mikeguerrero
Guest
Hi all,
Just wanted to give a good report on my experience on the island. We chartered the Catalina Express which departed from San Pedro Ca at 6:15am...
Arriving to this massive boat, my brother upgraded our tickects to the Commodore lounge, we had the entire cabin to ourselves, drinks and snacks...
Within one hour we were seeing the ports of Catalina, the boat ride was so smooth and although I love boats, my brother didn't take any motion sickness pills and suffered...
Once on the island I noticed everything was still closed and so we got breakfest and walked around the port, lots to see.
I saw a dive flag and took myself over to investigate, I didn't come to dive since I just wanted to just see the island and spend time with brother, non diver.
I found out that I could dive for $120 dollars all equipment including a dive master, one dive. I decided that we would try out the sub ride.
It was incredible, you are six feet below the water line and you can feed the fish with a little torpedo looking button on each window, food is injected outside the sub.
The fish went nuts as they are conditioned for this experience.
Brother got motion sick again, really bad and once the ride was over he was out for the count. His girlfriend said, I should take the time to dive if I wanted to.
I walked over to access the beach diving site, Casino Point. The waters were choppy and water was stiring everywhere, conditions didn't look nice at all and I was getting cold.
I pose for a picture at the staircase.
And before I knew it king Neptune started to churn up the water.
Without any more warning the fierce Neptune got my attention to move from his stairs.
My enthusiam started to fade and I thought, diving is out of the question. I also had allergys and my right ear didn't really want to clear.
So I left and still my brother felt sick and remained on a bench with his girl, and I decided to explore the shops.
That's when I ran into another shop, much larger, the first was a small booth on the pier. I walked in and was greeted by the staff, very friendly. We started talking and I was lookng for
a souvenier. I saw a shirt that I wanted but thought, how can I purchase a dive shirt without diving Catalina, right?
So, I asked what viz was like and whether conditions would calm down. Just then two friendly divers heard my conversation and came over and gave me a report.
One diver exclaimed, "Oh, conditions are not that great 40 feet of viz etc... " What the? I'm in and asked the owner how much?
She said $97.50 for everything including the dive master. I told her to hold up, called my little bro and he said go for it.
Having more than one hour before the dive, ran to drug store and purchased nasal decongestant.
And next thing you know the ears are great and they are ready for diving.
I go back to the shop at 2pm and gear up, oh man, rental gear, oh my. Guys I was returning gloves that had holes, buckles that were broken, integrated weights that were busted.
I doubled checked thorougly all my gear, over and over until I had a perfect set.
After making sure my reg was breathing to my standards, and that I had a good air fill, the DM arrived.
I was going to be diving with two other girls that had just finished up their Open Water certs in Pugent Sound, they had no other dives but OW.
They were two Seniors in highschool, so adorable and friendly, this dive was going to be fun, they would not be cold, but who new about their diving. Turned out to be wonderful calm,
collective divers. The DM asked about my diving, told him Monterey, central coast and his eyes lite up and tell me about Central coast divers being awesome.
Next thing you know, I'm suiting up into my 7mm scubapro wetsuit with jacket BC standard octo and my snorkel. The winds were dead the water was dead calm, what? I was shocked
to see how weather changes so quickly, and so happy that Neptune was allowing me to have a safe dive.
So he gives us a complete dive briefing about exploring some sunken, large sailboat with a large side entrance that we can swim through, and then to the kelps, and back to some rocky
reefs to find an octo he saw on the last dive.
Okay so he has us walk down to the stairs and shows us how to do a safe entrance since the tide is gone. I plunge into the water, oh my God!
This water is warm 60 degrees I was so flippen happy you just don't know, felt like I was in a drysuit, I had a really form fitting wetsuit, I fit great in Scubapro suits.
Okay so I'm looking face down at all the fish and kelp, I haven't seen water this clear in my life, I felt it was more clear than Boynton beach in Florida, blue as can be and viz was 45+
feet. Garibaldi fish were all over my mask and greeting me like I was a lost friend. Next thing you know I'm exploring the bottom at about 25 feet and a group of Catalina gobies come
out of hiding. I use to have them in my reeftank and never thougth I would ever see them in the wild, it was to die for, wait it gets better.
We start to follow the DM as we make it to 61 feet where the suken ship is, he signals that he's going through this hole and to watch.
We watch as he disappears and we can only see bubbles comming from the top to the ship, he flashes his light for us to go through.
The two girls look over at me and I commence and they follow me. As I start to enter the side of the ship I see it's just a hole with a huge exit, no wires, no jagged metal, totally safe
and fun. We see tons of fish and critters that have taken up refuge.
