Ken Kurtis
Contributor
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Want to travel??? Upcoming 2017 vacation trips:
• July 7-19 - Yap Immersion #1 (special 13-day trip featuring all that Yap has to offer) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 6 SPOTS LEFT ]
• July 21-August 2 - Yap Immersion #2 (week #2 - same sked as above) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 6 SPOTS LEFT ]
• September 1-6 - Great White Sharks of Guadalupe on the Nautilus Belle Amie [ ONLY 1 SPOT LEFT ]
• November 2-12 - Fiji (SW area near Suva) on the Fiji Aggressor [ SOLD OUT!!! ]
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
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Upcoming local dives & classes:
• DIVE - Sat., 6/24 - Avalon UW Park ($150)
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
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It's dangerous to dive in gale-force winds and it's nearly impossible to play golf in those same winds . . .
WINDY IN SANTA BARBARA SUNDAY - Not sure if the SB & Ventura-based boats made it out Sunday but the ocean was awfully choppy and nasty-looking. I happened to be playing golf at Sandpiper in Goleta which is right along the shoreline and it was blowing a good 20-30mph fairly consistently with some stronger gusts. They've got a wind warning in effect through 3AM and a gale warning over the inner waters as well. Yikes!!! Should only last a day or so.
KELP LOOKED GOOD - The good news was that the kelp beds just offshore from the golf course looked really good and we spotted some good-looking kelp offshore as we drove up Highway 101. So it looks like the kelp is starting to make a comeback. It's pretty resilient stuff but this is an encouraging sign. I've also been hearing from people that the kelp around Catalina, and especially in the Underwater Park, seems to be making a comeback as well. All good to hear.
SUSY HOROWITZ WAS COLD - She was diving Santa Cruz Saturday and said dive conditions were good, but the water was very cold, in the lows 50s. Brrrrr!!!!
AVALON'S NOT AS COLD - In fact according to Dr. Bill, temps have generally been low-to-mid 60s. Not too shabby. And it's certainly a comfortable temp for the multiple Black Sea Bass who have been hanging out in the Park lately. They're the ones we'll be trying to find Saturday, June 24 (two Saturdays away) on our day trip to Avalon and the Underwater Park. We'll go over on the 8:45AM boat out of San Pedro and the plan will be to get in three dives plus take a break for lunch. We've already got two people (Betsy Suttle & Marilyn Lawrence) confirmed so that's good enough to make this a firm go. The long-range forecast looks really nice for Saturday. $150 covers you for the Catalina Express, taxi, tanks & airfills, and all the Black Sea Bass your eyes can consume. Give us a call at 310/652-4990 if you want to join the quest.
AGE TEST - Look quickly at this real license plate and what's the first word that comes to mind?
If you're older, the first word that popped in your head possibly wasn't "Hammerheads". Thanks to Alan Blaustein for spotting this and sharing.
NEW NON-STOP TO SINGAPORE - United Airlines has announced a new daily non-stop flight from LAX to Singapore starting October 27. The plane will be a Boeing 787 (really GREAT for passengers) and this will become United's longest flight, coming in at almost 18 hours when heading out from LA (it's a bit shorter on the way back due to the jet stream, which runs west-to-east). The timing is pretty good too as the flight leaves LA at 8:55PM and arrives in Singapore at 6:50AM which means it dovetails very nicely with early morning flights to many other Asian destinations, including Manado, Indonesia. So this will be a really good choice for us for an Indo trip back to Murex in Manado next year. The return flight leaves Singapore at 11AM and arrives in LA at 10:15AM on the same day (so basically 45 minutes before you left). Right now their introductory price is a little over $700 but who knows how long that will last? But it looks promising and, as long as United's stopped dragging people off their planes and snatching people's violins, it's something we'll certainly consider using. This is something very different from the non-stop that Singapore Airlines had a few years ago. Although the routing was the same, Singapore ran it as a "Premium Economy" flight and was charging $1700 round-trip and discontinued it because not enough people were booking. Sounds like the United one will be different and likely more successful since it eliminates the stop in Tokyo, and will be priced competitively. Thanks to Laurie Kasper for sharing this with us.
DID YOU DO SOMETHING NICE FOR THE OCEAN LAST WEEK? - World Oceans Day (sponsored by the United Nations) was last Thursday and hopefully you did something nice for the ocean. Actually, you should be doing something nice for the ocean EVERY day, not just one day a year. We've got six billion people on this planet, and if everyone just does ONE good simple thing a day - turn off a light, walk instead of riding, throw away trash, recycle, etc., etc. - we really can collectively make a difference.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let’s go diving soon!!!
