Where are all the divers... not on Catalina!

This summer sure has me wondering. The Casino Dive Park has been pretty empty most weekdays and even weekends (with the occasional Sat. exception) have been slow.

Remembered that Fourth of July was very slow, so I didn't expect much this Labor Day weekend. Yesterday there couldn't have been more than 30-40 divers in the Park. Amazing (and the conditions were pretty good until the surf, surge and current kicked up in the afternoon).

Wonder what it will be like this winter when snows hit the mountains and folks go skiing.

Doc
The Lonely Maytag Repair Man on Catalina

Sssshhhh! You'll attract crowds with that kind of talk! Or is that part of your plan?!

I'm on a boat tomorrow, supposedly off PV, although I'm not sure where we'll end up. Just another adventure.

Did the low turnout happen to coincide with the release of "Open Water"? Hmmm....

I was surprised too when I went yesterday. The early ferry is usually 80% divers. On this one there was only one class and a few stragglers (like me). I assume that few places schedule classes on Labor Day weekend.

Was in Avalon last night. It was definitely quiet. Bill, I looked for you at the usual but you weren't around...

Funny, CP had gotten such a rap as being a zoo that alot of the divers I know have decided to go somewhere else.

Guess I'll have to get out there to see the lack of divers myself! Wrinkles is bringing her bunch of people out there the weekend of the 18th - so that should spruce things up!

I have been avoiding Casino Pt. for two reasons:
1) I thought it would be too crowded for my taste. I didn't want to wait 2 hours for an airfill. I also got that idea from reading a message thread about snorklers hanging around and blocking the steps.
2) I have been having bad experiences with "Catalina Express" lately so I have been diving Laguna and doing boat dives instead.

On my last trip on Catalina Express to Casino Pt., I brought my new 120cf steel tank with me and it was very heavy so I left it on the floor before entering the boat. After putting my gear bag away on the boat, I left the boat for my tank and all hell broke loose (pardon my language). They said it was a security breech. I apologized and told them that I wasn't aware of the fact that I wasn't supposed to leave the boat once I boarded. I didn't even leave the raft. The captain of the boat happened to be there, he walked over and said to me "Welcome to f**king 911!!"

I am wondering if the captain would still have said the same thing if I were not a small Asian guy. I'll never know.

Yes, I think the snorkelers have been a bigger pain this year than in years past. Personally I think they should be limited since they have other options and we don't. At least they should follow the rules (keep the stairs clear) and common courtesy. I'm working on that.

I've heard stories of Catalina Express being non-friendly towards divers. If I can get enough feedback from people, I'll try addressing this with the owners of the company.

If people will offer feedback on the Dive Park problems, I plan to work with several other local divers to present a plan to the City Council to clarify rules and better post them in the park.

Would have been a great summer for SCUBA divers here though- relatively few of us.

Doc

nap:

On my last trip on Catalina Express to Casino Pt., I brought my new 120cf steel tank with me and it was very heavy so I left it on the floor before entering the boat. After putting my gear bag away on the boat, I left the boat for my tank and all hell broke loose (pardon my language). They said it was a security breech. I apologized and told them that I wasn't aware of the fact that I wasn't supposed to leave the boat once I boarded. I didn't even leave the raft. The captain of the boat happened to be there, he walked over and said to me "Welcome to f**king 911!!"

I am wondering if the captain would still have said the same thing if I were not a small Asian guy. I'll never know.

Click to expand...

Hey Nap - well, I'm a big white guy and they freaked out on me too. I even asked the guy checking tickets if I could take a load in and come back to get the rest and he said "okay." But when I actually left the boat it was a wild scene. I was expecting to be cuffed and taken in for questioning. They need to figure out what their "policy" is, if they even have one, and make sure that everyone is on the same page. OR they need to allow some kind of porter service to operate - I would gladly pay somebody $5 to help us out with all our gear, I feel like a real yahoo plowing down those gangplanks trying to get everything on in one shot.

I agree that I've avoided the park because it was summer time, and I've been less than eager to be part of the masses. But, additionally, the last 2 times I've been on the Express, I've had some bad experiences.
The last time, we were on the newest of their boats, which was a big PITA. The deck storage that they have for gear on the bow of the boat has bins to store bags,tanks, etc... It's a good idea, except you need to pick things up 4+ feet to get over the railing and into the storage area. My bag is upwards of 70 pounds when packed - not too much fun to be lifting and hauling on a crowded boat. Plus, coming home last time, someone else pulling there bag out snagged a zipper on mine and it broke off where it can't be repaired. There went that gear bag (at least it gave me an incentive to buy a new one that I'd been eyeing ayway).
The trip before that one was a real riot. This was on the older boat where they store the gear in the back. Apparently, they had more divers than they anticipated, because they didn't have enough tank racks for everyone. So, they took the tanks that didn't have room in the racks and just stood them up interspersed with the rest of the gear with nothing supporting them. When I refused to leave my tank just standing there and explained that it didn't take much for them to tip over and bust a valve, creating a missle, they then started taking the extra tanks and just stacking them on top of each other on their sides - picture a tank pyramid. Of course, they weren't secured in any way, and the crew started treating those of us complaining like we just couldn't be satisfied. After all, they changed what they were doing for us and we still weren't happy. I just made sure my tank was at the bottom of the "pyramid". There happened to be an instructor on the boat who was making a big stink about it (as he should have been), to the point where they finally brought the captain down to look at the storage. HE agreed that it was unsafe and probably a DOT violation, but by this time we were already out of the no-wake zone, so there was nothing that could be done about it (that's what he said). The crew's response was that it was a calm day, so we didn't need to worry about the ride dislodging any of the tanks form their resting place. Really comforting, isn't it? Luckily, that turned out to be the case, but I wasn't comforted to know that's their approach to safety - if any one of those tanks fell and busted a valve, we would have had a lot more problems on our hands than having to grab an extra tank rack off the other boats.