Question Catalina Island dive trip in Oct - Suggestions?

[oldford]

Hi everyone! I'm planning a 3 person, 1 day (2 to 3 tank) dive trip to Catalina for early Oct. We'll be driving up from Orange County. We dove Channel Islands about 2 yrs ago and had a lot of fun in the kelp.

We each have 20-30 dives and are very comfortable in the water. Our trips have usually had a DM, but we've done a few boat dives without one (including Channel Islands) and it wasn't a problem. We'll need to rent equipment, other than mask & fins.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to plan this trip. It looks like basically there are 2 options;

Option 1 - Ferry from Long Beach to Avalon and then dive with one of the shops there. I'm assuming these are shore dives then, not boat dives? This option seems like a couple of extra steps, plus about $250 for 3 round trip ferry trips.

Option 2 - Board a dive boat in Long Beach. This seems like the simplest option, but I'm not sure if we'll see the same things as diving directly off Catalina.

For option 2, does anyone have recommendations for a boat? I found info on Sundiver. Some older threads here list a few other boats that appear to have gone out of business, including Magician, Bottom Scratcher, Great Escape.

Thanks!

 

[Cornbread O'Malley]

Where do you plan to leave your car when you ferry across to Catalina Island?

 

[covediver]

if you take the ferry over from long beach, consider diving the underwater park at Casino Point. Its a 15 minute walk from the ferry terminal to the other side of Avalon (longer if you stop to buy a t-shirt). Casino Point is an underwater preserve, easy entrance via the staircase, lots of critters including appearances by giant sea bass. Catalina Divers Supply is in the Casino building and is steps from the entry point but there are a couple of good shops in Avalon. I have been diving the underwater park since 1986 and it never disappoints. Can't recommend any of the boats as I have never been aboard any of them. keep in mind lobster season just opened and many socal boats are in lobster hunting mode. parking for the ferry Catalina Express on Golden Shore(?) is in the parking garage across from the terminal. Factor in parking it is not cheap. Avalon is a magical place

 

[Derek of So Cal]

I've done both options many times and if you're lucky enough to be able to get on a boat that will take you to some of the less-dived spots off Catalina, I would recommend Option 2. Of the boats I know that are still around I have been on and enjoyed the Sundiver, but there is also the Cee Ray which I've heard others speak well of.

Of course, nothing wrong with option #1. First, if you're in OC, know that you can also get to Avalon on the Catalina Flyer out of Newport - they're great. Once you're on the island you can do Casino Point (tons of info on ScubaBoard) or do a boat trip with Catalina Divers Supply.

Hope that helps!

 

[oldford]

Thanks everyone for the replies. We actually did our dive earlier this month.

We did a 3 tank dive off the Sundiver. The diving was great! The morning started off extremely foggy, but the sun peaked out just as we got in sight of the island, and by the time we were actually ready to get in the water, the sun was fully out.

My only other kelp forest dive was completely overcast, but the sun on this trip made all the difference! The sun rays streaming down through the kelp was just amazing! Water temperature wasn't bad. We had full 7 mil wetsuits, but no hoods or gloves and we were comfortable.

The wildlife variety wasn't like most of our tropical dives, but no complaints. We saw a 4-5 ft leopard shark, although he quickly disappeared into the kept. No lobsters or seals or giant sea bass this trip, but we'll certainly go back again.

I don't know the names of the 3 spots we dived, but we were on the northeast side of the island, near Two Harbors and Cherry Cove.

We were aboard the Sundiver Express, which is a 48 ft boat. It says it fits 22 divers, but we had half that many and it still felt a little cramped. When underway, the engines were belching a lot of diesel smoke, which made the back 3rd of the boat not a place anyone wanted to sit.

My only other CA boat dive was on the Spectre out of Ventura. That was a much nicer setup for a dive boat IMHO, but it's also twice as big, so maybe not a fair comparison.

We'll definitely go back. Maybe next time we'll go with option 1 and do shore dives.