Ashmai
Registered
My wife and I headed out to Catalina Island (Avalon) this weekend to finish our 4 Open Water Dives and complete our Open Water Certification through PADI. We did our confined dives and book work near Phoenix AZ, but wanted to ocean dive versus lake dive to finish our cert so we contacted Scubaluv in Avalon as our instructors.
First, a huge thanks to Scubaluv who really made this trip something so much more than my wife and I could have imagined. Bob Kennedy was our Scuba Diver Trainer (who we later found out is the mayor of Avalon) and our Dive Master (on boat) was Devin Thompson, who is a "freakishly, ridiculously strong" awesome chick who we immediately loved. Thanks Scubaluv for the amazing experience and watching over my wife and I like we were your children. As soon as we can make the time, we will be back to dive with you guys again.
Here is my account, the best I can recall, of our weekend trip to Avalon and our diving / certification around Catalina Island. I hope someone finds it as helpful as I have found others forum posts on these boards have been to me.
Keep in mind, other than being in a swimming pool in Arizona, my wife and I haven't been in the ocean with dive gear on before. Also, my temperatures were gathered from a few other divers, as I wasn't exactly sure.
Day One : 5/22/09
Skin Dive
Casino Point / Underwater Dive Park
Air Temp : 60
Surface Temp : 55 - 60
Vis : 20 - 30 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins / Mask / Snorkel
To get comfortable with the ocean, we did a quick skin dive first right off Casino Point. Easy entry, if not a bit stiff from getting used to a 7mm wetsuit and hood! The wife and I paddled out 20 or 30 feet from the steps, and realized how amazingly buoyant you are with a 7mm on and no weights! I don't think you could sink if someone stood on you. It took about 2 minutes to get used to the water, then I was warm although the wife complained about being cold after about 30 minutes. The first time I put my mask into the water, I was absolutely shocked at the mount of life under us. Even from the beach you could clearly see the orange Garibaldi beneath the water. When you actually were in the water looking down through mask and snorkel, they were truly breath taking. Swarms of fish, amazing kelp beneath us, beautiful colors... That first 5 minutes in the ocean was inspiring. We paddled around for about 30 minutes and headed back to land to get our BCD and tanks on.
Dive #1
Casino Point / Underwater Dive Park
Air Temp : 64
Surface Temp : 55 - 60
Vis : 25 - 30 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins
80 CF Aluminum tank (3000 psi)
BCD (rented, not sure the brand but worked great)
Weight : 22 pounds at first, increased to 26 when I couldn't sink. Stayed at 26 the rest of the trip which felt perfect.
18 minutes bottom time
My first impression with cold water ocean diving... How heavy you are standing on land... With 26 pounds of weights, 6mm's, 80 CF tanks, I was near 100 pounds of extra weight standing on the shore. It was difficult for me to stand around long, let alone my tiny wife who we nearly had to roll into the water. We finally got to the end of the steps of the dive park and did a rear entry, sort of like sitting down backwards into the water on a high rise of water. This seemed to work very well and we paddled back through some kelp 20 or 30 feet to meet up with our dive master near some buoys. We spent a good 40 minutes working on the first set of skills for our certification, and I was having some serious mask issues. Mask constantly leaking, fogging was TERRIBLE, and this added a high level of nervous anxiety for that first dive. I wasn't concentrating on sea life, but more worried about my eyes on fire from salt water and the claustrophobic feeling I had from having to breath heavier than I remembered in the pool, to keep air in my lungs. Later it was explained to me that this was probably due to having so much gear on, tight 6mm wet suits, and a BCD all clamped together tightly at my chest area. This made sense, I loosened it up a bit and relaxed on my second dive and it was much more enjoyable. My mask problems were immediately fixed when our dive master took my mask for about 30 minutes and came back with it all gooped up with some type of mask cleaner. Whatever it was solved the problem 100% as I didn't have mask issues the rest of the trip both that day, and the day after. Thanks again Bob
Not to much to mention on that first dive... I was uncomfortable, we didn't stay under longer than 20 minutes total, I didn't pay much attention to what was around me to be honest and we just worked on a few of the OW skills (leg cramps, diver tow, and snorkel / regulator exchanges).