We do an air check and we are off to the kelps, they are not as spectacular as ours, much smaller version but the fish is what gets me, tons of fish.
The reefs are also not as colorful as ours but the water is so clear, I'm just so happy to be diving these conditions.
We make it over to the octupus and he shows them to the girls, and I play around critter hunting and finds lots of conches that are not in Monterey.
I'm on a 80 cf tank and the girls are on 63 cf and it's time to go back.
We head back to the drop line to do our safety ascent and he checks my air, I still have 1400 psi and so he takes the girls up and tells me to wait just below. There dive is over.
He comes back and tells me to follow him, we explore a bunch more of the reefs and I'm in water about 50 mins and once down to 900 psi we head back.
This is when the most incredible thing in my diving career happens to me...
In about 30 feet of water I see this odd shape shell at the bottom and stop to descend to pick it up.
As I have it within touching distance my DM comes and grabs me and shakes me to get my attention. Okay, so what have I done, I didn't touch the shell...
It's nothing to do with the shell, he wants to show me something that's in the water, and that is when I look up.
My jaw litterly almost lets go of my primary regulator, my heart has stopped beating. As I focus to make sure I'm seeing what my mask delivers, clear blue water, they appear.
A school of over 45 Barracuda's are in the process of hunting, and according to him, they school in these massive numbers in the evening, it was about 4pm at this time.
He makes me stand still, thanks to my bouyancy and trim, I don't move or flinch. We look at each other and give each other a high five.
Guys, I wasn't going to dive Catalina, I was feeling a little sick, allergies were in affect, but as the time changed the weather on the island, I think Neptune wanted me to share this
personal knowlege about Avalon's secrets. Oh yeah, I was hot in my wetsuit after 1 hour in their waters, I will have to evaluate diving Channel islands with a drysuit or wetsuit.
Sorry I don't have any topside pics of the event in my wetsuit gear, but my brother stayed on the other side during my dive, he was still very motion seasick from the sub ride.
The only pic I have is of us later after the dive looking at some crabs and other critters that I wanted to show him.
If I do go back, and I will, I will bring my gear and it will open up so many more opportunities.
Guys/gals, I hope you someday make it to Avalon....
MG
Just wanted to give a good report on my experience on the island. We chartered the Catalina Express which departed from San Pedro Ca at 6:15am...
Arriving to this massive boat, my brother upgraded our tickects to the Commodore lounge, we had the entire cabin to ourselves, drinks and snacks...
Within one hour we were seeing the ports of Catalina, the boat ride was so smooth and although I love boats, my brother didn't take any motion sickness pills and suffered...
Once on the island I noticed everything was still closed and so we got breakfest and walked around the port, lots to see.
I saw a dive flag and took myself over to investigate, I didn't come to dive since I just wanted to just see the island and spend time with brother, non diver.
I found out that I could dive for $120 dollars all equipment including a dive master, one dive. I decided that we would try out the sub ride.
It was incredible, you are six feet below the water line and you can feed the fish with a little torpedo looking button on each window, food is injected outside the sub.
The fish went nuts as they are conditioned for this experience.
Brother got motion sick again, really bad and once the ride was over he was out for the count. His girlfriend said, I should take the time to dive if I wanted to.
I walked over to access the beach diving site, Casino Point. The waters were choppy and water was stiring everywhere, conditions didn't look nice at all and I was getting cold.
I pose for a picture at the staircase.
And before I knew it king Neptune started to churn up the water.
Without any more warning the fierce Neptune got my attention to move from his stairs.
My enthusiam started to fade and I thought, diving is out of the question. I also had allergys and my right ear didn't really want to clear.
So I left and still my brother felt sick and remained on a bench with his girl, and I decided to explore the shops.
That's when I ran into another shop, much larger, the first was a small booth on the pier. I walked in and was greeted by the staff, very friendly. We started talking and I was lookng for
a souvenier. I saw a shirt that I wanted but thought, how can I purchase a dive shirt without diving Catalina, right?
So, I asked what viz was like and whether conditions would calm down. Just then two friendly divers heard my conversation and came over and gave me a report.
One diver exclaimed, "Oh, conditions are not that great 40 feet of viz etc... " What the? I'm in and asked the owner how much?
She said $97.50 for everything including the dive master. I told her to hold up, called my little bro and he said go for it.
Having more than one hour before the dive, ran to drug store and purchased nasal decongestant.
And next thing you know the ears are great and they are ready for diving.
