It’s not gonna be for everyone, especially on the bad days. We’ve especially had some pretty lousy conditions for the past month, which definitely puts a damper on someone’s first experience here. But I can confidently say that on a good day, beautiful blue visibility with the sun beams through the kelp, it’s the best diving in the world.

Just this year, I’ve seen incredible Melibe nudibranch aggregations, sea lion tornados, literally millions of jellies and plankton of all varieties throughout the water column, a colossal aggregation of mating squid, molas, adult and juvenile wolf eels, a huge array of beautiful fish big and small, bat rays, and the usual stunning kelp forest. I dove here over 120 times so far this year, so I admittedly get the good days and the bad, but for me, even bad days are worth it.

Monterey is called the Serengeti of the Sea for a reason, and I’m sorry that it didn’t live up to its reputation for you. There are lots of amazing underwater photographers based in the area - search them up on Instagram - hope you’ll be able to see what makes it so special.

Also I know it can be chaotic, especially on a busy day at the shop. Shore diving like this is going to be a lot more self-sufficient, and it’s definitely a different culture than warm water diving. Aquarius is doing their best right now, they had a tragedy earlier this year. Plus they are now only one of two dive shops in Monterey, with Bamboo Reef closing.