Catalina Scuba — Local services in Avalon

I wouldn’t recommend this dive shop for anyone diving in Catalina for the first time. The guide showed a lack of patience and care for divers unfamiliar with cold-water diving.

I live in Hawaii and traveled all the way to Catalina just to see the kelp forest over Thanksgiving. This was my 12th scuba dive but my first in Catalina.

During the dive, I got a leg cramp and unexpectedly floated up to the surface. However, the guide didn’t notice I was separated from the group. I could only float on the surface, helplessly watching them swim farther and farther away until they disappeared.

Later, the guide realized I was missing and came back to bring me to shore. My leg had just recovered from the cramp, and I was struggling to stand. While I understood the importance of not sitting on the steps near the water, I was doing my best to regain my balance and stand up. Instead of checking on my condition, the guide forcefully pushed me, causing my face to hit the rock directly.

I’ve kept this unpleasant experience in my drafts for a few days, but I still feel it’s necessary to share now that I’ve had time to calm down and write in a more neutral tone. Don’t ignore the negative reviews as I did—they exist...

Chris is one of he best scuba guides I've had in all my dives/locations. He's incredibly knowledgeable of all the creatures that we saw on our dives, especially as a local and native to Catalina! He has decades of diving experience, gives really good instructions, is patient with the group, and is considerate of all levels/experience in diving. The dive shop provides really good gear (was surprised as I typically rent)--Zeagle (I think it was a Stiletto?) back inflatable BCD instead of the usual jacket-style, 7mm (I think Bare Elate) wetsuit that was dry and not smelly and sized well for women, booties, hood, masks/fins, dive computer, weight belt. We saw huge bass, octopus, starfish, spiny sea cucumbers, many schools, sculpin, moray eels, urchin, abalone, a big keyhole limpet, spiny California lobsters, climbed through old boatwrecks, and browsed a mooring chain graveyard all through the famed kelp forests. On he dive he made a point to point stuff out and give you time to poke about, which was very considerate. He also let me keep my trekking backpack (for TCT) in the Scubaru, which was super helpful in covid times as the hotel wasn't keeping luggage at the front...

Today (7/24) was our first diving experience and we fell in love with scuba afterwards!! The two of us did the Discovery Scuba package (obviously) and Chris was our guide. Luckily, it was a private tour and so we had his full attention.

He spent a good amount of time emphasizing the basics of safety, breathing etc and helped us with our equipment. I didn't realize scuba gear was so heavy!

Anyway, in the water the wet suits really made the temperature super comfortable as barely any water got in my suit, unreal! We climbed down a rope slowly and at first my wife was panicking from not being used to diving but Chris was super patient and helped her go up to restart. Then on the second try, we were able to go all the way to the bottom (~30 feet?) with zero issues.

Chris guided us around the kelp beds and showed us 2 giant Catalina sea bass, an octopus trying to eat a clam, and a California spiny lobster.

After our trip, Chris let us borrow some snorkel gear to continue exploring which was super nice of him.

This beat snorkeling so much we can't wait to snorkel again! Thank you...