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I've been to 4 or 5 courses with Rene and will enthusiastically second all the positive comments made above. One interesting exchange during one of his courses has always stuck with me. Rene asked the class how many times people thought they needed to service a particular regulator model...

I'm with Jim... I've been off with Alacosta Divers before and they are a great group. I don't live in east bay, so only joined for one year, but if I were in Berkeley where you that is where I would definitely turn.

I just talked with Gay Morse 15 minutes ago and she says they always close in mid-August and then reopen in time for Halloween.

My own experience is that October is generally miserable. It is so bad, in fact, that Pirate's Point (on Little Cayman) shuts down for the whole month. From 1998 through 2005, I came down here every October and stayed through late spring. October was almost always windy and rainy. These...

I got this one today near the ball at Eagleray Roundup, on Little Cayman. The eyes on a Balloonfish are very distinctive--I think Paul Humann mentions the pupils as containing "iridescent flecks of blue and green".

This is the Pillar Coral at Coconut Walk on Little Cayman. I think it's the most gorgeous stand of Pillar Coral I've ever seen. I took this shot yesterday when there was a screaming current running through there. I was even a bit worried about being able to make it back to Lea Lea's so that I...

Here's my wife Wesley going down ahead of me through the chute at Nancy's Cup of Tea on Little Cayman. Today was incredibly flat and calm--awesome dive conditions. I've noticed the Aggressor has been over here all week, and they appear to be loaded. We bumped into their group at Mixing Bowl...

I'm using a Canon G15 with the corresponding Ikelite housing and an [old] DS50 strobe. I have noticed that after taking a single image with the G15, the camera loses synch with the strobe and does not display the little lightening bolt to indicate it is talking to the strobe. If I switch the...

It turns out that I'll have to answer my own question on this! Last night I attended a presentation at LCBR given by Brice Semmens, the fellow who has been the guiding force on Project Grouper Moon since the beginning. He and his wife came down here thinking the primary aggregation would be when...

I just finished reading a book called "Stung", from the University of Chicago Press (Stung!: On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean, Gershwin, Earle) and I strongly recommend it. It's all about jellyfish blooms and why they occur. This has to be the most ultimately depressing book on...

That is extremely rare. I have gone back through my log book several times and never found a stretch longer than 4 days when the boats didn't get over to the north shore. HOWEVER...I'm sitting on the porch at the Trust House on Little Cayman right now, using their Wi-Fi hotspot, because the...

The swell will vary with the winds, so there is no general rule you can make. Don't worry about repeats from previous trips, by the way. I go back to some of the same sites over and over and always find something new. Most of these sites I have done many hundreds of times, and I still love them.

I took 17 home every day for the 7 years that I operated Aquarius and still use it when I go to Monterey. I calculated that it is 13 miles shorter for me in Saratoga to take 17 than to go on 101, so it does save me time. The scenery is lots better, and after a while you know every place on 17...

Pirate's Point is very laid back. They go out about 10 a.m. for two dives and give the divers as much time in the water as they want. They typically don't come back from the second dive until well after 1 p.m. The other extreme is Conch Club Divers. I see them going out about 7:30, and I...

I'm packing right now for my flight tonight to Little Cayman. I already have a 3/2 down there, but it's a cheapie so I'm taking a better 3/2. I looked at packing my 5 mil, but no matter how I go at it that puts me over the baggage weight limit. I've never used a 5 there in well over a...

As you've probably learned by now, getting there is not easy. Coming home is a breeze, bit it's getting there that is the problem. I always take a red-eye out of SFO and try to get to GCM by about 1 p.m. at the latest. My favorite route has always been on Delta through ATL, but this year their...

The swell forecast approaching Christmas Day looked so inviting that Wesley and I decided to rearrange the calendar and have our Christmas on December 24. Then on Christmas Day we went diving, and what a day it was! The Monterey buoy was reporting swell height of barely 5', which translates into...

Yes, I've been watching the discouraging buoy reports and haven't jumped quickly enough. What got my attention were some comments by Carol Cohen on ba_diving this morning: ----------------------------------- The Needle This was hands down the best dive I have ever done there. 100' vis. At...

This is a more interesting question than you might realize! Starting in 1998 I began recording the temperature on all of my dives, and after a few years I saw a fairly consistent pattern emerge. It would stay at 81F until about the end of December, then go to 79F. That lasted until about the...

You will need to get a 1" thin-wall socket to take the yoke nut off. I think they're about $35 from scubatools.com. And you should use a torque wrench when you put the yoke nut on to switch to yoke or when you mount the DIN adapter. The torque spec. is something like 22 ft. lb. So it is...