Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Zoom Seekers, new whale species, and more
(please scroll down for details)
What a difference a day makes . . .
WE DIDN'T DO OUR BEACH DIVE ON SATURDAY - And for good reason (as well as that only one person called to sign up and didn't want to go if she was the only one). The picture on the top shows the conditions at Vets Saturday morning at 10AM. The picture underneath shows the same area at the same time Sunday morning. Wow!!!
BIG THANKS TO DR. BOB SANDERS - He was our inaugural Zoom Seekers speaker last Tuesday and it seems like everyone really enjoyed his presentation on the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab, where Bob is the Medical Director. We had about 40 people on the Zoom portion and another 5 on FaceBook Live. Bob's talk was recorded and lives on FB Live and it looks like its gotten an additional 116 views since last week. So we're considering this a success and will be eagerly pushing forward with our plans to do this every second Tuesday of the month (except January) via Zoom. Speaking of which . . .
ZOOM SEEKERS SPEAKERS FOR 2021 - We've still got two slots to fill but so far have scheduled a bunch of people whose names you'll likely recognize: Dan Orr, Jeff Bozanic, Mike Emmerman, Dr. Doug Ebersole, Danny Charlton, Marty Snyderman, Bill Acker, Pete "NetDoc" Murray, Jon Council, and Bill MacDonald. We'll try to have a more detailed list of times and topics in January.
LET'S GO TO 150 FEET . . . IN A POOL - What is being billed as the world's deepest pool opened a few weeks ago in Poland. It's called "Deepspot" and has a max depth of 45 meters (148 feet). It displaces "Y-40 DeepJoy" in Italy which is "only" 42 meters deep (138 feet). You can read more about the new pool here: DEEPSPOT.
SOCORRO SPOTS MIGHT BE AVAILABLE - Although our January 14-22 Socorro trip is technically full, with the recent uptick in COVID activity, a few of our divers are weighing whether they'll go or not and would be happy to sell their spot(s) if someone else is interested in going. Let's be clear that this is NOT a clearance sale where they'll release spots at a deep discount. But if you're interested in joining us, call me at 310/652-4990 for more info (or e-mail me here). A strong argument FOR going is that we're leaving two weeks after Christmas/New Year, and that's just about the time the next post-holiday COVID spike should hit in SoCal. So this might be the perfect time to get out of Dodge as we'll be on a boat with 19 people rather than in a region with 24 million.
2021 LOCAL TRIPS AND CLASSES - I've completed the sked for next year for our local trips (Avalon and Redondo/Vets) as well as our classes (Tables/Computers, Fish ID, Photo, and Nitrox) and that's now available on our website. You can see it as a table listing on the "Local Trips & Classes" page, and you can download a printable version here: 2021 LOCAL TRIPS & CLASSES. It will also be page 3 of the January newsletter so you could wait to print off of that as well.
NEW SPECIES OF WHALE OFF OF MEXICO? - Scientists think they may have discovered a previously-unknown species of Beaked Whale during a recent research trip in Mexico. There's a nice video on the BBC site where two of the researchers talk about not only the discovery, but the joys of exploration. Here's the link: NEW WHALE SPECIES. Who knows? Maybe we'll see them down in Socorro.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, wear your mask, wash your hands, and let's go diving soon (but within the revised COVID restrictions/guidelines). Whew!!!!
- Ken
(please scroll down for details)
What a difference a day makes . . .
WE DIDN'T DO OUR BEACH DIVE ON SATURDAY - And for good reason (as well as that only one person called to sign up and didn't want to go if she was the only one). The picture on the top shows the conditions at Vets Saturday morning at 10AM. The picture underneath shows the same area at the same time Sunday morning. Wow!!!
BIG THANKS TO DR. BOB SANDERS - He was our inaugural Zoom Seekers speaker last Tuesday and it seems like everyone really enjoyed his presentation on the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab, where Bob is the Medical Director. We had about 40 people on the Zoom portion and another 5 on FaceBook Live. Bob's talk was recorded and lives on FB Live and it looks like its gotten an additional 116 views since last week. So we're considering this a success and will be eagerly pushing forward with our plans to do this every second Tuesday of the month (except January) via Zoom. Speaking of which . . .
ZOOM SEEKERS SPEAKERS FOR 2021 - We've still got two slots to fill but so far have scheduled a bunch of people whose names you'll likely recognize: Dan Orr, Jeff Bozanic, Mike Emmerman, Dr. Doug Ebersole, Danny Charlton, Marty Snyderman, Bill Acker, Pete "NetDoc" Murray, Jon Council, and Bill MacDonald. We'll try to have a more detailed list of times and topics in January.
LET'S GO TO 150 FEET . . . IN A POOL - What is being billed as the world's deepest pool opened a few weeks ago in Poland. It's called "Deepspot" and has a max depth of 45 meters (148 feet). It displaces "Y-40 DeepJoy" in Italy which is "only" 42 meters deep (138 feet). You can read more about the new pool here: DEEPSPOT.
SOCORRO SPOTS MIGHT BE AVAILABLE - Although our January 14-22 Socorro trip is technically full, with the recent uptick in COVID activity, a few of our divers are weighing whether they'll go or not and would be happy to sell their spot(s) if someone else is interested in going. Let's be clear that this is NOT a clearance sale where they'll release spots at a deep discount. But if you're interested in joining us, call me at 310/652-4990 for more info (or e-mail me here). A strong argument FOR going is that we're leaving two weeks after Christmas/New Year, and that's just about the time the next post-holiday COVID spike should hit in SoCal. So this might be the perfect time to get out of Dodge as we'll be on a boat with 19 people rather than in a region with 24 million.
2021 LOCAL TRIPS AND CLASSES - I've completed the sked for next year for our local trips (Avalon and Redondo/Vets) as well as our classes (Tables/Computers, Fish ID, Photo, and Nitrox) and that's now available on our website. You can see it as a table listing on the "Local Trips & Classes" page, and you can download a printable version here: 2021 LOCAL TRIPS & CLASSES. It will also be page 3 of the January newsletter so you could wait to print off of that as well.
NEW SPECIES OF WHALE OFF OF MEXICO? - Scientists think they may have discovered a previously-unknown species of Beaked Whale during a recent research trip in Mexico. There's a nice video on the BBC site where two of the researchers talk about not only the discovery, but the joys of exploration. Here's the link: NEW WHALE SPECIES. Who knows? Maybe we'll see them down in Socorro.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, wear your mask, wash your hands, and let's go diving soon (but within the revised COVID restrictions/guidelines). Whew!!!!
- Ken
