Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Did I get you????
APRIL FOOL'S NEWSLETTER - It's one of my favorites to write (hopefully one of your favorites to read) but also the most challenging mainly because I know most of you are expecting it after all of these years, so my best shot to "get" you is if you're new to Reef Seekers or if you momentarily forget about it and maybe the first headline sucks you in. At any rate, thank you to those of you who sent e-mail notes back and hopefully it provided some levity for you.
CHAMBER DAY STUFF - We've got 4 seats left at the Reef Seekers Ch-Eve table, theCee Ray is full (but there are spots on the Sundiver Express and the Pacific Star, plusAsante and Sundiver), and I'm pretty sure I can squeeze you in on the Flying Dutchman. We're chugging along and hopefully we'll have your support for our Chamber.
DIVE & GET FIVE - A quick reminder as well that April is "Dive & Get Five" which means if you dive with any of our Chamber Day Fleet boats, they'll give you five FREE daytime raffle tickets. Not a bad deal.
SQUID THIS WEEK - We've got it scheduled for Thursday but it's obviously conditions-dependent. By the same token, I haven't been hearing of any squid sightings in quite some time so this may not be a good squid year. But perhaps more fruitful will be the Navigation/Beach dive we've got for Saturday, April 13. We'll show you some easy-to-learn techniques that will help you end up closer to where you started than may currently be the case. Call us at 310/652-4990 to sign up for any of these.
GREAT BARRIER REEF UNDER THREATS - Not good news coming out of Australia where a recent study, published in Nature, questions whether or not this primo dive destination can recover from massive coral bleaching that's been going on for a couple of years now. The headline says it all: Dead Corals Don't Make Babies. Reefs can be very resilient - the Maldives is a good example of bleaching recovery - but sometimes a reef may reach a tipping point. Here's a link to the CNN summary, which also has a link to the study: GBR CORAL BLEACHING
LAST-DITCH EFFORT FOR OUR BONAIRE TRIP - Some of this is absolutely on me for not setting a specific date but I'm going to make one more stab at trying to put together a Bonaire trip this year. Part of the issue - and the reason I haven't gotten more specific - is that there hasn't seemed to be as much interest as usual from you guys (our customer base). It's a few people here and there, but not the usual 10-12 that we get. So possible dates would be: May 11-19, or June 1-9, 8-16, or 15-23. If you're interested in going AND if any of those dates work, let me know by 5PM Wednesday.
CONGRATS TO CURTIS MAJERS - He was in Avalon the other week and videoed some Giant Sea Bass, submitted the video to www.spottinggiantseabass.com, and it turns out he spotted a "new" one that wasn't in their database!! (That is, if you can call a 30-year-old fish "new.") But it sounds like the GSBs are making an early appearance in the Park this year as Curtis says he saw five of them. You can see his video here: CURTIS' GSB
THE WAY WE WERE - Kathryn Kempton posted the pix above on her FaceBook page with the notation, "Is this really the way we used to dive Old Marineland? Can’t quite picture the entrance." I thought she opened the door for a good teaching opportunity and replied thusly:
The answer to your initial question is: Yes. I remember diving there one time pre-Terrenea with an NAUI Advanced Class student. Entry was tricky but doable, dive was lovely, but when it was time to come out, surf had picked up just a tad. We choose to wait outside the surf for 10 minutes or so to not only get a feel for the timing and the "right" spot to exit, but also in hopes of catching an extended lull. I also was making the mental calculations of kicking all the way down from the point into the cove which might have been more sheltered. And I clearly remember thinking throughout this whole thing, "It's coming up in conditions like these that lead people to panic." For me from an instructional standpoint, it only serves to reinforce the value of good and extensive training (which you don't get in a weekend wonder partially on-line class), exposure to multiple conditions, and teaching people to think about what they're doing and understand all their options and ramifications. And it certainly brought to mind my favorite teaching saying which I've preached for years: You never get hurt of a dive you don't make.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
APRIL FOOL'S NEWSLETTER - It's one of my favorites to write (hopefully one of your favorites to read) but also the most challenging mainly because I know most of you are expecting it after all of these years, so my best shot to "get" you is if you're new to Reef Seekers or if you momentarily forget about it and maybe the first headline sucks you in. At any rate, thank you to those of you who sent e-mail notes back and hopefully it provided some levity for you.
