I started my diving career diving at Catalina. The diving is cold water and I usually wear a 6~7mm farmer john. I am not particularly fond of shore diving, so I usually do boat dives. My favorite Catalina dive trips have been a 2-night stay on the live-board Sand Dollar Live aboard. Fri. night you board the boat around 11 or 12. In the morn. you start eating and diving and don’t stop until it is time for bed. The food is amazing and just keeps coming. Definitely the best food I have had on a dive boat. I usually get 4~5 dives in per day which includes a night dive. The boat has a compressor and hot showers. They play movies and have plenty of good marine life references. The crew is safe and very knowledgeable.
The diving itself at Catalina I think is great. I have usually had a vis. of at least 40 feet. Swimming through the kelp forests with the sunrays streaming through the leaves is very cool. I have seen nurse sharks, horn sharks, lots of lobsters, large moray eels, blue coral, and lots more. Someone on the dive usually sees and octopus, but it is never me.
I have also traveled to the island via the Catalina Express and did some diving from single day charters. The best part about that was that after diving we showered in our hotel and when out and had fun with the locals. I stayed at the Edgewater Hotel, which was a little nicer than some of the other hotels. I booked all my trips with information found on the web at the following links.
My Encounter with the manatee. I entered the Homosassa River in Crystal River Florida. I snorkeled for hours and swam with the manatee. I saw 5 different manatees that day. As one approached me, I scratched under its flipper. The manatee rolled onto its back inviting me to scratch its stomach. I did. It stayed with us for about 5 minutes.
Crystal River is bayside about 90 miles north of Tampa. The manatee situation seems to be changing. Check out the links below for up-to-date information on snorkeling with the manatees. Also contact the American Pro dive shop in Crystal River, Florida.
Also there is a really cool underwater hotel in the Keys. Check out Jules' Undersea Lodge
This was my second trip to Hawaii. Both trips I went snorkeling at Hanuma Bay, which was great. There is a lot of life to see there including parrotfish, moray eels, and more. I dove a few open water wrecks of which my favorite was the corsair at 100 feet (right). Supposedly, in the wing lives a resident octopus. However, like most octopus he refused to come out and play me.