CopyRight @ 1997
California has near 1000 miles of shoreline, eight large
islands, abundant sea life and lush beautiful diving. And that is
not even to mention the incredible scenery along the shore.
Some people think that its cool water is a drawback. I say,
far from it. In warm tropical seas, the water can not hold large
amounts of the nutrients needed for sea life. While coral reefs
have amazing variety and beauty, they are a thin layer of life on
the rocks and old coral. The water is pleasantly clear, but that
is due to the lack of life. On the other hand, cold water is
often cloudy, but it is caused by an over abundance of life. The
cold water algae forest is so thick on the rocks that it can
become dark and almost impassable. There is far more habitat for
life than in the nutrient poor warmer waters. Of course, there
sure is a lot to be said for warm water diving, but I'll let you
figure that out.
Sometimes the diving in California can be just about as easy
and only a bit cooler than tropical diving. Say Catalina in
summer. Sometimes it is frigid and extremely challenging. Try
Santa Cruz anytime. There are interesting reasons to dive at
night in California as well.
This will try to describe California diving from the southern
end of the state around San Diego, to the Channel Islands and on
up to the Abalone hunting in Northern California. I will also try
to describe some of the shoreline and other features of California
that make it a very special place.
This tries to tell the stories of what were excellent diving,
hunting and scenic journeys. It is both to amuse with interesting
tales and to inform with specific information about dive sites.
Realize, most places that I describe are about diving on the
rocky reefs. This is for a few reasons, but consider that for
every rocky reef, there are nearby sandy ecologies that are
teaming with curious life.
The cold water kelp forest is generally not as fragile as
the coral reefs. If you touch coral, you have likely killed it
and it grows back slowly. The cold water reefs are mostly covered
with algae. Generally, touching them does not kill anything.
Also, kelp is the fastest growing plant that there is. I often
pull my way along the bottom, holding on to rocks or kelp
holdfasts. True, there are things like hydrocorals that are as
fragile as warm water coral, but these are far more uncommon.
Anyway, if you do get careless about banging around, there is
always Mr. Urchin to remind you. It is fun riding the surge
through narrow channels and cracks. In warm water it would leave
a path of destruction. In cold water, it leaves no footprints
behind.
Along the shores of California, it usually isn't a question of
where is the diving. It is a question of how to get to the shore
to go diving.
Most of the California shoreline has good diving, plus what is
farther off shore. It can just be
hard to get access to the shore due to either development, remoteness or
cliffs, so references to dive spots in this guide, are
often actually references of how to get to them... or the best of them.
For those of you reading from out of state, consider that in California and more so as you go south, place names are in Spanish. The Mexicans were the first to widely explore the area and most of the names remain. They seem to make good enough names, though some meanings are a bit mundane. El Segundo, where most American satellites used to be made, means The Swamp......
I am writing all of this page from memory. More than once I have made a bet that if you show me a picture of any part of the California coast, I can tell you where it is. I have not lost the bet yet. I love the California coast.
Really, I guess that this should start in Mexico, but it
won't. South of the border is lots of good diving much like
California, but I will cover it in another place.
The charts show major areas of rocky reef off of the sandy
beaches just north of the border. There tends to be pollution
problems there and I have not dove on it. Actually, they are
probably good reefs that do not see many divers.
Where the diving probably really starts is Point Loma. Go by
boat. It is the headland between San Diego Harbor and Mission Bay.
This is basically a mountain about 4 miles long that sticks out
enough to make San Diego Bay. All along this shore is an enormous
kelp beds that extend miles off shore. The bottom is rocky and
slopes gently to about 100 feet, then drops off to about 200+ at
what is called the Seacliff. It is a huge area, but has been heavily
dove. Also, while much of the terrain is good, also much of it is
flat. There is an underwater sewer pipe that is good diving as well
as New Hope Rock. These both have there own stories elsewhere in here.
Diving here is fun for a few reasons. This is an enormous kelp bed.
