Trip Details
- Where: Spectre to Flame Reef, Santa Cruz Island
- Depart from: Ventura Harbor, Ventura
- When: Friday, March 1 or Sept. 13, 2024
- Time: Boarding at 6:00 am Friday, departing at 7:00 am and back to dock at 4:00 pm.
- Cost: $220.00 includes 3 dives, lunch, and air-Limited to 25 divers
- ALL TRIPS are weather dependent
Trip Info
Join CIDA for a FUN trip to Flame Reef on the backside of Santa Cruz Island aboard the Spectre dive boat with an ultra-limited load of 20 divers.
Santa Cruz Island has many excellent dive spots and some of the best are on the backside such as Flame Reef. Flame Reef is an excellent site for the photographer but equally as good for the sightseer and hunter. Visibility is usually very good and there is always something for everyone.
Scuba diving at Santa Cruz Island offers a bit milder diving conditions with many excellent dive sites and endless diving opportunities year-round. From sandy bays to vast rocky reefs covered with kelp to mini walls covered with life, you can always find a fantastic dive spot. The backside of Santa Cruz is usually calm and sheltered from bad weather and full of dive spots running all the way from Yellowbanks to the east end. One of these excellent sites is known as Flame Reef.
Flame Reef is a rocky area with a healthy kelp forest and a high spot that is about 45’ deep. The north side is sloped leading down to boulders with rocky structures and depths to about 80’ and the south side levels out some with smaller boulders and sand at depths of about 45’. here you will find lots of gorgonians, nudibranchs, invertebrates, some lobsters along with rockfish, kelp bass, smaller lingcods, and some large sheepshead. Our plan will be to make two dives at Flame Reef and the third around the Yellowbanks area.
This trip is best suited for
Advanced divers and above that have experience in cold water conditions including; current, swell, possible limited visibility and deep water. Most importantly, good buoyancy control is needed and surface signal tubes are always recommended.