CHAMBER DAY STUFF - We've got 4 seats left at the Reef Seekers Ch-Eve table, theCee Ray is full (but there are spots on the Sundiver Express and the Pacific Star, plusAsante and Sundiver), and I'm pretty sure I can squeeze you in on the Flying Dutchman. We're chugging along and hopefully we'll have your support for our Chamber.
DIVE & GET FIVE - A quick reminder as well that April is "Dive & Get Five" which means if you dive with any of our Chamber Day Fleet boats, they'll give you five FREE daytime raffle tickets. Not a bad deal.
SQUID THIS WEEK - We've got it scheduled for Thursday but it's obviously conditions-dependent. By the same token, I haven't been hearing of any squid sightings in quite some time so this may not be a good squid year. But perhaps more fruitful will be the Navigation/Beach dive we've got for Saturday, April 13. We'll show you some easy-to-learn techniques that will help you end up closer to where you started than may currently be the case. Call us at 310/652-4990 to sign up for any of these.
GREAT BARRIER REEF UNDER THREATS - Not good news coming out of Australia where a recent study, published in Nature, questions whether or not this primo dive destination can recover from massive coral bleaching that's been going on for a couple of years now. The headline says it all: Dead Corals Don't Make Babies. Reefs can be very resilient - the Maldives is a good example of bleaching recovery - but sometimes a reef may reach a tipping point. Here's a link to the CNN summary, which also has a link to the study: GBR CORAL BLEACHING
LAST-DITCH EFFORT FOR OUR BONAIRE TRIP - Some of this is absolutely on me for not setting a specific date but I'm going to make one more stab at trying to put together a Bonaire trip this year. Part of the issue - and the reason I haven't gotten more specific - is that there hasn't seemed to be as much interest as usual from you guys (our customer base). It's a few people here and there, but not the usual 10-12 that we get. So possible dates would be: May 11-19, or June 1-9, 8-16, or 15-23. If you're interested in going AND if any of those dates work, let me know by 5PM Wednesday.
CONGRATS TO CURTIS MAJERS - He was in Avalon the other week and videoed some Giant Sea Bass, submitted the video to www.spottinggiantseabass.com, and it turns out he spotted a "new" one that wasn't in their database!! (That is, if you can call a 30-year-old fish "new.") But it sounds like the GSBs are making an early appearance in the Park this year as Curtis says he saw five of them. You can see his video here: CURTIS' GSB
THE WAY WE WERE - Kathryn Kempton posted the pix above on her FaceBook page with the notation, "Is this really the way we used to dive Old Marineland? Can’t quite picture the entrance." I thought she opened the door for a good teaching opportunity and replied thusly:
The answer to your initial question is: Yes. I remember diving there one time pre-Terrenea with an NAUI Advanced Class student. Entry was tricky but doable, dive was lovely, but when it was time to come out, surf had picked up just a tad. We choose to wait outside the surf for 10 minutes or so to not only get a feel for the timing and the "right" spot to exit, but also in hopes of catching an extended lull. I also was making the mental calculations of kicking all the way down from the point into the cove which might have been more sheltered. And I clearly remember thinking throughout this whole thing, "It's coming up in conditions like these that lead people to panic." For me from an instructional standpoint, it only serves to reinforce the value of good and extensive training (which you don't get in a weekend wonder partially on-line class), exposure to multiple conditions, and teaching people to think about what they're doing and understand all their options and ramifications. And it certainly brought to mind my favorite teaching saying which I've preached for years: You never get hurt of a dive you don't make.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
