Then either the local divers are used to doing shore based dives where no 2nd dive exists, or where it is many hours of interval break from the first dive.....and they are used to diving so shallow that Nitrox is of no value....
Or, this is an area with a lot of cheapskates that would rather dive a little, cheaply......rather than a high volume of really awesome for the cost of Nitrox. Considering the high cost of living on Ca, this 2nd option makes no sense at all to me.
I am not really sure how things could possibly be SO VERY DIFFERENT between diving Catalina and diving Palm Beach and Lauderdale.
I'll always wonder about the people who drive 1h30 both ways to a boat, pay the charter fee to dive 90ft wrecks but won't pony up 10 extra dollars to get two nitrox fills and extend their dive time... but I've seen plenty of that.
I also wished EAN32 was as cheap here as it is in Florida But we don't have the volume of diver Florida has to drive the price down (heck there's some place with good diving where actually getting a fill of air is complicated).