California Diving

California Diving: Catalina and La Jolla, July 1995

I began my preparation on the internet; I first posted a message in rec.scuba asking for Catalina suggestions for Sunday July 24th. Thanks to Renae Ross, Jean-Pierre Grelet, JonMorgan, Curt Snyder, and Psychokty who replied with recommendations. I also checked the Web for Catalina and came up with a real good site with information on how to get to the island as well as scuba and snorkeling: the Catalina Island Guide at http://www.catalina.com/.

There were already a number of La Jolla messages in rec.scuba, including a great one from Ron Fuller (ron@diegoweb.com) who also has it on his web site: http://www.diegoweb.com/diving. I also came across the La Jolla beaches home page at http://www.iaco.com/features/lajolla/lifeinlj/beaches/beaches.htm which both have a lot of useful information. I was going to drive down to La Jolla for a Wednesday dive on the 27th of July.

Several of those above mentioned taking the Catalina Express (310-519-1212, $35 round trip), a one-hour boat ride to the island from the mainland. Lesson number one for the day: make reservations early for the ferry. I tried showing up at 7:30 for the 8:00 a.m. ride, and they told me it was booked until 4:30 p.m. going over to the island, so I wound up taking the 2-hour Catalina Cruises ship (1-800-CATALINA, $23 round trip) at 9:00 a.m., which got me in at 11:15. Lesson number two: dress warmly and bring a book for the ferry ride over. Lesson three: bring Dramamine (I didn't get sick, but others did).

Unfortunately, the charter boat I was hoping to catch left at 11:00, and it was the only one of the day going out, so I was only able to get a shore dive at Casino Point. Once I got there, I went down to the end of the main pier to Catalina Divers Supply (1-800-353-0330) on the suggestion of just about everyone. I mentioned to the owner that I had chosen his shop based on reading about it on the Internet, and he was quite surprised but pleased to hear it. When I told him that I had missed the Express boat earlier, he said that if I had called him to make reservations, they usually save several seats on the Express for people who are coming over to dive with them. Lesson number four: make reservations early for the equipment and/or charter. I rented a wetsuit, 1 tank, BC, regulator, and dive guide for $75 from them; additional tanks would be $25 each.

Casino Point is walking distance from the main dock area, so Jason and I hiked over. I had a full wet suit (top and bottom, no hood or gloves, 6.5 mm thick). Weather was perfect: air temp about 85 degrees, calm seas, sunny, light breeze. I added 30 lbs weight based on Jason's recommendation: 10% of body weight (17 lbs) plus 10 lbs, rounded up. So we suited up and went into the water. Among the objectives: swim thru the kelp, look at the fish, and check out a wreck at about 80 feet. This was my first Pacific dive.

Sad to say, this was probably my worst dive ever. It had been more than a year and a half since my previous dive, in November 1993. Once I got into the water, my gear didn't seem to fit right, my weight belt almost came off, my tank kept wanting to roll me over, I felt nervous and uncomfortable, and I was breathing way too fast. The entire dive, which was supposed to last about an hour, finished in half the time; I used up 2000 psi of air in 29 minutes, based on a max depth of only 65 feet and average depth of about 30 feet. My dive log history says I should have lasted at least 45 minutes with that much air. I never even got to see the wreck. Water temp at the surface was 69 degrees, getting down to 65 at depth.

We did see a number of interesting animals, including adult and juvenile Garibaldi (intensely bright orange), purple sea urchin, lots of kelp, a small conch(?), and a grapefruit-sized black slimy fuzzy ball thing (sea slug?). On the other hand (literally), I cut my right hand on some coral while trying to steady myself. When I got out, it bled pretty good (about an inch long cut on the outside of my hand below the pinky). The guide recommended against another dive based on my uneasiness and my cut hand.

So that was my Catalina trip. I wouldn't hesitate to go back there again; I feel that I let myself down, rather than the conditions. I would, however, reduce the amount of weight I wore.

Unfortunately, this dive left me questioning my own abilities. Since I was planning a later trip to La Jolla, would this experience leave me so uneasy that I couldn't dive again?

I had my dive training manual with me, and I read that as a refresher for the next couple days, just to remind myself that yes, I knew what I was doing, and yes, I could still do it.

I made it into San Diego on Tuesday, and called Larry and Lois Cochrane with the Lois Ann Dive Charters (619-450-4478) to make a reservation. After learning the hard way about reservations in Catalina, I wasn't about to take chances. Larry recommended Aqua Tech Dive Center (619-237-1800 or 1-800-345-3252) in downtown SD for gear. I picked up a full wet suit (including hood this time), BC, and regulator for about $40. I mentioned Ron Fuller's Web page, recommending them, as how I found out about the Lois Ann; Lois said Ron's info has brought in a number of divers so far. Nothing succeeds like a good recommendation...

The Lois Ann took us on three dives for $65. I rented gloves for an extra 3 bucks. We went to Wreck Alley (site of a Coast Guard intentional sinking) and two dives in the kelp beds, one at Quist Rock. I was nervous at first, but got over it quickly (I guess reading the book helped my mental state quite a bit). This time I had only 20 pounds of weights, which turned out to be not quite enough, since I had to swim down rather than just deflate my BC to sink. Maybe 25 lbs next time.

The ride out to the first site took only about 15 minutes, just enough to put on our gear. Dive 1 was at the wreck of the Ruby E, lying about 80-90 feet down. Air temp at the surface was 70 degrees; at depth, the water temp got down to 56 degrees. Sure glad I had on the full wet suit. Visibility was around 30 feet. Spent 29 minutes looking around the decks of the ship, including a 3-minute decompression stop at 20 feet. Hit my personal best at 81 feet.

After an hour and a half at the surface resting and muching (food and drinks provided), Dive 2 was at Quist Rock, named for a scientist up at Scripps who discovered it. It's just an odd-shaped rock formation, with lots of sea life around it. Max depth was 70 feet, with the water temp a chilly 54 degrees and 30 feet visibility. Total bottom time was 30 minutes, with another decompression stop at 20 feet for 3 minutes.

After coming up, we ate lunch (provided) for over an hour before heading off to the third site. There were some sea lions swimming around messing with the fishermen nearby, but none came over to us. This was our exploration dive, maxing out at 42 feet depth (30 feet visibility, 56 degrees), with total bottom time of 46 minutes, diving in and among the kelp beds. Since all of my diving has been in either the Gulf of Mexico or Florida Keys, this was a new experience.

Among the three dives, we saw (or thought we saw, after looking at the examples): spotted scorpionfish, rockfish, jack mackeral, sea lions, garibaldi (adult and juvenile), kelp, ostrich plume hydroid, orange and purple gorgonian, giant keyhole limpet, treefish, snails, coronado sea urchin, purple sea urchin, and giant-spined starfish. We also saw a shark of some kind, but none of the three of us who saw it could identify it (another diver said it was probably a gray smooth hound).

I wouldn't hesistate to recommend the Lois Ann again, and I'd probably use them next time I'm in town.

All in all, my Catalina trip could have been better (but that was my fault), and the La Jolla trip was great. Too bad I don't get out there very often...

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