Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → Channel Islands → Santa Catalina Diving

Location: Santa Catalina Island

Time Required: 4 hours – 1 day

Red Tape/Notes: You’ll need a ferry to get to and from the island; the Catalina Express gives the most options. Once there, Avalon offers numerous dive operators that can take you to any number of locations (we particularly like Ron Moore’s Dive Catalina). Or you can just head down to the Casino Point Dive Park where rental gear is available from Catalina Divers Supply.

What’s Nearby?: Trans-Catalina Trail, Avalon, Wrigley Botanical Garden

Catalina offers great diving in numerous spots. You can spend all day diving in the Dive Park, where there are numerous wrecks to visit and explore, like the Sujaq and the Kismit, and great aquatic life among the kelp beds. Diving in the kelp beds is the closest I’ve ever felt to flying, because you’re gliding effortlessly around giant, waving “trees”. Diving here is completely different from diving in places like the Bahamas – but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. If you’re down for a deeper dive, you can head out to the Valiant, which is just outside the park, and sits in 70 – 100 feet of water. If you hop on a boat dive, like those Ron Moore’s Dive Catalina offers, they’ll take you to sites with the current best visibility and let you dive them on your own. They’re great about providing dive locations which have options for interesting stuff both deeper and shallower so you can cater to your level of cold tolerance and the oxygen in your tank. There are some great sea caves on the coast that are super cool to explore, along with other wreck sites and reefs.

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → Channel Islands → Santa Catalina Diving