LA - Casino Point

I have to admit that I was not excited about doing this dive at first. The idea of fighting up to 200 other divers to go down one set of stairs to swim around a little roped off area sounded less than ideal to say the least. All of my concerns were put to rest the moment I started to descend from the surface. There are a lot of classes going on during weekends, so visibility isn't great around the entry point, but other than that, the visibility cleared up for me quite nicely to about 40-50 feet. Also, it can get very crowded on entrance and exit, but again, once you get away from the stairway area, it didn't feel crowded at all. I had two dives here the other week, both were enjoyable, but the earlier dive off to the right from the staircase was the better one. Following the line of kelp, I easily encountered at least 10 different species of fish within the first few minutes. Lots of curious kelp bass and garibaldi would hang out with me, even keeping me company during my 3 minute safety stop! Some other highlights were small schools of barracuda hanging out just off of the kelp, and also spotting a California halibut swimming in the sand. If you take Catalina express, you can arrange to have a baggage service take your gear to casino point and back. If you are in a rush to get in the water though, it may be better to arrange to carry your own gear, as it can take up to 20 minutes or so for your gear to arrive. It is also disappointing about not having on-site shower facilities to wash your gear, so plan accordingly for any gear you are concerned about rinsing right away.