Anyhow, I need an OWC, and then I'm thinking about Night Diving classes and "Underwater Hunter and Collector" PLUS I'm going to need gear: custom sized wetsuit (Short and Stubby), fins, speargun a bit later.
PS OWC is for SCUBA or Freediving or both??? (I'm interested in both)
SO.... I live in Huntington Beach, but am willing to travel a bit (prolly 45 mins) to get a cheaper/ better class and dive shop. Sport Chalet costs $550 including boat to Catalina, Beach City Scuba has classes for $400 with beach dives, (which I'm ok with I think, unless you say otherwise.).... There are so many options and I need some options but I need to get an idea of where the experienced divers and spearos are pointing me to go.
Like was mentioned earlier you don't need any bs classes after the OWC, you'll pick that stuff up later from dive buddies. What you want for OWC is a dive shop that does local trips since a Catalina scuba cattleboat for a class sucks ass. You're basically on a boat for 4+ hours of riding time and you get to do nothing, imagine having spend 4 hours of driving to get chaperoned at a kiddie pool. All it does is raise the price tag. Your best bet is to hit up an OC Divers meeting and get some buddies to start freediving, you can find used gear online or through dive clubs for pretty cheap too.
That said, if you're getting OWC for anything even remotely related to spearfishing you're wasting your time, you're going to get zero decent local fish on scuba so ti's just money down the drain. Bug diving's a different story, but that season's almost over.