Looking for dive buddy in Catalina January 1 - 3, 2013

[mailee]

My husband and I are going to Catalina for a few days of diving. I heard that there may not be boats going out those days so we'll be doing shore dives at the park. It's our first trip to Catalina and we'd love to dive with a local!

We learned to dive in Monterey, CA but recently were living in Southeast Asia so our dives were much warmer. I am AOW with about 70 dives, my husband is Rescue certified with 150+.

Please reply here or PM me. Thanks!

 

[fnfalman]

It's a shame that I won't be around, otherwise I would join in. Please check with Catalin Divers Supply or Scuba Luv to make sure that either of them would be open to support your dives.

 

[davidbaraff]

If you learned to dive in Monterey, the dive park at Casino Point should be a pretty easy environment for you. (That is, I'm assuming since you learned in Monterey, that you understand kelp). It's a pretty easy to navigate environment, since it basically drops down slowly as you head directly away from shore.

If nobody is around to show you around, simply walk down the steps, enter the water, swim out about 20-30' to one of the buoys, and drop down the anchor line. That will put you in about 15-19' feet depth. Then simply swim a bit deeper, say to 30 or 40' feet. Assuming you're facing down slope, simply turn right, and swim for a while at a constant depth, taking in the sights. After a while, turn around and come back.

Oh: depending on the tide, when you enter the water off the steps, watch carefully where you are going. There is a large rock on the left hand side of the steps, a few feet into the water. you could bang your knee on it if you have bad luck, but if you're looking where you're going, you'll easily see it and avoid it.

You're basically in a big cordoned off rectangle, when you're in the dive park. Assuming you don't stray out of its bounds, at worst, if you surface in the corner, you'd have a bit of a surface swim back. There are a couple of features (wrecks and such) at various depths: you're likely to at least find someone on the shore who can tell you where you are, or I'm sure you can download a map of the park.

But navigation-wise, it's really one of the simpler environments you're going to encounter.

 

[drbill]

There is a chance the air fill station at the dive park may be closed. Please call Eric at 310-510-0330 to check.

 

[Mark Guccione]

I'll be diving tomorrow in the park...

 

[mailee]

Thanks for all of the helpful info, everyone! We had 2 great days of diving and hope to get back there again soon.

 

[blue steal]

Thanks for all of the helpful info, everyone! We had 2 great days of diving and hope to get back there again soon.

Glad you had a great time. We would love to hear a trip report when you have the time.
Was the fill station open for you when there?

 

[fnfalman]

Details!!! We want details!!!

 

[mailee]

The fill station wasn't open on January 3rd (or at least I didn't see it open) but it was open on January 4th. We got our tanks from Ron Moore at Dive Catalina. He was great! He brought the tanks right to us at the Casino and then we called him for more when we decided to do more dives in the afternoon. On our first dive, we saw schools of anchovies swimming furiously around us, chased by seals. The seals swam within two feet of us, eager for food. It was amazing. The seals were to the left hand side of the casino when facing the water, in the more sandy part. The water was quite clear and temps ranged from 57 - 59 degrees at depth. My favorite part was swimming through the kelp with the sunlight dancing through the branches. I was amazed at how many fish there were - many more than I ever saw at Monterey. I get cold very easily, but wore a full 7 mm suit plus a hooded vest, and was able to warm up enough between dives to do a full day of diving each day.

 

[lamarpaulski]

Seals attacking baitfish Nov 19th Casino Pt Catalina. Cool that theyre still there!