I am going to a conference in San Diego in December and have a chance to do some diving out of Long Beach on the weekend of 9 and 10th of December. I am a Monterey dry suit diver (plus Caribbean, GBR, Fiji, Hawaii, etc) and UW photographer (some pictures at http://web.mac.com/kennedyim and http://homepage.mac.com/kennedyim/PhotoAlbum27.html). I have been checkingn your sticky thread on Catalina info. I have been diving at Catalina, at the Casino and off a boat, a couple of times in the past. But this time it seems that it would be better to stay in long beach and avoid the Avalon hotel prices etc. Plus see some new territory. I have looked at the Great Escape that is going to Santa Barbara island on that Saturday. And I have also looked into the Bottom Scratcher (great name), possibly for a day trip to Catalina on Sat or sunday.
Does anyone have an opinion about good boats to go out on (SB island on the GReat Escape is overnight - is it reasonably comfortable?). Would any of you be willing to have a Norcal diver tag along with you if you are going out on these boats?
Does anyone have an opinion about good boats to go out on (SB island on the GReat Escape is overnight - is it reasonably comfortable?). Would any of you be willing to have a Norcal diver tag along with you if you are going out on these boats?