|
Down for camping on the island, too if that suits anyone.
|
|
|
Hey Matt,
I think you will find it difficult to find anyone staying overnight on the island sharing a room. Also 99% of the hotels have a 2 night minimum to stay there. Even worse, this time of year many of the hotels are even closed. I just checked the diver’s favorite hotel, Seaport Village Inn, and it looks like they are closed. They only make money in the summer. Sorry.
But I may have a better suggestion for you. If I were visiting for just a day of diving I would skip Casino Point and get on any one of 20 dive boats that will be heading out. You will get better diving, better service, and probably even save on a hotel stay because the larger boats allow you to sleep on board for free the night before. Go to the website californiadiveboats.com and scroll down to San Pedro and Long Beach. Click on the boat name to go to their websites and check out their calendars. The Pacific Star and Magician are good ones that will let you bunk the night before. Sometimes the boats sell their own spots, and sometimes a dive shop will have the whole boat booked. If that is the case, there is usually a number to call to book the trip with the dive shop. Either way it will be cheaper in the end. When you add the Catalina parking and round trip ticket + taxi + lunch + tank rental + tank refill + tank refill.....it’s actually cheaper to book a $120-140 dive trip on a boat and get included breakfast & lunch plus all air fills. And you will get three unique dive sites in!
Good luck and I hope you have great conditions on the 1st!
|
|
|
|
Thanks for the info on the island, Magician and Pacific star, Rich-D-Fish.
Good point on the boat vs. the room.
I will check out those boats. I have a post up about the Sundiver Express which seems to be getting some attention but no leads... Maybe it’s the boat; maybe it’s the post.
I’ll be there diving on the 1st somewhere so, if anyone would like to go diving for a day on any boat in particular, hit me up. Rich, if you are in, let me know. :)
I’ll be in Costa Rica April 11-18th with extremely limited access to the web so, if you leave a response, I’ll get to it as quickly as possible.
Thanks again everyone.
Matt.
|
|
|
|
It could be the boat. I’ve been on the Sundiver Express many times and don’t have any problems with them. In fact, they are one of the few boats you can count on to go out every weekend, even if the forecast isn’t ideal. The only reason people may be hesitant to use that boat these days is that they recently lost a diver. Well, they left the dive site without the diver, realized she was missing, and came back right away to look for her. The body was never recovered. My take is that the diver had an accident underwater and drowned, so it wouldn’t have mattered if the boat was there to look immediately or not. The dive site covers an immense area and depths are well below any normal limits for a search. Since she didn’t wash up on shore somewhere it’s safe to assume she sank. Its sad but I wouldn’t fault the boat for the accident.
As for me diving that day it’s highly likely I can go on a boat trip that day. It’s much more likely I can do a local shore dive. So if you end up scaling back your plans for any reason to 1 or 2 dives let me know. I can’t promise but better chance.
|
|
|
|
I read all the press about the accident and came to the same conclusion. I mean, that’s partly why you dive with a buddy, right? Maybe they shouldn’t have left the dive site but, if two were missing or if someone were there to help out things may have been different. The reality is that she never surfaced. Like you said, I don’t see how you could fault the boat for the accident itself.
I’m going to be in Long Beach about 3pm on Saturday, driving up from San Diego. I’m not sure how that works out for shore diving, but I was really hoping to get a boat dive in. I’d need a place to pick up a couple of cylinders and weight but, I plan on bringing the rest of my gear.
Any good shops in the area that you would recommend?
If I can’t find a buddy to boat dive on Sunday, I would for sure be down to do a couple of dives on Sunday.
I know you’re not committing just yet Rich but, your replies are much appreciated.
|
|
|
|
Hey Mathew. If you want to get in 3 dives on a boat that Sunday just sign up solo. All the boats are really good about asking who needs a buddy and then pairing people up. That’s how I started meeting new people when I first started diving. I don’t know about all the boats, but I know some of them will include tanks and weights so you don’t need to bring anything. I believe the Pacific Star offers that if you request when you sign up.
|
|
|
|
I feel like that’s what’s going to happen.
I’ll be fine I’m sure.
Thanks!
|
|