If Gold’s Gym, Venice Beach is the mecca for bodybuilding, Casino Point at Catalina Island is definitely the mecca of scuba diving. By noon the area is packed with swimmers and snorkelers weaving through the never ending line of divers queuing up for the walk down the stairway to blue heaven. Both good planning and good luck were responsible for the great experience including arriving early, before the crowds, while the water was still undisturbed and happening to be in SoCal during a weather window of calm, clear weather and water in early October. Stepping off the last step, already in waist deep water, one sinks into a clear blue world with familiarity that makes you think back to all the PADI videos, many of which were shot here.
Casino Point isn’t a crazy world class dive site boasting rare wildlife, impressive wrecks, topography or a challenge, its very mild and setup in mind for teaching classes and beginner dives but has consistency and convenience most dive sites dream of. The water conditions of Southern California in general can be dangerous and rough at times compared to most dive destinations around the world but after diving almost exclusively New England waters for the last few years its a little slice of the tropics for me. Getting there early was key, my first two dives I had the reef mostly to myself, after taking a break to off gas and charge some batteries the droves of snorkelers came through, feeding fish and causing frenzies, it was easy to see how it can get crowded here and the viz gets stirred up as a result. Nevertheless it is a beautiful glimpse into the iconic Southern California underwater world spotlighting all the common and well known creatures and topography you think of when someone mentions SoCal diving. I got a pretty good idea of the area in the first two dives, the dive site is a fairly smaller area with 3 small wrecks, a small monument and plaque for Jacques Cousteau spread out over an area mostly explored in two hour long dives ranging from 5m/15ft to 30m/100ft. Due to being an MPA (marine protected area) the marine life is present in numbers and not very shy making it possible to capture photos in quantities that would take a week of diving other places.
Big shout out to Blue-holic Scuba out of LA with Keline, Yewon, Dan and the rest that put together and run these group trips out to Casino Point. They were super helpful and fun while always very laid back and seemed to have a great handle on their operation, running it with confidence. If you’re interested in checking out Catalina on your own like I was with very little time to plan the details, let this dive crew handle the logistics and get on out with them to make it more of a holiday feel.
