I think the $125 or so it costs for a Southern California dive boat is an incredible bargain. I Know in Southern California the Whalers Dive Club has Wednesday trips now and then to San Miguel for even less than that.

You get to arrive the night before and go out to dinner with fellow dive friends, sleep on the way there, get up, have hot breakfast, do your first dive, have a snack while they refil yoru tank for no extra $, do a 2nd dive, have a hot sit down lunch, after another free refill do a 3rd dive or lay out and snooze, take a hot shower and put on clean cloths, then nap all the way back.