Gallery: Wet: SoCal Oil Rigs Diving

There are several Oil Drilling Platforms (divers refer to them collectively as “the rigs”) off of the Southern California coast. Some of them allow divers access to dive amongst the larger vertical support legs.  

Although they look nearby when you’re driving up the coast, these Platforms are in the open ocean and are in water from 250 feet to over 650 feet deep. It's bottomless diving where the water is cold, the currents are strong and the conditions often challenging.  

The abundance of life below these rigs is amazing. Millions of organisms of all shapes and sizes call these platforms home - from playful sea lions to brittle starfish, from colorful sea slugs to anemone and sponges and dozens of types of fish. 

Taking a scooter to dive the rigs is my favorite way to dive them. Its like playing in a giant jungle gym, zooming between the legs surrounded by green or blue water and all manner of sea creature.