Scuba Joe's Dive Log

My wife and I had 2 great dives, the kelp is awesome and there's lots of cool garibaldis. The big downside for us is that there is not a very good setup place for suiting up and NO fresh water to rinse your gear! Between my wife and me, we have over 2k in gear and there was nowhere to rinse it. Inexcusable! There is a place to shower walking back towards the ferry. Its called the 'Casino Point Showers' or something like that. The guy charges $2 for a 5minute shower (no big deal, we paid for 10 minutes each) but when we tried to bring in our gear he says (the owner of this soon to be bankrupt shower facility) "oh no we have tried that with YOU divers and it does not work." Why does he care since I am paying for the water and time? We have never met an inconsiderate scuba diving gear rinser. We were both so ticked off we got our $8 bucks back, (I could not give this guy my money out of pure principle now) and went home on the ferry with our gear and us both salty. Never again Catalina! There are too many places that actually want and encourage divers to come visit. Here are some facts of our day long excursion (so glad we did not book a room like we had planned too) $116.00 for the ferry, $45 for Catalina shirts, cards etc. breakfast in town $22.00, hydration drinks before and after dives $44.00, scuba tanks and weights for 2 dives each $55.00, lunch $34.00. For a grand total of $326.00. It would have been more as we quit diving early so my wife could go shopping in town (which would have been pricey) but we were so disgusted with the utter indifference of the fact that we were there and had lugged 70lbs of gear and spent a lot of money on their island, so we took the hint and headed for the ferry. On our walk back, I talked to a guy working at the dive shop on the pier who was also disgusted by the "shower nazi" as they supposedly call this guy. He told me to write a letter to the Chamber of Commerce; but what is the point as I will never go back. I am not sure if this was the same shop that has the van down at the Casino Point but in my opinion they should be providing a rinse tank for the people who rent their tanks, charge us for it, but then say "no, we don't have one"? They don't understand diving very well. My opinion is if you're going to Catalina to dive, skip the island and just pay for a day long dive boat excursion out of long beach; they understand and want divers to come back, or better yet just go to the Cayman Islands, it's cheaper. Please, though, if you are a diver, do not support 'The Casino Point Showers'. Cheers and good diving everyone! Joe