Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Maybe today wasn't the day to go to the beach . . .
REDONDO SUNDAY MORNING - See? It didn't matter that the L.A. County beaches were still closed this weekend. The fog would have driven everyone away. (Or given cover to those who flouted the order.) But this is really what Vets Park in Redondo looked like Sunday morning at 10:20AM.
NICE AT CATALINA THOUGH - I don't want to get anyone in trouble but I will say that I have it on good information that there were divers out at Isthmus Reef over the weekend and they enjoyed 62º water and 80-foot visibility. Nice!!! See what happens when you don't have hundreds of buoyancy-challenged divers in the water?
INTERESTING OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS - There has been some discussion as to whether treatment in a chamber using hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) would be of any benefit to people suffering from COVID. The first obvious issue is that it would be very difficult, given the level of hands-on intensive care that some of these patients need. That issue aside for bit, here are both sides. Dr. Paul Harch runs his own hyperbaric facility in south New Orleans and posted this video making the argument for it: TREATING COVID WITH HBOT. The the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) posted a position paper saying the evidence was anecdotal at best: UHMS POSITION PAPER ON COVID & HBOT.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE - There are two other papers that came out, one from Germany and one from Belgium, questioning whether the lung damage post-COVID might be severe enough and permanently destroy enough lung tissue as to make surviving COVID a contra-indication to diving. Needless to say, you don't want to get it. Here's THE GERMAN PAPER and here's THE BEGLIAN PAPER. Decide for yourselves. (And don't pretend like you don't have time to read.)
SPEAKING OF HYPERBARICS - Chamber Day 2020 is a little less than two weeks away. There's still plenty of time for YOU to get involved at www.chamberday.org. We've always got room for you at the virtual Reef Seekers table at Chamber Eve and the Flying Dutchman is still looking for crew. (We pleased to say that right now, Reef Seekers is in the lead in terms f supplying crew to the Dutchman.) We plan on live-streaming what would have been Chamber Eve on May 6 and will give full details as we get closer. You can also catch us each Monday and Friday at 3PM PDT on the Chamber and Reef Seekers FB pages doing a live update for the event. This week, we'll tell you how you can buy extra raffle tix and bid on the Blind Bid items but I'm going to give you a sneak peek at one our three Blind Bid items. We call it the "Lockdown Survival Kit" and it will go to whoever submits the highest bid by 6PM May 6.
HOW ABOUT AN ALL-WHITE ORCA? - There was one spotted in Puget Sound swimming merrily within a large pod of "regular" Orcas. One enterprising guy put his drone up and captured some really nice footage, which you can see here: WHITE ORCA. No word yet on if anyone's trying to call him Moby.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, support Chamber Day 2020, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
REDONDO SUNDAY MORNING - See? It didn't matter that the L.A. County beaches were still closed this weekend. The fog would have driven everyone away. (Or given cover to those who flouted the order.) But this is really what Vets Park in Redondo looked like Sunday morning at 10:20AM.
NICE AT CATALINA THOUGH - I don't want to get anyone in trouble but I will say that I have it on good information that there were divers out at Isthmus Reef over the weekend and they enjoyed 62º water and 80-foot visibility. Nice!!! See what happens when you don't have hundreds of buoyancy-challenged divers in the water?
INTERESTING OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS - There has been some discussion as to whether treatment in a chamber using hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) would be of any benefit to people suffering from COVID. The first obvious issue is that it would be very difficult, given the level of hands-on intensive care that some of these patients need. That issue aside for bit, here are both sides. Dr. Paul Harch runs his own hyperbaric facility in south New Orleans and posted this video making the argument for it: TREATING COVID WITH HBOT. The the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) posted a position paper saying the evidence was anecdotal at best: UHMS POSITION PAPER ON COVID & HBOT.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE - There are two other papers that came out, one from Germany and one from Belgium, questioning whether the lung damage post-COVID might be severe enough and permanently destroy enough lung tissue as to make surviving COVID a contra-indication to diving. Needless to say, you don't want to get it. Here's THE GERMAN PAPER and here's THE BEGLIAN PAPER. Decide for yourselves. (And don't pretend like you don't have time to read.)
SPEAKING OF HYPERBARICS - Chamber Day 2020 is a little less than two weeks away. There's still plenty of time for YOU to get involved at www.chamberday.org. We've always got room for you at the virtual Reef Seekers table at Chamber Eve and the Flying Dutchman is still looking for crew. (We pleased to say that right now, Reef Seekers is in the lead in terms f supplying crew to the Dutchman.) We plan on live-streaming what would have been Chamber Eve on May 6 and will give full details as we get closer. You can also catch us each Monday and Friday at 3PM PDT on the Chamber and Reef Seekers FB pages doing a live update for the event. This week, we'll tell you how you can buy extra raffle tix and bid on the Blind Bid items but I'm going to give you a sneak peek at one our three Blind Bid items. We call it the "Lockdown Survival Kit" and it will go to whoever submits the highest bid by 6PM May 6.
HOW ABOUT AN ALL-WHITE ORCA? - There was one spotted in Puget Sound swimming merrily within a large pod of "regular" Orcas. One enterprising guy put his drone up and captured some really nice footage, which you can see here: WHITE ORCA. No word yet on if anyone's trying to call him Moby.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, support Chamber Day 2020, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
