The Cliff is a shore accessible salt water dive site, located in Pismo Beach, CA.
The Cliff is nice dive with easy access. Located at ’The Cliff at Shell Beach’, you’ll find this a civilized dive!
Directions: At the North end of Pismo Beach, from Highway 1, exit on Spy Glass Drive. Turn right on Shell Beach Road, and drive for 1/4 mile. You’ll see The Cliff on your left.
There are many great spots very close to each other in Shell Beach to dive. We dove yesterday in visibility around 10 feet. We saw 4 seven gill sharks (largest was 8 feet long) in only 17 minutes of diving. They would swim about 4 feet away from us to check us out and then slowly swim away. They are found near the edges of the kelp forest. These sharks are common here and are found in water 8 to 15 feet deep. Surge, current, and sharks make it not the best dive for beginners, but for the seasoned divers out there, this is an awesome site! Sting rays too! Wait for good conditions and visibility and bring some extra weight to keep you down (much of the reef is quite shallow at only 8 to 10 feet deep). Neat bluish-green sponges and seals too. Watch your head when you surface, as kayaking is very popular in this area.
Absolutely a navigation dive. The worst vis I’ve personnaly experienced in 40 years of diving. Beautiful spot, great beach. 1000 steps. Couldn’t evaluate bottom conditions sea life or plant life because we couldn’t see any. Well if you don’t count running into the bottom that is.
There was really nothing to see and the walk from the beach back up the stairway to the car was very difficult to say the least.
http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/USA_West/CalM/The_Cliff/index.htm