Catalina Questions

[Kimusubi]

Thanks for all the tips! I'll keep that in mind. I have no idea what Dr. Bill looks like, but would love to meet him if he's around that weekend. We ended up reserving rooms at the Seaport Village Inn, and they gave us a nice package that included the Catalina Express tickets, breakfast, and transportation to and from the hotel. We're going to have to go to Hollywood divers to grab our dry suits, but hopefully there isn't a ton of traffic and we can make it back from Hollywood to Long Beach in under 45 minutes. We might just end up skipping the boat rides though, simply because we don't have a ton of cash, and it just seems to advanced for us.

By the way, do any of the shops rent out lights for night dives or is that something we'll have to provide for ourselves? Thanks again for the help guys!

 

[drbill]

As fnfalman said, the only true (stony) corals we have are not hermatypic (reef building) species. They are solitary and colonial cup corals.

I'm pretty sure none of the shops here rent out lights, at least I know SCUBA Luv doesn't. You might try CDS or Ron Moore's operation.

Dr. Bill looks like his picture (at least that's what people tell me... I don't think I look anything like that when I look in the mirror in the morning). I'd say look for the guy in the shredded 7mm shortie that looks like he was attacked by three great whites simultaneously, but I just might fool folks and wear a new 3mm full wetsuit that's been sitting in my dive locker for 6-7 years.

 

[Alexp]

EcoDiveCenter rents lights according to their website.

 

[merxlin]

Thanks for all the tips! I'll keep that in mind. I have no idea what Dr. Bill looks like, but would love to meet him if he's around that weekend.

Look for someone wearing this:

He shouldn't be hard to spot........

 

[Kimusubi]

Oh wow. I'll make sure I look at the guy attacked by the sharks.

 

[drbill]

I may fool folks this weekend. I have a "brand new" (I bought it six years ago but have never worn it) Tilos 3mm full wetsuit that I may pull out of the dive locker.

You can also look for the "Dr. Bill Mobile," a golf cart covered with promotional material for my DVDs on the front windshield. It is usually parked on the left side of the stairs as you look out to sea.

 

[Kimusubi]

I will definitely look out for you. Speaking of sharks, I would LOVE to see some sharks out in Catalina. Is that a possibility or is that a small hope?

 

[drbill]

You might be able to see a horn shark in the dive park. Some have reported small leopard sharks recently, but based on the behavior they described I think they were either young horn or swell sharks. There was also a report of a blue shark (see #212 or #213) in the park within the last two weeks, but I think they saw a soupfin instead.

The great whites generally stay outside the borders of the dive park. It's not that they respect the boundaries... they usually cruise at deeper depths (150 ft) or near the surface. I'm partially teasing on this, but they are in our waters. They just don't seem too interested in us humans.

I've included links to my newspaper columns on all the species above except the great white (I have four columns about them which you can find on this page).

 

[Kimusubi]

Very cool. I'll check those out and hopefully we'll run across some. I just bought myself an LED light for doing some night dives there. I'm told there are bioluminescents at night, or are they just lying? I'm really excited to go, only one week left...

 

[drbill]

Reports from the dive park today (Friday) were of 60 foot visibility! We'll see how that holds up tomorrow as there are a number of classes coming out.