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Monastery Beach
Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced
At South Monastery Beach, a kelp forest surrounds a
shallow reef and drops off to a trench to the Northwest. This is a
great site for skills and intermediate/advanced exploration.
At North Monastery Beach, giant rocks plunge down to extreme depths.
This is one of the few dive sites here where deep water is
just a snorkel from the beach. At times the conditions are rough and suitable only for
divers with sufficient shore entry and cold water experience. When the conditions and visibility are good, this
is by far one of the best dive sites in Monterey. Golden
kelp forests stretch endlessly upward from the depths providing an awesome
opportunity for macrophotograph, and the kelp beds of the shallower depths are packed with
invertebrates like Spanish shawls, thick-horned aeolids, several species of
dendronotids and dorids. There are also encrusting orange and cobalt
sponges, sea stars, sea cucumbers, and bryozoans populating the
shallows.
Jade Cove
Advanced/Extreme
Cross a wide meadow, descend a steep trail, and
back down a 100-foot cliff before reaching the crashing waves. This
is brutal when you are wearing full gear, a tank, and 30 lbs. of
weight. Conditions can be ideal one day and the next, crashing waves
and treacherous currents. But the good news about bad days is that
it can sweep the bottom and reveal an undersea treasure found
nowhere else in the world - Big Sur Jade. A semi-precious nephrite.
Surfers and free-divers have been harvesting this treasure of the
central coast for over three decades. Divers just do it a little
deeper.
Point Lobos
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Macabee
Beginner/Intermediate
A great introduction to Monterey SCUBA. Just off Cannery
Row, this easily accessible beach dive
hosts a bottom that teems with life and one of our favorite friends
on the coast: a seal that acts more like a cocker spaniel puppy then
a wild animal, biting our fins and gazing into our masks before
darting off for a meal. And then he's back again.
Lover's Point
Beginner/Intermediate
Otters, seals, crabs frequent this beach, which is shared with a Kayak rental facility.
Snack bar and public restrooms nearby.
Free parking on the weekends. A great site for a rescue drills.
Otter Cove
Beginner/Intermediate
For those "in the know", Otter Cove has super easy, free parking
just a few steps up from its secluded little beach. I haven't really
scene many otters around but there always seems to be a seal or two.
Surging walls of sea grass on the north end sometimes resemble a
kaleidoscope of green motion. Yep, sometimes vertigo can be a beautiful thing.
Breakwater Cove
Beginner/Intermediate
On the weekends Breakwater is jam packed with dive classes. Parking
is roughly $10/day but there are restrooms, showers, and a couple of
dive shops in walking distance so you can get your tanks filled.
Great sandy patches for skills, and the wall of rocks
on the north end is an excellent spot for night diving. The South End features
the Metridian fields and is more of an advanced dive as it requires
a bit of navigation and air conservation.
Pt. Lobos - Whaler's Cove
Intermediate/Advanced
The protected waters that surround the Nature Reserve of Pt. Lobos
are teeming with life. The
weekends book up months in advance and you'll need a reservation, but the weekdays are usually not
a problem. Small parking lot with facilities, a boat ramp and no
beach sand make this one of the easiest entry points on the coast.
Surface swim out past the parking lot on your left and once you're
in the middle of the channel, set a heading for 220 degrees, drop
and follow the sand channel out - between the rocks. At around 75'
depth, well beneath the crashing surf is a giant anemone forest,
giant cod, nudibranchs galore, and sometimes even leapord sharks. If
Whaler's Cove leaves you wanting more, you can always explore the
other dive sites by
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