Dive #2
Casino Point / Underwater Dive Park
Air Temp : 65
Surface Temp : 55 - 60
Vis : 25 - 30 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins
80 CF Aluminum tank (3000 psi)
BCD
Weight : 26 pounds
24 minutes bottom time
The second dive was so much more enjoyable... With my mask cleared now, no fog or issues there, I was able to look around a bit more. My wife and I were amazed at how much sea life surrounds you... I was worried that kicking my fins would result in a dead fish if they didn't move! This was the first dive where I actually paid any attention to the amazing kelp under the water. For our skin dive and first two OW dives the kelp gave us an un-easy feeling. It is slimy, looks dangerous, and can easily entangle! Also who knows what is living in there... It is usually dark too. We worked on skills, and also did a kelp crawl which resembled a doggie paddle swim stroke as we pushed the kelp under our bodies while swimming on the surface. This helped us tackle our fear of kelp rather quickly, and even swam through some in about 30 feet of water which really was beautiful. Bob even popped one of the bulbs off the kelp and ate it underwater for us, spitting it out. Too funny We felt much more comfortable with the second dive at the dive park, and enjoyed a bit of exploring after our second OW dive skills were taken care of. We also practiced entering and exiting the water a few different ways, all of which are extremely tiring with so much gear on your back. At one point my wife was stuck half in the water, half on the steps for 10 minutes wrestling with gear, weight, and balance. She needed to do it by herself once through for her cert, and ended up getting on her feet eventually.
Day Two : 5/23/09
Dive #3
Boat Diving / Long Point, Catalina Island
Air Temp : 63
Surface Temp : 55 - 60
Vis : 30 - 35 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins
80 CF Aluminum tank (3000 psi)
BCD
Weight : 26 pounds
28 minutes bottom time
This was the 3rd of our 4 required dives to finish up our PADI Open Water certification, and also our first real dive away from shore and off a boat. We started early and left Avalon around 9am. It took roughly an hour to get to Long Point, but that was good. It gave us time to ask questions, get prepped, suited up and ready for our first of three dives that day. This was the first dive where my wife and I actually felt comfortable in the water. Their wasn't much current, and we saw a barracuda on this dive which was really a treat to see. There wasn't a whole lot of kelp here (at least not where we were) and it gave us a great opportunity to the dreaded mask clearing exercise on a sandy bottom. This was my only real concern as I had an issue in the pool a month before, and that was in 5 feet of water... Not to mention the current made it a bit difficult to stay in one place on the bottom (I believe we were at around 20 feet) and when our instructor gave us the "are you feeling ok to try this exercise" motion, I hesitantly nodded. I got the mask off quick and tried not to flinch at the extremely cold water hitting my face. Had a slightly hard time getting the mask over my head again with my thick gloves on but finally had it over my eyes. I cleared it 4 times just to be safe, although the instructor said it was fully cleared the first time I did it. The wife also did the skill without issue, and we spent a bit more time with skills before heading to the surface. With the mask clearing out of the way, I was really looking forward to the rest of the day.
