Well, we finally did it. We took the boat all the way out to the Farnsworth Bank on Saturday to do some SCUBA diving. All I can say is wow! That place is pretty spectacular. It isn't like any dive I've done in Southern California. I didn't see any kelp (for a change) but there was purple coral everywhere! It was beautiful! I've also never seen so many different species of fish in one dive here in California. I saw a bunch of different rockfish, some lingcod, sheephead, and many more that I didn't even know what they were. I didn't see any yellowtail or other larger game fish but I did bag a big ol sheephead with the riffe. The vis was pretty darn good, I'd say about 50 feet but it was a DEEP dive so it was hard to judge the vis. I followed the anchor down and found it resting in 120' of water. I was looking around so intently and checking my depth so much that I really wasn't paying too much attention of the visibility to be honest. I was able to follow the reef up to a high point of about 70'. My air didn't last too long at that depth and wanted to have enough for a good safety stop so I only managed about 25 minutes of bottom time on an aluminum 80. I'd highly suggest a steel 100 or at least a high pressure aluminum 90 if you're going to make this dive so you can get some decent bottom time. All in all I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was an awesome dive.
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Farnsworth report
- Thread starterBrendenMacias
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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Farnsworth is a favorite spot for freedivers after yellowtail too.
It also happens to be the only place where anyone diving from my boat has ever seen a great white shark. A friend from Hawaii was diving with me and was over the high spot that comes up to about 50 feet. He said that a big white sand channel seemed to open up in the dark rock, and then he realized that it was a shark of about 17 feet.
Another friend was diving out there on his own boat with a few other guys on a day when it was murky, and one of them saw a gws go under him. They all got in the boat, and there was a sea lion about 10 feet off of the stern. Then the sea lion came flying into the air in the jaws of the gws. They decided to move to another spot.
Of course great whites have been seen at plenty of other spots around Catalina. Its just that I happen to have this connection with Farnsworth.
PS: welcome to DB and the CA section.
It also happens to be the only place where anyone diving from my boat has ever seen a great white shark. A friend from Hawaii was diving with me and was over the high spot that comes up to about 50 feet. He said that a big white sand channel seemed to open up in the dark rock, and then he realized that it was a shark of about 17 feet.
Another friend was diving out there on his own boat with a few other guys on a day when it was murky, and one of them saw a gws go under him. They all got in the boat, and there was a sea lion about 10 feet off of the stern. Then the sea lion came flying into the air in the jaws of the gws. They decided to move to another spot.
Of course great whites have been seen at plenty of other spots around Catalina. Its just that I happen to have this connection with Farnsworth.
PS: welcome to DB and the CA section.
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Thanks, I've been poking around the board for a while and thought I'd share for a change. I've only been SCUBA diving for a little over a year but I've been a spearo longer than that. It's really hard for me to say if I like free diving or SCUBA more. Whenever I'm down with SCUBA I just want to kick of the BC so I can move around better, whenever I'm free diving I wish I had the tank on so I don't have to come up for air. LOL.
Catalina is a really fun dive location. There's lots to see and it's got some great opportunity for game fish. I love it! If all goes well I'd like to do some dive traveling next year. I really want to go to the Philippines.
Catalina is a really fun dive location. There's lots to see and it's got some great opportunity for game fish. I love it! If all goes well I'd like to do some dive traveling next year. I really want to go to the Philippines.
