Two questions from a complete Norcal Newbie

[JamesD]

Hey all,

Okay, been diving for about 4 years now, done quite a lot of diving in North Carolina (lake not ocean) and then a fair amount down in the Caribbean/Florida area.

I'm interested in doing some diving in both Northern and Southern California, but have a few questions

1. Is there any good diving in the San Francisco (immediate) area, basically I'm carless in San Francisco, and while I can get a car (rent) It would be quite nice to be able to dive right here, but I've no idea if anything around here is good

2. Wetsuits, I'm wondering if it's even worth playing with wetsuits, or going for a dry suit from one of the dive shops (I've been heading over to Bamboo Reef Divers so far) currently I have a 5mm and undervest (thing) and hood and gloves, but never dived in Northern (or southern) cal so ... not sure how good either of those will work.

3. Good dive clubs, any good San Francisco dive clubs with people willing to buddy, I used to have a great dive club in North Carolina but... that was there, this is here... new shops, new people..

Any other advice for someone coming from the warm sunny waters to cold as hell San Francisco?

 

[darkpup]

Hi James,

I'm not sure about the diving in San Francisco. We usually dive Monterey or the Ft. Bragg area up north.

Many people use 7mm wetsuits for diving in NorCal. The water temps in the late spring get colder due to the upswell from the deep (i.e. down to 48 degrees or so), but most of the time the water temps are in the 50 to 58 degree range. It was 54 degrees at Breakwater (Monterey) on Saturday.

With that said, after diving several years in a 7mm wetsuit, I now use a drysuit, and wouldn't go back if you paid me. I'm able to stay in 50 degree water for more than an hour, and I'm still toasty warm. Get much below 50 degrees, and I'm usually good for 45 minutes.

Chuck Triblet has a Yahoo Group for Bay Area divers, and it's a great resource.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ba_diving/

There's also BAUE (www.baue.org) for the tech divers in the area.

Hope this helps.

~ Jason

 

[D_O_H]

First, welcome to the bay area. I'm fairly new here too (about 3 years now), but have really been enjoying the diving. To answer a few of your questions:

1. I don't think there is anything in the immediate SF area that is diveable. At least, I've never heard of anyone diving around here. If you happen to find something, please speak up, as it would be awesome to be able to just jump in the bay somewhere. The closest spots to the city I have dove (dived?) is Monterey or north on the Sonoma coast. Sonoma coast is a little closer for me (I live in the Marina). I haven't done nearly as much diving up there as I have in Monterey, but in my limited experience, they are surprisingly different. N. Coast has had slightly colder water, a lot less visibility and slightly rougher conditions (this could just have been bad timing on my part). There is also a different variety of life up there than what I'm used to seeing in monterey (the most important being abalone, which are abundant up north and can be taken in season while freediving). I love both areas, but based on the diving alone, I prefer Monterey because it seems to have better dive sites and conditions.

2. I dove here (and in S. Cal) for a long time with just a wetsuit. I have recently upgraded to a dry suit, but I was very seldom uncomfortable in my wetsuit. If you're not the type of person who gets cold easily and don't want to deal with getting a drysuit, you should be fine most of the time w/a 7mm farmer john and a hood. If you get cold easily, you probably need a drysuit. My girlfriend freezes to death in a 7mm wetsuit (but she wears a 3mm full suit and a hood (!) in 80+ degree water, where I need no thermal protection).

3. I'm not sure about local dive clubs. Chuck's site (mentioned above) seems to pretty regularly have people looking for dive buddies. I've had some success posting in the N. Cal forum here, as well, though it's not the most populated of forums around here. I'm always up for a dive, schedule permitting, so feel free to shoot me a PM or post if you're looking to get a dive in. My schedule often sucks, but I try to dive as much as it will permit.

 

[Wristshot]

JamesD,

Welcome to the area.

1) The general concensus is that there is not much good diving in the immediate SF area. The area right outside the Golden Gate is called the "Red Triangle" (Golden Gate, Farralons (sp?) and one other are the corners) with high amount of Great White activity.

On the other hand, there is World Class diving just a couple hours away in Monterey. Of course when you are carless, that might as well be a million miles away.

2) For what it is worth, I would recommend going directly to a drysuit. I have a custom made 2 piece 7mm wetsuit and it does a good job, but I would like to upgrade my gear to include a drysuit. However, after spending the money on the custom wetsuit, it is difficult to spend the money on a drysuit. (one of these days).

One can definitely dive wet in Monterey (etc) but most people that have switched over to Dry have been much happier. You could save yourself some of my dilemma by going direct to dry.

3) There are a few clubs in my area, but I don't know of ones in your area. Chuck's group and pages are excellent sources of information and contacts. There are often clubs loosely affiliated with some dive shops, so I would suggest that you start there. You might be able to find some people willing to take passengers in exchange for some help with the $3 a gallon.

Good Luck, and enjoy!


Wristshot

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Lot's of info here:
http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/ba_diving/
including a complete (I hope, if I missed one, please PM me) list of bay area dive clubs.

In San Francisco, I can off hand think of two dive clubs:
SF Reef Divers, and Rainbow Divers (gay and lesbian). Both seem to be a good bunch.

I'd suggest renting a wetsuit first. Then you'll appreciate the drysuit and won't regret
the price. ;-) There are a few shops the rent drysuits, but you have to have a
drysuit cert. Almost all are DUI, so you should be able to track them down via the
DUI website.

I think Bamboo Reef is the only dive shop in SF.