The best diving easily accessable from shore is
probably Casino Point Underwater Park in Avalon.
A round trip ticket on the Catalina Express to
Avalon from San Pedro or Long Beach runs about
$40.00. On the weekends there are a number of trips
per day but you would want to call them and reserve
a spot.
Once at the ferry dock in Avalon you will likely
want to take a taxi or have you dive gear delivered
by a truck to the Casino Point dive site. Casino Point
is on the other side of Avalon Bay. It is a pleasant
walk but if you are carrying your gear it would be
best to have it on rollers.
The dive site entry is over breakwater sized
boulders but they have installed a stairway down
into the water so entry and exists are normally
quite easy. The boundries of park are clearly
delimited by buoys.
On the weekends at least there is fill
station set up at the Casino. They give priority
to filling their rental tanks so I would recommend
renting a tank from them rather then bringing your
own if you want to do more then 2 dives during the
day or spend some time in Avalon rather then
waiting for your tank fills at Casino Point.
To the west (away from town) of the steps the
diving is primarly over a sand bottom with kelp that
slopes off into the depths. A few man made objects
are on the sand - a large pipe, etc. About a month
a ago saw a Black Sea Bass swim by.
To the east it is a much steeper slope consisting
of the boulders to around 80-100 feet with lots of
kelp. At the far northeast corner of the park is the
wreck of the Sujac (sp ??). Lots of life - Garibaldi,
Catalina gobies, lobster, moray eels and large
Calico bass.
As far as charter boats, my favorites in the
area are the Great Escape and the Encore. They are
very similiar in layout to the San Diego Dive
boat Horizon. Be aware that it is not uncommon for
dive boat charters to Catalina to be filled primarily
with Open Water Students and the dive site selection
will be geared to them. There are many sites at
Catalina which have interesting life but deeper then
30
feet consist of sand sloping into depths and little
else. Also these charters will normally only dive 1 or
2 sites during the day rather then 3 or 4.
My favorite dive sites at Catalina are around
the Isthmus or further West. These sites would
include Ship Rock, Bird Rock, Blue Caverns,
Isthmus Reef, Eagle Reef and Arrow Point. All these
sites have shallow and deeper areas. For divers
with more advanced skills Farnsworth Bank which sits
a few miles south of Catalina is an excellent dive
site with lots of Purple Hydrocoral and stunning
topography. The shallowest point at Farnsworth is
about 80 feet deep. Best to plan on a max depth of
at least 100 feet. On most trips to Farnsworth one
dive is done here and then another 2-3 dives are
done on the backside of Catalina
Marc Hall
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
619-804-0647
--- Emily Burke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> ummm, basically, are there any good shore dives to
> do, & if so, how/where,
> &/or who are the best charters to hook up w/? - em
> --
> In theory, there is no difference between theory and
> practice;
> In practice, there is. -Chuck Reid
>
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