Scuba Diving
Baja underwater. A quick flight from LAX, Cabo offers something for everyone whether traveling with family or friends. The town is infamous for an intense party scene, however many don’t realize that Cabo also offers affordable and relaxing family vacations hanging by the resort pools and the beach. Visitors can choose between Cabo San Lucas or nearby (and quieter) San José del Cabo, as well as a retreat to Cabo Pulmo where interruption would only come from the occasional pelican diving into the aqua water after a fish.
Dive Seasons
The changing seasons bring about different water conditions and marine life, whether in Cabo San Lucas or Cabo Pulmo. This is great for underwater photographers because each season will have you looking for different photo subjects. Like many dive locations, conditions can change quickly depending on the weather.
Cabo is sunny except for a few odd days, so bring your sunscreen. The best dive season is October – November, when the water warms up to tropical temperatures and visibility can rival classic dive destinations. Many divers flock to Cabo for a chance to see hammerhead sharks in the Corridor or at El Bajo (near La Paz), whale sharks in the Sea of Cortez and much more. December – March brings excellent diving. There are often humpback and grey whales, making the transition from the Sea of Cortez into the Pacific Ocean, along with sea lions and schools of mobula rays to dive with. The colder water of winter and spring also brings banded guitarfish & bullseye rays, octopuses many other critters up from the deeper waters to recreational dive depths. Throughout the year, divers and photographers can expect to see fish – large schools, tiny fish in coral heads and large fish like groupers. Sharks (ie white tip reef sharks) and turtles also come by to model for u/w photographers, while nudibranchs and blennies keep the macro photographers' eyes on the reef.
Cabo San Lucas Dive Sites
Diving near the famous Land’s End is easily accessible from Cabo San Lucas. The local dive sites are a 10-minute panga ride from the marina. Divers get to see Lover’s Beach up close, and operators likeManta Scuba even use surface intervals to take guests around Land’s End, by the sea arch and to the sea lion colony. The area is a Marine Park with abundant fish life. The tough choice is whether to shoot macro or wide-angle – so we recommend talking to your dive guide about what you might see on a given dive. Info on local dive sites is below:
North Wall: The North Wall offer a steep sandy slope interspersed with rock fingers descending beyond rec dive limits. Divers can look around the rocky areas of the slope for zebra and jewel eels, stingrays, puffer and box fish, cornetfish and trumpetfish and macro life like seahorses & blennies). Communities of cortez garden eels often stick their heads out of the sand until divers come close. It's also common to see big schools of fish, sharks and large rays out in the open water.
Pelican Rock: A rich dive site with a resident school of snapper just outside the pinnacle. A classic feature here is the infamous Sand Falls, a unique sand waterfall caused from the steep slope and rock formations down around 50 feet. As divers ascend, they can spend a safety stop searching the right and backside of Pelican Rock for abundant nudibranchs, seahorses, moray eels, seahorses, octos and blennies or sit back and watch schools of Moorish Idols grazing across the reef.
Neptune’s Finger: Neptune’s finger looks just like its name – a large, finger-like rock jutting out into the sky from deep in the ocean. Banded guitarfish and rays come up from the depths during the spring while the water is cooler, and divers will always see big schools of fish, sea fans and other life to keep the shutter moving during the gradual ascent along the wall back to the surface.
Land’s End: Diving between the two large pinnacles at Land’s End, this site merges the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. Resident Sea Lions, diving cormorants, massive schools of baitfish and pelagic fish are all common here. A must-dive for underwater photographers, especially since there's less dive pressure on the site.
The Corridor: A 20-minute boat ride brings you to the corridor, where you never know what you’ll see. The site presents a unique opportunity for drift dives and high likelihood for encounters with pelagic fish, sharks and more. Divers might even find themselves next to a whale!
Gordo Banks: In a word, hammerhead sharks. These fish are the star of the show, attracted to the abundant fish life on the underwater bank. In addition to these massive schools, divers often see schools of jacks and snapper, big rays and pelagic fish like tuna and rays. The boat ride is about 1 hour each way, but well worth it if these photo subjects are known to be around.