Expedition Catalina: 900 ft "dives" off Catalina Island

[drbill]

Beginning Sept 30th, Ocean Gate and Scott Cassell will be undertaking Expedition Catalina during which the submersible Antipodes will be taking five people including Scott, a scientist and members of the general public down to depths as much as 900 ft to explore a portion of our local ocean rarely visited by humans.

I will be on the first dive that day with Scott, a reporter, a videographer and a school student selected from a competition. I'm very excited abut this opportunity to witness depths off my island I've never experienced, and to share my scientific observations with the others who ride in the submersible and the general public. I plan to record them both in writing and on video, and detail them in future "Dive Dry with Dr. Bill" columns that will be posted here on ScubaBoard.

This is a very exciting opportunity not just for me, but for all those who will participate on the estimated 60 dives that will be conducted in our waters.

Although it is not technically a SCUBA dive (my limit here off Catalina is 200 ft since I only dive air, the gas mix God gave us), the air supply is indeed self-contained in the Antipodes and the results should be of great interest to SCUBA divers as well as non-divers.

Of course I'm hoping that as a result of these dives, James Cameron will invite me to "fly" on his submersible to the greatest depths of the ocean (10,972 meters) in the Mariana Trench. Fat chance!

 

[Captain12Pk]

Very cool Doc. Looking forward to your reviews. Just out of curiosity, who will the other members of the "General Public" be? Any idea as to how they were selected?

 

[DCBC]

Good luck Bill. I've spend quite a bit of time at that depth, but didn't have the luxury to come back to the surface so quickly. Enjoy the adventure and I'll look forward to seeing and hearing about your trip here on ScubaBoard!

Wayne

 

[drbill]

There was a competition for the student spots and I'm not sure how many were chosen. There will be other mission scientists on the Antipodes, one for each trip. As for the members of the general public, there was an auction for several trips and others have paid for the privilege of doing a dive with the team. I'm not too knowledgeable about this part of the Expedition (and, despite my mis-spelling, it is NOT Experdition!).

 

[kathydee]

Sounds interesting! Good luck Bill - look forward to your write ups !

 

[DiveNav]

interesting ... do You know WHERE the dive will be?
Maybe I can give you a preview

Alberto (aka eDiver)

 

[diversteve]

(and, despite my mis-spelling, it is NOT Experdition!).

Not any more...

 

[Videodude]

Very Cool!

I shot video of the test runs after the most recent re-fit here in Pompano Beach! I have attached some video still frames to this message.

Glad to see Antipodes is in service and doing well!

 

[drbill]

@Alberto: We're not sure of the actual dive locations yet (at least I'm not) but we will be based out of Wrigley-USC at Two Harbors. I know initially they wanted to circumnavigate the island, but that may be a difficult proposition given support needs.

@Videodude: Thanks for the additional images of Antipodes.