Relaxing in the kelp in my boat, Huntress, I have seen Gray Whales,
Porpoises and California Sea Lions, all just passing by within 30
feet or closer. There are lots of different birds as well. On a local
fishing boat, I have seen the deckhands try to free gaff big
Yellowtail that were swimming next to the boat. Vis here is not always
great, but 20 or 30 feet is common enough.
In the San Diego area, the best local boat is undoubtedly the
Lois Ann. They are set up to handle travelers really well and make it
extremely convenient to make your dive with NITROX. One Eyed Jack is
also good. The best longer range boats are probably the Horizon and
her sister, Ocean Odyssey. They go South to Mexico and north to San
Clemente Island or even the Cortez Banks.
The waters of San Diego do warm up to perhaps 70 f. in summer,
but there is much influence from the cold California Current that
hits most of Northern Baja. This both limits the vis and provides for
abundant life. I doubt that the water would get much below 54 f.
very often. This relatively warm water regularly attracts Yellowtail
and sometimes Tuna.
Off of Mission Bay, there are some fascinating reefs out in
the sand and this is the location of Wreck Alley. In about 50 to 70
feet of water, are 8 wrecks of varying sizes that were sunk primarily
for divers. These include the 165 foot Coast Guard cutter Ruby E and
a kelp harvester, the Del Rey. Recently, the 350+ foot destroyer
Yukon was sunk (or sank, depending on how you look at it) in about 100
feet there as well, though it will be many years before it has the
beautiful growth of some of the older wrecks. These are neat dives and
the wrecks are
covered with beautiful filter feeders, prettiest of which is the small
colorful Corynactis anemone. This is a great night dive. The critters
come out and large fish just sit out the night.
Some good stories about the diving of Wreck Alley and San Diego Area are at
San Diego is very dry. while it is just a bit south of Los
Angeles, it is dryer. This is desert. If you come to San Diego,
think about the zoo and its partner, the Wild Animal Park. Nearby are
a number of wineries. There is lots more to do on land as well. If
you can't dive and you really have a need, there is always SeaWorld,
which is great for kids.
North of Mission Bay is La Jolla, The Jewel. OK. It has some
neat diving. Much of it is a bit hard to get to from land, because
of the houses lining the beach, but there is access. Going by boat
is a better option if you can. This area is about 4 miles of rocky
shoreline that fans out into the water. It slopes slowly such that
it may be about 100 feet deep perhaps 3 miles from shore. It is a
huge healthy kelp bed, that is full of a variety of life. The reefs
can go on forever. You never know when you will find some rock pile
where anything could be in the next hole.
At the north end of La Jolla Underwater Park are some sandy
beaches where scuba classes often go. It is a great place to check
out small stingrays. It is also a good place to step carefully.
Swim off shore a ways and you can get into the Scripps Marine Canyon.
It is a bit fascinating in the day. It has steep sides of shale and
sand, so watch your depth. The real dive there though, is at night
when smaller pelagics come up the canyon. Diving during the squid
spawning season is quite an experience.
North of La Jolla the diving is similar for perhaps 70 miles.
There are beaches with occasional offshore reefs. These are only
lightly dove and are home to fish, lobster, abalone, scallops and
whatever rocky reef dweller you can imagine and are lucky enough
to see.
In Laguna, the reefs are more extensive and the lobster hunting
is the big thing in the season. This is where the competition between
the commercial lobster trappers and the sportdivers gets the hottest...
By Laguna the diving is quite different than in San Diego.
The water tends to be much clearer and is a bit warmer. This warm
spot represents a zone with similar diving, that includes from
San Clemente Beach to Palos Verdes as well as San Clemente,
Catalina, Santa Barbara and sometimes Anacapa Islands. The water
tends to be clearer and a bit warmer. The sea life is lush and greens
can be the commonest colors, especially shallow. I refer to this as
Catalina conditions. It represents good diving and vis, pretty much
all year.
In Laguna and the other southern beaches of Orange County,
there is lots of easy beach access to excellent clear water diving.
