Ken Kurtis
Contributor
With Chamber Day relatively behind us, things get back to normal, or "new normal" . . .
THE WATER MAGICALLY WARMED UP THIS WEEKEND - I got reports from two different people (Rusty Berry at SSA and Andrew at Catalina Divers Supply) that were both pretty much the same. But the amazing thing is that it seems the water warmed up about 10º since last weekend, running in the mid-60s with 20-40' viz depending on where you were. Andrew also reports a number of Giant Sea Bass (or as Dr. Bill likes to call them: "Wreckfish" - which is technically a correct name for them) in the UW Park. More on Park diving in a bit.
SOME BOATS ARE STARTING TO GEAR BACK UP - I'm honestly not sure if they qualify as Phase 2 or Phase 3 businesses but the boats are starting to talk about gearing back up and running regularly. A few ran this weekend. The biggest issues for them are: (1) How to comply with all the various restrictions and limitations, and (2) How to make the finances work out so they don't go broke doing it. Both are going to be challenging. Let's tackle them separately.
SOCIAL DISTANCING AND THE LIKE - I think this is going to be toughest thing to deal with. Boats are already crowded with bodies and gear. How can you possibly maintain 6 feet of separation? And even if you want to relax that a bit to 3 feet that means you have to be able to space gear at least that far apart to give people ample room to gear up. Since you can't make the boats any bigger, it means you'll have to have less people taking up the same space. And what about food? As resorts gear up, they're eliminating buffets and having everything server-delivered. But what about our local boats? Do you eliminate served food on our boats and just have people bring their own? (But if it's in a cooler, that eats up more space.) Do you limit the number of people in the galley at any given time? But does that then require people to congregate into a limited space (dive deck) instead of spreading out through the entire vessel? No easy answers here.
HOW DO YOU MAKE THE FINANCES WORK? - The math for this is pretty simple. If a boat needs to make X dollars per trip pre-COVID. They're going to need at least that much - and maybe a bit more if they have to add crew to comply with sanitizing requirements - but now it may be spread out over fewer divers. If a boat normally takes 30 divers on a Catalina trip with food-and-air included at $130/head, that's $3,900. If you have to drop the number of divers down to 20 to accommodate social distancing, but you still need to generate $3,900, now the cost per head is $195. What will the market bear? Unknown at this point.
THE IDEAL SITUATION WON'T APPEAR FOR A WHILE - The ideal situation would be that if you knew no one on board was suspected of having COVID or that everyone was vaccinated and spreading the disease wasn't an issue. But we're likely pretty far away from those scenarios. In the meantime, use common sense and follow whatever guidelines the boats and stores you dive with are using. PADI put out a set of guidelines as did GUE and I'm going to copy them here.
THE AVALON UNDERWATER PARK IS OPEN . . . SORT OF - It's not quite as clear-cut as it sounds. The City of Avalon wants to limit the number of people in the Park at any given time so advance reservations are required. Catalina Divers Supply has set up seven sanitized gear stations (large rubber mats) laid out that can accommodate up to 7 people at each. So you need to call them to make a reservation ahead of time. If you just show up with all of your own stuff and plop down somewhere else, they're not going to stop you from diving the Park. However, they are only allowed at this time to fill their own tanks. No filling of non-CDS tanks. That may change down the road. They also have protocols in place in terms of rinsing gear after you're done with it as well as rinsing and sanitizing the mats. You can get more specific info by calling them (310/510-0330).
THE SHORT VERSION - The short version on all of this is that it's a Brave New World and we're all feeling our way through it day-by-day. Don't assume that just because things are available again that that means we go back to the way it all used to be. "Diving as we knew it" is going to be a ways off. Be patient, let's see what works and what doesn't, and most of all, be safe.
BUDDY DIVE IN BONAIRE - Our trip that was supposed to be in Bonaire right now has been tentatively re-scheduled for August 28. But we did receive from Buddy Dive the other day a quite extensive accounting (six pages) of how things will change once they open back up. Whether or not you would dive with them is not the point here but I offer you this document as an example of what one resort is doing and how seriously they, and the rest of the diving world, are taking all of this. And in light of the discussion above about what we can do in SoCal, I think this is interesting reading since ours is a sport that by its very nature requires/encourages close contact and types of interaction that we are now being told can be dangerous and even potentially deadly. So whether or not you have a foreign trip planned or intend to resume diving any time soon, I encourage you to read through this just to understand and appreciate the logistics those of us who take you diving and organize group diving are dealing with and how we may have to cope in the immediate future: BUDDY DIVE COVID SAFETY MEASURES.
COVID & DIVING - I covered some of this territory last week in our Reef Seekers Zoom talk which I recorded and have posted on my YouTube page. If you want to take a peek, here's a link to the talk and the Q&A: COVID & DIVING.
ALREADY??? - This sort of caught me by surprise, but don't forget that this coming weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. Yikes!!! Where has the time gone?
LET'S END ON A LIGHTER NOTE - Enough with the doom and gloom. PBS's "Nature" designed a drone that looks just like a Hummingbird and flew it into and through a swarm of what seems like tens of thousands (if not more) Monarch butterflies. It's a really cool little 3-minute video clip and perhaps just the antidote and calming visual you need right now. Enjoy: CRUISING THROUGH THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY SWARM.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon one of these days!!!
