Ken Kurtis
Contributor
INDO, MORE ON YOUNG DIVERS, SHARKS, DARWIN, & more (scroll down for details)
PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR PO BOX NUMBER HAS CHANGED FROM 11634 TO 634
REEF SEEKERS REPAIR DEPARTMENT
Contact Robert Stark (our repair guru) directly at 310/947-8523 or ReefSeekersRepair@gmail.com
SAVE 33% ON YOUR REPAIRS - CLICK HERE: Repair Repeat Offender Program
Follow us on Facebook by clicking here and then choosing "LIKE": www.facebook.com/reefseekers
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2015 vacation trips:
July 11-23 - Indonesia (LEAVING THIS COMING SATURDAY)
July 31-August 5 - Great White Sharks at Guadalupe Island aboard the Belle Amie [SOLD OUT]
October 21-26 - Great White Sharks at Guadalupe Island aboard the Nautilus Explorer (four spots available on this trip)
December 1-13 - Red Sea Aggressor (southern route - includes possibility of snorkeling with dolphins) plus 2 days in Cairo [SOLD OUT]
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
Congrats to the U.S Women's Soccer team . . .
LEAVING FOR INDO SATURDAY AFTERNOON - We depart with our group of intrepid divers for Murex in Manado, Indonesia, on Saturday afternoon. We always love going to Murex so are really looking forward to going back. This also means that NEXT week TWARS will come to you "Live from Indonesia", Wi-Fi connection willing. And I'll be posting daily Top Ten Pix via Facebook and SmugMug so hopefully you'll "join" us that way for this trip. I have my replacement D750 and repaired Ikelite housing ready to go along with some new lenses so it'll be an adventure. From a photo standpoint, it's still an adjustment going from a DX-crop camera to an FX-full-frame one. I got a week of shooting in Yap with it (and one day in Palau) but the Yap stuff was manta-heavy (in other words, big things) so not the same type of adaptations as being on a reef and shooting things big/medium/small and figuring out what works and what doesn't. One of the advantages of traveling as much as I do is that the pre-trip prep becomes a bit old hat. This can be good and bad. For the most part, I take the same stuff every time so the packing's pretty routine and I generally leave it for almost literally the last minute. (I've frequently been closing my last bag as the cab pulled up in front of my place.) On the other hand, complacency can set in and you forget things. Like the time I landed in Florida for a week or manatees and caverns . . . and realized I forgot to pack underwear. Luckily, there was a JC Penney nearby. Anyhow, we'll be diving Manado July 14-21 so keep an eye out for stories and pix
CERTIFYING YOUNG DIVERS - I got a lot of nice, positive feedback from many of you on my rant about certifying young divers from the newsletter. Guillaume Chanfreau sent an interesting note pointing out that when he got certified in France at the age of 14, he wasn't allowed to then dive with other OW divers but always had to be with a DM. And you could only dive with other similarly-certified divers if you both had rescue training and were at least 16. That might be a middle ground. Certify at a youthful age (but I still think 10 is nuts) but you always have to be supervised by a DM or Instructor until you're 18. I'm sure my idea of no-certs-under-the-age-of-18 would never fly politically, but it all still makes me a bit uncomfortable, especially as the industry has moved so heavily towards on-line knowledge training and away from instructor-based lectures where you could get a much better ideas (IMHO) as to whether or not someone was really "getting" it. The counter to that is that "studies have shown" that people, especially younger people, learn better with an on-line presentation than they do with an in-person one. The fallacy there may be that if you have an excellent on-line presentation and judge it against a crappy lecture (and admittedly, not all instructors are good at it) yes. But my contention has always been that while you can get someone to give the right answer from on-line training, it doesn't mean they understand what that answer represents. In other words, you might know that 60 feet for 25 minutes makes you an E diver on the NAUI tables, but that doesn't mean that you associate "E" with nitrogen tissue-loading, reduced bottom time on your repetitive dive, etc., etc. Knowing the answer and understanding the material are sometimes two very different things.
LOCAL DIVES - A couple of you have asked in recent weeks about our traditional Redondo Beach night and weekend dives and Catalina trips to the Underwater Park. Admittedly, I haven't done a good job at scheduling those in the first half of this year. And since I'm traveling most of July (gone July 11-23 to Indo, back a week, and then gone July 31-August 5 to Guadalupe), this month is shot. But I will work on getting some things planned for August and September and we'll see how it goes. So keep your eyes peeled on TWARS and our newsletter for dates and times.
DARWIN AWARD #1 - You would think that when there's a sign up that says, "No swimming alligators" that you'd stay out of the water. (Unless he was so dumb as to think it meant that there were alligators that couldn't swim.) A man in Texas decided to go swimming in a bayou despite both signs warning about alligators in the water and an employee of a nearby marina imploring him not to the go. Apparently he took off his shirt, removed his wallet, shouted "BLANK the alligators" before jumping in and almost immediately started screaming for help. His girlfriend called out, "An alligator's got him!!!" He was eventually found dead. Full story is here: Texas alligator attack: Man killed in Orange County - CNN.com .
