Summery:

Catalina Island, located on one of California’s Channel Islands. If traveling by ferry (Catalina Express), you will most likely be diving at Casino Point (shore dive). If you are doing a one day trip, we recommend taking the 6am ferry from Long Beach, you will arrive at the Avalon dock in Catalina at about 7:30-7:45 am. Pack your dive gear in a rolling dive back as you will need to roll it about 0.5 miles to the dive area to gear up. Ensure you have a 7mm wetsuit, gloves, hood and boots. The water can be warm in the summer, but not warm enough for anything less than 7mm suits. If you are drysuit certified, even better. Tanks and any gear can be rented at the dive shop located at Casino Point. We highly recommend renting tanks from the shop rather than lugging them from offsite and having to carry them on the ferry and to the dive site. The Dive entry includes about 20 feet of stairs straight into the water. You can expect to see a vibrant underwater kelp forest, large sea bass and lobsters. The highlight on this dive is the unique scenery rooted in the ~30+ feet kelp standing tall from the rocky/sandy bottom to the surface. 

Avalon, Catalina Island:

Welcome to beautiful Catalina Island! This is dive #1 on the 100 dive journey. We would be lying if we said this was our first dive at Catalina Island, in fact, Brandie’s very first SCUBA certification was here at Casino point. This just makes it an easy starting point for our journey, not only location-wise, but also in familiarity. 

This dive spot creates a unique experience in that your dive entry is stair steps straight into the water; however, keep in mind if you decide to haul your gear to this spot, make sure you have a rolling dive bag. This first dive you will hop off the ferry and haul your gear about (0.7miles)~15 minutes to the dive location to gear up. Aside from the unique journey to get here, this is an awesome dive spot with many surrounding divers in the area. Casino Point is where many Catalina Island dive shops have rental options set up, as well as certification classes occurring from all over the Southern California area. You will most likely need a 7mm wetsuit, hood, boots and gloves; there is no mercy here with the ~50 degree Fahrenheit underwater temperatures. So let's get into it!

Personal Experience:

Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not about the destination, it’'s the journey”? In our many years of diving, Catalina is the only place that has given us a sense of accomplishment just by making it to Casino Point, but let's start from the beginning.

We got a 6am, $70 round trip per person ferry ride with Catalina Express from Long Beach, CA. Now, when we think of ferries, for some reason we think of those mini cruise ships in New York Harbor, traveling at the pace of the kayakers. That is not what this ferry was. Take your seat, this thing is hauling. It is about 1.5 hours to get to the Avalon Ferry docking area and along the way there was the largest pod of dolphins we have ever seen; jumping, flipping and racing our in-water racecar.

We arrive at the Avalon Catalina Express dock where we grab our dive bags and haul them down the ramp, following the other divers and Catalina Wine Mixer goers…just kidding, that's only once a year, maybe avoid that weekend for expense and crowd purposes. Any who, we haul our backpack, filled with a change of clothes, and our Osprey rolling dive bag for about 10 minutes walking along the paved shore of Avalon. We pass by several gift shops, clothing shops and restaurants, the majority in which are closed at this time. Except for the hidden coffee spot, Catalina Coffee and Cookie Co., which opens at 6am. It's a great spot for a quick coffee and/or chance for breakfast before you hit the water.

After this pitstop, we made our way to Casino point, where we saw several dive groups gearing up; some suited up like the Michelin man we were soon to look like and some of those more visibly afraid of the cold in their dry suits. Don’t worry Andrew, we won't talk about your recent dry suit purchase. We found a spot along the outer edge of the pavement where the golf carts surely won't run us over and we started to unload. Now, to make it easy on ourselves we rented our tanks from the dive shop located at Casino point (Catalina Diver Supply). In addition to this shop, there are a couple makeshift dive shops that may be there in the back of a truck/van, also a reliable source to rent any gear you may have missed or tanks as well. We grab our tanks and start suiting up!

BWARF (BCD, weights, air, regulator, final okay) for our buddy check and off we go! We left our dive bags and valuables in a consolidated location along the Casino Point building. It is common for dive groups to leave their items while they go on their dive. Try to consolidate and cover as much as possible, so that any high value items are not just sitting out in the open. Note: leaving your items out may pose a risk of them getting stolen, leave out at your own risk.

We walked down the stairs with a group of divers and stepped off the ledge of stairs. With the cold rush of water up our backs, finally, we were ready to go! We swam out about 30 feet from the stairs straight out from the shore and proceeded to descend together. And there it was, the infamous kelp forest, standing tall and malleable; flowing graciously back and forth with the California current. It never gets old to see this unique scenery and on a good day like today, visibility was on average 30ft (20-60 ft in this area usually), much more than the 5 feet you would get along the California Coast. In comparison, it was like putting on contacts or prescription glasses for the first time. The vibrant garibaldi (CA State fish) quickly weaving its way through the moving kelp and the most astonishing of all, the Giant Black SEA BASS! If you don’t look before you make a turn, they may be lurking in between the kelp, waiting for you to turn and look at them square in the face like we did. Unknowingly, this black sea bass, the size of a smart car, was enjoying his time at about 30ft as we continued to observe and swim by it. Were we questioning if it would move? Yes. Did it remain strong in its stance? Absolutely. Semi-terrifying at its size, we continued our dive weaving through the underwater forest. Another highlight on our dive were the large lobsters hidden in the cracks of the rocks. Probably the largest lobsters we have ever seen! They also held their ground if you inquired too closely. They stood up with authority, letting you know that rock crevasse has already been claimed, so move along.

Fun fact, did you know Casino Point dive park was made famous by the one and only Jacques Cousteau? Also the first park in the country dedicated to underwater exploration (https://www.catalinadiverssupply.com/catalina-casino-dive-park). You know, this memorial we stumbled upon for Jacques Cousteau is making a lot more sense. Regardless of our lack of knowledge going into it, it was an awesome site to see and how humbling to get to experience this location in its vast history it holds for the dive community.

Now…for the exit. A short swim to the stairs and timing with the divers hopping in, we gracefully plopped ourselves up on the stairway and walked ourselves up to our belongings. Done and done! First dive accomplished with many more to come! This site will always be mesmerizing for us. It’s scenic with dollops of marine life, but ultimately the kelp forest will make you feel at peace. How a marine plant can create such a unique scenery is beyond us.