To dive at Dana Point, north of Laguna, a boat is the easiest way to
go.
North of that area, is Long Beach Harbor, LA Harbor and the
Palos Verdes Peninsula. These are lumped together, because they
make a region of similar diving. Long ago, Palos Verdes may have
been the finest California diving. Heavy fishing and pollution has
changed this, though there is still excellent diving there. Old
pictures of where the harbors are now, show offshore rocks that
look like there was some good diving. The harbor is not now what
you would call good diving, but there is some great exploring on a
number of reefs outside the breakwater. The largest of these reefs
is called the Horseshoe Kelp, but there are many other divable
spots around the area. A chart, GPS and a depth recorder are real
useful for finding these and you may still spend an entire dive
swimming over sand, but if you get on the reefs, they can be really
something. Vis is a luxury. Lobster hunting can be good, but
exploring is what this wide open area is a natural for. Much of
it is at around 90 feet and it is completely in the open, so care
must be taken. You never know what you will find.
Numerous charter dive boats are based out of Long Beach and
San Pedro harbors. You can hook up with them through dive shops and
the California Links Page includes links to most of the California
Dive Boats.
Try The Great Escape, Mr. C, The Bottom Scratcher, The Sand Dollar, The
Encore, The Westerly and others.
Off of Palos Verdes itself, are extensive reefs and kelp
beds. Many years ago, a diver was coming into the surf across
rocks at night and came upon a 17 pound lobster. Yah! There is
some beach access, but it can be hard. Next to where Marineland
was, is one path commonly used by divers, that was the first place
that I heard called "Cardiac Hill". It is a very big area of reef
and there is some very pretty diving out there.
I had a memorable night of diving there once when I went
without ever seeing the spot in the day. We could not dive our
primary site, so we ended up there. Good dive. We headed towards
shore, then Johnny said he didn't remember the way out...
Now the Palos Verdes Peninsula is a mountain, about 8 miles
across, in the middle of the Los Angeles shoreline. It sticks out
quite a bit and is a point where the coast turns north pretty
sharply. North of the Peninsula is Santa Monica Bay. This huge
sandy bay extends along perhaps 60 miles of shoreline, up to Malibu.
This is LA. There is going to be wear and pollution problems. It
has gotten much better than it was, because of aggressive
anti-pollution policy development and enforcement. Actually, a fair
number of divers, mostly locals, do some real respectable diving all
through the area. A lot of halibut are taken along the sandy shores.
Local divers also widely participate in underwater cleanups near piers
and harbors as well as off the beaches. There are artificial and some
natural rock piles in the bay, but they don't get too many divers. I
never did make a night dive on the Santa Monica Breakwater. I meant to.
Where Santa Monica Bay finishes curving to the west is the
start of Malibu. Call it at Big Rock Canyon or maybe at the end of
Sunset Blvd., where kelp is starting to come back with the cleaning
of the bay. In any case, this is the start of another large diving
area that potentially extends to Point Magu up the coast.
The Malibu area is its own region of diving. It has great
variety. It's really where I learned to dive.
There is an extensive description of this area in
Free Diving - Malibu Area.
Suffice to say that as you progress out of LA, going up the
coast, the hiway goes along the beaches and through brush covered
coastal hills. There is great diving all along there, though reefs
become uncommon as you get nearer to Point Magu. Sand diving at
Zuma Beach is terrific.
I must put in a tale about climbing Point Magu at night in
warm Santana winds and looking at the patterns of waves reflecting
in the dawn light.
The coast turns sharply north again along the beaches of
Oxnard and Ventura. It is mostly sandy beaches and I have usually
only gone in the water there to surf, but there is a popular dive
site just south of Port Hueneme Harbor at La Janelle State Park.
This is a breakwater made partly with the hull of the ship La
Janelle, that went aground there. Apparently, the superstructure
of the ship is in deeper water and is diveable as well.
In the harbors there, are numerous dive boats that make trips
to the Channel Islands. The dive boats that dock here include the
Liberty, Aqua Ventures, Spectre and my favorite boat on the coast,
the Peace out of Ventura. The other pages of this site, say much
about the Peace.
