Casino Point, Catalina, CA

Dove with Instructor John and his Open Water students Pedro, Leeza, Cheech and his two advanced students.*

John’s wife Rebecca came along to bubble watch.

In With: 3200 psi
Out With: 2000 psi
Max depth: 35-40 feet
Waves: 1 to 2 feet, insignificant
Visibility: 25 feet
Water Temperature: Cool, 65 degrees Fahrenheit, maybe?
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes
*Student names have been changed.

I went with John to do the skin dive with Leeza and Cheech.

Cheech did fine, but after watching Cheech do the free dive, Leeza said, “There’s no way I’m doing that.”

John said, “I guess we’ll see how she does on SCUBA.”

I went down, the rest followed, including Leeza.

I took up the back; Pedro and Leeza kept running into each other.

John fed the fish with frozen peas and then we followed him to the Jacques Cousteau memorial.

We headed back in.

An excellent dive for the rookies.

I was surprised Leeza made it down.

Veteran’s Park, Redondo Beach, CA

Dove with Instructor John, and two of his Advanced Students.

In With: 3100 psi
Out With: 1200 psi
Max depth: 110 feet
Waves: 1 to 3 feet, surf advisory
Visibility: 1-6 feet, horrible deep
Water Temperature: 57 degrees Fahrenheit, according to John.
Total Bottom Time: 25 minutes

This was a deep dive for John’s Advanced students.

We submerged and followed John down the shelf.

I’m so glad that John found a light on the last dive and gave it to me.

It was so dark off the shelf that it was similar to night diving.

Basically, we went down the shelf to 100 feet.

John turned around, checked the students’ air and motioned to go back.

I guess I’ll call this a “boomerang dive.”

We did a “safety stop” once out of the canyon and made it ashore with no problems.

A pretty uneventful dive, just the way I like it with students in tow.