Tjack
Contributor
- Messages
- 998
- Reaction score
- 191
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
This was my second trip to dive Southern California. On a previous trip I dove land based out of Avalon on Catalina Island. This trip was liveaboard on both the Great Escape and the Peace Boat. RonFrank from my local Scubaboard regional group the Rocky Mountain Oysters joined me.
Flew into LAX, reasonably cheap air makes this a good deal for short trips from Albuquerque or Denver. We both opted to fly Southwest as they allow 100lbs luggage for no fee. Both United and American would have charged $40 each way in luggage penalties.
Taxis are very expensive so Super Shuttle might be a good option for a simple itinerary. I paid close to $90 to take a taxi to Long Beach ferry terminal on a previous trip. This time we rented a car for $240 for 5 days. Free parking was available at both Long Beach and Ventura harbors.
LA has a fleet of liveaboards out of Long Beach and San Pedro, some of these boats allow divers to sleep on the boat the night before departure which provides a great alternative to hotel rooms. We were booked on the Peace Boat out of Ventura harbor, 2 hours north of LA, and had a day before to dive locally. After looking into shore dives, we opted to take a boat trip to Catalina instead. The Great Escape was running an open boat to Catalina front side for $115 per person, and provided births for the night before.
The Great Escape people, Joy, Tom and Captain Tim were great. As we were flying in late and had no way to go to a shop and rent tanks and weights, captain Tim rounded up tanks for us to use, free of charge. Long Beach harbor is about 45min. from LAX and easy to find, The Queen Marry is docked near by and helps with navigation as there are tons of signs for this tourist attraction.
Upon arrival at the Great Escape we received a friendly greeting from Captain Tim, there were approximately 20 divers on the boat already when we arrived at around 9pm. The Bunk room below decks has both state rooms and bunks, all the state rooms had been reserved before we booked, so we claimed two single births. These were pretty small and a bit claustrophobic but we slept ok. At full capacity of approximately 40 people this could be a little tight.
When we woke the next morning there was a lot of activity up on deck as many people had arrived early in the morning for the day trip out to Catalina. We were at capacity 40+ divers. A diverse group some spear fishers, one free diver, and a group from Utah.
The trip out to Catalina took about 2 hours, the Great Escape is a big boat, over 80’ long. The Bottom Scratcher which was moored next to us was clearly a faster boat, and seemed to be doing a similar trip, with people sleeping on the boat the night before.
As we approached Catalina we could see Ship Rock and Bird Rock, hubbub was that we should dive Bird Rock and local divers were clearly psyched to dive this site. Despite the full load, gear up and entry went smoothly. The Great Escape had no chase boat and the briefing was that if you surfaced too far from the boat and needed assistance a dive master would swim a buoy out to you!? This is not a reasonable expectation in my opinion but maybe the DM is one hell of a swimmer?
First dive was Bird Rock, decent into the kelp realm, nice contour with stepped blocks down to 75’’ 64 degree water temp. Ron’s first Kelp dive he was greeted by the elusive Garibaldi, a bright orange Damsel fish on steroids. A medium sized Sheephead was our companion for the duration of the dive. At one point we were on a 15’ wall with swim throughs between blocks of stone which had broken away from the main formation. An excellent first Catalina dive site.
The second and third dives were Empire Landing to 39’ 66 degrees and Yellowtail Point to 46 feet and 64 degrees. Both sites had a gravel/sand bottom with boulder formations and some Kelp. At Empire Landing there was an abundance of strange creatures, Mantis Shrimp, Octopus, Scorpion fish, various Sea stars and a Keyhole Limpet. We saw at least 6 Horn Sharks, cutest little sharks you ever saw. We had direct sunlight so the light was good and visibility was in the 30’ range. One group of divers surfaced to ask ‘where is the reef’ at Yellowtail point as the boat was not dead on the site.
Overall the Great Escape was a very friendly and accommodating boat. They day we went out with them they were at full capacity and it was a little crowded, being a day boat there was quite the blend of divers aboard and this probably limited the appropriate sites and may have slowed things down a bit, we only did 3 dives when 4 might have been possible. A chase boat would be nice, and this craft was not as ship shape as one might expect. This is a hard working boat and it shows. I would dive with them again, but might consider the Bottom Scratcher as it is a faster boat out of Long Beach.
