Avalon Underwater Park
(aka Casino Point)
Catalina, CA

Dove with Instructor John, Ron T. and John’s Open Water student Jack* as part of our Dive Master class.

In With: 2000 psi
Out With: 800 psi
Max depth: 65 feet
Waves: 1-2 feet, insignificant
Visibility: 20 feet or so
Water Temperature: 58 degrees Fahrenheit
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes
*Student name has been changed.

This is my second dive today with Instructor John, Ron T. and the OW student Jack.

Jack made it down a little quicker this dive; he also managed better control – not much arm movement.

Jack was amazed that we all looked like we were just “floating there.”

He did his beast to emulate us, but this being his second SCUBA dive ever, nobody was expecting his buoyancy to be perfect.

We went down to the barge, and through the opening as we usually do.

Ron went around.

John checked Jack’s air and started heading back.

Jack did a good job trying to be streamlined and maintain control.

We made it out with no problems, even though the tide was lower and some rocks were exposed under the staircase.

Since we had a while before boarding the boat back, all four of us went to a pizza place and ran up a $100 tab for pizza, shrimp and beer.

We had several more beers on the way back.

John quit drinking after two beers at the restaurant; Ron and I kept up with Jack.

Jack was certainly an entertaining student.

He’s a longshoreman, amateur boxer and loves to drink and pick up women; he put on a progressively entertaining show on the way home as we pounded the beers.

Avalon Underwater Park
(aka Casino Point)
Catalina, CA

Dove with Instructor John, Ron T. and John’s Open Water student Jack* as part of our Dive Master class.

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 2000 psi
Max depth: 40 feet
Waves: 1-2 feet, insignificant
Visibility: 20 feet or so
Water Temperature: 58 degrees Fahrenheit
Total Bottom Time: About 30 minutes
*Student name has been changed.

We did the traditional skin dive first – we saw a HUGE black sea bass.

Jack was a little freaked and yelled to us, “What is that? Is it going to hurt us?”

We swam after it.

The free dive sort of reminded me how I sometimes don’t like free diving.

I think I almost passed out coming up from 25 feet; I was dizzy for a bit.

On the actual SCUBA dive, Jack slipped on the stairs leading to the water; he was all right.

We all made it out and met at the life preserver/ buoy.

Jack took a while getting down.

John fed the fish frozen peas.

The fish swarmed – Jack tried catching a few.

We headed over to the Jacques Cousteau memorial.

John had Jack adjust his BC jacket – something must have happened, like diver malfunction, because as soon as we left the memorial, Jack started to float up.

Ron chased after him, I went to get John.

We all surfaced, swam to where it was shallower and continued our dive.

Jack took his time getting down, which was okay.

We all made it back and up the stairs without incident.