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While the protected dive sites near the City of Monterey almost always offer safe and enjoyable diving, the more advanced, exposed sites in Monterey County cannot be dived everyday. Some of the very best sites can only be dived during the calmest days. When optimal weather hits Monterey, divers head south of Point Lobos for some superb, untouched diving. They head to Lobos Rocks.

Lobos Rocks are a pair of rocks that jut up some 15 feet above the water line, and are located about one half mile offshore of Soberanes Point. Most of the diving here is in the large kelp bed on the south side of the rocks. The area around the rocks is a raised plateau that is fractured with enormous cracks, forming steep-sided canyons. These canyons begin at 40 feet, with their walls dropping vertically to 70-80 feet to a sand bottom.

Divers should swim down the long canyons, where the vertical walls are covered with small trees of pink and purple hydrocoral. Looks for crabs and mollusks among the coral branches. Large Medridium anemones contrast the dark rock with their fluffy white tentacles. Big, red Tealia anemones are found in the surge channels and actively feed fish and other larger prey.

In between the larger anemones is a carpet of encrusting invertebrates—sponges of every color, bryozoans, tunicates and strawberry anemones. If you look carefully you can identify most of the nudibranchs that are common to Northern California, and a few rare ones. Chestnut cowries are commonly found in the open.

The base of the walls is scored with deep cracks. Look for small kelpfish and gobies hiding in the smaller cracks along with shrimp and crabs. If you are lucky you might find a wolf or monkey-faced eel peering back at you from deep within one of the larger cracks. Small lingcod and cabezon are often observed on rocky perches in plain view.

Above the rocky plateau is a healthy bed of giant kelp. The kelp here can be thick, particularly in summer, so you should reserve some air to swim underneath it. When the visibility is good, diving here is simply spectacular with the sunlight streaming through the golden canopy, supported by columns of twisted kelp stipes. Hundreds of blue rockfish move through the kelp bed in organized schools. Tiny nudibranchs, bryozoans and turban snails make their home among the kelp fronds.

A large colony of sea lions call these rocks home and more often than not choose to follow divers along the bottom. They may cruise by at a high rate of speed, or hang upside down, motionless, carefully observing these bubble-blowing intruders to their world. I have found that the simple act of repeatedly dropping a rock with one hand and catching it with the other will overwhelm the sea lion’s curiosity and bring them in very close. Due the better-than-average visibility here this a great place for sea lion photography.

This is one of those spots that has everything—marine mammals, large and small fish, invertebrates and better-than-average visibility. So when the winds are calm and the seas flat, try heading south for a change, south to Lobos Rocks that is.

Dive Spot At A Glance
Location: About one half mile offshore of Soberanes Point, Garrapata State Park.
Access and Entry: It is possible to swim to the rocks from Soberanes Point. However, I would not recommend it. It’s a long swim and the currents here can be extreme. Monterey’s charter dive boats visit this site.
Depth: 40 to 100 feet.
Skill: Intermediate to advanced from a boat. This is a double black diamond dive from shore.
Photography: Excellent wide angle and macro.
Hazards: Watch for currents, thick kelp and big surge and swell.