Upon returning to port we were on a tight schedule to make it up to Ventura to board the Peace Boat which was due to depart at 10 pm for San Clemente. We did make time to eat some fresh Scallops at the take out place located right in front of the wharf, yumm. Not knowing how bad traffic would be we were a little concerned about making it up to Ventura on time but it only took about 2 hours to get there.
When we arrived at the Peace Boat there was no one around, so we made ourselves at home stowing our gear. The Peace had been chartered by a shop out of the Bay Area, Nautilus Aquatics. This was a 3 day, limited load, max. 20 on a 30 capacity boat to San Clemente for $525. Other shops were offering 3 day trips on the Peace for $450 but they were full capacity and shorter range. Tony from Nautilus provided us with tanks and weights included in the price. As it turns out we were only 12 divers which was a bonus and Tony had covered the extra cost to make it out to San Clemente, what a great guy.
The Peace is a 60+foot boat, with many double births. Ron and I both had doubles to ourselves. As everyone arrived the crew seemed way laid back but competent. They turned out to be one of the best crews I have seen on any dive boat, extremely efficient but constantly maintaining a good sense of humor and seem to really enjoy their jobs. Joe the chef is tops, the food was gourmet quality most of the time. This really is one of the best run boats I have ever seen, thanks to all the people who recommended this outfit so highly on Scubaboard and the Matrix.
We headed out into the night right at 10pm and encountered some rough water just outside the breakwater, once we were clear of the harbor Captain Kevin put us on a new heading and all was smooth sailing from then on. Some people were sea sick on both boats but fortunately neither Ron or I are susceptible. I admire the determination of people who are yet still dive regularly.
By morning San Clemente was visible off the starboard rail. We ran the length of this mountainous island to East End Point, our first dive site. The Peace sets two anchors on almost every dive, labor intensive but secure for sure. It was something watching the crew pull anchors over and over like a well oiled machine. The Peace also has a Zodiac for a chase boat, which is ingeniously mounted to the swim platform so it can be raised and lowered with the platform.
East End Point is a underwater peninsula which stretches out to over 100 feet deep where it meets sand bottom. Dramatic topography with giant kelp rising over 100’ to the surface provides an exciting landscape to explore. We headed down the edge of the point to 95’ rounding the tip we found a tight crevice which we followed up along the life covered rock. At about 40’ Ron found the first of many Spanish Shall Nudibranchs, as we stopped to check it out a male Sheephead gave Ron a nip on the finger. this dramatic landscape and the abundance and variety of life had me noting my log book “World Class Diving”! The water temps here ran 61 degrees and Visibility was over 40’
Our second dive was at Sun Point which had similar topography, but upon decent we were surprised by a Giant Sea Bass swimming by, this is one stocky fish! Water temp here was 66 even down at 95’.
Just when the diving was getting really good the current started to come up so we tucked into a cove off of Windowpane pinnacle. One peeve of mine was that the captain would not put us in any current at all the whole trip but this ended up being on of my favorite dives, ever! Jim, one of the crew was out free diving for Yellowtail to make sushi from, calls to the boat “Soupfin sharks along the shoreline”
Bam, me and Ron are in the water, as we approach the cove where the sharks were sited we see the first one, sleek oceanic sharks, similar to a Blacktip, but free swimming and active. The Soupfin, with its unfortunate name, is an elegant fish with a distinctive tail and almost translucent nose. Ahead in a shallow cove about 15’ deep full of crazy kelp that looks like a feather boas were 3 more Soupfins circling, as we entered their area they would slowly cruise by circling around often disappearing behind the kelp and bolder landscape. At one point a 5+’ swam straight towards me to within 3’ of my mask, wow. While this is going on a big Leopard Shark swims overhead, too exciting. The Soupfins seemed to be congregating in a crack in the shoreline so I headed in to investigate, but at 9’ the surge was getting pretty strong and my bud was no longer following so I turned back. Still wonder what the Sharks were doing in there, breeding? If anyone has any ideas feel free to chime in. There was a bait ball of silver fish present as well. What an exciting dive, at least 8 Soupfins were sighted, far out.