Dive #4
Boat Dive / Eagle Reef
Air Temp : 60
Surface Temp : 50 - 55
Vis : 15 - 20 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins
80 CF Aluminum tank (3000 psi)
BCD
Weight : 26 pounds
35 minutes bottom time
This dive was intimidating! We were no where near close to the shore, so far out actually I was sure we must have been anchored 1000 feet above bottom... However we were ensured that 40 - 60 feet down was some amazing diving. After entering the water, we swam to the rear of the boat and followed down the anchor line with our dive master. This was really out of a movie for my wife and I... Following a line down into the depths of the ocean into the dark below was a bit scary, but with Bob out front we followed like pups. You could only see blue all around you, save for the rope you were holding onto. Eventually you could see the sharp points of rock jotting out from the bottom, and huge slate like walls of stone sticking out like teeth from the ocean bottom. This was probably my favorite dive. Moving in and out of the huge rock slabs standing on end, you would temporarily get out of the current as it was blocked by these massive slabs of rock. Bob pointed out lobster, fish, and some very territorial Garibaldi fish that were protecting their "soon to be" homes for their eggs. A purple color on the rocks, I'm assuming some type of algae they lay their eggs on. Every time we saw one of these purple patches, there were two Garibaldi not a foot away. Beautiful drops, lush bottoms and a large variety of fish, simply an amazing dive. Who would know there was so much down there... This dive really opened my eyes to the joy of scuba. I really want to do this dive again in the near future as it was the most exciting one we went on, but we still had to finish Open Water skills for our cert and didn't get as much time here as I would have liked. Highly recommended you dive Eagle Reef.
WOOHOOO Open Water Certification Complete! All our skills were done, and we just had the last dive to enjoy.
Dive #5
Boat Dive / Garibaldi Reef or Rock Quarry
Air Temp : 54
Surface Temp : 50
Vis : 15 - 20 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins
80 CF Aluminum tank (3000 psi)
BCD
Weight : 26 pounds
35 minutes bottom time
I believe they called this place Garibaldi Reef, but looking at the dive maps I didn't see the name. I think it was towards the south of the island, near Rock Quarry. All I know is it was COVERED in heavy kelp forests. More than I had seen anywhere on the island. It was getting late by this time, and the sun was already down behind the hills so it made it a bit scarier than we were used to! Especially with the heavy amounts of kelp surrounding the boat... And to our surprise our instructor said we were solo this trip! Just my wife and I. We were fully certified, and he wanted us to plan our own dive from start to finish, do the dive, follow the plan, and he would watch from the boat. We started about 200 yards off the shore line, 20 yards from the wall of kelp at a depth of about 40 feet. We entered the water and swam on top of the water to the kelp line. Our plan was to drop down at the kelp line, follow the shore into the shallows at a chance to see some sharks and octopus, then head back out the same direction to the kelp line and surface. The water felt much colder by this time at night, and once we hit the kelp wall I put my mask in the water and saw thick kelp dropping into black waters... It looked like a picture straight out of a horror movie, and I had to fight the anxiety a bit. Everything was dark, and all I could see was kelp below my feet. I asked my wife what she thought (she hadn't looked down yet) and she said to stop pussin' around and dive. Without telling her that it looked a bit creepy, I took air out of the BCD and dropped into the kelp wall. I pushed it away as I descended but couldn't look back at her to see how she was fairing because I was having a hard enough time pushing it out of the way and descending. It was a bit nerve racking, but as soon as we broke through the heavy foliage of the kelp tops and moved closer to the bottom, it thinned out down there and surprisingly enough lightened up! It really was lovely once we got down there, I checked on the wife for the "Ok" signal which she returned, and we started heading up slowly into shallower waters exploring on the way. This dive was our first dive without a instructor, and it went wonderfully well. We followed our plan and saw a ton of awesome fish, swam through the kelp forests, and even dropped to our lowest depth yet. We were down the longest we were yet, and when we followed the bottom back out to where we thought the boat should be, we surfaced a good 20 feet from the boat just as planned. We really felt a sense of accomplishment with each other, and it ensured we will be diving in the future together.
What a wonderful trip... 2 days of amazing diving that I can't imagine topping soon (although I will try, I'm headed to Belize next month for a week to dive). My wife and I have found a sport that not only fulfills our exploring minds, but brings us closer together.
Secondly, if it wasn't for the team at Scubaluv, I don't know if our trip would have been as successful or enjoyable. I really felt like we were treated like family. Thanks Scubaluv, you guys made two divers for life.
