blitzpb:
Im planning a Casino Point Dive next weekend, the 11th. It will be my first Casino dive and I am looking forward to a lot of fun! Do the conditions look like they will hold up through then? Is it best to swim out to the bouy line first or is there much to see starting right at the steps? Just looking for a little direction.
Thanks,
Nick
The bouys are not a zillion feet. In fact, if you do the modest surface swim straight our from the steps to the big bouy, you can drop down there (about 55 - 60 FSW) and plunk right on top of the Kismet / Glass Bottom Boat wrecks.
If you go out the steps, and drop on one of the vacant small bouys (the orange ones) and head off to your right you'll skirt along the rocks. Wave to the Crusteau (sp?) marker on the way by, and stay at 55'. When you get to the chain graveyard, look left. There's the Sue Jac - sitting at about 65 at the top and about 95 FSW at the bottom. On the way back, keep the reeg / rocks on your left until the kelp starts.... then move right so your're just on the outside of the kelp. Everyone else dives on the inside of the curtain... come back from the 'Jac on the outside... amazing stuff out there.
If you go to the bottom of the steps and turn LEFT its a whole other area, with lots of sand. Keep the rocks on your left until you get to the edge of the park (cruising at about 20 - 25 FSW) and follow them as they curve and amble left... you'll be just outside of the park by then. Turn around and spend the next 40 minutes poking in all those rocks on the way back. Huge lobster, eels, cleaner shrimp, and lots of other cool topography.
I can go on and on. There's the Swim Platform. I like that dive and its resident Moray. I love to drop on the kismet Buoy (mentioned above) and follow the rope... there's like this rope that marks off the edge of the park (like the one on the surface) but its on the sand... it gets pretty deep - close to 100+ in spots - so hover above it. Its an area of the park nobody ever goes to (the fat right hand corner... when looking from the steps.) There's a rowboat, a few engines, and mostly sand, schools of fish and solitude.
I have about 5 or 6 standard dives I do in the park. I'm there a lot, and can navigate the thing with my eyes closed. I'm no DrB, but I've paid close attention, divided it up into small, managable quadrants and have pretty much explored all of it.
You'll love it.
Ken
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