Dana Point CA Diving

The Dana Point-San Clemente area is a beautiful place, nothing like LA yet only 45 mins away.

Dove today in Cali for the first time ever, 70 degree water, 25' vis, not bad at all for Cali standards, not much fish though, no YT or WSB, just got a couple of bass and a CA sheephead. Saw tons of lobsters but they are out of season. we were diving the kelp in 50-60'.

I dove in a 5mm top/3mm bottom, I was expecting low-mid 60s, but it was unusually warm for them, not for me! Interesting point about their style of diving, everyone wears lots of lead, for example, 16lbs with a 3mm, 18 lbs with a 5mm. they thought I was crazy when I only had 10lbs for my 5/3 combo. the thing is most of their diving in the kelp is in the top 25-30' of the column, they almost sink from the surface. anyways, I asked them, what if you had to make a dive to 60' for any reason?? weird.

It was a nice a experience, made some good connections. dove with Jeff, who told me he had met Gerald.

Quote from hau

oto---nice report
What is it like diving in the kelp?

diving in the kelp was eerie, but I found it very relaxing. basically you got these trees coming up from 60' to the surface, I found myself doing pretty long dives despite the cold water and average vis.

diving with a float line and float does not work in the kelp, you have to use a reel, I had brought 2 guns, one with reel, one with float/line setup, I could only use the reel setup, otherwise you'll spend all day untangling the line from the kelp. the current was mild.

there are sea urchins all over the ocean floor, I had to be careful to pick my landing spots when diving to the bottom, they also have these starfish on steroids! some were probably 2 feet in diameter!

Quote from pargo

Were you thinking about GWS?

sometimes, when sitting at the bottom the vis was a little worse than on top, the thought crossed my mind, so I kept looking in every direction.
the guys said there have been a few gws sightings in the area.