My dive partner and I decided to head out to Catalina for a day of diving and libations. Getting there was easy, from the San Pedro ports we caught the Catalina Express ($70) at 7 a.m., in Catalina by 8. We went over to the dive shop to pick up some of the rental gear we needed. I needed everything, my buddy just needed a suit.

The boat was pretty big and we thought it would be a full group, but surprisingly there was only about 10 of us, which made for a great, spacious couple of dives.

Both dives were unguided, we directed our own dives, with a little advice from the crew.
We did a couple of boat dives, one called Lava Rock and the other called Blue Car. The water temp was pretty nice, we dove in 5mm wet suits and wore hoods. Opted not to take gloves.

The first dive was OK, lots of Garibaldi of course, some lobsters and other smaller fish, but we didn't see any of the big black sea bass we were hoping to find. The kelp forest is amazing. Being a novice diver it was cool to see the forest and it was a simple dive, but an experienced diver might be a little bored here.

The second dive was further down and was pretty spectacular. The colors and water visibility were excellent, we saw more Garibaldi, more lobsters and even some small sharks that were up in the sandy area. Harmless, but cool to see.

Topside was relaxed, standard things like sodas, sandwiches, cookies and chips were tasty and the crew was great.