Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2018 vacation trips:
• April 14-21 - Bonaire (SOLD OUT - Leaving Friday night)
• June 8-20 - Yap Immersion (7 going - room for a few more)
• August 18-25 - Isla Mujeres (Whale Sharks, Cancun Underwater Museum, Cenotes)
• October 27 - November 3 - Roatan at Anthony's Key (3 SPOTS LEFT)
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: Foreign Trips
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Upcoming local dives & classes:
• Tue., Apr. 10 - Redondo - Squid Dive (FREE!!!)
• Sat., Apr. 28 - Catalina Express - Underwater Park ($150)
• Wed., May 2 - CHAMBER DAY & EVE - PLEASE SUPPORT THE CATALINA HYPERBARIC CHAMBER
• Thu., May 10 - Redondo - Night Dive (FREE!!!)
• Sat., May 19 - Catalina Express - Avalon Underwater Park ($150)
• Thu., May 24 - CLASS - NAUI Nitrox ($25)
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
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I usually try to start with something pithy and I've got squat right now . . .
NO STORM BUT WE GOT SURF - Redondo was perhaps marginally diveable on Saturday but not diveable on Sunday, and may be rough for another day or two. Although we didn't get any rain out of that system that moved north of us, we certainly got a kicked-up ocean because of it. Just because the storm system itself doesn't make it down here doesn't mean that we don't feel the effects one way or another. That's one of the variables with beach diving and you simply never know until you go take a look. I drove along PV Sunday and while the kelp beds looked nice, the water looked pretty green (got a good view from above Flat Rock). Also heard of green water down San Diego way on the Yukon. I saw a pix posted from a dive there where the water looked like lime Gatorade. Not pretty.
SQUID TUESDAY??? - Given the water conditions today, I'd say the planned-for Squid Dive Tuesday evening is iffy at best. On top of that, I haven't heard any reports lately of squid sightings or even much about squid eggs. Happy to take your name down if you're interested, but I'd say the odds of it happening are low.
HAVE YOU CONTRIBUTED TO CHAMBER DAY YET? - The event is now less than four weeks always and provide over half of the funding needed to keep our Chamber going for another year. There are all kinds of ways for you to participate. Reef Seekers is a boat sponsor (Cee Ray) as well as a table sponsor (4 seats left), and we support the Chamber Challenge as well. Just go to www.chambeday.org, see what suits your fancy and get signed up. It's all for a very good cause.
KNOW WHAT YOU PUT IN YOUR MOUTH - You may recall a fatality last fall on the Oil Rigs where a diver seemingly lost consciousness a bit deeper than 100 feet about 10 minutes into the dive and could not be saved. Following equipment testing (not done by me), there are now reports out that his 13cf pony bottle was empty but his 100cf tank was full. It would seem that he mistakenly started the dive breathing off the pony bottle, likely thought he was on his main tank, and either didn't check his gauge or didn't notice that the needle hadn't budged even though he was consuming air. There's a fairly vigorous discussion about this on ScubaBoard (https://www.scubaboard.com/…/accident-on-southern-c…/page-16) and many people are talking about how they distinguish between their main and their pony reg. The specific point is that you need to know which one you're using. The more general point is that at all times, whether you dive with a pony or not, whether you dive deep or shallow, you need to pay attention to what's going on. Stop and take some time to do a pre-dive check. Check your air with your pressure gauge as if your life depended on it. (Oh . . . wait a minute. IT DOES!!!!) There's no such thing as being too cautious or too safe.
LEAVING FOR BONAIRE THIS WEEKEND - We'll start diving Sunday and I will hope to be publishing some Daily Top 10 photos on our Facebook and SmugMug pages. So hopefully you can follow us vicariously.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon (vicariously or otherwise)!!
- Ken
• April 14-21 - Bonaire (SOLD OUT - Leaving Friday night)
• June 8-20 - Yap Immersion (7 going - room for a few more)
• August 18-25 - Isla Mujeres (Whale Sharks, Cancun Underwater Museum, Cenotes)
• October 27 - November 3 - Roatan at Anthony's Key (3 SPOTS LEFT)
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: Foreign Trips
—————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives & classes:
• Tue., Apr. 10 - Redondo - Squid Dive (FREE!!!)
• Sat., Apr. 28 - Catalina Express - Underwater Park ($150)
• Wed., May 2 - CHAMBER DAY & EVE - PLEASE SUPPORT THE CATALINA HYPERBARIC CHAMBER
• Thu., May 10 - Redondo - Night Dive (FREE!!!)
• Sat., May 19 - Catalina Express - Avalon Underwater Park ($150)
• Thu., May 24 - CLASS - NAUI Nitrox ($25)
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
————————————————————————
I usually try to start with something pithy and I've got squat right now . . .
NO STORM BUT WE GOT SURF - Redondo was perhaps marginally diveable on Saturday but not diveable on Sunday, and may be rough for another day or two. Although we didn't get any rain out of that system that moved north of us, we certainly got a kicked-up ocean because of it. Just because the storm system itself doesn't make it down here doesn't mean that we don't feel the effects one way or another. That's one of the variables with beach diving and you simply never know until you go take a look. I drove along PV Sunday and while the kelp beds looked nice, the water looked pretty green (got a good view from above Flat Rock). Also heard of green water down San Diego way on the Yukon. I saw a pix posted from a dive there where the water looked like lime Gatorade. Not pretty.
SQUID TUESDAY??? - Given the water conditions today, I'd say the planned-for Squid Dive Tuesday evening is iffy at best. On top of that, I haven't heard any reports lately of squid sightings or even much about squid eggs. Happy to take your name down if you're interested, but I'd say the odds of it happening are low.
HAVE YOU CONTRIBUTED TO CHAMBER DAY YET? - The event is now less than four weeks always and provide over half of the funding needed to keep our Chamber going for another year. There are all kinds of ways for you to participate. Reef Seekers is a boat sponsor (Cee Ray) as well as a table sponsor (4 seats left), and we support the Chamber Challenge as well. Just go to www.chambeday.org, see what suits your fancy and get signed up. It's all for a very good cause.
KNOW WHAT YOU PUT IN YOUR MOUTH - You may recall a fatality last fall on the Oil Rigs where a diver seemingly lost consciousness a bit deeper than 100 feet about 10 minutes into the dive and could not be saved. Following equipment testing (not done by me), there are now reports out that his 13cf pony bottle was empty but his 100cf tank was full. It would seem that he mistakenly started the dive breathing off the pony bottle, likely thought he was on his main tank, and either didn't check his gauge or didn't notice that the needle hadn't budged even though he was consuming air. There's a fairly vigorous discussion about this on ScubaBoard (https://www.scubaboard.com/…/accident-on-southern-c…/page-16) and many people are talking about how they distinguish between their main and their pony reg. The specific point is that you need to know which one you're using. The more general point is that at all times, whether you dive with a pony or not, whether you dive deep or shallow, you need to pay attention to what's going on. Stop and take some time to do a pre-dive check. Check your air with your pressure gauge as if your life depended on it. (Oh . . . wait a minute. IT DOES!!!!) There's no such thing as being too cautious or too safe.
LEAVING FOR BONAIRE THIS WEEKEND - We'll start diving Sunday and I will hope to be publishing some Daily Top 10 photos on our Facebook and SmugMug pages. So hopefully you can follow us vicariously.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon (vicariously or otherwise)!!
- Ken