-Cam and Stacy
PS, 140 minutes bottom time now and counting.
First, a huge thanks to Scubaluv who really made this trip something so much more than my wife and I could have imagined. Bob Kennedy was our Scuba Diver Trainer (who we later found out is the mayor of Avalon) and our Dive Master (on boat) was Devin Thompson, who is a "freakishly, ridiculously strong" awesome chick who we immediately loved. Thanks Scubaluv for the amazing experience and watching over my wife and I like we were your children. As soon as we can make the time, we will be back to dive with you guys again.
Here is my account, the best I can recall, of our weekend trip to Avalon and our diving / certification around Catalina Island. I hope someone finds it as helpful as I have found others forum posts on these boards have been to me.
Keep in mind, other than being in a swimming pool in Arizona, my wife and I haven't been in the ocean with dive gear on before. Also, my temperatures were gathered from a few other divers, as I wasn't exactly sure.
Day One : 5/22/09
Skin Dive
Casino Point / Underwater Dive Park
Air Temp : 60
Surface Temp : 55 - 60
Vis : 20 - 30 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins / Mask / Snorkel
To get comfortable with the ocean, we did a quick skin dive first right off Casino Point. Easy entry, if not a bit stiff from getting used to a 7mm wetsuit and hood! The wife and I paddled out 20 or 30 feet from the steps, and realized how amazingly buoyant you are with a 7mm on and no weights! I don't think you could sink if someone stood on you. It took about 2 minutes to get used to the water, then I was warm although the wife complained about being cold after about 30 minutes. The first time I put my mask into the water, I was absolutely shocked at the mount of life under us. Even from the beach you could clearly see the orange Garibaldi beneath the water. When you actually were in the water looking down through mask and snorkel, they were truly breath taking. Swarms of fish, amazing kelp beneath us, beautiful colors... That first 5 minutes in the ocean was inspiring. We paddled around for about 30 minutes and headed back to land to get our BCD and tanks on.
Dive #1
Casino Point / Underwater Dive Park
Air Temp : 64
Surface Temp : 55 - 60
Vis : 25 - 30 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins
80 CF Aluminum tank (3000 psi)
BCD (rented, not sure the brand but worked great)
Weight : 22 pounds at first, increased to 26 when I couldn't sink. Stayed at 26 the rest of the trip which felt perfect.
18 minutes bottom time
My first impression with cold water ocean diving... How heavy you are standing on land... With 26 pounds of weights, 6mm's, 80 CF tanks, I was near 100 pounds of extra weight standing on the shore. It was difficult for me to stand around long, let alone my tiny wife who we nearly had to roll into the water. We finally got to the end of the steps of the dive park and did a rear entry, sort of like sitting down backwards into the water on a high rise of water. This seemed to work very well and we paddled back through some kelp 20 or 30 feet to meet up with our dive master near some buoys. We spent a good 40 minutes working on the first set of skills for our certification, and I was having some serious mask issues. Mask constantly leaking, fogging was TERRIBLE, and this added a high level of nervous anxiety for that first dive. I wasn't concentrating on sea life, but more worried about my eyes on fire from salt water and the claustrophobic feeling I had from having to breath heavier than I remembered in the pool, to keep air in my lungs. Later it was explained to me that this was probably due to having so much gear on, tight 6mm wet suits, and a BCD all clamped together tightly at my chest area. This made sense, I loosened it up a bit and relaxed on my second dive and it was much more enjoyable. My mask problems were immediately fixed when our dive master took my mask for about 30 minutes and came back with it all gooped up with some type of mask cleaner. Whatever it was solved the problem 100% as I didn't have mask issues the rest of the trip both that day, and the day after. Thanks again Bob
