Well...I had never been diving in California and always wanted to. I got my opportunity last Thursday. What a great little dive. I only had 1 day to spend in Avalon and chose to dive Casino Point while I was there. It was nothing short of a great little dive. Nothing spectacular just an awesome new experience. The kelp forests are legendary but you just can't appreciate their spectacular beauty from most picutres. Its like taking a photo of a Redwood tree. You might get the essence of the tree but not the ecosystsem. Let me start by saying I've already marked this down as a return trip.
The logistics are pretty easy. First, the boat or chopper depending upon how you want to travel over and how much money you have to spend, depart from Irvine. The cost of the boat is about $50 roundtrip. I have a backpack and a wheely for my scuba stuff and I'm glad I chose the wheely. The ferry is only a few blocks from where you park but my gear weighs about 60lbs. You wheel your gear back straight on to the ferry and park it in a suitcase area up in the front of the boat. The trip over to the island is about a 45 minute affair. If you ride up top, you'll get to see a host of sea life on the way over. I even saw what I thought were a pod of killer whales in the distance. They had the distinct black and white patterns but I suppose they could have been a pod of false killer whales because the dorsals weren't that towering. In any case, a nice ride over. Once your on the peer, the city of Avalon is really small. You'll notice a big green peer in the middle. This houses the chamber of commerce and Catalina Divers Supply. Great little place which will rent you everything from just air to the entire outfit. Tanks are $12 bucks each and you'll also need to purchase a park pass for $5. Gear is about $50 for everything including your 7 mil wetsuit. Their gear is pretty pedestrian so I was happy that I lugged mine over. Once you rent your stuff, or just your tanks, they'll give you a wheel barrow to haul it over to Casino Point. This is about a 10 minute walk so the wheel barrow is a necessity. Once you get to Casino Point, there's a set of dive lockers there. You'll need 75 cents in quarters to get the key out so take some change with you. The lockers are a few steps from the stairs where you'll enter the dive park which is clearly marked with boundary bouys. The depth ranges from a few feet to about a 100+ ft near the last Bouy on your right. I hit a thermocline on my last dive at about 70ft and it was quite a significant change. The Kelp Forest starts at about 20ft of depth and goes down to about 90ft. The viz wasn't the greatest but 20ft was good enough to work with.
The fish were great. Since you can buy food and feed them there, the fish are very friendly to divers. Makes for some great photo opportunities with the Garibaldis as you dive. Once you hit about 55ft on one side of the park there is are a couple of Bat Rays that hang out. Very cool. In addition to this I saw a giant snail, sea bass, perch, crabs, starfish and a wierd fish hiding in the Kelp that my flash failed to fire on twice (user error..go figure) so I lost the opportunity. Of course there were the stars of the show as well, the Garibaldis and the blue-banded Gobis. Both were plentiful and easy to photograph. The juvenile Garibaldis were very shy but beautiful. I'll post some of my best photos over in the gallery section.
I'd rate this a must-do if you're visiting Southern California. http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...pid=129515&
Cheers,
Gary
