Hello from Santa Cruz, CA

[TGard82]

Hello everyone,
been gearing up try my hand at spearfishing and have been reading a lot of posts on this site, thought I would take a moment to say hi. If anyone lives in/near santa cruz I would love to hook up with some hopefully more knowledgeable people who could help show me the ropes of spearfishing. Hopefully soon I will be able to post some pics of some fish that I will catch.

Cheers

 

[BatRay]

Hi, and welcome to the forums! I'm not a Santa Cruz native, but I know the area pretty well. Which dive shop are you using over there? Hop on over to the California/West Coast forums for more networking opportunities. Again, welcome, and I hope you find spearing buddies.

 

[Silentspear]

I'm new too, right in Point Loma...

 

[TGard82]

I've been using aqua safari to get all my dive gear. Let me know if you ever make it up this way from point loma

 

[BatRay]

Hello, Silentspear. Welcome to the forums! TGard, where do you tend to dive? Is there a spot in Santa Cruz that you use, or do you tend to go elsewhere?

 

[TGard82]

Kind of new to the whole diving thing, been going off west cliff, primarily weekends, but have been thinking about making a trip over to monterey cuz i hear there is a lot better viz over there

 

[BatRay]

West Cliff, as in where the surfers are? I have thought about diving there, but the currents seem pretty strong. Viz in Monterey can be pretty nice, but it can change quickly. I've had some nice dives there

 

[TGard82]

More towards natural bridges, there are lots of little beaches along the way that are exposed at low tide, which is a short swim out to the kelp beds which are 20-40ft deep, on a calm day viz isn't bad there, and i always see tons of birds out there so im assuming there would be fish out there too

 

[BatRay]

Have you had success out there? You're right - there are a lot of birds and kelp beds, but I always assumed that the viz wasn't so great. Plus the numerous memorial benches kinda put me off. However, the kelp in that area does look awfully inviting...

Just a suggestion - the Monterey Tritons are right down the coast from you. They are a conservation-minded freedive spearo club, and they might be just the ticket. Also, feel free to head over to the California/West Coast spearo forum. Bill McIntyre has a lot of great hunting advice in there.

 

[twentytwomonk]

Thanks for the nod, m'lady.

Yes, we do have a club right down the road. Check out our website, montereybaytritons.com, as well as looking us up on spearboard.com. Or if you need a dive partner or have any questions, feel free to drop me a line!

 

[TGard82]

Haven't caught anything out there yet, ive only actually been out there once, and the viz was garbage, and my brilliant diving buddy had on a spring suit.... so we weren't out too long. On a clear day with calm seas you can almost see the bottom from the cliffs though, ill let you know how it looks out there when it is calm, as far as the memorial beaches go, i just figure that whoever the beaches are dedicated to must have loved the ocean a lot for their friends/family to dedicate a beach to them, so I don't think they would mind people using them to gain access to the ocean

 

[agbiv]

Welcome from Texas! Enjoy the learning curve, stay safe & never dive alone.