By Keath Allen
Writer, Dive News Network

Catalina Island, lying twenty two miles off the coast of southern California, has become a well-known divers’ paradise.·· With a dive park offering shore dives limited only by the necessity for surface intervals, and boat charters who visit the less crowded dive sites on the back side of the island, the island is a retreat for thousands of divers who visit every year.· What most of these divers don’t realize, however, are the great advantages Catalina has to offer in the cooler months.

The average temperature during the winter months range from lows in the upper 40’s to highs during the day in the mid 60’s.· The water temperature ranges from the upper 50’s to the low 60’s.· While this may seem on the chilly side to some, cold water divers will welcome the warmer temperatures.

One of the largest attractions Catalina has to offer is the Avalon Dive Park.· Located just off Casino Point, this marine preserve is well developed to accommodate visitors and makes it a popular spot for recreational divers.· Dive lockers, restrooms and steps leading into the underwater park make it an easy place to hang out and spend the day.· Catalina Diver’s supply, one of Avalon’s dive shops, has set up an air fill station at the park where you can rent equipment and get quick air fills during your surface intervals.·

The ease and convenience of having these services with a protected marine preserve, which is easily accessible by shore, make it one of the most popular dive sites in the channel islands. During the summer months it is common to find upwards of 400 divers visiting the park on any given Saturday or Sunday.·· Though the park is large enough to accommodate all of these divers, lines often form on the steps leading into the water and the air fill station.· Visiting during the winter months offers unlimited access to this area without the crowds.

Avalon Dive Park offers something for everyone with a beautiful kelp forest, and abundant ocean life.· Three wrecks, the SuJac, Kismit, and a glass bottom boat are all within the boundaries of the park and are easily found well within recreational limits.· The SuJac is a schooner that sank in a storm in 1980.· Though rapidly deteriorating, the concrete hull is the most popular wreck to explore in the park.· The Kismit, a 40 foot sailboat was repositioned in the park sitting upright in 60 feet of water.· The glass bottom boat, located near the Kismit, is a smaller wreck often used as a landmark to navigate to the larger wrecks.

Outside the boundaries of the park are many sites which are less crowded if you’re making the trip during the summer months.· Just outside the boundaries of Avalon Dive Park, in front of Descanso Beach, is the wreck of the Valiant.· This yacht burned and sank, coming to rest upright in 110’ of water.· Because of its location, and the dangers of boat traffic, this wreck is only accessible with permission of the harbor patrol.· Many sites including Church Rock, West End Cove, and Ballast Point (home to the oldest wreck on the island, a Chinese smuggling ship) are only accessible by boat.·

Bob Kennedy, owner of Catalina Scuba Luv, has been operating charter and dive operations on the island for the past 30 years.· “We try to determine the locations of our charters by conditions, looking for the sites with the best visibility.” He said.· They make regular trips to the island’s isthmus to sites such as Ship Rock, Bird Rock and Eagle Reef, and during the summer months to a “top secret” location where divers can encounter schools of Giant Black Sea Bass.

I first saw the island in early December of 2011 when I spent a weekend there on business.· As the Catalina Express pulled into the harbor of Avalon, I immediately fell in love with the small island town.· Our hotel was a short walk from the port, requiring a stroll through the many shops, restaurants, hotels, and cantinas along the waterfront.· My wanderlust was awakened.· I wanted to explore the town, eat tacos, and tour the interior of this paradise.· More than anything I wanted to get in the water.· I buckled down and tried to concentrate on what I was there for, managing to squeeze in a short night dive one evening, but in the end I was forced to leave the island without satisfying· my need to investigate everything it had to offer.

Just a few weeks later, on Dec. 29, I found myself boarding the Catalina Express for my return to the island.· This time I brought my wife, and left work at the office.· I find when traveling she is a much better companion than my co-workers and business partners (no offense), and I was excited to have the chance to get back and explore everything the island had to offer.

We made the same journey I made on my previous trip through the waterfront area and up a side road to the Hermosa Hotel and Cottages.· This place caters to divers with gear lockers for diving equipment, and fresh water outside for rinsing gear.· While it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of some of the other hotels on the island, it’s a great choice for the budget conscious diver who would rather spend their money on gear and beer than lodging.·

Saturday, I made my way down to Casino Point and the dive park.· The crowds of divers who swallow the park during the summer months were gone and there were relatively few divers at the park.· The lack of crowds is a huge advantage to visiting the island in the off season.

I geared up and made my first dive with Bill Conklin who was diving with his daughter, Nicole, from Healdsburg CA.· We made a surface swim to one of the buoys and made our descent into the kelp forest.· Swimming through the kelp was a surreal experience having never dived in kelp before.· We continued out to the edge of the park and headed south past a small sailboat to the SuJac.· The wreck lies on its starboard side at 74 feet of depth and is rapidly deteriorating.· A large hole in the hull offers a really cool swim through, and a great opportunity for photography.

Later in the day, I explored the north end of the park.· This area has a sandy bottom, and I was told I would have a better opportunity to see bat rays here.·· It is void of kelp, and there is relatively little to see on this side of the park.· A platform at 60 feet marks the boundary of the park.· Diving past this area requires special permission from harbor patrol, so we made our way back to the kelp forests and reefs near the center of the park offering more to see.· Spiny lobster, Garibaldi, Sea Bass, Sheephead, and Kelp Fish were everywhere.

Catalina has a lot to offer divers, and non-divers as well, and as my wife was six months pregnant at the time we had a great opportunity to play tourist and explore the non-diving activities the island had to offer.· Since this is being written for a dive publication, I won’t spend a lot of time on these activities, but it is important to mention Catalina is a great destination for families or a romantic get-away.· We toured the botanical gardens and the Wrigley memorial.· We strolled through the waterfront area with its many shops and restaurants, eating lobster tacos and swordfish sandwiches at the Lobster Trap.· Activities for non-divers are almost limitless with mountain bike tours, jeep tours of the island interior, zip lines, rock climbing walls, and a golf course.· There are almost too many to mention in this article.

With everything I had heard about the diving around Catalina my expectations were high, and I was not disappointed.· It truly is a diver’s paradise! ■