Ken Kurtis
Contributor
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 - Wed., 5/24 - Night dive at Redondo (6PM - FREE!!)
• DIVE - Sat., 6/3 - 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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Now that Chamber Day is behind us . . .
THANK YOU EVERYONE - Although we got off to a slow start, we had a rousing finish. The official announced total at Chamber Eve was $105,825. Not our highest total ever but certainly a very healthy and respectable amount given the state of the economy still these days. (And we crossed my admittedly ego-driven $100K mark.) But this was really a terrific show of support by our diving community for our Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber and the monies raised cover a bit over 50% of our Chamber's annual operating budget. In case you were wondering, we had 122 divers on the boats, 92 people on the Flying Dutchman, 406 people at Chamber Eve for the dinner, 119 people donated to the Chamber Challenge, and there were 91 on-line orders for t-shirts, posters, and raffle tix. On top of that, add in another hundred or so volunteers from the boats and their crews, to our volunteer DMs, our volunteer Chamber crew, and the AOP Dive Team volunteers who help make Chamber Eve such a smooth-running affair. Overall, it's around a thousand people involved in the event in one form or another and that's why - along with the amount of money raised - we say it's the largest single-day scuba charity event in the U.S. and perhaps even the world. So thank you again from the bottom of our heart.
SCUBA SHOW WAS THIS WEEKEND - Hopefully some of you attended. I teamed up again with Captain John Kades from the Coroner's Office and Karl Huggins from our Chamber as we again presented our review of the fatalities from 2016 (there were six - 5 scuba and 1 freediver) in our "Why Divers Die" seminar on Saturday. And we felt that we got some really good questions from the audience. Hopefully this seminar is not a morbid review of things going wrong but really gives you some things to think about when you walk away. This year, as part of analyzing the accidents, we discussed the role solo diving played in some of the fatalities, whether or not e-learning and accelerated training factors in, and we even looked at the details of a recent accident to show that there can be some differences of opinion as to whether something is really a scuba accident or whether it's a natural death that simply happened when someone was going to dive. Speaking for John & Karl, we enjoy sharing the info and hope it causes you think about what your diving practices might be and how you can minimize risk.
DATE CLARIFICATION BUT NOT REALLY A CHANGE - I realized last week that I had been listing the upcoming Redondo night dive as "Thursday, 5/24" when it's really Wednesday, 5/24. So it's not really a change but simply getting the day of the week to match the calendar date.
SHARK EXCITEMENT - Sharks have been in the news lately with a number of juvy Great Whites being spotted off of local waters. (In fact, KNBC-4 tonight was running a story on the sharks with some underwater footage to boot.) This is not unusual, BTW, as juvy Whites have summered here for years. What might be a bit unusual this year are their numbers and that's partly because the ocean waters didn't cool as much as they normally do so some of the batch who were here last summer, who normally would have left in the late fall, may have stayed through the winter and are now swelling the population with new juvies coming in.
SHARK PROBLEMS UP IN THE BAY AREA - There's been a huge die-off of Leopard Sharks and some rays up in the Bay area that's left people there very puzzled. (It seems to be localized to that general area and is not affecting animals this far south.) An interesting theory was raised recently that it's due to a combination of high tides and the amount of rain we've gotten this season. Up in that area, there are things called "tide gates" that are raised during high tides to prevent flooding. But what that also does is trap inside the Bay any animals that hadn't yet passed through the gate. In and of itself, probably not a problem. But, with all the rain we've gotten and the soon-to-be-melting snowpack, one theory is that a lot more toxins and pollutants have washed into the Bay. While the animals could exit the area normally, with the tide gates up, they're trapped inside for longer periods of time and there may be an cumulative exposure to the toxins that then does them in. Not sure any of this has been concretely proven but sounds plausible. And is again an example of unintended consequences where you have man trying to control nature with the tide gates plus a natural cycle of rain, providing potentially a deadly combination for the underwater inhabitants.
SHARKS IN SEPTEMBER - And with all of this talk of sharks, it's another time to remind you we have ONE spot left on our Isla Guadalupe Great White Shark adventure September 1-6. See what the excitement is all about face-to-face from the safety of a shark cage. This will be my fourth time down there and it's definitely a thrill. Something that should be in your bucket list if it's not already. We'll be on the Nautilus Belle Amie, which is not only huge and comfortable, but is also IMHO the best-designed ship for specifically this trip. On top of that, top-notch crew who will really take care of us. So if you're interested, give us a call at 310/652-4990.
HOW ABOUT THOSE SNORKELS? - I asked for your comments and here are a few that were offered:
From Adam Gelbart: "Hi Ken, yes it's true, on most dives you don't need a snorkel and it's a hassle. But on most dives you don't need a safety sausage, a first aid kit, O2, a knife, an octopus reg, a whistle, etc. Like gun people say about firearms, and pilots say about parachutes: it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Just my $00.02."
From Harry O'Neil: "I am in your camp as I carry a snorkel everywhere just in case I need to jump in quickly. But it’s usually in my bag on the boat. For a long time I carried a collapsible snorkel in my BC, but never used it and it became a pain to deal with. No longer carry it. The only reason that I’d considering carrying a snorkel while diving is in the event that I’m left at sea on the surface for a long period of time, i.e. abandoned, and exhaust my tank and perhaps ditch it, the snorkel gives me an easy way to breathe with my head in a more comfortable position. It would also make it easier to breathe in a rough sea state. Those are the reasons that I carried the collapsible snorkel in times past."
Feel free to add to the conversation if you like.
YOUR FEEL-GOOD VIDEO OF THE WEEK - What divers doesn't identify with this: Diver doesn’t Understand what Seal wants - Until it Grabs his Hand.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
• 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 - Wed., 5/24 - Night dive at Redondo (6PM - FREE!!)