INTERESTING LEGAL ISSUE - Not to beat up on the dead too much but . . . The employee who warmed him about going in was also the one who found him. Se said she saw him float up and get pulled back under and was traumatized by it. So here's someone (the Darwin Award nominee) who ignores explicit warnings both written and verbal, and his willful actions traumatize someone who was essentially a first responder. Does she have some standing to sue his estate for intentional infliction of emotional duress? Seems to me that ignoring the warning led to a predictable outcome that she was trying to get him to avoid. The reason I mention this is that I've also wondered the same thing about diving. As many of you know, I serve as an expert witness if diving litigation and I'm appalled at the lack of personal responsibility you see in many of the lawsuits. And I'm wondering if there's a parallel situation where (for instance) you run out of air despite my telling you to always watch your gauge, it has a predictable outcome (you embolize and die), and I'm traumatized by having to try to rescue you. Do I have cause for action against your estate? Seems no more specious to me than some of the lawsuits I'm aware of that either go to trial or are settled.
DARWIN AWARD #2 - Not dive-related but worth mentioning and falls into the What-The-Hell-Was-He-Thinking category. In Maine, a man was killed when fireworks exploded. While sad, the kicker is that he was setting off the fireworks mortar on his head and was killed instantly. Full story here: Man Shoots off Firework From Top of His Head, Dies Instantly - ABC News .
MORE EAST COAST SHARK ATTACKS - We've discussed this previously and there was another one this week, again in North Carolina. There are likely a myriad of reasons behind these which could include healthy and expanding shark populations, young sharks (the attacking sharks have all been reported to be in the 5-8 foot range) who don't know how to hunt, over-fishing or environmental conditions causing depleted food sources forcing the sharks to hunt closer in to shore and more likely to contact humans, and the proverbial mistaken-identity-sorry-I-bit-you bite.But it also brings to mind the idea of "shark proof" or at least "shark repellent" wetsuits and other things and to that end, I thought you might enjoy this Ted Talk from Hamish Jolly, an Australian ocean swimmer, about some research into making wetsuits that are essentially invisible to sharks. It's a little under 13 minutes long and interesting, especially some of the footage he shows. The talk was given a bit over 18 months ago. Here's the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/hamish_jolly_a_shark_deterrent_wetsuit_and_it_s_not_what_you_think#t-714952 .
That'll do it for now. Have a great week, we'll chat with you next week from halfway around the world, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR PO BOX NUMBER HAS CHANGED FROM 11634 TO 634
REEF SEEKERS REPAIR DEPARTMENT
Contact Robert Stark (our repair guru) directly at 310/947-8523 or ReefSeekersRepair@gmail.com
SAVE 33% ON YOUR REPAIRS - CLICK HERE: Repair Repeat Offender Program
Follow us on Facebook by clicking here and then choosing "LIKE": www.facebook.com/reefseekers
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2015 vacation trips:
July 11-23 - Indonesia (LEAVING THIS COMING SATURDAY)
July 31-August 5 - Great White Sharks at Guadalupe Island aboard the Belle Amie [SOLD OUT]
October 21-26 - Great White Sharks at Guadalupe Island aboard the Nautilus Explorer (four spots available on this trip)
December 1-13 - Red Sea Aggressor (southern route - includes possibility of snorkeling with dolphins) plus 2 days in Cairo [SOLD OUT]
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
Congrats to the U.S Women's Soccer team . . .
