🚀 go-pugleaf

After not diving for ~9 mos. or so, my buddy and I, along with wives and
kids took a long weekend at Catalina Island.  This is a popular vacation
spot in Southern California, located approx. 21 miles from the coast.
(dispite what the song says).

As it was a tuneup series of dives, we dove off Casino Point, which is
a protected marine reserve and dive park.  The great thing about diving
here is that you don't have to do a beach entry, you select your depth
(the dropoff is *very* quick), and very little surge.

The entry is from rocks and not hazardous if you think about what you're
doing.

We took 2 dives during the day and 1 night dive.  We had originally
intended to do 2 night dives, but my buddy lost a glove and I had a 1/8"
wetsuit and it was *cold*!

The day dives produced nothing new to those accustomed to diving in So.
Calif. (ya know, kelp, Garibaldie(sp.),kelp perch & bass, a few lobster
hiding in rocks.  We did dive a wreck on the first dive.  Nothing much,
just a rotting hull (bow 60' stern 90' of water).

But the night dive!  We were tripping over lobster!  The bugs were
*everywhere*.  Since we were in a marine preserve there was good news
and bad.  The lobsters were *big*, but we couldn't take any (even if we
could, it wasn't season).

The day dives were made considerably easier since a van that supplies
air and refreshments was there most of the day.

Diving from Catalina was a nice change of pace from boat and beach dives.
Instead of waking up at 3:00am and taking a boat 2 hours to a dive site,
(a group dive boat) or battling heavy surf entering and exiting, all
you do is take a taxi to the dive site and jump off some rocks, easy.

All in all a nice mini-vacation.  But next dive, I want to *catch* something!
-- 
==============================================================================

			 Jeff Cushner @
			 Citicorp-TTI
			 Santa Monica CA 90405
			 (213) 450-9111 x2273

		       {vortex,philabs}!ttidca!ttidcb!cushner