Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Avalon, Seaweed, Glen Egstrom, and more
(please scroll down for details)
I think most people perceive "summer" as June/July/August. How can we be approaching the mid-point (July 15) of summer already?????
COVID NUMBERS KEEP ACCELERATING - I'm all for being #1, but not with this. Although the death rate seems to be stabilizing a bit (better care - younger, less susceptible people getting infected) the new infections and hospitalizations keep rising, especially in L.A. County and SoCal in general, let alone in the U.S. as a whole. And we are only now beginning to see some data on the long-term effects of those who "recover" from a bout of COVID. Turns out that in a significant numbers of cases, if you consider "recovered" to also mean "back to pre-COVID normal," that's not always happening. There are now more reports of extensive blood-clotting (which could trigger a stroke), heart damage, lung damage, and other post-COVID residual complications. These things could also be a total contra-indication to diving after you're out of the hospital. "Recovered" seems to just mean "discharged from the hospital" in many cases. There was an interesting Op-Ed about this in the L.A. Times last week: AM I RECOVERED FROM COVID?
MY CONCERN - Most of you know that I've spent my whole diving career as a vocal proponent of diver safety. And my concern in the COVID arena is that diving, especially the way we do it here in SoCal may be creating a petri dish for COVID spread if you don't take simple precautions like wearing face coverings and practice at least rudimentary social distancing. Because we're in a sport where there's a lot of saliva and spit going around, and since that's where COVID likes to live, we may be more susceptible than others who participate in a group activity. Under those circumstances, it might only take one asymptomatic person on a trip, maybe even just a day trip, to become a "super-spreader" and unintentionally infect a bunch of fellow divers. So that's where face-coverings, sanitizing &/or washing your hands, and putting at least a little distance on the boat between you and your fellow divers, might prevent you from getting infected. As always, the best advice is to assume EVERYONE is infected and do what you can to not get infected yourself.
AVALON THIS COMING SATURDAY - I think I've going to put this on hold for another week or two. (I actually had a bit of an anxiety dream about this last night.) Especially with the heat, the Catalina Express boats have been relatively full. I think I'm less worried about the Park - where it should be fairly easy to space out - than I am about the boat and queuing in line to get on the boat. Better safe than sorry. I'll keep you posted about an alternate date.
STILL WORKING ON OUR FOREIGN TRIPS - Everything's up in the air. We have Bonaire in 6 weeks but I'd say that's 50/50 at best. I checked the American Airlines website and they are set to resume flying Miami-Bonaire on August 8 but there's no word from Bonaire as to whether they'll let us in or not. And given that the U.S. is #1 in the world in terms of new infections, I'm thinking "Stay-Home-Americans" is going to be the watchword for a while longer. We shall see.
NASTY SEAWEED - If COVID wasn't bad enough, there's word coming out of Hawaii of an invasive seaweed (similar to Sargassum but not that) that's invading some pristine remote NW Hawaiian reefs. As you'll see in the picture that leads the article, the seaweed totally covers a reef and smothers it. The fear is that the seaweed then breaks off and easily spreads and, while it's 1300 from the main Hawaiian islands right now, who knows what will happen down the road. Here's the article: SEAWEED IN HAWAII.
BE A SAFER, SMARTER DIVER - Mike Emmerman is not only a friend (and regular Chamber Day donor) but also an expert on dive accidents. He gives an interesting talk about the 1991-92 East Coast dive season when 11 highly-experienced divers, many of whom Mike personally knew, died in various accidents that seemed easily preventable. Mike talks about some of the psychology behind why those divers made the decisions they made that cost them their lives, what we can learn from it, and how YOU can perhaps spot these traits in yourself and avoid making the same type of mistake. The talk's on Vimeo. You might want to start at the 4:30 mark and skip the introduction. There's are also a couple of tech glitches but they eventually resolve. And there's a nice Q&A sessions that comprises the second half of the talk: MIKE EMMERMAN.
GLEN EGSTROM TRIBUTE - Some of you may have heard Glen's name before as he was truly one of our diving pioneers and literally helped invent our sport as well as shape some of the ways we do things even to this day. I was privileged to know Glen through some of the legal work I've done with dive accidents. I guarantee you that Glen's research and thinking on diving helped shaped the way you were taught and dive today. Glen was lots of fun to sit around with and pick his brain. He died at the ripe old age of 91 this past October, and today there was a lovely hour-long on-line tribute and celebration of his life. It's been archived and you can access it through this link: A LIFE WELL-LIVED.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's SAFELY go diving soon one of these days!!!
