Northern California Rainbow Divers (NCRD) is a non-profit SCUBA diving club for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender divers and their friends.

We have more than 100 active members around the world, with a core of a few who gather for informal diving meetups in local waters and many more who join us for our far-away warm water trips in places like Indonesia, The Philippines, and The Caribbean.

NCRD sponsors a wide range of diving activities for our members:

o   Monterey Diving: In the past we organized club weekends or charters. Now days most of our local divers use our Facebook group to stay in touch and meet up for diving. Many people also use this website to keep an eye on the weather and plan their local trips accordingly.

o   Channel Islands Diving: For years we chartered a weekend dive boat to the Channel Islands. Now days those dive boats don't do overnight trips. Follow us on Facebook to see if other divers are planning informal trips to Southern California. 

o   Exotic/Tropical Diving: NCRD sponsors a wide range of live-aboard and land based warm water trips. From budget/backpacker accommodations up to 4-star resorts and live aboards, we've been to places like Roatan, Cozumel, Bonaire, Maui and the Kihei Coast, Thailand/Myanmar, the Galapagos Islands, Cocos Island, Papua New Guinea's fabulous Tawali Dive Resort, Palau, Lembeh, Raja Ampat and Komodo.  Check the trips/Events page for scheduled trips and for booking.

o   Diving for Life: We also participate in Diving for Life (DFL), an annual SCUBA jamboree in a tropical location with other LGBT dive clubs from the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe that raises money for non-profit, health-related organizations serving the LGBT community. Recent DFLs have been held in places like Curacao, St Lucia, Belize, Thailand, Bonaire, Roatan and Bali. 

o   Classes and Instructors: We have a few professional instructors and divemasters in our club who may offer classes.  We also have good relations with several gay-friendly dive shops in the SF Bay area. From basic SCUBA certification classes, "rusty diver" refreshers or intro to cold water diving, all the way up to stress & rescue, divemaster and even technical diving classes, we're happy to refer you to a good local instructor who "gets it". Email us to get started.

o   Social Media and Facebook: Stay in touch with other club members by subscribing and posting to the Dive Buddies Forum or by subscribing to our NCRD Facebook group.

If you like kelp forest diving, underwater photography, marine biology, or just relaxing and playing with the otters, you will make friends easily at NCRD. Of course, we would not dream of discriminating on the grounds of sexual orientation! Although our primary outreach may be to the queer community, more and more enlightened straight people are discovering that we offer a unique environment where the focus is on great diving and camaraderie. So go ahead and invite your straight dive buddy to join you; after all, it is the 21st century and we are in California!

For more details, visit the Frequently Asked Questions pages.

To become a member and start diving with us, apply for membership online.