Well, we were finally were able to go diving in California. It had been difficult to find time AND suitable ocean conditions, but we finally made it! Under excellent winter weather conditions, with light breezes and air temps in the mid to high 60's during the day, water temps in the mid 50's, and sunshine, we had 2 glorious days of diving. Yeah!
Click photos to enlarge.
We leave on the Catalina Express out of Downtown Long Beach on the 6:15AM boat (we had to get up at 4:30am from Tim's brothers house in El Segundo to catch the boat!). We got lost trying to find the Express Terminal and almost didn't make the boat. The early boat allowed us to experience a beautiful sunrise as we left Long Beach Harbor.
Corey views the disappearing city lights at sunrise from the back of the "Starship Express" boat with its twin Jet Cats pumping out ocean water!
We stay at the lovely Hermosa Hotel & Cottages in Avalon, Catalina, Los Angeles County, California, where Tim has been staying since the 1980's.
We do pause for our tourist shots on the way out to the Avalon Dive Park next to the Casino (in the background).
We just happened to be diving on "Cruise Ship Day" - the Avalon and Ensenada 3 day cruise - and had numerous cruise ship gawkers hanging out at the park with us (one of them took a photo for us - below). Thanks to the City of Avalon for operating and maintaining such a fine dive site!
Getting ready for another "harsh winter dive in California"!
Map of the underwater dive park in Avalon.
Corey brought 2 Go-Pro cameras in underwater housings, and captured tons of awesome stills and videos - he'll be doing a lot of editing...
We skipped the night dive (due to cold and wind, and we were just plain old tired!) but did a night hike around the city of Avalon, capturing this pleasant evening scene of the Casino Walk in the abandoned town (after all the cruise-shippers went back to their ship).
While waiting to catch our Express Boat back to Long Beach, we captured this image of the Avalon Harbor Green Pleasure Pier (and surrounding palm trees) shrouded in fog.
Departing from the Catalina Express terminal, a weary Corey poses with a smile (in his mind - if not his face) in front of our massive pile of gear. Yes, we schlepped that all over Avalon - no easy task.
We planned this dive trip at the last minute, putting it together starting at 3pm on a Monday: we had made reservations for everything and departed SLO at 8:30pm on Monday night, spent the night at Brian and Laura's in Elsie, got up at 4:30am to catch the 6:15am Express Boat, checked into the Hermosa Hotel at 8am, did 2 dives in the park (check-out dive where Corey did great, and wreck of the Sue Jac), then 2 dives the next day (wreck of the Valiant in Descanso Bay between Buoy 45 "Safe Passage" and 46, followed by a final dive in the park), then the Express Boat back to Long Beach, a visit with Matt at M&M Marine in Huntington Beach to do some business, then a drive home where we returned after midnight!
We executed this last minute Scuba dive trip in 52 hours door-to-door from leaving SLO to returning! It was AWESOME! Thanks Corey for the great times and "Making the Old Feel New Again"!
We took as many chances as we could to fill our bellys, and at "Topless Tacos" on Crescent Street, college-boy Corey met his match!
*****
What's Old is New Again:
Rediscovering the Excitement of California Diving!
by Tim Waag
[Though I'm not a prodigious writer, I enjoy writing, and have had dozens of Scuba articles published in Diving Magazines, mostly in the 1980's and 1990's. After years - nay decades - of only diving with experienced divers, it was with renewed excited that I spent 2 days diving with the newly certified diver from Alaska, Corey. I am motivated to write an article on this experience with the title above. Once completed, I will submit it to various dive magazines and hope that it gets published and I can deduct the cost of the trip for tax purposes! I will write 2 version of the article - one for this blog at about 1,500 words, and one for dive magazines at about 700 to 900 words - a length that they prefer.]
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