- Ken
(please scroll down for details)
I think most people perceive "summer" as June/July/August. How can we be approaching the mid-point (July 15) of summer already?????
COVID NUMBERS KEEP ACCELERATING - I'm all for being #1, but not with this. Although the death rate seems to be stabilizing a bit (better care - younger, less susceptible people getting infected) the new infections and hospitalizations keep rising, especially in L.A. County and SoCal in general, let alone in the U.S. as a whole. And we are only now beginning to see some data on the long-term effects of those who "recover" from a bout of COVID. Turns out that in a significant numbers of cases, if you consider "recovered" to also mean "back to pre-COVID normal," that's not always happening. There are now more reports of extensive blood-clotting (which could trigger a stroke), heart damage, lung damage, and other post-COVID residual complications. These things could also be a total contra-indication to diving after you're out of the hospital. "Recovered" seems to just mean "discharged from the hospital" in many cases. There was an interesting Op-Ed about this in the L.A. Times last week: AM I RECOVERED FROM COVID?
MY CONCERN - Most of you know that I've spent my whole diving career as a vocal proponent of diver safety. And my concern in the COVID arena is that diving, especially the way we do it here in SoCal may be creating a petri dish for COVID spread if you don't take simple precautions like wearing face coverings and practice at least rudimentary social distancing. Because we're in a sport where there's a lot of saliva and spit going around, and since that's where COVID likes to live, we may be more susceptible than others who participate in a group activity. Under those circumstances, it might only take one asymptomatic person on a trip, maybe even just a day trip, to become a "super-spreader" and unintentionally infect a bunch of fellow divers. So that's where face-coverings, sanitizing &/or washing your hands, and putting at least a little distance on the boat between you and your fellow divers, might prevent you from getting infected. As always, the best advice is to assume EVERYONE is infected and do what you can to not get infected yourself.
AVALON THIS COMING SATURDAY - I think I've going to put this on hold for another week or two. (I actually had a bit of an anxiety dream about this last night.) Especially with the heat, the Catalina Express boats have been relatively full. I think I'm less worried about the Park - where it should be fairly easy to space out - than I am about the boat and queuing in line to get on the boat. Better safe than sorry. I'll keep you posted about an alternate date.
STILL WORKING ON OUR FOREIGN TRIPS - Everything's up in the air. We have Bonaire in 6 weeks but I'd say that's 50/50 at best. I checked the American Airlines website and they are set to resume flying Miami-Bonaire on August 8 but there's no word from Bonaire as to whether they'll let us in or not. And given that the U.S. is #1 in the world in terms of new infections, I'm thinking "Stay-Home-Americans" is going to be the watchword for a while longer. We shall see.
NASTY SEAWEED - If COVID wasn't bad enough, there's word coming out of Hawaii of an invasive seaweed (similar to Sargassum but not that) that's invading some pristine remote NW Hawaiian reefs. As you'll see in the picture that leads the article, the seaweed totally covers a reef and smothers it. The fear is that the seaweed then breaks off and easily spreads and, while it's 1300 from the main Hawaiian islands right now, who knows what will happen down the road. Here's the article: SEAWEED IN HAWAII.
BE A SAFER, SMARTER DIVER - Mike Emmerman is not only a friend (and regular Chamber Day donor) but also an expert on dive accidents. He gives an interesting talk about the 1991-92 East Coast dive season when 11 highly-experienced divers, many of whom Mike personally knew, died in various accidents that seemed easily preventable. Mike talks about some of the psychology behind why those divers made the decisions they made that cost them their lives, what we can learn from it, and how YOU can perhaps spot these traits in yourself and avoid making the same type of mistake. The talk's on Vimeo. You might want to start at the 4:30 mark and skip the introduction. There's are also a couple of tech glitches but they eventually resolve. And there's a nice Q&A sessions that comprises the second half of the talk: MIKE EMMERMAN.
GLEN EGSTROM TRIBUTE - Some of you may have heard Glen's name before as he was truly one of our diving pioneers and literally helped invent our sport as well as shape some of the ways we do things even to this day. I was privileged to know Glen through some of the legal work I've done with dive accidents. I guarantee you that Glen's research and thinking on diving helped shaped the way you were taught and dive today. Glen was lots of fun to sit around with and pick his brain. He died at the ripe old age of 91 this past October, and today there was a lovely hour-long on-line tribute and celebration of his life. It's been archived and you can access it through this link: A LIFE WELL-LIVED.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's SAFELY go diving soon one of these days!!!
- Ken