Not to much to mention on that first dive... I was uncomfortable, we didn't stay under longer than 20 minutes total, I didn't pay much attention to what was around me to be honest and we just worked on a few of the OW skills (leg cramps, diver tow, and snorkel / regulator exchanges).Dive #2
Casino Point / Underwater Dive Park
Air Temp : 65
Surface Temp : 55 - 60
Vis : 25 - 30 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins
80 CF Aluminum tank (3000 psi)
BCD
Weight : 26 pounds
24 minutes bottom time
The second dive was so much more enjoyable... With my mask cleared now, no fog or issues there, I was able to look around a bit more. My wife and I were amazed at how much sea life surrounds you... I was worried that kicking my fins would result in a dead fish if they didn't move! This was the first dive where I actually paid any attention to the amazing kelp under the water. For our skin dive and first two OW dives the kelp gave us an un-easy feeling. It is slimy, looks dangerous, and can easily entangle! Also who knows what is living in there... It is usually dark too. We worked on skills, and also did a kelp crawl which resembled a doggie paddle swim stroke as we pushed the kelp under our bodies while swimming on the surface. This helped us tackle our fear of kelp rather quickly, and even swam through some in about 30 feet of water which really was beautiful. Bob even popped one of the bulbs off the kelp and ate it underwater for us, spitting it out. Too funny
We felt much more comfortable with the second dive at the dive park, and enjoyed a bit of exploring after our second OW dive skills were taken care of. We also practiced entering and exiting the water a few different ways, all of which are extremely tiring with so much gear on your back. At one point my wife was stuck half in the water, half on the steps for 10 minutes wrestling with gear, weight, and balance. She needed to do it by herself once through for her cert, and ended up getting on her feet eventually.Day Two : 5/23/09
Dive #3
Boat Diving / Long Point, Catalina Island
Air Temp : 63
Surface Temp : 55 - 60
Vis : 30 - 35 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins
80 CF Aluminum tank (3000 psi)
BCD
Weight : 26 pounds
28 minutes bottom time
This was the 3rd of our 4 required dives to finish up our PADI Open Water certification, and also our first real dive away from shore and off a boat. We started early and left Avalon around 9am. It took roughly an hour to get to Long Point, but that was good. It gave us time to ask questions, get prepped, suited up and ready for our first of three dives that day. This was the first dive where my wife and I actually felt comfortable in the water. Their wasn't much current, and we saw a barracuda on this dive which was really a treat to see. There wasn't a whole lot of kelp here (at least not where we were) and it gave us a great opportunity to the dreaded mask clearing exercise on a sandy bottom. This was my only real concern as I had an issue in the pool a month before, and that was in 5 feet of water... Not to mention the current made it a bit difficult to stay in one place on the bottom (I believe we were at around 20 feet) and when our instructor gave us the "are you feeling ok to try this exercise" motion, I hesitantly nodded. I got the mask off quick and tried not to flinch at the extremely cold water hitting my face. Had a slightly hard time getting the mask over my head again with my thick gloves on but finally had it over my eyes. I cleared it 4 times just to be safe, although the instructor said it was fully cleared the first time I did it. The wife also did the skill without issue, and we spent a bit more time with skills before heading to the surface. With the mask clearing out of the way, I was really looking forward to the rest of the day.
