Do you Scuba?

airinhere

New member
I just finished my PADI open water certification at Bear river resivoir and am looking to see if anyone local here would like to go diving off the coast.
I had so much fun diving last weekend and cant wait to get wet again.
I am thinking that probably Sunday, I could easily break away and go dive for the afternoon.
If anyone else is down for going, just let me know. I still have all my rental gear until the 8th, so I hate to just let it sit and not use it.
 
I camp at bear river often, very beautiful place. i take my jetskis also when the water warms up. They also rent canoes and have a resort. I prefer to camp on the national forest side, its free and far away from all the "resort" type campers. They also have very good trout fishing if you like to troll. I dont dive, just thought i would spread the word one of the nice lakes i frequently camp at. :)
 
Bear River was great. Very busy last weekend though. (And about a hundred scuba divers showing up didnt help any.)
 
I am looking at diving In two possible locations.

Van Damme (near Albion) if we go north towards Ft. Bragg.
Monterey: Either Metridium Fields or the Coast Guard Pier.

Van Damme is about a 4 hour drive, Either Monterey spot is right at 3 hours travel.
 
I am in the middle of the certification class now - pool stuff this weekend, Monterey the following. Paul and I are planning on doing a couple more dives Sunday and possibly staying the night and have fun Monday as well since we are already there. I know its a couple weeks out - just thought I throw out the idea.

I have all my gear on order, should arrive on Thursday. If you are up for it, I know I am looking to get a couple dives in before my Florida dive trip in Sept.
 
My wife, my daughter (12 years old) and I scuba dive. We usually go out to Monterey to do our dives. Coast Guard Pier (aka Breakwater, aka San Carlos Beach) is actually a pretty nice place to dive when no If you dive along the pier, there is a lot of life. During certain part of the years, you will have sea lions and seas swimming all around you. students are kicking up the silt. I heard that Breakwater is a great place to do night diving as well. Unfortunately, Stacy won't do a night dive because of her bad experience with night diving in Cozumel (extremely strong current during our night dive).

The Metridium Fields really isn't all that spectacular. It's one of those place you dive once just so you can experience it.

Another good place to dive is Pt. Lobos - which limits the site to 15 dive pairs per day. It can be crazy on weekends, but you can usually get in without reservation during the middle of the week.

For Monterey diving, I often do a day trip (yes, I am insane). I head out around 5 AM, do two or three dives, and head back around 3 PM.

Note that if you dive a lake that is busy with boat traffic, you should have a float with the diver flag. At least have a SMB when you are on the surface so that boaters can see you.

Minh

PS - for gear rental, you might want to check out Sport Chalet. They have newer and cleaner gears for rental. They appear to turn over their rental equipment more often than other places. However, I still take my classes and purchase most of my gears at Dolphin Scuba.
 
Thanks for the tips Minh!

BTW - whats the verdict on the tanks - buy or not to buy? I have just about everything else but did not make up my mind on this stuff. (sorry Arin - not trying to hijack completely)

I am interested in night diving too - but only if I could go with somebody experienced the first couple of times.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10456961#post10456961 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefugee
PS - where do you want to go on Sunday? I might be up to doing some dive.

Dude, seriously I know I for one will be easy to please being a newbie. I know Paul and I will be wrapping up our cert class midday Sunday the 11th and be in Monterey. We are looking to do some additional diving that day - possible night dive, and some more Monday. I still have to check with my work schedule before I can commit on these days - just planning at this point.

Airinhere, what do you think - will you be avail/up for some diving Sunday/Monday?
 
Tank or no tank? Depends on how much diving you do. Are you happy with the tank that you can rent? Most places rent AL80. I personally don't like AL tanks, and want to get a HP Steel 80 (maybe 100). Remember, that when you own a tank, you have to get it hydro'd every 5 years and visually inspected every year. I think the cost of a vis is around $17 and hydro testing is about $35 (don't quote me on these though). The nice part of owning a tank is that you can just toss the tank in your car at anytime and go diving. No need to try to arrange rental.

If you travel for your diving, there is no need to purchase a tank. You can't take tanks with you on airplanes unless you remove the valve. If you travel, you are going to rent the tank wherever you are going.

I can't dive the weekend of the 10th/11th. I am migrating my mail server over to Exchange 2007, and can't make the commitment to anything else. :(

Night diving at Breakwater will be easy. There is usually very little surge. It's hard to get lost. In a worst case scenario, you just take a compass heading towards shore. But I don't know if I would do a night dive with a bunch of newbies. You have to be pretty comfortable with your buoyancy, and I'd hate to task load a new diver.
 
I am thinking of heading out early. Dive around 10 am and leave around 3 or 4 pm. I have work on Mondays, but Sunday I would be down to go diving and I could try to get the Monday off. I will PM everyone so we can talk further and iron out details.

I fully promote Sports Chalet. Did my classes through them and Don (Sports Chalets divemaster) is a great instructor and the gear is in very good condition.

Anyone else interested?
 
Airin,
I'm in! Sunday works for me. My vote is to go to the closer spot so we have more time to dive, etc.
Rene
 
Sounds like the vote is for Monterey.

Pt Lobos would be a good, and we can try to get reservations. But we will need to quickly find out how many people want to go and then get reservations right away.

Option number two is the Coast Guard Pier (Breakwater) I know this one will be available.
 
There is no way you can get reservation for Pt Lobos for this weekend. During the spring, summer, and early fall month, the weekend reservation is typically two months out. During the winter - you can get reservation pretty easily.
 
FYI...

In case I gave impressions to the contrary, the earliest I could possibly dive would be next weekend the Sunday I complete my certification program - as in August 11.
 
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This is kinda off the topic, but I'm going to Thailand in March. I've never scuba dived before, but I think I am going to give it a try. It's only like 15 bucks on kho chang. I'm at least going to snorkel.
 
Well then its the:
Coast Guard Pier.
Sunday, Aug 5th
Head out from Elk Grove @ 7am.
I am on Elk Grove Blvd and Franklin.
have room for 5 people in my Explorer.
(Unless someone else has a smoother ride.)

Anyone else wanting to go, just pm me or chime in.

And Mr MikeB, I am tracking fully on y'all's situation.

The following weekend (aug 11-12) Looks like there will be a second trip.

Pbetito and MrMikeB are going to be in Monterey already and I will be driving down there on Sunday @ 9am (noon arrival) to meet up with them and dive for the rest of the afternoon.

Maybe a night dive...

And then maybe Monday as well. (Try to play hooky from work.)
 
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