Needless to say we did a second dive here as well, and again saw the schooling Soupfins and an even larger Leopard shark with it’s distinctive spotted pattern. We finished the diving day with a night dive at Fishhook which was ok but some felt we should have dived a site we knew from the daytime. This was our mooring for the night so it makes sense to do the night dive there. Diving thick kelp at night can be a little strange.
Our second day at San Clemente started out with an excellent deep dive at Boiler Rock, Paradise Cove. We were a little slow going that morning waiting for a hot breakfast which normally comes after the first dive, not that there isn't plenty of hot coffee and continental breakfast available first thing. The DM Mike asked that we make it a 30min dive because we dallied so much so no problem we’ll go deep. Great Visibility, 60+ and 118’ deep brought us to a temperate 54 degree water temp. Good thing we are both diving dry suits. Something about the deep realm feels different ot me, something about the light. Following the reef up a gradual slope we found a small canyon full of white gorgonians, sweet. Running low on bottom time we climbed to the top of a volcanic block with Giant kelp growing from the top of it, Volcanic islands seem to provide the best underwater topography. We finished with a nice slow ascent up through the towering kelp and hanging in the fronds for the safety stop is always interesting.
We did four more dives at San Clemente, one on Windowpane pinnacle and then to a cove which was an unnamed dive site. Everyone saw Giant Sea Hares on this site so we named it Sea Hare Cove. Now that's a strange creature! After another ok night dive we slipped our mooring and motored up to Anacapa over night.
Sea conditions were good the whole trip, but the skies were becoming more and more cloudy. By the last day at Anacapa the sun never burned through the marine layer.
We awoke to the sound of Sea Lions barking on their haul out at Pyramid Cove. Needless to say the first Anacapa dive was a Sea Lion encounter. Man can they swim fast, doing amazing spirals and pirouettes, they would swim down to us and slap the bottom with their fins leaving a puff of sand. Amazingly inquisitive they would swim by and look you right in the eye, amazing. For the duration of the dive they were buzzing around. We finished the dive in the kelp where a huge Sheephead escorted us, you can definitely tell a difference in the size of the fish in these protected waters. Anacapa is part of Channel Islands National Park and we were diving in a marine preserve.
Anacapa is also known for it’s numerous and varied Nudibranch’s, we found a Clown nudibranch with bright orange spots on a snow white body amongst the kelp first dive. Another was beige with a tuft and antenna maybe Doriopsilla Albopuctata. A tiny Chromodoris Macfarlandi deep purple with bright yellow stripes, and one photo revealed a Flabellina Trilineata which appears to be getting eaten by a Spanish Shall?
Anacapa ain’t just about Nudibranchs though, our second dive was at Landing Cove. Here we found three Giant Sea Bass, and a bunch of tiny Sea stars which were clinging to the Kelp fronds and even the anchor chain.
Our final dive of the trip was Landing Cove Arch which is another great bit of underwater landscape full of life, more Nudibranchs, big Blennies, and a huge 300lb Harbor Seal swam by during our safety stop as if to say good by. At Anacapa the water was a little cooler ranging from 57-63 and the vis was down around 20’- 30’ with overcast skies. Anacapa did have different sea life and there is a noticeable difference in the size of the fish here.
Overall I was blown away by the abundance of life in the Channel Islands, definitely world class diving for those who can hack the cold water. A few people on the Peace were diving wet suits and they did skip some dives. Dry suit is definitely the way to go out here if you have one. They could have done a Whites catalog photo shoot on our boat as most of Tony’s group had the latest stylie Whites Dry suits.
SoCal has great diving infrastructure between the dive boat fleet, Casino Point on Catalina and the myriad shore dives available from san Diego on up to Ventura. Dive shops are abundant for fills along the way. Next trip I hope to dive some of the shore dives down south at La Jolla and Laguna, I might drive out for that. For ease of access and economy when flying in you can’t go wrong with the liveaboard fleet.