Dive #4
Boat Dive / Eagle Reef
Air Temp : 60
Surface Temp : 50 - 55
Vis : 15 - 20 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins
80 CF Aluminum tank (3000 psi)
BCD
Weight : 26 pounds
35 minutes bottom time
This dive was intimidating! We were no where near close to the shore, so far out actually I was sure we must have been anchored 1000 feet above bottom... However we were ensured that 40 - 60 feet down was some amazing diving. After entering the water, we swam to the rear of the boat and followed down the anchor line with our dive master. This was really out of a movie for my wife and I... Following a line down into the depths of the ocean into the dark below was a bit scary, but with Bob out front we followed like pups. You could only see blue all around you, save for the rope you were holding onto. Eventually you could see the sharp points of rock jotting out from the bottom, and huge slate like walls of stone sticking out like teeth from the ocean bottom. This was probably my favorite dive. Moving in and out of the huge rock slabs standing on end, you would temporarily get out of the current as it was blocked by these massive slabs of rock. Bob pointed out lobster, fish, and some very territorial Garibaldi fish that were protecting their "soon to be" homes for their eggs. A purple color on the rocks, I'm assuming some type of algae they lay their eggs on. Every time we saw one of these purple patches, there were two Garibaldi not a foot away. Beautiful drops, lush bottoms and a large variety of fish, simply an amazing dive. Who would know there was so much down there... This dive really opened my eyes to the joy of scuba. I really want to do this dive again in the near future as it was the most exciting one we went on, but we still had to finish Open Water skills for our cert and didn't get as much time here as I would have liked. Highly recommended you dive Eagle Reef.
WOOHOOO Open Water Certification Complete! All our skills were done, and we just had the last dive to enjoy.
Dive #5
Boat Dive / Garibaldi Reef or Rock Quarry
Air Temp : 54
Surface Temp : 50
Vis : 15 - 20 feet
7mm full wet suit
3mm hoodie
3mm gloves
boots / fins
80 CF Aluminum tank (3000 psi)
BCD
Weight : 26 pounds
35 minutes bottom time
I believe they called this place Garibaldi Reef, but looking at the dive maps I didn't see the name. I think it was towards the south of the island, near Rock Quarry. All I know is it was COVERED in heavy kelp forests. More than I had seen anywhere on the island. It was getting late by this time, and the sun was already down behind the hills so it made it a bit scarier than we were used to! Especially with the heavy amounts of kelp surrounding the boat... And to our surprise our instructor said we were solo this trip! Just my wife and I. We were fully certified, and he wanted us to plan our own dive from start to finish, do the dive, follow the plan, and he would watch from the boat. We started about 200 yards off the shore line, 20 yards from the wall of kelp at a depth of about 40 feet. We entered the water and swam on top of the water to the kelp line. Our plan was to drop down at the kelp line, follow the shore into the shallows at a chance to see some sharks and octopus, then head back out the same direction to the kelp line and surface. The water felt much colder by this time at night, and once we hit the kelp wall I put my mask in the water and saw thick kelp dropping into black waters... It looked like a picture straight out of a horror movie, and I had to fight the anxiety a bit. Everything was dark, and all I could see was kelp below my feet. I asked my wife what she thought (she hadn't looked down yet) and she said to stop pussin' around and dive. Without telling her that it looked a bit creepy, I took air out of the BCD and dropped into the kelp wall. I pushed it away as I descended but couldn't look back at her to see how she was fairing because I was having a hard enough time pushing it out of the way and descending. It was a bit nerve racking, but as soon as we broke through the heavy foliage of the kelp tops and moved closer to the bottom, it thinned out down there and surprisingly enough lightened up! It really was lovely once we got down there, I checked on the wife for the "Ok" signal which she returned, and we started heading up slowly into shallower waters exploring on the way. This dive was our first dive without a instructor, and it went wonderfully well. We followed our plan and saw a ton of awesome fish, swam through the kelp forests, and even dropped to our lowest depth yet. We were down the longest we were yet, and when we followed the bottom back out to where we thought the boat should be, we surfaced a good 20 feet from the boat just as planned. We really felt a sense of accomplishment with each other, and it ensured we will be diving in the future together.
What a wonderful trip... 2 days of amazing diving that I can't imagine topping soon (although I will try, I'm headed to Belize next month for a week to dive). My wife and I have found a sport that not only fulfills our exploring minds, but brings us closer together.
Secondly, if it wasn't for the team at Scubaluv, I don't know if our trip would have been as successful or enjoyable. I really felt like we were treated like family. Thanks Scubaluv, you guys made two divers for life.
-Cam and Stacy
PS, 140 minutes bottom time now and counting.