- Ken
THE WATER MAGICALLY WARMED UP THIS WEEKEND - I got reports from two different people (Rusty Berry at SSA and Andrew at Catalina Divers Supply) that were both pretty much the same. But the amazing thing is that it seems the water warmed up about 10º since last weekend, running in the mid-60s with 20-40' viz depending on where you were. Andrew also reports a number of Giant Sea Bass (or as Dr. Bill likes to call them: "Wreckfish" - which is technically a correct name for them) in the UW Park. More on Park diving in a bit.
SOME BOATS ARE STARTING TO GEAR BACK UP - I'm honestly not sure if they qualify as Phase 2 or Phase 3 businesses but the boats are starting to talk about gearing back up and running regularly. A few ran this weekend. The biggest issues for them are: (1) How to comply with all the various restrictions and limitations, and (2) How to make the finances work out so they don't go broke doing it. Both are going to be challenging. Let's tackle them separately.
SOCIAL DISTANCING AND THE LIKE - I think this is going to be toughest thing to deal with. Boats are already crowded with bodies and gear. How can you possibly maintain 6 feet of separation? And even if you want to relax that a bit to 3 feet that means you have to be able to space gear at least that far apart to give people ample room to gear up. Since you can't make the boats any bigger, it means you'll have to have less people taking up the same space. And what about food? As resorts gear up, they're eliminating buffets and having everything server-delivered. But what about our local boats? Do you eliminate served food on our boats and just have people bring their own? (But if it's in a cooler, that eats up more space.) Do you limit the number of people in the galley at any given time? But does that then require people to congregate into a limited space (dive deck) instead of spreading out through the entire vessel? No easy answers here.
HOW DO YOU MAKE THE FINANCES WORK? - The math for this is pretty simple. If a boat needs to make X dollars per trip pre-COVID. They're going to need at least that much - and maybe a bit more if they have to add crew to comply with sanitizing requirements - but now it may be spread out over fewer divers. If a boat normally takes 30 divers on a Catalina trip with food-and-air included at $130/head, that's $3,900. If you have to drop the number of divers down to 20 to accommodate social distancing, but you still need to generate $3,900, now the cost per head is $195. What will the market bear? Unknown at this point.
THE IDEAL SITUATION WON'T APPEAR FOR A WHILE - The ideal situation would be that if you knew no one on board was suspected of having COVID or that everyone was vaccinated and spreading the disease wasn't an issue. But we're likely pretty far away from those scenarios. In the meantime, use common sense and follow whatever guidelines the boats and stores you dive with are using. PADI put out a set of guidelines as did GUE and I'm going to copy them here.
THE AVALON UNDERWATER PARK IS OPEN . . . SORT OF - It's not quite as clear-cut as it sounds. The City of Avalon wants to limit the number of people in the Park at any given time so advance reservations are required. Catalina Divers Supply has set up seven sanitized gear stations (large rubber mats) laid out that can accommodate up to 7 people at each. So you need to call them to make a reservation ahead of time. If you just show up with all of your own stuff and plop down somewhere else, they're not going to stop you from diving the Park. However, they are only allowed at this time to fill their own tanks. No filling of non-CDS tanks. That may change down the road. They also have protocols in place in terms of rinsing gear after you're done with it as well as rinsing and sanitizing the mats. You can get more specific info by calling them (310/510-0330).
THE SHORT VERSION - The short version on all of this is that it's a Brave New World and we're all feeling our way through it day-by-day. Don't assume that just because things are available again that that means we go back to the way it all used to be. "Diving as we knew it" is going to be a ways off. Be patient, let's see what works and what doesn't, and most of all, be safe.
BUDDY DIVE IN BONAIRE - Our trip that was supposed to be in Bonaire right now has been tentatively re-scheduled for August 28. But we did receive from Buddy Dive the other day a quite extensive accounting (six pages) of how things will change once they open back up. Whether or not you would dive with them is not the point here but I offer you this document as an example of what one resort is doing and how seriously they, and the rest of the diving world, are taking all of this. And in light of the discussion above about what we can do in SoCal, I think this is interesting reading since ours is a sport that by its very nature requires/encourages close contact and types of interaction that we are now being told can be dangerous and even potentially deadly. So whether or not you have a foreign trip planned or intend to resume diving any time soon, I encourage you to read through this just to understand and appreciate the logistics those of us who take you diving and organize group diving are dealing with and how we may have to cope in the immediate future: BUDDY DIVE COVID SAFETY MEASURES.
COVID & DIVING - I covered some of this territory last week in our Reef Seekers Zoom talk which I recorded and have posted on my YouTube page. If you want to take a peek, here's a link to the talk and the Q&A: COVID & DIVING.
ALREADY??? - This sort of caught me by surprise, but don't forget that this coming weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. Yikes!!! Where has the time gone?
LET'S END ON A LIGHTER NOTE - Enough with the doom and gloom. PBS's "Nature" designed a drone that looks just like a Hummingbird and flew it into and through a swarm of what seems like tens of thousands (if not more) Monarch butterflies. It's a really cool little 3-minute video clip and perhaps just the antidote and calming visual you need right now. Enjoy: CRUISING THROUGH THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY SWARM.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon one of these days!!!
- Ken
