Venice Beach question for the experts

[TampaDiver68]

Hi, I'm a new member to the board looking for some Venice Beach guidance.

My girlfriend and I drove down yesterday morning for our first shark teeth hunting experience. Having no idea were to go, what to expect, or what to look for, we basically went to the parking lot on the north side of Venice Ave, swam out to the marker bouys and dropped down to about 19ft. Vis was bout 5ft. We did 2 dives, and I found about 35, she found about 100. Cool!

So here is my question: The majority of the time we were digging through about 12-18 inches of see grass/kelp, etc, which made visibility even worse. Is this common, or were we in the wrong place? Should we have gone further west? We pretty much hovered in a pretty small area, because everytime we ventured away we ended up in white sand.

We definitely want to make the trip again, but are looking for more true "boneyard" beds.

Should we have gone to the south side of the pavilion? Or perhaps a different beach?
Or perhaps by boat?

Thanks!

 

[Walter]

You did well for a first time, she did extremely well. Fossiling is a tad better off Alhambra, about ½ mile south of the public beach. To get there, as you're heading west on Venice Ave, turn left on Harbor (at the light). Turn right on the 5th street (Alhambra) and go to the end. Fossiling is excellent just about anywhere off that beach. I try to avoid patches of sea week, but it's not always possible.

 

[TampaDiver68]

Thanks Walter. Should we be looking at any particular depth at Alhambra (so I can determine how far out we should be going?)

I also saw mention of Service Club Park and Caspersen Beach. Any comments/pointers/suggestions on these locations?

And finally, since you seem to know the area, any good local restaurants (fresh fish, etc) for lunch after diving? We went to a place called Sharkys, and I wasn't all that impressed (perhaps just an off day). We like hole-in-the-walls with GOOD local food!

 

[Walter]

I've personally never had much luck at Service Club Park, but I've seen other folks haul out the megs. I've had fairly good luck about 100 yds south of the pier at Sharky's. I've found one tiny tooth at Caspersen.

 

[ReefGuy]

In a nutshell: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/fl...eefguys-venice-beach-tooth-finding-guide.html

 

[mlynch21]

Back in my shorediving days i didn't know of scubaboard or service club park or alahambra... i just dove caspersen and i would come up with a few hundred teeth each time. It was quite a ways out to get to the decent teeth. I only found smaller megs and meg chunks though... I think i was going out a good bit further than the average shore diver. I think caspersen is dove much less that the others. I like those kind of places but you cant argue with some of the finds you see posted from the other sites.

 

[tlawler]

And finally, since you seem to know the area, any good local restaurants (fresh fish, etc) for lunch after diving? We went to a place called Sharkys, and I wasn't all that impressed (perhaps just an off day). We like hole-in-the-walls with GOOD local food!

Hands down, the best place to eat in the Venice area is Pop's Sunset Grille in Nokomis, just a little bit North of Venice. Head North on 41 from Venice and turn left on Albee Rd. right across from the Ford Dealership. Go down Albee until you see Gulf Harbor Marina. Turn left at Circuit Dr. You'll run right into it.

Sharkey's is a great place to sit around with friends and drink beer and eat pupus after a day of diving, but I think their food is over-rated. On a couple of occasions, I've ordered a dish there and wound up with it hot on the outside and cold in the middle. Which leads me to believe that they prepare dishes in advance, freeze them and heat them up to order. In short, ambiance=Sharkey's...great food=Pop's

 

[ChainSaw0069]

I havent eaten at Pops Sunset Grille yet but next trip I will try it. I will add that Captain Eddies is a great place to eat also.

 

[TampaDiver68]

We are heading out tommorrow morning from Tampa..... I had no idea there were boat races in Sarasota all weekend, and didn't find out about it until after we rented our non-refundeable tanks. Doh!

... hopefully the beaches and parking further south won't be that packed!

 

[dkramer]

I was at Alhambra this a.m. Viz was about 7 -10 ft, at 20 ft depth. My computer said water temp was 84. Parking will be okay if you get there early.