Chris’ Dive Experiences: Coral Diving In Southern California?

Thousands of Southern California scuba divers travel to Hawaii every year to

Photo Courtesy of Lesley Alstrand

dive on colorful coral reefs in clear water. A few of these divers no doubt know that there are beautiful purple hydrocoral- encrusted reefs teeming with fish right here in SoCal. When this site is caught on the right day, its visibility rivals Hawaii's.  The best part? It is just a short boat ride away.

Farnsworth Bank is a well known set of seamounts off the backside of Catalina Island, California. These seamounts are known for abundant marine life, purple hydrocoral, and great visibility. Farnsworth is equally known for ripping currents and zero visibility.  Due to these ever-changing conditions, getting to dive Farnsworth Bank is special. And catching it on a stellar day will give any diver a set of dives they will always remember.

Photo Courtesy of diver.net

Farnsworth Bank had been on my must dive list since I first got certified. I had been on two previous 3-day liveaboard trips that hit sites in the Southern Channel Islands and had intentions of diving the site, but conditions on both of those trips never allowed it. I awoke on the second day of my third trip to excitement from fellow divers. We were anchored at Farnsworth Bank. You couldn’t have asked for better surface conditions with no wind and the ocean laying as flat as a lake.

After a thorough dive site breifing, no one wasted time gearing up and jumping in. As we descended down the anchor line, we were greeted with equally good conditions underwater. Beautiful blue water with zero current and easily 80 feet of visibility. In these great conditions it took no time to see our target below us. As we looked down we could see a set of plant-encrusted seamounts surrounded with abundant fish life.

We dropped down to 100 feet and started working our way around and up the seamount, enjoying the contrast of the bright purple hydrocroal alongside the yellow and green of the kelp; the red, brown, and gold of the Gorgonians; all with a back drop of the cobalt blue of the Pacific Ocean. The life on these seamounts was supercharged from Seastars and Urchins to a variety of colorful Nudibranchs surrounded by Garibaldi, Rockfish, and Lingcod.



Photo Courtesy of Scott Gietler

The group slowly circled the pinnacle working their way up to shallower waters. At one point, as I was waiting for Lesley and Willey to finish up with pictures of a Rockfish, I backed off the site a touch into open water. This vantage point gave me a complete picture of what we were lucky enough to be diving on this exact day and time. I  looked down at the pair of photographers communicating with each other just a touch below me on a wall and I was speechless at the sight of the typical color palette of a southern California kelp dive mixed with some colors you may expect only to find off an island in the middle of the tropics. I looked up, taking in the sight of the sun dancing on the surface 65 feet above us pushing rays of sunlight through the water, when a flash out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned to see a large Bat Ray swimming over the top of the seamount, with the sunlight bouncing off the tips of its pectoral fins as it swam. This vision solidified just how beautiful Southern California diving can be.

This dive will always be burned in my memory. The explosion of life and color that can be found right here in our backyard which yields experiences that would rival any tropical dive destination. Get out there and dive these special sites. It may take many times, but one day you'll be the one that was at the right place at the right time!

Photo Courtesy of Lesley Alstrand

Join The Dive Shack August 2-4 for a chance at diving Farnsworth Bank and other great sites around the southern Channel Islands.
http://www.gotodiveshack.com/pdf/SCIcharter.pdf