of the abundance of marine life present in South County waters on my own recent dive in an area referred to as Thousand Steps, around Dinosaur Caves Park.
Stark white matridium, fish-eating urticina, red and orange sponge, gopher and china rockfish, strawberry shells, kelp crab clinging to giant kelp, purple sea urchin buried in silver-dollar-sized holes in the reef and harbor seals frolicking to and fro, muzzle-to-mask, aren?t at all uncommon in local waters, according to local scuba divers.
The abundance of marine life alone, however, isn't what draws people for a below-the-surface experience.
It's the ambiance, accessibility and diversity of potential dive experiences.
We have a variety of underwater topography the sand, the rocks ... the reefs ... the piers, Miller said, ... easy entries and exits, great facilities for camping.
And if you're not going underwater to hunt, or take game on your own, he added, We have great seafood restaurants.
Equipped with a full, seven-millimeter-thick hooded wetsuit, about 3,000-pounds-per-square-inch of air and a full getup of scuba gear, braving the roughly 56-degree water didn?t become an issue, at least for me.
Perhaps one thing besides the elusive great white shark, though rarely observed in local waters that deters people from scuba diving South County water is its temperature.
The only drawback for this area is the cold water, said Miller.
And as Lilley put it, The sharks are flat-out not a problem. I have looked for them with my camera, trying to attract them underwater to get pictures, and I can't even attract them.
But with a drysuit or thick wetsuit and proper preparation, the cold doesn't have to be a factor, as the insulation of the neoprene-lined outfit will provide plenty of warmth, said Bookout.
Miller, a longtime diver who shares his stories through his writing, word-of-mouth and public speaking, said the local diving scene has changed over time.
It (South County) has gone from a diving capital to a has-been capital, he said, noting, The diving populous transitioned from homeboys diving offshore to diving in exotic places.
But if you put the near 80-degree water, visibility nearly the length of a football field and white-sand beaches found in remote scuba-diving destinations like Fiji and the Marshall Islands aside, there is hope for the local scuba-diving world and promise that it may grow in the future.
I know it's going to grow,said Bookout. Scuba diving is one of the biggest growing sports around, and as the technology for scuba diving advances, it makes it easier for even people in their 50s and 60s that have to never dove to dive today.
