My buddy and I dove San Diego for two days last November, prior to a Guadalupe shark trip. We enjoyed those dives as much as the Guadalupe trip itself. My two cents:
(1) La Jolla Cove is fantastic. We rented two tanks each for the cove, and ended up doing a nearly 2 hour dive on a single tank, so returned the second tank for a refund. When we got to the Cove, sea lions were hanging out on the rocks to the left of the cove, as we looked out to the water. We dove over to the vicinity of the rocks, and just waited for 5 minutes or so, and we had sea lions in the water around us for the next 20 mins, in less than 10 feet of water. You couldn't take a bad picture, and after a while I put down the camera and just enjoyed the interactions.
Here is a 2 minute video of that encounter, filmed by my buddy:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ShX1PdTpFsP2MPNx7
After playing with the sea lions a good while, we kicked out to the kelp beds further out on the left of the cove. You can spot them by the lobster traps that are visible from the surface -- the lobsters are attracted to the kelp, so the lobster traps are set where the kelp is growing. The kelp was 30 feet high.
Incredible diving, for the cost of an air tank rental!
(2) On the advice of a local dive shop, we went to the beach in front of the Marine Room restaurant, and found over a dozen leopard sharks right where the waves break. I don't know why they congregate there, but they do. You actually don't need scuba, you can just swim out to where the sharks are and spend an hour watching them with a mask and snorkel. The only thing about not having scuba is that you are condemned to shooting the sharks from above.
(3) We dove with the Lois Anne. We had mixed feelings about the dive boat. It's a nice boat, leaving from a nice marina, with a nitrox refill capability right on the boat, which is great. The mate, Chris, is very helpful. However, I found that the dive site selection left a lot to be desired. Rocky pinnacles with no kelp, no sea lions, very poor visibility, and about 15 degrees colder than La Jolla Cove. Lots of nudibranchs, which were cool if that's your thing -- I enjoyed them much more than my buddy. My buddy very uncharacteristically sat out the second dive, he was really put off by the cold, low viz, and lack of kelp/sea lions. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably skip the boat, and spend two days at the Cove. My buddy would definitely do that.
Happy to share any info on logistics and such, from the point of view of a two-day visitor, if anyone is interested.
