Catalina Island Info

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My high school aged daughter and I are from the Washington, DC area and will be visiting Orange County for the final week of January. We are both PADI open water certified and love scuba, but she has only dived a few times and I've dived only a dozen times myself -- always in the warm Caribbean. We recently got dry suit certified in a short course (in a rock quarry with almost no visibility!) here in Virginia. Our rationale for this was that we want to spend a day diving in Catalina while in SoCal at the end of this month. So here come a flurry of questions (thanks in advance for any helpful tips you can provide!)...

1) From reading these boards and some other online sources, I'm starting to think we may not need to book ourselves on a boat dive at all; we can just take the ferry over to the island as early in the morning as possible, then dive the Casino Point Park from the shore, and we'll still get to see what we'd like to see -- namely kelp forest, pinnacles and lots of fish and other life. And it might be a lot less expensive than a boat dive, too. Thoughts on that? Since we just want this to be a 1-day experience -- preferably with two back-to-back dives, though -- would it make more sense to take the ferry to the island and then dive in the Casino Point Park? Or should we instead book ourselves onto a dive boat that leaves from the mainland (e.g. Long Beach?) and takes us to Catalina and then we dive off the boat? For that matter, is it even an option to take a scuba boat from the mainland in January? (One post on this board indicated that all the major dive boats are hauled out of the water for the entire month of January, so unavailable.)

2) We're still beginner divers, even though we got dry suit certified, so we really shouldn't do this diving alone. So we'd like to find an experienced divemaster or dive buddy at least (we would compensate them) to be our sherpa on this adventure. If we book ourselves on a boat dive, obviously this won't be a problem. But if we opt to just dive off the beach at Casino Point Park, then we'll need to find a divemaster or dive buddy. What advice can you give us about this?

3) We don't own our own drysuits (or wetsuits, for that matter). So we'll need to rent them from somewhere -- preferably on Catalina (or from the dive boat operation, if we go that route). Theoretically we could rent them from a shop on the mainland, I suppose, but then we would need to schlep them over to the island on the ferry (although, again, if we opted for a mainland-based dive boat tour, then carrying our drysuits aboard would presumably not be a hassle at all). Thoughts on this point?

4) That's it -- unless you can think of something else we should be considering.

THANKS!

Clint
 
In June the temps are usually in the upper 60s. We have a plankton bloom which occurs in the spring, reducing visibility. At Catalina it usually remains better than 30-40 feet in most places. I've seen incredible vis in the summer at Catalina and less that eight feet once at Bird Rock. Chances of having good dives in June are about 95%.
So going to dive there in March spring break means the vis will be limited?
 
I've dove Catalina in April and August, and I had beautiful conditions in both months. I'm from Washington, and I seek out Catalina because of the abundant life, beautiful viz and homey atmosphere, and the warm water. I've had viz both times that are jaw dropping! On one dive at about 80 feet, we had viz 60 feet or more, it was awesome watching the Bat Rays swim off in the distance so graceful and beautiful. I love weaving in and out of the kelp, it's so serene.

In fact I'm coming back down there to dive April 22-23-24, however my buddies are not able to get vacation so I've kept my travel arrangements but hoping to hook up with some buddies down there to dive with and swap stories between dives. My husband golfs, so he doesn't dive.

I am an AOW diver, and also have my PADI "Deep" and Nitrox. i usually do 50 or more dives a year in all conditions. normal viz for me is 10-15 feet. I do boat dives in Puget Sound, shore diving there and then lake diving in my local area. Not afraid of depth down to certified level, very conscientious diver, will be doing u/w photography a little bit and some video. Drysuit and all my gear except tanks and weights coming with me. I am conservative, and also have my DAN along with two computers, one air integrated the other wireless. Normally I always dive a steal 100 HP, however I will be diving the 80 Aluminums so I will overweight myself by 4 lbs so I don't "cork." Let me know if you are interested and what you desire out of a dive,,,personally, I love the kelp and sharing stories about kritters and learning new things from the local divers! I also hope to get out on the King Neptune if it is running a trip(s) during any of those days.

Im really looking forward to this trip, last weekend the water was 38 F and there were small thin ice chunks overhead!

Happy diving and tanks alot!!
 
Coming back to Avalon April 22-23-24, looking for buddies!
Hello Deb
Sorry i missed this post but the next time you are down our way contact me and we will take you diving with us and there is room for your non diver husband to come along if you can get him away from the golf course
Bruce
 
Does anyone know what vis will be at two harbors this weekend? I'm wondering if the algae blooms are a problem this year or not...
 
I am looking at diving two days in Catalina June 11-14th, looking for dive buddies. PM me if interested, I also wouldn't mind cutting a small fee to a local person with experience, especially if they are great at finding lil critters.
 
This thread is probably not the best place to post this as most of us who live in the area ave already reviewed it. I just happened to take a look. Try posting in the SoCal forum as a separate post.

I'll be in Bonaire during those dates.



I am looking at diving two days in Catalina June 11-14th, looking for dive buddies. PM me if interested, I also wouldn't mind cutting a small fee to a local person with experience, especially if they are great at finding lil critters.
 
Any current reports? I'll be hitting the dive park tomorrow.

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---------- Post added July 8th, 2014 at 06:31 PM ----------

Anyone have a conditions report for the casino point area?

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Casino point is without kelp right now, which makes the dive less appealing (in my opinion, some like it)
I recommned taking a boat out of Long Beach or San Pedro. Sundiver Express and magician are running lots of trips right now and both are good boats.
The conditions at catalina are very goo right now, water around 62 degrees, visibility on my last 2 trips has been 50-100 feet.
 
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