Diving in Catalina?

For months I'd been looking forward to scuba diving in Catalina. I'd been warned that it wouldn't be the same as diving in the warm waters off the Keys, but I was willing to try after a 7-year dry spell. In the interest of safety, we hired a dive instructor to put us through a refresher course. We brushed up on our hand signals, squeezed into a ridiculous amount of neoprene along with a hefty weight belt and scuba tank, and headed into the Avalon Underwater Park. Unfortunately, in the time it took to swim out to the descension line, I'd had enough time to chicken out. When I couldn't get my legs straight under me, the instructor grabbed them, which freaked me out even more. I headed back to shore and left Jimmy to do the dive without me. He enjoyed the kelp beds, but was glad that I hadn't continued because it was quite challenging due to a strong current and low visibility. From now on, it's only warm sunny diving for me.