newdiverAZ
Contributor
Well my wife, nephew, and I completed our certification
We were supposed to go on a boat @ Lake Pleasant, AZ but the boat was full, so we opted for a road trip to Catalina Island (what a bummer lol)ok we arrived friday afternoon to Casino Point, the visability was 30-35 feet, water temp 68 degrees, not too many other divers there, our maximum depth was 39 ft. We entered the water from the steps into a pretty strong surge, it was kinda a tough entry but we all got the hang of it. We did the first dive as an underwater tour, there was alot of life including many garibaldi, we ended up right in the middle of a very large school of small fish, not really sure what they were. We surfaced for a short time, then submerged for dive 2. We all did very well with our skills, the one exception was my wife had a problem with the fin pivot, which turned out to be a problem with weight distribution(our first time in 7 mmm suits) but we got it worked out and she did fine.
Day 2
We got down to the point on Saturday morning to find about 200 divers there, it was busy above but once in the water not overcrowded at all. Visability was still 30-35 feet, water temp 67 degrees. Dive 3 we all did well on all skills except my wife had a problem this time clearing her mask(the hood kept getting in the way)she was usually better than the rest of us with this skill, but the hood was just getting in the way, but once again she succeeded Dive 4 went very well my wife(who cannot find her way around on land)suprisingly did the best on the underwater nav swim. We all finished all skills and instructor gave us our patches underwater. Our instructor was really awesome if anyone is in need of an instructor in the Mesa area, let me know and I'll give ya his name.Dive 5 was a nice lil leisure dive, we swam patterns horizontal to the shore at about 35' deep saw a lot more garibaldi and a starfish about 18" across under a rock. I had heard there is a tire habitat there that has 2 octopus but we didn't get a chance to find it, oh well on the next trip. The kelp is really neat it makes for a really awesome underwater landscape.
Dive 6 was a night boat dive with Catalina Divers Supply. Lemme tell you if you wanna find lobster and have a great time these guys are the ones. Captain Dave and the divemaster Ron are awesome really made us feel comfortable on our first night dive and bein the first day of lobster season these guys were ready for some dinner lol. The first of the 2 dives took us to about 25', not to sure how to guage vis at night yet but didn't seem to bad. We saw quite a few lobster varying in size, but was alot of kelp.I believe the area was called Ripper's Cove. Dive 7 was at a spot not sure of the name but only about 30' out from a really kewl shear rock face on the northeast side of the island. My nephew didn't feel so well(I think a lil seasick plus exhuasted)so he did not dive, my wife stayed up with him. I was proud of him that he made the decision not to go bein he didn't feel well, I thought that was a very mature decision. So the instructor and I went on my first bug hunt we didn't have a license so we couldn't keep anything, not like I caught any anyway lol. So this dive started at about 20' then we worked back and forth along the shoreline to a depth of 55' the vis was better on this dive and we hit a thermocline at 50'. We saw quite a few lobster including one that was 18"-24" long. I never realized how fast they swim, it is an amazing sight to see them darting around like a richoceting bullet in the dark water only lit by your light.
This was our last dive of the trip.
Sorry for the length of this post but as you can tell I am very excited. What an awesome time, my only regret is that it's taken me this long to get diving. We are already trying to find a place to go for October. Thanks to everyone here for the advice on different places and tips for diving it is greatly appreciated.
Brian
We were supposed to go on a boat @ Lake Pleasant, AZ but the boat was full, so we opted for a road trip to Catalina Island (what a bummer lol)ok we arrived friday afternoon to Casino Point, the visability was 30-35 feet, water temp 68 degrees, not too many other divers there, our maximum depth was 39 ft. We entered the water from the steps into a pretty strong surge, it was kinda a tough entry but we all got the hang of it. We did the first dive as an underwater tour, there was alot of life including many garibaldi, we ended up right in the middle of a very large school of small fish, not really sure what they were. We surfaced for a short time, then submerged for dive 2. We all did very well with our skills, the one exception was my wife had a problem with the fin pivot, which turned out to be a problem with weight distribution(our first time in 7 mmm suits) but we got it worked out and she did fine.Day 2
We got down to the point on Saturday morning to find about 200 divers there, it was busy above but once in the water not overcrowded at all. Visability was still 30-35 feet, water temp 67 degrees. Dive 3 we all did well on all skills except my wife had a problem this time clearing her mask(the hood kept getting in the way)she was usually better than the rest of us with this skill, but the hood was just getting in the way, but once again she succeeded
Dive 4 went very well my wife(who cannot find her way around on land)suprisingly did the best on the underwater nav swim. We all finished all skills and instructor gave us our patches underwater. Our instructor was really awesome if anyone is in need of an instructor in the Mesa area, let me know and I'll give ya his name.Dive 5 was a nice lil leisure dive, we swam patterns horizontal to the shore at about 35' deep saw a lot more garibaldi and a starfish about 18" across under a rock. I had heard there is a tire habitat there that has 2 octopus but we didn't get a chance to find it, oh well on the next trip. The kelp is really neat it makes for a really awesome underwater landscape.Dive 6 was a night boat dive with Catalina Divers Supply. Lemme tell you if you wanna find lobster and have a great time these guys are the ones. Captain Dave and the divemaster Ron are awesome really made us feel comfortable on our first night dive and bein the first day of lobster season these guys were ready for some dinner lol. The first of the 2 dives took us to about 25', not to sure how to guage vis at night yet but didn't seem to bad. We saw quite a few lobster varying in size, but was alot of kelp.I believe the area was called Ripper's Cove. Dive 7 was at a spot not sure of the name but only about 30' out from a really kewl shear rock face on the northeast side of the island. My nephew didn't feel so well(I think a lil seasick plus exhuasted)so he did not dive, my wife stayed up with him. I was proud of him that he made the decision not to go bein he didn't feel well, I thought that was a very mature decision. So the instructor and I went on my first bug hunt
we didn't have a license so we couldn't keep anything, not like I caught any anyway lol. So this dive started at about 20' then we worked back and forth along the shoreline to a depth of 55' the vis was better on this dive and we hit a thermocline at 50'. We saw quite a few lobster including one that was 18"-24" long. I never realized how fast they swim, it is an amazing sight to see them darting around like a richoceting bullet in the dark water only lit by your light. This was our last dive of the trip.
Sorry for the length of this post but as you can tell I am very excited. What an awesome time, my only regret is that it's taken me this long to get diving. We are already trying to find a place to go for October. Thanks to everyone here for the advice on different places and tips for diving it is greatly appreciated.
Brian
