Dividing up California into three zones?

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If such a split were to occur, which section would get Arnold? Just kidding... I like it the way it is.
 
Chuck and Andy,

I hear what you are saying.

Ultimately, I think that ScubaBoard is here to meet the needs of the diving community in any region. That should be the driving force in the creation of new forums and any other decisions.

The creation of new forums generally follows increased activity in an area. When the activity rises to a level that creates an environment that is a bit chaotic for a group of people in a particular region, then it is past time to create a new forum. In my opinion, it's better to get slightly ahead of the curve on the chaos, but not be too early and wind up with a dead forum that has nobody posting in it.

The Florida forum is an example of an area that needed a split. The posts from the people in Northern Florida (The Panhandle, Cave Country, Tampa, etc.) looking for other people to dive with were getting lost in the huge volume of posts from the people in Southern Florida (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, The Keys, etc.)

Regrettably, the members in Florida were not clearly consulted about how this split should take place and it turned into a somewhat controversial issue. This could have probably been avoided with some productive discussion before making any changes. Upon having all of the info out on the table, a poll could have been put up to see how people in the various regions felt about a split and where the line should be drawn.

Unfortunately, the NorCal forum has been somewhat "off the radar" with regard to the ongoing evaluation of needs. I'm attempting to put a spotlight on the needs of the region by participating in this discussion.

Just to be clear, I want everyone to understand that I don't hold a position about whether a split should or should not take place in the NorCal area. I don't have enough information to be able to form a reasonable and intelligent opinion about that yet. I also understand that the needs of any region can be unique and that I can't expect things to be exactly the same as they are in SoCal. This is obviously the region that I'm most familiar with and compare everything else to. Of course, any comparison is simply my attempt at understanding things better.

That said, if a split did take place in NorCal at some point in the future, what would be the logical place to split it?

Earlier a comment was made by Chuck about drawing the line at the Golden Gate and I was wondering what others thought about it.

Would it be helpful to start a "Roll Call" like the one that we have in SoCal to see how many people you actually have in each region?

I know that the SoCal Roll Call has helped us make decisions for our own region and also serves as a nice "short list" of people to contact when you want to dive. Here is a link to the SoCal Roll call for easy reference:

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=78767

I look forward to more comments and observations from the people who frequent the NorCal forum.

Thank you all for your ongoing participation in this discussion.

Christian
 
drbill:
If such a split were to occur, which section would get Arnold? Just kidding... I like it the way it is.


Perhaps we should have a ballot initiative to decide on that :D
 
*whew*
I'm fairly new to CA, been here only about 10 years & I always wondered about the SFO/SMF area being called "Northern California", as if the rest of the state on up further North didn't quite count.
I guess that's why they call it "The Lost Coast", eh?
 
Missdirected:
Florida :popcorn:

:winky: :winky:

huh? :confused: :huh:
 
RoyN:
huh? :confused: :huh:


Just ignore MissD...trust me...she just causes trouble! (fun trouble, beautiful woman...NO, Really, she is a GORGEOUS woman)...but she is trouble...trust me here...it DOES take one to know one, and we know each other!!!! :10:

:rofl3: :rofl3: :rofl3:
 
I did 15 to 20 trips to the North Coast this year. I really didn't see that many SCUBA divers and certainly nothing compared to Monterey. SCUBA on the North Coast is more the exception then the rule it seems.

I still think we should all be in the same forum. The diving along the coast is very similiar, from San Diego to Mendocino (the limits of my personal experience) and I think if we had one forum more NorCal folks would travel South and more SoCal folks would travel North. More connections, more buddies more fun. Plus Since Norcal is slower it gives us something to read in the middle of our stuff.

BTW, a LOT of NorCal divers do Catalina trips. I'm doing a few trips on the Peace on '07.

Mark


renpirate:
So it would seem from the responses that there are definitive geographic differences as far as where people dive. I know several people have made the comments about North Coast and Central Coast people mixing, However I would argue that it is more at the fringes. People in the Bay Area do come up to the Sonoma Coast, but rarely to Mendocino. Just like Mendo people will come to Sonoma on occassion, but rarely to Monterey.

There are actually a lot of people who dive along the North Coast, but you don't see many of them posting here. One thing that I notice about posts here is that most of them are not very relevant to diving the North Coast. Which is why less of my fellow North Coast divers post here. However, the point is well made that if this forum were divided up, there would be less posts, especially in any forum devoted to the North Coast. I also think one of the issues for the fewer posts has to do with the more you travel North there are less people who know about scubaboard.

Perhaps this is just a solution looking for a problem, in any case, we have other boards as well. Still happy to go diving with any of you any time!
 
SoCalAngel:
Just ignore MissD...trust me...she just causes trouble! (fun trouble, beautiful woman...NO, Really, she is a GORGEOUS woman)...but she is trouble...trust me here...it DOES take one to know one, and we know each other!!!! :10:

:rofl3: :rofl3: :rofl3:

Gorgeous women who dive + trouble = FUN:D
 
renpirate:
Gorgeous women who dive + trouble = FUN:D


Yeah, :blinking: that's us! ;)

Hey, I've dove in Monterey 4 times and once at Gerstle Cove since I got back into diving in July. I love the North coast (which, to me, includes Carmel & Monterey), which has VERY different diving than So Cal IMHO. :D

So, Ren, you still up for the Cypress Sea on Feb 3rd? :14: I gotta get Any Water Sports number posted on that thread asap....:)
 

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