LEAVING FOR INDO SATURDAY AFTERNOON - We depart with our group of intrepid divers for Murex in Manado, Indonesia, on Saturday afternoon. We always love going to Murex so are really looking forward to going back. This also means that NEXT week TWARS will come to you "Live from Indonesia", Wi-Fi connection willing. And I'll be posting daily Top Ten Pix via Facebook and SmugMug so hopefully you'll "join" us that way for this trip. I have my replacement D750 and repaired Ikelite housing ready to go along with some new lenses so it'll be an adventure. From a photo standpoint, it's still an adjustment going from a DX-crop camera to an FX-full-frame one. I got a week of shooting in Yap with it (and one day in Palau) but the Yap stuff was manta-heavy (in other words, big things) so not the same type of adaptations as being on a reef and shooting things big/medium/small and figuring out what works and what doesn't. One of the advantages of traveling as much as I do is that the pre-trip prep becomes a bit old hat. This can be good and bad. For the most part, I take the same stuff every time so the packing's pretty routine and I generally leave it for almost literally the last minute. (I've frequently been closing my last bag as the cab pulled up in front of my place.) On the other hand, complacency can set in and you forget things. Like the time I landed in Florida for a week or manatees and caverns . . . and realized I forgot to pack underwear. Luckily, there was a JC Penney nearby. Anyhow, we'll be diving Manado July 14-21 so keep an eye out for stories and pix
CERTIFYING YOUNG DIVERS - I got a lot of nice, positive feedback from many of you on my rant about certifying young divers from the newsletter. Guillaume Chanfreau sent an interesting note pointing out that when he got certified in France at the age of 14, he wasn't allowed to then dive with other OW divers but always had to be with a DM. And you could only dive with other similarly-certified divers if you both had rescue training and were at least 16. That might be a middle ground. Certify at a youthful age (but I still think 10 is nuts) but you always have to be supervised by a DM or Instructor until you're 18. I'm sure my idea of no-certs-under-the-age-of-18 would never fly politically, but it all still makes me a bit uncomfortable, especially as the industry has moved so heavily towards on-line knowledge training and away from instructor-based lectures where you could get a much better ideas (IMHO) as to whether or not someone was really "getting" it. The counter to that is that "studies have shown" that people, especially younger people, learn better with an on-line presentation than they do with an in-person one. The fallacy there may be that if you have an excellent on-line presentation and judge it against a crappy lecture (and admittedly, not all instructors are good at it) yes. But my contention has always been that while you can get someone to give the right answer from on-line training, it doesn't mean they understand what that answer represents. In other words, you might know that 60 feet for 25 minutes makes you an E diver on the NAUI tables, but that doesn't mean that you associate "E" with nitrogen tissue-loading, reduced bottom time on your repetitive dive, etc., etc. Knowing the answer and understanding the material are sometimes two very different things.
LOCAL DIVES - A couple of you have asked in recent weeks about our traditional Redondo Beach night and weekend dives and Catalina trips to the Underwater Park. Admittedly, I haven't done a good job at scheduling those in the first half of this year. And since I'm traveling most of July (gone July 11-23 to Indo, back a week, and then gone July 31-August 5 to Guadalupe), this month is shot. But I will work on getting some things planned for August and September and we'll see how it goes. So keep your eyes peeled on TWARS and our newsletter for dates and times.
DARWIN AWARD #1 - You would think that when there's a sign up that says, "No swimming alligators" that you'd stay out of the water. (Unless he was so dumb as to think it meant that there were alligators that couldn't swim.) A man in Texas decided to go swimming in a bayou despite both signs warning about alligators in the water and an employee of a nearby marina imploring him not to the go. Apparently he took off his shirt, removed his wallet, shouted "BLANK the alligators" before jumping in and almost immediately started screaming for help. His girlfriend called out, "An alligator's got him!!!" He was eventually found dead. Full story is here: Texas alligator attack: Man killed in Orange County - CNN.com .
INTERESTING LEGAL ISSUE - Not to beat up on the dead too much but . . . The employee who warmed him about going in was also the one who found him. Se said she saw him float up and get pulled back under and was traumatized by it. So here's someone (the Darwin Award nominee) who ignores explicit warnings both written and verbal, and his willful actions traumatize someone who was essentially a first responder. Does she have some standing to sue his estate for intentional infliction of emotional duress? Seems to me that ignoring the warning led to a predictable outcome that she was trying to get him to avoid. The reason I mention this is that I've also wondered the same thing about diving. As many of you know, I serve as an expert witness if diving litigation and I'm appalled at the lack of personal responsibility you see in many of the lawsuits. And I'm wondering if there's a parallel situation where (for instance) you run out of air despite my telling you to always watch your gauge, it has a predictable outcome (you embolize and die), and I'm traumatized by having to try to rescue you. Do I have cause for action against your estate? Seems no more specious to me than some of the lawsuits I'm aware of that either go to trial or are settled.
DARWIN AWARD #2 - Not dive-related but worth mentioning and falls into the What-The-Hell-Was-He-Thinking category. In Maine, a man was killed when fireworks exploded. While sad, the kicker is that he was setting off the fireworks mortar on his head and was killed instantly. Full story here: Man Shoots off Firework From Top of His Head, Dies Instantly - ABC News .
MORE EAST COAST SHARK ATTACKS - We've discussed this previously and there was another one this week, again in North Carolina. There are likely a myriad of reasons behind these which could include healthy and expanding shark populations, young sharks (the attacking sharks have all been reported to be in the 5-8 foot range) who don't know how to hunt, over-fishing or environmental conditions causing depleted food sources forcing the sharks to hunt closer in to shore and more likely to contact humans, and the proverbial mistaken-identity-sorry-I-bit-you bite.But it also brings to mind the idea of "shark proof" or at least "shark repellent" wetsuits and other things and to that end, I thought you might enjoy this Ted Talk from Hamish Jolly, an Australian ocean swimmer, about some research into making wetsuits that are essentially invisible to sharks. It's a little under 13 minutes long and interesting, especially some of the footage he shows. The talk was given a bit over 18 months ago. Here's the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/hamish_jolly_a_shark_deterrent_wetsuit_and_it_s_not_what_you_think#t-714952 .
That'll do it for now. Have a great week, we'll chat with you next week from halfway around the world, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
