So. Cal. Channel Islands

[Capt. Morgan]

My wife and I are looking at a trip to the Channel Islands. The plan is to hop aboard a live-aboard for a 3-5 day trip. Our main destination would be Santa Barbara Island to dive with the Sea Lions. Has anyone had experience with this? Any suggestions? And are there any operators out of Santa Barbara or are they only out of San Diego? Thanks.

[chinacat46]

I've never been myself but I have looked into it and Santa Barbara is where you want to leave from. Check out the link below. These guys leave from Santa Barbara and operate 3 liveaboards.

Truth Aquatics - About Us

[Travelnsj]

The Anacapa Island area (they say is the North American Galapagos) is great diving if you hit a good day that the current is not ripping and vis is good. From what I have read and people I know who have dove it.....Much tooooo Cold for me.....Reefseekers.com runs trips out once in a while.

[scubarobin]

yes, I have been to Santa Barbara and dove with the sea lions - last summer on the Great Escape. Fun stuff!
Southern California Scuba Diving - Great Escape Dive Boat
they usually only do single day boats on weekends but check the schedule for where they are going.

there is also the Sanddollar boat which goes there on multi-day trips.

As other mentioned, TruthAquatics (in Santa Barbara) and Peace and Spectre (in Ventura) go to Anacapa which also has sea lions.
check out: California Dive Boats : The Official Page
for an extensive list of all the boats, listed by port.

Here is the link to my Calif diving videos:
Robin Tackett's California album on Vimeo
the first 3 videos there are from our trip on the Great Escape last year.

WE have used the Great Escape, Peace, and Spectre dive boats and can recommend them all. Spectre is cheapest and less frills, lots of students and instructors onboard. We are back on the GE again this weekend, I will post videos of what we saw sometime next week!

robin

[CompuDude]

Santa Barbara is nice, but honestly, I'd get bored there after more than a couple of dives. Sea Lions are entertaining, but the island doesn't have much to offer other than sea lions. I think the other islands are more versatile. I think most boats will move you around to see lots of spots, though, and not just plant there, unless you're chartering the boat and that's really all you want to see.

In addition to the Truth Aquatics fleet, check the Peace, which runs 2-3 day LOB trips periodically. The Truth boats are the only local boats I'm aware of that do the longer trips.

[Athena2c]

We went on a Channel Islands liveaboard with Vision from Truth Aquatics. Didn't do the sea lion dive.
To be honest, I was not impressed with the Vision operation, or the bunk style sleeping (but the food was good). I think the diving is probably better than we experienced since the captain only catered to the hunters on our trip and didn't really go to sites just to enjoy the view...

[cmburch]

Truth Aquatics Santa Barbara
I have gone on trips with Truth Aquatics out of Santa Barbara. I have been on Vision for a 4day/3night trip out to San Clemente, San Miguel, Santa Cruz, etc. I think whoever charters it makes the dive trip - I go with Finstad. I'm 6' 225lb and my wife is 5' 8" and slender so the double wide bunks fit well. The service was first class and the diving was excellent. I saw some large bulls around San Clemente, but did not have any problems with them. I have only been around a lot of sea lions in Monterey Bay in the Spring.

I have also been on the Truth for 1 day trips. The bunks seemed considerably smaller, but still great service.

I am going for lobster this year with Truth Aquatics.

There were probably less than 12 hunters on our boat and they seemed like pretty nice fellows and even showed me a few things. We had a dive master that took a group of us around and even went on a night dive.

[Athena2c]

Sounds like you had a better trip than we did. I'm sure it depends on the group and the crew....the hunters on our trip were nice enough, but we ONLY went on dives aimed at hunting and that was not what my husband and I were there for-it is different diving. Also, the dive deck was a free-for-all! No room and no organization-it was ridiculous...

As for the bunks, we fit fine...I just prefer our own space with a door.

[cmburch]

Yes, I can see that would be a problem. I heard some of the SCUBA hunters saying they wanted to go for deeper dives for bigger fish and some for the non SCUBA hunters say they wanted to go for shallower dives in kelp. Yes, I remember newbies dropping things on my gear because they were exhausted and seemed to have no concern for others belongings.

[CompuDude]

Originally Posted by Athena2c

Sounds like you had a better trip than we did. I'm sure it depends on the group and the crew....the hunters on our trip were nice enough, but we ONLY went on dives aimed at hunting and that was not what my husband and I were there for-it is different diving. Also, the dive deck was a free-for-all! No room and no organization-it was ridiculous...

As for the bunks, we fit fine...I just prefer our own space with a door.

To be honest, I haven't actually been on one of the Truth boats yet, although the vast majority of the reports I've gotten back were positive. I don't really have time to take off for local LOB diving, since it's just more of the same local diving, for me. I do like a good 2-3 day trip, but more than that would be more than I would want. If I was traveling here, I would probably feel different, but as a local, my perspective is not the same.

SoCal Liveaboards are not in the same luxury class as those found in warm water destinations. If you come expecting that, you'll be disappointed. There should be some very good diving, however, conditions permitting.

Anytime you get on a charter in SoCal, it's a good idea to ask the company chartering the boat (or the boat itself, if you're booking direct) what the focus of the trip is. Some charters, as you've noticed, cater to hunters, others to photographers, others to classes, and others to general diving. If you end up on a charter with a goal that is very different from yours, you're likely to be disappointed... as you've learned first hand, regrettably. (And just for contrast, I've been on trips where the majority of the dives were in marine preserves... I'd imagine any hunters who came on those charters would have been just as upset as you were.)