11-Pound Lobster
Hi Dale,
My Brother Scott Williams of Marysville, CA nabbed this 11-pound lobster off of Santa Barbara Island diving with Kenny Hess aboard the Encore. He grabbed it at about 25 feet on October 9th. Great Magazine. Keep up the good work!

Steve Williams
Sacramento, CA

Great Data Base
CDN:
What an excellent data base! I will be in California in one week and I got all the information I needed.

Arnold Venema
Ontario, Canada

CDN’s “Sort-N-Search” database of California dive boat trips can be found at http://www.saintbrendan.com/database/search.htm on the web. There is also a print version in the California Scuba Calendar section of the publication available at most California dive stores.

Is Express Anti-Diver?
Dear Dale,
“It’s so easy to go to Catalina, Catalina Express.” Or so the slogan says. Not when you are trying to travel with anything more than the minimum of dive gear. I was recently refused service on one of the Catalina Express boats for having too much baggage. My student and I were told that we were not welcome on their boat with the gear.

The strange thing is that this was one of their boats where we load our own baggage. The boat was not close to being full. No option was given to us other than we cannot take the equipment necessary for us to do the diving we needed.

Over the last two years, interesting enough, right about the time Catalina Cruises stopped operating, Catalina Express has grown increasingly rude when dealing with divers and their gear. It has become apparent that Catalina Express views divers as less than desirable to their business through their treatment of us as second class citizens. They seem to think that they are doing us a favor by letting us travel with them.

Catalina Express stated that their luggage policy has remained unchanged for the duration of their operation. That may be so, but this is the first time in 15 years of doing business with them that I have been refused passage on their vessel. I have traveled with considerably more gear than this routinely in the past.

Over the past two years, the staff of Catalina Express has become more and more hostile in confronting me to inform me of their old “new” baggage policy. After spending a good 30 minutes yelling at me and my clients, they let me board the boat. I had not questioned the policy because they still let me board the boat, until now.

Diving can be logistically difficult as it is. The Express ride should be one of the easiest parts of this process. It is now the single most difficult.

We tried to discuss the situation with Express management. They stated that they were moving toward a policy of allowing only one trip down the loading ramp and that single trip could not be in excess of one hundred pounds. They told us to charter a boat from the mainland or ship on the freight service. Both of these options are expensive and difficult. The Express is supposed to make it easy to go to Catalina, right? The policy clearly does not allow a diver to bring anything but the minimum of gear. Does any of this matter if we are loading the boat ourselves?

Their business decision is an unfair trade practice and meant to single out divers. As a population, divers tend to be the passengers who travel with gear.

I know many could look upon this as a specialized situation and that it does not impact them. The truth is that any diver or instructor that plans to bring anything more than the minimum of dive gear to Catalina may be told that they can travel, but only if they leave the gear behind.

The situation with Catalina Express has reached a point where they are basically saying they do not need divers any more. I ask the diving population to choose to do business elsewhere until Catalina Express changes their policies that negatively impact divers so much. For those who would like to send letters to Catalina Express, address your letters to Greg Bombard, c/o Catalina Express, Berth 95, San Pedro, CA 90731.

Sincerely,

Grant W. Graves
Concerned instructor and diver.
makog@aol.com