Catalina Island

Not an exotic location but I want to tack on a few days diving to an August

business trip. Any thoughts or recommendations on dive shops, where to stay,

and where to dive? Any hassles that may come up?

Thanks

JL

order my book at www.visitingcatalina.com.

Or go get one at Sports Chalet or most so cal dive shops.

jl,

Are you staying on the island or not? The ferry trip out there from San Pedro or Long Beach is about an hour and fifteen minutes, give or take. If you stay on the mainland and go out there on the first ferry of the morning you can still arrive in time before the dive boats leave. I would like to recommend Catalina Divers Supply. Their boat the Scuba Cat is a clean quick boat. My instructor used to work there and the guys are really friendly and helpful, full service resort style.

http://www.catalinadiverssupply.com/index.htm

To get there use:

http://www.catalinaexpress.com

You don't need to bring tanks or weights either way you go. Tank rental is $15 with $5 air fills and weights are $5. Bring quarters for the lockers at Casino Point. You can't miss diving from Casino Point which is a 5 minute walk to the end of the break water. Shore entry has never been made easier with a flight of stairs leading into the water. Be careful at the bottom of the stairs during low tide. There is a rock about a foot off the last stair. Just keep to the far right and enter on your belly with your BC inflated and you'll be OK. If you want to do a night dive here remember the air fill kiosk closes at 4PM, so get your tank/s early!

If you have the time to stay the night, there are about two dozen different hotels and B&B's depending on your budget. The Metropol is nice and has in room hot tubs...for rinsing gear..., but is expensive. Cloud 7 is your average motel. Everything is close. Maybe a couple of hundred yards difference. During the summer the hotels will make you pay for two weekend nights stay even if you only want one weekend night.

http://www.visitcatalinaisland.com/

Hi Pat,

Thanks for the info. I do plan on staying on the island for 2 nights so a basic hotel is all I need. I'll be traveling alone so I'm counting on the boat dives to buddy up and I'll just play it by ear on finding dive buddies for the shore dives.

How difficult is it to get around with dive gear and no transportation?

Do you know anything about the Atwater hotel? (it seems to be reasonably priced and close to the water.)

Other than sleeping and some food, I plan on diving as much as possible.

Thanks

JL

My book outlines all of the stuff you are asking about. There are a lot of options and too many to discuss on wetpixel. The book discusses hotels, restraunts, etc and history and then details about diving and taxis and so forth.

Even though I've never read Joe's book, and since you are out of town, I would go ahead and order it. I have heard good things about the book and should prove helpful to you.

As for the Atwater, I stayed there, it's good for the price and they have a "wet" indoor scuba gear room with a guy who checks in and out all equipment thru a ticketing system so your gear is safe. It's located in a great part of town and about 30 yards from the main shoreline walkway. If you are doing some boat dives, from that hotel you can, and should walk to the pier as to catch the boat.

People who stay on the island and want to do alot of dives do Casino Point. It's surprisingly good and offers nice night dives. You must take a taxi for about $5 each way as it is too far to comfortably walk. There is a tank filling operation about 30 yards from the entry point. the tank fills are about $5. I don't know how much the tank rental is, but Joe's book should have that info. YOU MUST BRING YOUR C CARD OR YOU GET NO AIR. THIS IS STRICT. The dive site gets crowded on the weekend, even so, you can see alot. hope that helps.

Casino Point is one of our favorite dives.

It is a really nice place to go if the crowds are not too thick.

I would avoid it during the day on Saturday as it is a popular place for OW certification dives.

I've seen close to a hundred divers there on a weekend!

Also, be aware that many of the hotels have two or three night minimums during the peak season.

Our favorite thing to do is to take the high-speed shuttle over in the AM on Friday and then spend the afternoon diving. If you plan your dives on the "off times" you may indeed be the only one in the water. We typically enter the water about 10:30AM when most of the divers are doing their surface interval.

Air service there is pretty good although I like to take my Nitrox tank and then have it topped off with air and they won't do it at the "air trailer". You can get "clean air" in your Nitrox tank if you go to Scuba Luv downtown (10 mins walk wth a tank).

We enjoy the sandwiches at the place just across from the Casino (cross the street from the restrooms).

Be aware that certain locations near the wall smell like piss so make sure and bring a tarp for the ground. Also, I've stashed a tank or two in the lockers for a night dive and they smelled less than appetizing as well At least it wasn't my regulator B)

I highly recommend this location for diving most non-weekend days. I never get bored of the park and you can find stuff from 10' to 100' simply by moving form corner to corner.

There is typically some really cool bull kelp just past the North side at about 80'.

In my opinion there isn't much to do beyond diving. If you are on foot you can cover the whole town in about 2 hours (longer if someone wants to shop). There are inland excursions but I've never been there long enough to check them out.

I recently stayed at the Atwater Hotel, very nice, we got a room with a view and a breeze. I've also stayed at the Villa Portofino, it was ok, room was really hot. I've only dove on the King Neptune from Avalon and it is an awesome boat, they'll take you to the main dive sites. I believe they will also let you live on board, so that could solve your problem of finding a hotel.

Have fun. Oh, and I find Catalina to be quite exotic! :-)

I also found Scuba Luv to be a pretty good operator. I stay at the Pavillion Hotel, right downtown, near the pier and around the corner from the dive shop. If you are doing multiple days of diving, you can leave your gear safely on the dive boat.

I think that Catalina is some of the best west coast diving. Vis is usually much better than near shore, water is much warmer, there's tons of life and your steps away from many great restaurants and bars.

John