Nothing says summer like a road trip down the Southern California coast. Load up your Malibu and head south from the noise and lights of Hollywood and LA and you will find the pristine beaches of Southern California. Southern California is well serviced by reputable dive shops and frequented by travelers and locals alike. Drop below the water’s surface, beyond the surfers and sun worshipers and you will find rich kelp beds and thriving marine life. With easy entrances and good visibility, the Southern Californian coast has a dive site for everyone. Southern California diving can be enjoyed year round, so if you can’t get away for that Caribbean dive vacation, consider a quick jaunt down the California Coast.
Leo Carillo State Park
Carillo State Park offers all of the convenience of a State park (clean restrooms, camp grounds, free parking), as well as a variety of dive sites, with easy entries for SCUBA beginners. Though some of the dive site entries here are uncomplicated, don’t let that fool you into thinking this place is child’s play — large marine mammals are frequently sighted here, giving even the most seasoned diver a thrilling day of diving. There is also plenty of entertainment for non-divers, including tide pools and a sea cave for topside exploration.
Diver’s Cove
This dive site is teeming with marine life. In the shallows, enjoy anemones, starfish, and sea urchins, while deeper waters will introduce you to morays eels, octopus, and bat rays. Kelp forests and gorgonian fans sway in the current a few hundred feet offshore, and the abundance of aquatic life can be enjoyed thanks to government protection of this area from fishing and collectors, which also makes it a supreme site for snorkeling. A soft, sandy shore entry and relatively shallow depths makes this the perfect side for beginners.
Redondo Submarine Canyon
Redondo Submarine Canyon is a popular choice for instructors to take students and clients for checkout, night, and navigational dives due to the usually calm surf, and simple sandy beach access. The depths do plunge rather quickly once submerging to about 35 feet, dropping drastically to depths of about 90 feet, where the drop-off then becomes more gradual. Here can be found plentiful sea pens, sand dollars, schools of fish, sometimes larger pelagic species. Night diving offers a colorful palate of invertebrates and other small creatures that hide away during the daytime hours. Suitable for all experience levels of divers.
La Jolla Cove
La Jolla Cove is a favorite of divers from the San Diego area. Part of the La Jolla Park Ecological Reserve, this dive site is crawling with marine creatures. Thick kelp beds often hide schools of black sea bass, and horn sharks, bat rays and octopus are not uncommon at La Jolla Cove. The entry is fairly easy with a walk down a short flight of stairs followed by a brief swim. Visibility can vary wildly here, so it’s a good idea to check conditions before you gear up.
Reef Point
This Laguna Beach dive site is one of the best rocky coral reefs in Southern California. These waters are host to octopus, nudibranchs, blennies, moray eels, and tons of anemones, with interesting rock and coral formations that form swim-throughs and walls that are bursting with aquatic life. The entry can be a bit tricky, with a short hike and sometimes slippery rocks, and it is not advisable to begin the dive at low tide due to dangerous rocky reefs near the shoreline.
