A great spot if the surf isn't too big. Parking can be downright unpleasant, especially in summer (when you should get there at 7:00 AM if you want a reasonable parking spot).
The Cove has shallow, rock reefs with a lot of fish and other living creatures. You're likely to (sometimes) get more unusual, awe-inspiring things at the Shores than at the Cove, but the Cove always has a lot of life (it just doesn't vary as much as the Shores). The Cove also has kelp beds on the outside.
The Cove is an Ecological Reserve. Please do not remove anything except floating plastic garbage (e.g., plastic wrappers, small plastic bags). Please do not disturb or kill any living things. Please don't do this anywhere, and know that it's illegal here.
There are a number of different directions you can go once you get in the water at the Cove, to fairly different environments.
Only do this dive under very calm conditions. Boomers is named Boomers because of the sound the waves make breaking on the point by the Shuffleboard Club at the Cove. In close to the point is very shallow and you don't want to be there with any swell. On calm days, you'll get to explore some great rock reefs with a lot of life. Look in and under things for moray eels.
A bit further offshore than Boomers (but still close, and in the same general area) are some great kelp beds in 20 - 40' of water. They were all killed off by El Nino, but have made a comeback.
10 - 20' deep rock reefs. Lots of life. Several types of schooling fish, garibaldi, horn sharks, sheep crabs, kelp crabs, lobster, kelp bass, sheepshead, giant kelpfish. Keep your eyes open for bat rays and the occasional non-horn shark. Nice diving if not so much swell and not so much detritus washed into the Cove.
Not far offshore around to the right is as described above for the Cove, but in at the cliff are a number of caves, with great rock reefs in very shallow water right in front of them. You'll find a lot of life. You can enter several of the caves, including one with an underwater entry and the passthrough under The Clam. Do this only on calm days and higher tide, and with someone who's done it before.
[May
2000: The buoy is slightly off station to the east. Either descend
a bit west of the buoy, or descend on the buoy and then go west
for a bit until you get to water 35-40' deep and lots of rocks.
The buoy now sits in about 25-30' of water.] This is a bit of
a swim. Get in the water at the Cove and swim out to the first
yellow buoy (straight out and a bit to the left). Don't confuse
it with any of the white swim buoys. There are three yellow buoys
(A, B, C) in a line running north, you want the closest one. Beware
of kelp patties on the swim out. Drop down at Buoy A, in 40' of
water or so. You will be in the middle of a large area of piled
up rocks, thus the name. It's a good size rock reef system out
past all the other in-close reef, surrounded by sand and kelp.
You'll find much the same life as in close, but are less susceptible
to swell and have the combination of rock reef and kelp. You may
also get a few more pelagic strangers than you'll find in close
(I've seen a mola mola and a couple decent-sized sharks). When
you reach your air turnaround time, take a heading of about 200
degrees and work your way back to the Cove. You may have to go
through some pretty thick kelp on the way!
Click here for Bob Willey's dive site review of Quast Rock (PDF file).
Click here for Bob Willey's dive site review of God's Rock (PDF file).
The better known Quast Rock sits way out northwest past Boomers in about 65 feet of water. Generally, it's a boat dive site - unless you're feeling extraordinarily ambitious on your surface swim. There are several known "rocks" (stubby pinnacles) out there - Quast Rock, T Rock, Anchor Rock and God's Rock - and you will frequently see people in small skiffs of kayaks out fishing there.
Here are the published Seadeucer's line-ups for Quast Rock (http://meteora.ucsd.edu/~seadeuce/Lineups.html):
All of these sites are large rock outcroppings right on the edge between the rocky reef of La Jolla and the sand falling away offshore at depths of 65-75 feet. Relief on these outcroppings varies from 5 feet to probably 20 feet. There are lots of interesting rock fingers, small caverns, holes, etc. This is also generally the edge of the kelp forest, so you not only have great rocky outcroppings to explore, but then you've got a built in, interesting ascent "line"... the kelp.
Quast Rock features a good size cavern on the side facing the sand, with a hole through the top of that cavern up to the large rock "plate" above.
T Rock features a quite large T-shaped rock on the inside, left corner (when facing from the sand side). This T-shaped rock is probably 10 feet tall and about that wide. At the outside, right corner you'll find a smaller mushroom shaped rock.
Anchor Rock had quite a few outcroppings, fingers, holes, and other interesting formations, including the massive formation on the far left (when facing from the sand side) which presumably gives the site its name: the massive rock there (probably 20 feet tall) looks very much like a classic anchor symbol.
God's Rock, like Quast Rock, is a little smaller than T Rock and Anchor Rock, but again provides some great rock formations to explore.
GPS Coordinates are as follows [updated and corrected 4/22/02]:
Here are photos of the Seadeucer's Quast Rock line-ups:
Finally, to give you an idea of how close these dive sites are, here are these sites on a bathymetry map from SIO:
