Getting that Christmas or Hanukkah shopping done????
IN THE "GOOD OLD DAYS" - When we had the physical store open on Wilshire - hard to believe that we shut those doors 16 years ago - this was a busy time for us. And one thing we would usually sell a bunch of were gift certificates. It's a great way to let someone know you care about them this time of the year but they can have a hand in choosing exactly what they want. While we don't sell hard goods anymore, we do still offer vacation trips (some details below), Avalon day trips, and a few classes. You can always do a gift certificate for one of those. If your diver needs hard goods (like a reg or computer or whatever) there are plenty of good local dive shops that we can recommend to make that happen. But give some thought to what your gift recipient's face will look like when they open something from you that says, "You're going to go hug a whale!!!"
SPEAKING OF WHALE HUGS - We had a couple of spots open up on our February 6-10 trip to San Ignacio Lagoon to interact with Gray Whales. The nice thing about this is it's NOT a dive trip, so if there's a non-diver in your circle who is also interested in the ocean and its inhabitants, this is a great opportunity. It's also a quick trip: Literally fly down on Monday afternoon and back on Friday evening. We've got the info up on our website. You can also e-mail us here or call 310/652-4990 to get all the details. One of the "bonuses" for doing this trip with us is that I'll have my cameras with me and my goal is to get an individual shot of every person in our group hugging, kissing, or touching pone of these gentle leviathans.
AND SPEAKING OF PICTURES (ZOOM SEEKERS THIS TUESDAY) - We've got a slight content change for this Tuesday's Zoom Seekers talk (last one of 2022). Originally Doug Sloss was going to chat about photos but he's now unavailable. So instead, we've manged to secure someone who is an INCREDIBLE photographer to talk about how to make your pictures look great. (All right, I'm tooting my own horn.) In all seriousness, I'll be the speaker and we'll focus on what you can do AFTER you snapped the shot in terms of post-processing to really make the pix memorable. I'll show you both a simple and more complex photo-processing program and we'll take a few of the shots I've taken over the years and show what I did to take them from ho-hum to OMG. Quite frankly, there are a few that the initial shot wasn't too great but with a few tweaks here and there, it's almost like it's a different picture. And wait until you hear about the White Balance Eye-Dropper. So I think it'll be both fun AND educational. And as a bonus, I'll even be able to give anyone who wants it a free copy of the simple easy-to-use post-processing program. (And I'm happy to give it to you even if you don't tune in.) But hopefully you'll join us this Tuesday at 7:30PM for Zoom Seekers. Here's the link:
WHO WANTS TO GO TO THE MALDIVES IN 2023? - We've booked and confirmed the Manthiri for November 15-28 (travel dates - 9 days/nights on the boat - also note this includes Thanksgiving). This will be our 5th trip with them and we're sure it will be memorable like our last ones have been. The diving is wonderful, the food is excellent, they take great care of us, and (perhaps best of all) we are limited to 12 divers total. Other Maldives liveaboards take 20-30 divers so this is a much more intimate way to do things and that usually means a better experience for you. As of this writing, we've got one full room available (two people) plus a female-share spot. It's certainly not an inexpensive trip: $5,550 covers you for the diving, meals, government taxes, ecological fee, hotel overnight on the way in, and crew tip. You can get an idea of what we saw in 2019 here (
Maldives 2019 pix) and you should also check out this short video of one of my favorite dives there where Nurse Sharks slide in and nuzzle all of us at dusk as they settle in for the evening:
SHARK CIRCUS.
FACES ONLY A MOTHER FISH COULD LOVE (and that's a stretch) - Researchers discovered a number of new deep-water species in the Indian Ocean off of NW Australia and have shared those images. You may have already seen the Batfish that looks like it got squeezed through an old style clothes ringer but the other ones are pretty interesting/creepy as well. Take a peek:
NEWLY-DISCOVERED WEIRD FISH.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