This is one of those long ass trip reports and may be TL/DNR. I hope it provides some useful information, especially for out of towners flying in to dive SoCal, America's hidden treasure of diving.
Flew into LAX, reasonably cheap air makes this a good deal for short trips from Albuquerque or Denver. We both opted to fly Southwest as they allow 100lbs luggage for no fee. Both United and American would have charged $40 each way in luggage penalties.
Taxis are very expensive so Super Shuttle might be a good option for a simple itinerary. I paid close to $90 to take a taxi to Long Beach ferry terminal on a previous trip. This time we rented a car for $240 for 5 days. Free parking was available at both Long Beach and Ventura harbors.
LA has a fleet of liveaboards out of Long Beach and San Pedro, some of these boats allow divers to sleep on the boat the night before departure which provides a great alternative to hotel rooms. We were booked on the Peace Boat out of Ventura harbor, 2 hours north of LA, and had a day before to dive locally. After looking into shore dives, we opted to take a boat trip to Catalina instead. The Great Escape was running an open boat to Catalina front side for $115 per person, and provided births for the night before.
The Great Escape people, Joy, Tom and Captain Tim were great. As we were flying in late and had no way to go to a shop and rent tanks and weights, captain Tim rounded up tanks for us to use, free of charge. Long Beach harbor is about 45min. from LAX and easy to find, The Queen Marry is docked near by and helps with navigation as there are tons of signs for this tourist attraction.
Upon arrival at the Great Escape we received a friendly greeting from Captain Tim, there were approximately 20 divers on the boat already when we arrived at around 9pm. The Bunk room below decks has both state rooms and bunks, all the state rooms had been reserved before we booked, so we claimed two single births. These were pretty small and a bit claustrophobic but we slept ok. At full capacity of approximately 40 people this could be a little tight.
When we woke the next morning there was a lot of activity up on deck as many people had arrived early in the morning for the day trip out to Catalina. We were at capacity 40+ divers. A diverse group some spear fishers, one free diver, and a group from Utah.
The trip out to Catalina took about 2 hours, the Great Escape is a big boat, over 80’ long. The Bottom Scratcher which was moored next to us was clearly a faster boat, and seemed to be doing a similar trip, with people sleeping on the boat the night before.
As we approached Catalina we could see Ship Rock and Bird Rock, hubbub was that we should dive Bird Rock and local divers were clearly psyched to dive this site. Despite the full load, gear up and entry went smoothly. The Great Escape had no chase boat and the briefing was that if you surfaced too far from the boat and needed assistance a dive master would swim a buoy out to you!? This is not a reasonable expectation in my opinion but maybe the DM is one hell of a swimmer?
First dive was Bird Rock, decent into the kelp realm, nice contour with stepped blocks down to 75’’ 64 degree water temp. Ron’s first Kelp dive he was greeted by the elusive Garibaldi, a bright orange Damsel fish on steroids. A medium sized Sheephead was our companion for the duration of the dive. At one point we were on a 15’ wall with swim throughs between blocks of stone which had broken away from the main formation. An excellent first Catalina dive site.
The second and third dives were Empire Landing to 39’ 66 degrees and Yellowtail Point to 46 feet and 64 degrees. Both sites had a gravel/sand bottom with boulder formations and some Kelp. At Empire Landing there was an abundance of strange creatures, Mantis Shrimp, Octopus, Scorpion fish, various Sea stars and a Keyhole Limpet. We saw at least 6 Horn Sharks, cutest little sharks you ever saw. We had direct sunlight so the light was good and visibility was in the 30’ range. One group of divers surfaced to ask ‘where is the reef’ at Yellowtail point as the boat was not dead on the site.
Overall the Great Escape was a very friendly and accommodating boat. They day we went out with them they were at full capacity and it was a little crowded, being a day boat there was quite the blend of divers aboard and this probably limited the appropriate sites and may have slowed things down a bit, we only did 3 dives when 4 might have been possible. A chase boat would be nice, and this craft was not as ship shape as one might expect. This is a hard working boat and it shows. I would dive with them again, but might consider the Bottom Scratcher as it is a faster boat out of Long Beach.
