BigBubbaJ
Contributor
robint asked about this trip in the Aurora thread, so rather than hijack myself, I thought that I would start a new thread.
I went to LA for a long weekend (I used to be from there until 96).
Decided it was a muct to get a day of diving in, since I haven't ever dove in California. Looked for a buddy on SB, but no luck, so I figured a boat would be a safe bet.
Ended up hopping on a great boat out of San Pedro, the Magician.
$135 bucks for three tanks, and lots of great food. It was through Sport Chalet, who had dive masters on board to check us in and off the boat.
I was by myself, so I buddied up with the only other solo guy on the boat, a nice ER doc from laguna beach, who was diving with a pony. Always nice to buddy up with someone like that.
Really nice.... the visibility wasn't the best (~15'-40') but it doesn't matter there because there is something near at each turn.
Got in 3 really nice dives. Water temp at 98' was about 54 deg, in the low 60s above 40 feet.
Tons of fish. Even saw a giant Mola Mola fish just before we arrived at the first dive site.
There was a bass fishing tournament, so our dive site options were limited.
We dove the first dive at Crane Platform, which had crappy vis on the descent to the bottom, about 10 ft, and it didn't open up at all until about 85 fsw. There wasn't much to see that deep, so we meandered up the sandy slope until we got into the kelp. Beautiful!
Second dive was only a few hundred yards over from the first, but man what a site. It is called Sea Fan Grotto (White Rock), and man WOW.
A very amazing site, with depths from 20 to 230 at the same spot! I was diving nitrox on this dive, so we didn't push the depths. Saw the usual critters, lobsters, garibaldi,leopard shark,kelpfish, something called a Giant Black Sea hare. Lots of others.
Third dive, the captain decided to stay at this site, which was fine by me. Even with an entire dive, we missed the "grotto" altogether the first time around.
This time we found the grotto, and man tons of sea fans. There is a cavern there, which we didnt enter as there was a bit of surge around the area, but there were a number of shalliow spots that had fantastic colors of all sorts of plants and coral, and a number of bright sponges. I didn't expect that at Catalina! Jeff, my buddy had somehow snared his rear dump valve in his weight belt, so after figuiring that out and removing his belt and helping him get all settled, we had a fantastic dive.
I dove nitrox on this one too, as I was trying to get to Vegas the next day to visit some family.
I gave myself about 20 hours before making the drive to Vegas, which gets up to 4710 feet in one spot. Didn't get bent, so nitrox plus a safe no-altitude window seemed to be a good call.
I have some pictures and a video (from another diver) on my web site.
For the money, I would dive Catalina as much as possible. I think the Kelp Forests are perhaps the some of the most beautiful underwater places.
I went to LA for a long weekend (I used to be from there until 96).
Decided it was a muct to get a day of diving in, since I haven't ever dove in California. Looked for a buddy on SB, but no luck, so I figured a boat would be a safe bet.
Ended up hopping on a great boat out of San Pedro, the Magician.
$135 bucks for three tanks, and lots of great food. It was through Sport Chalet, who had dive masters on board to check us in and off the boat.
I was by myself, so I buddied up with the only other solo guy on the boat, a nice ER doc from laguna beach, who was diving with a pony. Always nice to buddy up with someone like that.
Really nice.... the visibility wasn't the best (~15'-40') but it doesn't matter there because there is something near at each turn.
Got in 3 really nice dives. Water temp at 98' was about 54 deg, in the low 60s above 40 feet.
Tons of fish. Even saw a giant Mola Mola fish just before we arrived at the first dive site.
There was a bass fishing tournament, so our dive site options were limited.
We dove the first dive at Crane Platform, which had crappy vis on the descent to the bottom, about 10 ft, and it didn't open up at all until about 85 fsw. There wasn't much to see that deep, so we meandered up the sandy slope until we got into the kelp. Beautiful!
Second dive was only a few hundred yards over from the first, but man what a site. It is called Sea Fan Grotto (White Rock), and man WOW.
A very amazing site, with depths from 20 to 230 at the same spot! I was diving nitrox on this dive, so we didn't push the depths. Saw the usual critters, lobsters, garibaldi,leopard shark,kelpfish, something called a Giant Black Sea hare. Lots of others.
Third dive, the captain decided to stay at this site, which was fine by me. Even with an entire dive, we missed the "grotto" altogether the first time around.
This time we found the grotto, and man tons of sea fans. There is a cavern there, which we didnt enter as there was a bit of surge around the area, but there were a number of shalliow spots that had fantastic colors of all sorts of plants and coral, and a number of bright sponges. I didn't expect that at Catalina! Jeff, my buddy had somehow snared his rear dump valve in his weight belt, so after figuiring that out and removing his belt and helping him get all settled, we had a fantastic dive.
I dove nitrox on this one too, as I was trying to get to Vegas the next day to visit some family.
I gave myself about 20 hours before making the drive to Vegas, which gets up to 4710 feet in one spot. Didn't get bent, so nitrox plus a safe no-altitude window seemed to be a good call.
I have some pictures and a video (from another diver) on my web site.
For the money, I would dive Catalina as much as possible. I think the Kelp Forests are perhaps the some of the most beautiful underwater places.