- Ken
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2017 vacation trips:
• July 7-19 - Yap Immersion #1 (special 13-day trip featuring all that Yap has to offer) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 6 SPOTS LEFT ]
• July 21-August 2 - Yap Immersion #2 (week #2 - same sked as above) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 6 SPOTS LEFT ]
• September 1-6 - Great White Sharks of Guadalupe on the Nautilus Belle Amie [ ONLY 1 SPOT LEFT ]
• November 2-12 - Fiji (SW area near Suva) on the Fiji Aggressor [ SOLD OUT!!! ]
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
————————————————————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives & classes:
• DIVE - Sat., 6/24 - Avalon UW Park ($150)
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
—————————————————————————————————————————
It's dangerous to dive in gale-force winds and it's nearly impossible to play golf in those same winds . . .
WINDY IN SANTA BARBARA SUNDAY - Not sure if the SB & Ventura-based boats made it out Sunday but the ocean was awfully choppy and nasty-looking. I happened to be playing golf at Sandpiper in Goleta which is right along the shoreline and it was blowing a good 20-30mph fairly consistently with some stronger gusts. They've got a wind warning in effect through 3AM and a gale warning over the inner waters as well. Yikes!!! Should only last a day or so.
KELP LOOKED GOOD - The good news was that the kelp beds just offshore from the golf course looked really good and we spotted some good-looking kelp offshore as we drove up Highway 101. So it looks like the kelp is starting to make a comeback. It's pretty resilient stuff but this is an encouraging sign. I've also been hearing from people that the kelp around Catalina, and especially in the Underwater Park, seems to be making a comeback as well. All good to hear.
SUSY HOROWITZ WAS COLD - She was diving Santa Cruz Saturday and said dive conditions were good, but the water was very cold, in the lows 50s. Brrrrr!!!!
AVALON'S NOT AS COLD - In fact according to Dr. Bill, temps have generally been low-to-mid 60s. Not too shabby. And it's certainly a comfortable temp for the multiple Black Sea Bass who have been hanging out in the Park lately. They're the ones we'll be trying to find Saturday, June 24 (two Saturdays away) on our day trip to Avalon and the Underwater Park. We'll go over on the 8:45AM boat out of San Pedro and the plan will be to get in three dives plus take a break for lunch. We've already got two people (Betsy Suttle & Marilyn Lawrence) confirmed so that's good enough to make this a firm go. The long-range forecast looks really nice for Saturday. $150 covers you for the Catalina Express, taxi, tanks & airfills, and all the Black Sea Bass your eyes can consume. Give us a call at 310/652-4990 if you want to join the quest.
AGE TEST - Look quickly at this real license plate and what's the first word that comes to mind?
If you're older, the first word that popped in your head possibly wasn't "Hammerheads". Thanks to Alan Blaustein for spotting this and sharing.
NEW NON-STOP TO SINGAPORE - United Airlines has announced a new daily non-stop flight from LAX to Singapore starting October 27. The plane will be a Boeing 787 (really GREAT for passengers) and this will become United's longest flight, coming in at almost 18 hours when heading out from LA (it's a bit shorter on the way back due to the jet stream, which runs west-to-east). The timing is pretty good too as the flight leaves LA at 8:55PM and arrives in Singapore at 6:50AM which means it dovetails very nicely with early morning flights to many other Asian destinations, including Manado, Indonesia. So this will be a really good choice for us for an Indo trip back to Murex in Manado next year. The return flight leaves Singapore at 11AM and arrives in LA at 10:15AM on the same day (so basically 45 minutes before you left). Right now their introductory price is a little over $700 but who knows how long that will last? But it looks promising and, as long as United's stopped dragging people off their planes and snatching people's violins, it's something we'll certainly consider using. This is something very different from the non-stop that Singapore Airlines had a few years ago. Although the routing was the same, Singapore ran it as a "Premium Economy" flight and was charging $1700 round-trip and discontinued it because not enough people were booking. Sounds like the United one will be different and likely more successful since it eliminates the stop in Tokyo, and will be priced competitively. Thanks to Laurie Kasper for sharing this with us.
DID YOU DO SOMETHING NICE FOR THE OCEAN LAST WEEK? - World Oceans Day (sponsored by the United Nations) was last Thursday and hopefully you did something nice for the ocean. Actually, you should be doing something nice for the ocean EVERY day, not just one day a year. We've got six billion people on this planet, and if everyone just does ONE good simple thing a day - turn off a light, walk instead of riding, throw away trash, recycle, etc., etc. - we really can collectively make a difference.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let’s go diving soon!!!
- Ken
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