Upon returning to port we were on a tight schedule to make it up to Ventura to board the Peace Boat which was due to depart at 10 pm for San Clemente. We did make time to eat some fresh Scallops at the take out place located right in front of the wharf, yumm. Not knowing how bad traffic would be we were a little concerned about making it up to Ventura on time but it only took about 2 hours to get there.
When we arrived at the Peace Boat there was no one around, so we made ourselves at home stowing our gear. The Peace had been chartered by a shop out of the Bay Area, Nautilus Aquatics. This was a 3 day, limited load, max. 20 on a 30 capacity boat to San Clemente for $525. Other shops were offering 3 day trips on the Peace for $450 but they were full capacity and shorter range. Tony from Nautilus provided us with tanks and weights included in the price. As it turns out we were only 12 divers which was a bonus and Tony had covered the extra cost to make it out to San Clemente, what a great guy.
The Peace is a 60+foot boat, with many double births. Ron and I both had doubles to ourselves. As everyone arrived the crew seemed way laid back but competent. They turned out to be one of the best crews I have seen on any dive boat, extremely efficient but constantly maintaining a good sense of humor and seem to really enjoy their jobs. Joe the chef is tops, the food was gourmet quality most of the time. This really is one of the best run boats I have ever seen, thanks to all the people who recommended this outfit so highly on Scubaboard and the Matrix.
We headed out into the night right at 10pm and encountered some rough water just outside the breakwater, once we were clear of the harbor Captain Kevin put us on a new heading and all was smooth sailing from then on. Some people were sea sick on both boats but fortunately neither Ron or I are susceptible. I admire the determination of people who are yet still dive regularly.
By morning San Clemente was visible off the starboard rail. We ran the length of this mountainous island to East End Point, our first dive site. The Peace sets two anchors on almost every dive, labor intensive but secure for sure. It was something watching the crew pull anchors over and over like a well oiled machine. The Peace also has a Zodiac for a chase boat, which is ingeniously mounted to the swim platform so it can be raised and lowered with the platform.
East End Point is a underwater peninsula which stretches out to over 100 feet deep where it meets sand bottom. Dramatic topography with giant kelp rising over 100’ to the surface provides an exciting landscape to explore. We headed down the edge of the point to 95’ rounding the tip we found a tight crevice which we followed up along the life covered rock. At about 40’ Ron found the first of many Spanish Shall Nudibranchs, as we stopped to check it out a male Sheephead gave Ron a nip on the finger. this dramatic landscape and the abundance and variety of life had me noting my log book “World Class Diving”! The water temps here ran 61 degrees and Visibility was over 40’
Our second dive was at Sun Point which had similar topography, but upon decent we were surprised by a Giant Sea Bass swimming by, this is one stocky fish! Water temp here was 66 even down at 95’.
Just when the diving was getting really good the current started to come up so we tucked into a cove off of Windowpane pinnacle. One peeve of mine was that the captain would not put us in any current at all the whole trip but this ended up being on of my favorite dives, ever! Jim, one of the crew was out free diving for Yellowtail to make sushi from, calls to the boat “Soupfin sharks along the shoreline”
Bam, me and Ron are in the water, as we approach the cove where the sharks were sited we see the first one, sleek oceanic sharks, similar to a Blacktip, but free swimming and active. The Soupfin, with its unfortunate name, is an elegant fish with a distinctive tail and almost translucent nose. Ahead in a shallow cove about 15’ deep full of crazy kelp that looks like a feather boas were 3 more Soupfins circling, as we entered their area they would slowly cruise by circling around often disappearing behind the kelp and bolder landscape. At one point a 5+’ swam straight towards me to within 3’ of my mask, wow. While this is going on a big Leopard Shark swims overhead, too exciting. The Soupfins seemed to be congregating in a crack in the shoreline so I headed in to investigate, but at 9’ the surge was getting pretty strong and my bud was no longer following so I turned back. Still wonder what the Sharks were doing in there, breeding? If anyone has any ideas feel free to chime in. There was a bait ball of silver fish present as well. What an exciting dive, at least 8 Soupfins were sighted, far out.
