Suggestions on San Diego diving

[diversteve]

Might change your mind when you're out in this:

View attachment 203270

credit: Kelp Forest | San Diego Divers

 

[drrich2]

If you're going to be in San Diego anyway, smart money says book a dive boat, and you either dive, or they cancel and you get your money back and take advantage of one of the local land attractions. You might be out the cost of tank rental?

What I'd like to know is how San Diego stacks up as a 'flying tourist' destination for diving. If the Channel Islands are the cream of the California diving crop, let's go with that. Let's say someone who'd need to plan months in advance and fly in was trying to decide between flying to San Diego and diving with Water Horse Charters, or Santa Barbara and diving with Truth Aquatics (just picking ops. that seem to have a good name on the forum), hoping for a 2 or 3 day Channel Islands trip, where is the go to place?

Richard.

 

[jscan1]

I agree, if you are here over a few weekends, you'll almost surely find dive able conditions!

 

[Power Scuba]

What I'd like to know is how San Diego stacks up as a 'flying tourist' destination for diving. If the Channel Islands are the cream of the California diving crop, let's go with that. Let's say someone who'd need to plan months in advance and fly in was trying to decide between flying to San Diego and diving with Water Horse Charters, or Santa Barbara and diving with Truth Aquatics (just picking ops. that seem to have a good name on the forum), hoping for a 2 or 3 day Channel Islands trip, where is the go to place?

Seeing as how Waterhorse does not go to the Channel Islands, if the islands are where you wanna head then you should opt for a boat that goes there: Horizon (San Diego), Pac Star, Great Escape, or Magician (San Pedro/Los Angeles), Peace or one of the Truth Aquatics fleet (Ventura et al).

And yes, flying in and wanting to put money down as a betting man, I would opt for one or more of the Channel Islands as my destination of choice. (Boats from ALL over SoCal leave for these islands, which span the length of much of the SoCal Coast.)

That's not to say people don't fly into SoCal from all over the country to experience other diving destinations. They do. The Yukon wreck/Point Loma Kelp Beds (San Diego), oil rigs (Long Beach), Palawan wreck (Palos Verdes) and a HOST of other sites draw people here... but admittedly not in the numbers you see elsewhere like the Keys, etc. Our more-variable conditions are indeed the limiting factor. Many local divers would say this is a good thing, else we'd be overrun like some other stateside dive locations.

Bill

 

[KevinG58]

Don't get too worried about weather in May. Although most of my diving is on the central coast, a bit north of Diego, California coastal weather doesn't stop the diving too often once spring rolls around. I'm scheduled to dive wreck alley early May, myself

 

[scubadada]

If you're going to be in San Diego anyway, smart money says book a dive boat, and you either dive, or they cancel and you get your money back and take advantage of one of the local land attractions. You might be out the cost of tank rental?

What I'd like to know is how San Diego stacks up as a 'flying tourist' destination for diving. If the Channel Islands are the cream of the California diving crop, let's go with that. Let's say someone who'd need to plan months in advance and fly in was trying to decide between flying to San Diego and diving with Water Horse Charters, or Santa Barbara and diving with Truth Aquatics (just picking ops. that seem to have a good name on the forum), hoping for a 2 or 3 day Channel Islands trip, where is the go to place?

Richard.

All of my dive trips to San Diego were also business trips (medical conferences). I go several days early and hope to get in some diving. In general, I've been very successful, 36 dives in 6 trips. On the days when I did not get to dive I walked on the beach, rode bicycles, toured the USS Midway (that was a blast), went to the zoo (one of the finest), and visited my old haunts at UCSD. Many things worse than being in SoCal. I also had a niece living in Carlsbad until a few years ago.

Personally, I would not plan a dedicated dive trip to San Diego but I sure would take advantage of the opportunity to dive there if it was available. So many places to dive...

 

[drrich2]

Good to know. My dance card's full this year, but Lord willing and providing as He has before, I hope to get in a couple of dive trips in 2016. If the live-aboard this year goes well, perhaps another, or back to Bonaire? But that would leave one 'scuba trip disguised as a family vacation' (as my wife calls them), somewhere I can take a wife, toddler and mother-in-law and they can do tourist stuff while I dive a couple tanks/day for 5 days. So far, I've hit Key Largo & Jupiter this way, and hope to hit Morehead, North Carolina later this summer.

Thing is, trying to get a feel for the California diving scene from southwestern KY is tough, just like it was with Florida. Based on water temps., I wouldn't head for North California without a compelling reason. I'd probably aim for boat diving. Out of all the diving, shore, Casino Point (Catalina), etc…, seems like the Channel Islands 'get the nod' as maybe the 'best' if one is only going to hit one area. And there are 3 day live-aboard trips it seems.

Now I'm trying to get a handle on Santa Barbara vs. San Diego as a 'home base.' A huge city has its perks, if killer traffic & mind-numbing urban complexity don't run you into the ground (we're not big city people).

I might never make it out to California, but I'd like to have a better handle on the dive destinations there either way.

Richard.

 

[Sheri SGR]

you could always buy a hooded vest - that would make a two dive day comfortable enough. Priceline hotel....

Or look for a boat that offers sleeping onboard the night before like many of the boats in Ventura / Santa Barbara county offer. Not sure if there are any boats that do two day liveaborpards in San Diego but that would make the expense much more reasonable.

or skip the boat and beach dive, it's nearly free. power scuba does a lot of local dives so you can find a buddy and insure a fun, safe time.