After a tumultuous year for the scuba diving community, enthusiasts and leaders regroup.

The scuba diving community in Monterey County has been rocked in the past six months, both from tragedy and business challenges.

One of three local dive shops, Bamboo Reef in New Monterey, is now shuttered. According to the company’s website, both the Monterey and San Francisco locations closed after 64 years in operation. Monterey Bay Scuba remains open at its location at the Coast Guard Wharf in Monterey.

“There’s a lot happening in the scuba world right now on the California coast,” says John Richardson, owner of Monterey Bay Scuba Diving, LLC, the parent company of Monterey Bay Scuba. Richardson observes a similar trend of shrinking in neighboring Santa Cruz County: “They went from four shops down to one-and-a-half in just the last five years.” Richardson says he is not sure why so many dive shops have recently gone out of business, but he thinks it may be due to oversaturation for low-populated beach communities. He adds that repeated beach closures due to thousands of sea lions congregating at San Carlos Beach in Monterey, a popular scuba spot, might have contributed to a local industry slowdown.

Besides taking the number of local dive shops down to just two, Bamboo Reef’s closure means some associated clubs and organizations are regrouping. The Monterey Bay Tritons, a local spearfishing and freediving group, is taking steps to formally become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

“The Monterey Bay Tritons will return to its roots as a freediving and spearfishing club,” says acting president Brandon Burke. “Challenging times bring people together.”

Bamboo Reef served as the main sponsor for the Tritons as a host for club meetings and events after the Covid-19 pandemic. But according to Burke, members felt that the dive shop was swallowing the club, even pushing to change its name. Burke feels the move to become an independent nonprofit was necessary even if the store kept operating. Still, he acknowledges that losing a legacy dive shop like Bamboo Reef means the end of an era for a world-class diving location.

Richardson’s shop continues doing business as usual after five-and-a-half years. “We’re a very different company here because we’re working on tourism,” Richardson says. The company offers offshore boat tours combined with scuba diving, removing a limitation of only entering the water from San Carlos Beach.

The closure of Bamboo Reef comes less than four months after three members of the local diving community died in a plane crash in July. James Vincent owned Aquarius dive shop in Monterey; he and his brother-in-law, Jamie Lee Tabscott, owned Any Water Dive Center in San Jose; and along with dive instructor Steve Clatterbuck of Bamboo Reef, they led dive trips locally and around the world.

Aquarius is still operating, with no plans to slow down. “The diving community continues to dive,” says Jake Hilliker, assistant manager at Aquarius.