First time to Catalina - it was awesome!

[newmanl]

Hi Folks,

My wife and I, avid cold-water divers here in Vancouver, BC, finally got down to Catalina for five days of diving last week. Diving in California had been on the list for a long time! Twenty-five years long! Anyway, our first night on the island we wandered down to the dive park and found a golf cart parked there with a Dr. Bill sticker on it - that, and the light in the water made us want to hang around for a chance to meet Dr. Bill. Once he got out of the water, and still in his wetsuit, we had a chance to get a great site orientation - got to ask a few more questions (I had emailed him earlier) and had a nice chat about diving and Catalina in general. Dr. Bill was as friendly and as helpful as he is in these pages - he's a great ambassador to the sport and a really nice guy.

We enjoyed the diving so much, that Catalina is on the list again for next year!


Thanks Dr. Bill!

Lee
Port Coquitlam, BC

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Great! So how does diving in Catalina compare to your own home waters? I ask because both those destination have been on my list for quite some time now.

 

[drbill]

Blush, blush. Thanks. Nice blue-banded goby shot!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Vancouver Island has been on my list for over twenty years. Merry and I will finally get our chance when we fly into Vancouver tomorrow night. We'll be aboard the Nautilus Swell next week. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. I'm glad you enjoyed our "tropical" waters.

 

[newmanl]

Captain Sinbad, Catalina appears to be a perfect blend of temperate water animals and those from further south - kelp perch and moray eels in the same place! It was awesome. Obviously, the water was warmer there and the vis was better - for end of summer. Catalina also wins in terms of the sheer number of fish in the water column with you at any given time - although, there can be great fish moments here as well.

Our water is cold - all the time. In winter, when the vis is generally much better, it goes down to 6-7C (43-45F) and in summer it only goes up a few degrees - depending on how deep you go. During the summer, there can be a warm layer on top, 15-17C (60-63F), but it only exists in the top 20'. We saw a lot of wetsuits on Catalina, we don't see that many here - even in the summer.

Things are likely similar in terms of tides and currents as most sites here are diveable most of the time.

I think any place has a list of "signature" species - for me Catalina had garibaldi, Catalina gobies and giant kelp. Here, our stars might be giant Pacific octopus, wolfeels, grunt sculpins and sixgill sharks.

For sure, both places are worth a trip... or two! Hope that helps!

Lee

---------- Post added September 18th, 2014 at 12:46 PM ----------

MaxBottomtime,

Thanks! Have a great trip to the Island!

Lee

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Captain Sinbad, Catalina appears to be a perfect blend of temperate water animals and those from further south - kelp perch and moray eels in the same place! It was awesome. Obviously, the water was warmer there and the vis was better - for end of summer. Catalina also wins in terms of the sheer number of fish in the water column with you at any given time - although, there can be great fish moments here as well.

Our water is cold - all the time. In winter, when the vis is generally much better, it goes down to 6-7C (43-45F) and in summer it only goes up a few degrees - depending on how deep you go. During the summer, there can be a warm layer on top, 15-17C (60-63F), but it only exists in the top 20'. We saw a lot of wetsuits on Catalina, we don't see that many here - even in the summer.

Things are likely similar in terms of tides and currents as most sites here are diveable most of the time.

I think any place has a list of "signature" species - for me Catalina had garibaldi, Catalina gobies and giant kelp. Here, our stars might be giant Pacific octopus, wolfeels, grunt sculpins and sixgill sharks.

For sure, both places are worth a trip... or two! Hope that helps!

Lee

---------- Post added September 18th, 2014 at 12:46 PM ----------

MaxBottomtime,

Thanks! Have a great trip to the Island!

Lee

Thanks so much for the comparison. I plan on diving both. It is just a matter of which one first. Great info!

 

[H2Ocean]

Awesome!! It's always a pleasure to hear of divers new to the area loving the dives!! As a matter of fact, getting divers/couples to fly in to LAX to get a little (week long!) taste of it Hardcore style diving, is a specialy of ours, at HardcoreDiveTeam. And "they always return!!!!" So far out of BC and Texas, we've arranged for either free lodging, plus free boat diving. A girl once flew in and stayed at my place, we then jumped on the boat to head to Avalon, got in on a shared condo for 4 days for like 175 each!! and unlimited daily boat dives with air. Another time a couple flew in from Texas, minutes later the husband got a rental car and headed for yosemite, his wife and I got a room in Redondo, and boat dived the next 4 days on the house free!! They're coming back to do it some more in about a month! And what's way cool, is their house and dives are always open for when we california locals go there! Newmanl look us up when you get close to going. You never know, our schedule might fit in with yours.

 

[Steve_C]

Dove Catalina once for a couple dives and plan to be back later this year

Was in Vancouver for a few days a year ago and did 4 shore dives in July.

I really liked both but they were very different.

Based on my small sampling

-Viz was better in Catalina. The kelp is ultra cool. Like swimming through a magical forest. More active and interesting fish in catalina.

-Vancouver had more interesting large invertebrates. Never saw so many different kinds of starfish and some really big ones. Saw a pair of lions mane jellies float by. Only time I have ever looked at a jellie and thought what an impressive animal. Also was visited by sea lions.

I dove both wet and was comfortable. 7 mm in Catalina. 14/10 in Vancouver.

Both settings are very pretty but Vancouver diving was up a fiord and more dramatic.