• DIVE - Sat., 6/3 - 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
————————————————————————————————————————
Now that Chamber Day is behind us . . .
THANK YOU EVERYONE - Although we got off to a slow start, we had a rousing finish. The official announced total at Chamber Eve was $105,825. Not our highest total ever but certainly a very healthy and respectable amount given the state of the economy still these days. (And we crossed my admittedly ego-driven $100K mark.) But this was really a terrific show of support by our diving community for our Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber and the monies raised cover a bit over 50% of our Chamber's annual operating budget. In case you were wondering, we had 122 divers on the boats, 92 people on the Flying Dutchman, 406 people at Chamber Eve for the dinner, 119 people donated to the Chamber Challenge, and there were 91 on-line orders for t-shirts, posters, and raffle tix. On top of that, add in another hundred or so volunteers from the boats and their crews, to our volunteer DMs, our volunteer Chamber crew, and the AOP Dive Team volunteers who help make Chamber Eve such a smooth-running affair. Overall, it's around a thousand people involved in the event in one form or another and that's why - along with the amount of money raised - we say it's the largest single-day scuba charity event in the U.S. and perhaps even the world. So thank you again from the bottom of our heart.
SCUBA SHOW WAS THIS WEEKEND - Hopefully some of you attended. I teamed up again with Captain John Kades from the Coroner's Office and Karl Huggins from our Chamber as we again presented our review of the fatalities from 2016 (there were six - 5 scuba and 1 freediver) in our "Why Divers Die" seminar on Saturday. And we felt that we got some really good questions from the audience. Hopefully this seminar is not a morbid review of things going wrong but really gives you some things to think about when you walk away. This year, as part of analyzing the accidents, we discussed the role solo diving played in some of the fatalities, whether or not e-learning and accelerated training factors in, and we even looked at the details of a recent accident to show that there can be some differences of opinion as to whether something is really a scuba accident or whether it's a natural death that simply happened when someone was going to dive. Speaking for John & Karl, we enjoy sharing the info and hope it causes you think about what your diving practices might be and how you can minimize risk.
DATE CLARIFICATION BUT NOT REALLY A CHANGE - I realized last week that I had been listing the upcoming Redondo night dive as "Thursday, 5/24" when it's really Wednesday, 5/24. So it's not really a change but simply getting the day of the week to match the calendar date.
SHARK EXCITEMENT - Sharks have been in the news lately with a number of juvy Great Whites being spotted off of local waters. (In fact, KNBC-4 tonight was running a story on the sharks with some underwater footage to boot.) This is not unusual, BTW, as juvy Whites have summered here for years. What might be a bit unusual this year are their numbers and that's partly because the ocean waters didn't cool as much as they normally do so some of the batch who were here last summer, who normally would have left in the late fall, may have stayed through the winter and are now swelling the population with new juvies coming in.
SHARK PROBLEMS UP IN THE BAY AREA - There's been a huge die-off of Leopard Sharks and some rays up in the Bay area that's left people there very puzzled. (It seems to be localized to that general area and is not affecting animals this far south.) An interesting theory was raised recently that it's due to a combination of high tides and the amount of rain we've gotten this season. Up in that area, there are things called "tide gates" that are raised during high tides to prevent flooding. But what that also does is trap inside the Bay any animals that hadn't yet passed through the gate. In and of itself, probably not a problem. But, with all the rain we've gotten and the soon-to-be-melting snowpack, one theory is that a lot more toxins and pollutants have washed into the Bay. While the animals could exit the area normally, with the tide gates up, they're trapped inside for longer periods of time and there may be an cumulative exposure to the toxins that then does them in. Not sure any of this has been concretely proven but sounds plausible. And is again an example of unintended consequences where you have man trying to control nature with the tide gates plus a natural cycle of rain, providing potentially a deadly combination for the underwater inhabitants.
SHARKS IN SEPTEMBER - And with all of this talk of sharks, it's another time to remind you we have ONE spot left on our Isla Guadalupe Great White Shark adventure September 1-6. See what the excitement is all about face-to-face from the safety of a shark cage. This will be my fourth time down there and it's definitely a thrill. Something that should be in your bucket list if it's not already. We'll be on the Nautilus Belle Amie, which is not only huge and comfortable, but is also IMHO the best-designed ship for specifically this trip. On top of that, top-notch crew who will really take care of us. So if you're interested, give us a call at 310/652-4990.
HOW ABOUT THOSE SNORKELS? - I asked for your comments and here are a few that were offered:
From Adam Gelbart: "Hi Ken, yes it's true, on most dives you don't need a snorkel and it's a hassle. But on most dives you don't need a safety sausage, a first aid kit, O2, a knife, an octopus reg, a whistle, etc. Like gun people say about firearms, and pilots say about parachutes: it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Just my $00.02."
From Harry O'Neil: "I am in your camp as I carry a snorkel everywhere just in case I need to jump in quickly. But it’s usually in my bag on the boat. For a long time I carried a collapsible snorkel in my BC, but never used it and it became a pain to deal with. No longer carry it. The only reason that I’d considering carrying a snorkel while diving is in the event that I’m left at sea on the surface for a long period of time, i.e. abandoned, and exhaust my tank and perhaps ditch it, the snorkel gives me an easy way to breathe with my head in a more comfortable position. It would also make it easier to breathe in a rough sea state. Those are the reasons that I carried the collapsible snorkel in times past."
Feel free to add to the conversation if you like.
YOUR FEEL-GOOD VIDEO OF THE WEEK - What divers doesn't identify with this: Diver doesn’t Understand what Seal wants - Until it Grabs his Hand.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
