kwest
Contributor
My first trip with Truth Aquatics and with the Finstads (Worldwide Diving Adventures). I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to diving, but this trip really blew me away. This was a four day limited load to the Southern Channel Islands. The value of this trip can't be beat.
About the Finstad operation, I'll just say it took about 10 minutes until I felt like a part of the family, and I definitely plan to join them on future trips. It was really cool that they have a focus on biology and I got to see some cool stuff under the microscope they brought on board. You think a Spanish Shawl looks cool from a foot away, you should see one magnified 100 times. Kristy and Dan who run the operation do a great job of just being part of the group. They were always there to help when novice divers needed some attention and they were also there to suggest that I drink a can of Tecate through a snorkel at the end of the day I did my 100th dive
Truth Aquatics was great as well, the boat was comfortable and the food was fantastic as a bunch of others have already reported on Scubaboard.
Now the diving
We were supposed to depart at 10 pm from Santa Barbara but found out that the military had operations (blowing stuff up) on San Clemente for the next two days so we were heading for Catalina instead, and not until midnight. Some on the boat were noticeably upset that we wouldn't make it to San Clemente. My attitude was basically "hallelujah I get to dive non-stop for the next four days" - and what a four days it turned out to be:
Day one and two were at Catalina. We had great visibility at Ship Rock, Eagle Reef and Goat Harbor where I got to see my first Giant Sea Bass. The second day we started the day off witnessing a 8-10 foot Mako Shark eating a sea lion (see my other thread) and then we got to do two dives at Farnsworth Bank. This was definitely an amazing spot - the amount of life was insane and probably the highest density of fish I've ever seen anywhere.
Day three and four were at Santa Barbara Island
Two dives at the Amphitheatre which had great visibility and amazing hydrocorals. Saw my first electric ray here - floating like a spaceship at 120 fsw. Two Dives at the Arch which had a great wall and plateau to explore. An Eerie dive at three sisters where the kelp forest was dark but everything out of the kelp was bright. I did my 100th dive at the rookery which was basically a romp with a bunch of sea lions.
The water temperature ranged from 54 - 68 depending on the site and the depth, but I was very comfortable in 7mm wetsuit with a hood and vest.
My idea was to keep this short
- if any of you have questions feel free to PM me.
(((kevin)))
About the Finstad operation, I'll just say it took about 10 minutes until I felt like a part of the family, and I definitely plan to join them on future trips. It was really cool that they have a focus on biology and I got to see some cool stuff under the microscope they brought on board. You think a Spanish Shawl looks cool from a foot away, you should see one magnified 100 times. Kristy and Dan who run the operation do a great job of just being part of the group. They were always there to help when novice divers needed some attention and they were also there to suggest that I drink a can of Tecate through a snorkel at the end of the day I did my 100th dive
Truth Aquatics was great as well, the boat was comfortable and the food was fantastic as a bunch of others have already reported on Scubaboard.
Now the diving
We were supposed to depart at 10 pm from Santa Barbara but found out that the military had operations (blowing stuff up) on San Clemente for the next two days so we were heading for Catalina instead, and not until midnight. Some on the boat were noticeably upset that we wouldn't make it to San Clemente. My attitude was basically "hallelujah I get to dive non-stop for the next four days" - and what a four days it turned out to be:
Day one and two were at Catalina. We had great visibility at Ship Rock, Eagle Reef and Goat Harbor where I got to see my first Giant Sea Bass. The second day we started the day off witnessing a 8-10 foot Mako Shark eating a sea lion (see my other thread) and then we got to do two dives at Farnsworth Bank. This was definitely an amazing spot - the amount of life was insane and probably the highest density of fish I've ever seen anywhere.
Day three and four were at Santa Barbara Island
Two dives at the Amphitheatre which had great visibility and amazing hydrocorals. Saw my first electric ray here - floating like a spaceship at 120 fsw. Two Dives at the Arch which had a great wall and plateau to explore. An Eerie dive at three sisters where the kelp forest was dark but everything out of the kelp was bright. I did my 100th dive at the rookery which was basically a romp with a bunch of sea lions.
The water temperature ranged from 54 - 68 depending on the site and the depth, but I was very comfortable in 7mm wetsuit with a hood and vest.
My idea was to keep this short
- if any of you have questions feel free to PM me.(((kevin)))
