IN CASE YOU MISSED ZOOM SEEKERS LAST WEDNESDAY - Dale Sheckler gave a nice talk about his favorite dives around the Channel Islands (all eight of them) plus touched on a couple of beach spots towards the end. If you missed Dale's talk (or simply want to listen again), it's up on our You Tube page through this link:
SQUID DIVE THIS WEEK - We've got a Redondo squid dive scheduled for this Thursday and this is the one I said I'd commit to regardless of how many (or how few) of you signed up to do it. However, it looks like Mother Nature may be scheduling some rain for Thursday morning/afternoon/evening which will put a literal damper on things. I'm still happy to give this some thought so if you're interested, get hold of me. But bear in mind that we may end up pulling the plug Thursday afternoon.
PROOF OF VAX NO LONGER REQUIRED FOR FIJI - As a nice Valentine's Day present, Fiji announced on February 14 that they will no longer require proof of COVID vaccination nor require proof of travel insurance to enter the country. So if you've got a trip to Fiji planned, one less thing to have on your To-Do list.
GRAB AIRFARES WHEN YOU CAN - In general, once you have a trip planned, it's a good idea to grab the airfare sooner rather than later. Airlines nowadays are fond of "dynamic pricing" which basically means prices can change suddenly and without warning, and significantly. We're dealing with that a bit on our Yap July trip. The economy airfare that was $2,100 in early January is now $2,900 and the Business fare for the same trip has gone from $4,300 to $6,200. I truly hope and believe that the pricing will come back down is they're not selling tix at this now-inflated rate. (They changed the fare class on the LAX-HNL leg which is what caused the price jump.) But you never know. And even if you're not ready to purchase your ticket but you see a good fare, many airlines will let you lock in the price for a few days or a few weeks for a nominal sum. That's a great way to protect yourself against an unanticipated rise in prices.
CONGRATS TO BRETT ELDRIDGE - One of Brett's photogammetry shots that he showed us during his January Zoom Seekers talk was selected as a top category winners in the annual British-based "Underwater Photographer of the Year" awards that were recently announced. (This is the same contest that Renee Capozolla, who spoke to us in 2022, was declared overall winner in 2021.) The category winners are truly stunning and were chose this year from over 5,500 photos submitted by 500 photographers. Many of the category winners have a short video with their shot explaining how it was done. You can see Brett''s award winner shot (as well as his explainer video) along with all of the other winning entries here:
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
