Posted by Frank on August 09, 2001 at 12:45:03:
My son and I have been spending most of our summer working our way up and down the coast between L.A. and San Diego trying out spots for snorkeling/shallow freediving with a camera. What we're basically after is places with a depth of about 25 to 30 fsw max with some kind of marine life (probably around reefs) and reasonable viz. So far our favorites have been La Jolla Cove, Catalina's Lovers Cove, Laguna's Divers Cove and Little Corona.
I was thinking it might be fun to do this from a boat, but have a few concerns. If we go out with a commercial boat geared for scuba and/or ture-blue freedivers, chances are they might anchor at a location we'd find too deep. Plus for safety reasons I'm not too keen on going out on a boat dedicated to spearhunting. One or two operators in Avalon run boats described as snorkel tours, but we think we might be a little beyond the kind of crowd that this probably attracts (we don't want to follow a guide, we just want to go off and mess around with a camera).
Any ideas on finding the right kind of boat or trip? Maybe call one of the boats that cater to OW1 classes and find out when they expect to be going out to a shallow spot? Thanks for any ideas.