I go back to the shop at 2pm and gear up, oh man, rental gear, oh my. Guys I was returning gloves that had holes, buckles that were broken, integrated weights that were busted.
I doubled checked thorougly all my gear, over and over until I had a perfect set.
After making sure my reg was breathing to my standards, and that I had a good air fill, the DM arrived.
I was going to be diving with two other girls that had just finished up their Open Water certs in Pugent Sound, they had no other dives but OW.
They were two Seniors in highschool, so adorable and friendly, this dive was going to be fun, they would not be cold, but who new about their diving. Turned out to be wonderful calm,
collective divers. The DM asked about my diving, told him Monterey, central coast and his eyes lite up and tell me about Central coast divers being awesome.
Next thing you know, I'm suiting up into my 7mm scubapro wetsuit with jacket BC standard octo and my snorkel. The winds were dead the water was dead calm, what? I was shocked
to see how weather changes so quickly, and so happy that Neptune was allowing me to have a safe dive.
So he gives us a complete dive briefing about exploring some sunken, large sailboat with a large side entrance that we can swim through, and then to the kelps, and back to some rocky
reefs to find an octo he saw on the last dive.
Okay so he has us walk down to the stairs and shows us how to do a safe entrance since the tide is gone. I plunge into the water, oh my God!
This water is warm 60 degrees I was so flippen happy you just don't know, felt like I was in a drysuit, I had a really form fitting wetsuit, I fit great in Scubapro suits.
Okay so I'm looking face down at all the fish and kelp, I haven't seen water this clear in my life, I felt it was more clear than Boynton beach in Florida, blue as can be and viz was 45+
feet. Garibaldi fish were all over my mask and greeting me like I was a lost friend. Next thing you know I'm exploring the bottom at about 25 feet and a group of Catalina gobies come
out of hiding. I use to have them in my reeftank and never thougth I would ever see them in the wild, it was to die for, wait it gets better.
We start to follow the DM as we make it to 61 feet where the suken ship is, he signals that he's going through this hole and to watch.
We watch as he disappears and we can only see bubbles comming from the top to the ship, he flashes his light for us to go through.
The two girls look over at me and I commence and they follow me. As I start to enter the side of the ship I see it's just a hole with a huge exit, no wires, no jagged metal, totally safe
and fun. We see tons of fish and critters that have taken up refuge.
We do an air check and we are off to the kelps, they are not as spectacular as ours, much smaller version but the fish is what gets me, tons of fish.
The reefs are also not as colorful as ours but the water is so clear, I'm just so happy to be diving these conditions.
We make it over to the octupus and he shows them to the girls, and I play around critter hunting and finds lots of conches that are not in Monterey.
I'm on a 80 cf tank and the girls are on 63 cf and it's time to go back.
We head back to the drop line to do our safety ascent and he checks my air, I still have 1400 psi and so he takes the girls up and tells me to wait just below. There dive is over.
He comes back and tells me to follow him, we explore a bunch more of the reefs and I'm in water about 50 mins and once down to 900 psi we head back.
This is when the most incredible thing in my diving career happens to me...
In about 30 feet of water I see this odd shape shell at the bottom and stop to descend to pick it up.
As I have it within touching distance my DM comes and grabs me and shakes me to get my attention. Okay, so what have I done, I didn't touch the shell...
It's nothing to do with the shell, he wants to show me something that's in the water, and that is when I look up.
My jaw litterly almost lets go of my primary regulator, my heart has stopped beating. As I focus to make sure I'm seeing what my mask delivers, clear blue water, they appear.
A school of over 45 Barracuda's are in the process of hunting, and according to him, they school in these massive numbers in the evening, it was about 4pm at this time.
He makes me stand still, thanks to my bouyancy and trim, I don't move or flinch. We look at each other and give each other a high five.
Guys, I wasn't going to dive Catalina, I was feeling a little sick, allergies were in affect, but as the time changed the weather on the island, I think Neptune wanted me to share this
personal knowlege about Avalon's secrets. Oh yeah, I was hot in my wetsuit after 1 hour in their waters, I will have to evaluate diving Channel islands with a drysuit or wetsuit.
Sorry I don't have any topside pics of the event in my wetsuit gear, but my brother stayed on the other side during my dive, he was still very motion seasick from the sub ride.
The only pic I have is of us later after the dive looking at some crabs and other critters that I wanted to show him.
If I do go back, and I will, I will bring my gear and it will open up so many more opportunities.
Guys/gals, I hope you someday make it to Avalon....
MG
Last edited:
. Now if you could only see SE Asia 