For those that might not know, on the Pacific Coast of the
United States and I think it is so on the Atlantic Coast as well,
the coast hiway is officially Hiway 1. Hiway 101 is the hiway
that follows this route, but is really made for interstate travel
more than for beach access. They are often the same, as in Ventura,
but they may be more than 50 miles apart, as at Big Sur or in Marin
County. It can be a challenge to follow Hiway 1 at times. Hiway 1
is also known as Pacific Coast Hiway, especially where it goes
through LA, where it is also the street name. Some of this hiway
follows El Camino Real, "The Road of the Kings", which was the
Spanish hiway up the coast, that was serviced by the California
Missions. Most of Hiway 1 is beautifully scenic.
The further you get from LA, the more pristine the diving.
In southern Malibu, a dive may be like going through a well used
urban park. You see lots of signs of divers that have been there
before. By the time you get to County Line there are far fewer
divers. At Point Conception there are almost none.
Past Ventura is just Hiway 101 up the coast. Next marker is
Santa Barbara. There is a fair amount of diving along there, like
the oil islands, but it is most accessible to the locals. Off of
Carpenteria beach is one of the largest reef areas off of
California. These days it is rarely visited.
Santa Barbara is basically a tourist town and has the Santa
Barbara campus of the University of California. It is a really
pleasant town between the coast and the Santa Ynez Mountains.
Right off the beach from the City College is a large excellent
reef area where people do quite good on lobsters. It is a large
fascinating kelp bed with big rocky reefs extending along the
shore for over a mile. This reef is about as full as cracks, ledges
and crevices as you are going to find this side of Yellow Banks.
And you never know what is going to be in the next one.
In Santa Barbara is Truth Aquatics with the dive boats Truth,
Conception and Vision. These are large luxurious boats (around 85
feet) that can easily spend up to a week going to dive sites from
near Mexico, all the way up to Monterey. They do make a yearly
trip up to Monterey and a trip back, to allow diving on the almost
inaccessible big Sur Coast. These are the finest boats in
California. They make open day trips about 3 days a week. I
personally prefer the smaller Truth... These folks are good for
adventures.
As you go north from Santa Barbara, there are rocky reefs all
along the shore in various depths and places. Some are accessible
from shore, but most of it is across private property and would
need a boat. This area and the Channel Islands was the site of an
enormous Abalone industry. They used to get them by the tons. When
I was quite young, I remember at Refugio Beach, I saw these divers
come out from the shallow near shore reefs with literally bags of
big Red Abalone. I dove there years later and they were gone, but
I have found them in the area still.
Off of the Santa Barbara coastal area are many kelp beds
about a quarter mile out. Wheeler J. North, considered to be the
dean of California kelp bed researchers, says that this is the
only area where kelp grows in the mud instead of on rock. As such
there is very little cover for fish and fish populations are very
thin. It is a long swim and a dive worth missing. If you do find a
rocky reef there though, it may be a very special dive.
At Gaviota, the hiway turns inland around Point Conception and
Point Arguello. This whole area is generally called Point Conception
and is a mountainous region of rocky shores and beaches that end at
the sand dunes of Pismo Beach. The area is storm central. While
there is incredible diving, it is rather pristine, because it is
so hard to get to. There is pretty much no place to launch a boat
and most of the shore is inaccessible. Vandenburg Air Force Base
takes up much of the area and is the U.S. Pacific launch site.
They were going to launch the space shuttle from there. That I
want to see.
There is diving in the Point Conception area. Other pages on
this site, like:
Shark Party - Jalama
and
Land Of Mountain Waves - Point Sal
tell about some of the fun, but challenging diving in this area.
Also, near Point Conception is Hondo, where 7 destroyers ran
aground in the fog. Truth Aquatics boats go there occasionally.
Amongst those that know the area, Point Arguello is usually
known for its monster open ocean sharks.
More of the Coastal Guide