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 

If you have any questions, please get in touch with Ken at

info@channelislandsdiveadventures.com or call (805) 469-7288

 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. 

 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. 

 The Spectre dive boat and crew do a great job, usually catering to new divers and divers new to the area, going to Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands. However, with the special CIDA dive trips, this will not be the case. Our trips will all be limited-load for advanced divers and above and will go to more advanced sites around the islands. 

These trips have worked out great for CIDA and the Spectre because everyone loves the extra room on the limited-load trips, and the diving doesn’t get to be the same old thing going to different and more advanced dive sites. Captain Nate and the crew love it as well. Read more about the Spectre HERE.