Needless to say we did a second dive here as well, and again saw the schooling Soupfins and an even larger Leopard shark with it’s distinctive spotted pattern. We finished the diving day with a night dive at Fishhook which was ok but some felt we should have dived a site we knew from the daytime. This was our mooring for the night so it makes sense to do the night dive there. Diving thick kelp at night can be a little strange.
Our second day at San Clemente started out with an excellent deep dive at Boiler Rock, Paradise Cove. We were a little slow going that morning waiting for a hot breakfast which normally comes after the first dive, not that there isn't plenty of hot coffee and continental breakfast available first thing. The DM Mike asked that we make it a 30min dive because we dallied so much so no problem we’ll go deep. Great Visibility, 60+ and 118’ deep brought us to a temperate 54 degree water temp. Good thing we are both diving dry suits. Something about the deep realm feels different ot me, something about the light. Following the reef up a gradual slope we found a small canyon full of white gorgonians, sweet. Running low on bottom time we climbed to the top of a volcanic block with Giant kelp growing from the top of it, Volcanic islands seem to provide the best underwater topography. We finished with a nice slow ascent up through the towering kelp and hanging in the fronds for the safety stop is always interesting.
We did four more dives at San Clemente, one on Windowpane pinnacle and then to a cove which was an unnamed dive site. Everyone saw Giant Sea Hares on this site so we named it Sea Hare Cove. Now that's a strange creature! After another ok night dive we slipped our mooring and motored up to Anacapa over night.
Sea conditions were good the whole trip, but the skies were becoming more and more cloudy. By the last day at Anacapa the sun never burned through the marine layer.
We awoke to the sound of Sea Lions barking on their haul out at Pyramid Cove. Needless to say the first Anacapa dive was a Sea Lion encounter. Man can they swim fast, doing amazing spirals and pirouettes, they would swim down to us and slap the bottom with their fins leaving a puff of sand. Amazingly inquisitive they would swim by and look you right in the eye, amazing. For the duration of the dive they were buzzing around. We finished the dive in the kelp where a huge Sheephead escorted us, you can definitely tell a difference in the size of the fish in these protected waters. Anacapa is part of Channel Islands National Park and we were diving in a marine preserve.
Anacapa is also known for it’s numerous and varied Nudibranch’s, we found a Clown nudibranch with bright orange spots on a snow white body amongst the kelp first dive. Another was beige with a tuft and antenna maybe Doriopsilla Albopuctata. A tiny Chromodoris Macfarlandi deep purple with bright yellow stripes, and one photo revealed a Flabellina Trilineata which appears to be getting eaten by a Spanish Shall?
Anacapa ain’t just about Nudibranchs though, our second dive was at Landing Cove. Here we found three Giant Sea Bass, and a bunch of tiny Sea stars which were clinging to the Kelp fronds and even the anchor chain.
Our final dive of the trip was Landing Cove Arch which is another great bit of underwater landscape full of life, more Nudibranchs, big Blennies, and a huge 300lb Harbor Seal swam by during our safety stop as if to say good by. At Anacapa the water was a little cooler ranging from 57-63 and the vis was down around 20’- 30’ with overcast skies. Anacapa did have different sea life and there is a noticeable difference in the size of the fish here.
Overall I was blown away by the abundance of life in the Channel Islands, definitely world class diving for those who can hack the cold water. A few people on the Peace were diving wet suits and they did skip some dives. Dry suit is definitely the way to go out here if you have one. They could have done a Whites catalog photo shoot on our boat as most of Tony’s group had the latest stylie Whites Dry suits.
SoCal has great diving infrastructure between the dive boat fleet, Casino Point on Catalina and the myriad shore dives available from san Diego on up to Ventura. Dive shops are abundant for fills along the way. Next trip I hope to dive some of the shore dives down south at La Jolla and Laguna, I might drive out for that. For ease of access and economy when flying in you can’t go wrong with the liveaboard fleet.
This is one of those long ass trip reports and may be TL/DNR. I hope it provides some useful information, especially for out of towners flying in to dive SoCal, America's hidden treasure of diving.
Last edited:
