Ken Kurtis
Contributor
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Want to travel??? Upcoming 2017 vacation trips:
• March 18-25 - Bonaire
• June 10-17 - Isla Mujeres (early in the Whale Shark Season)
• July 7-19 - Yap Immersion #1 (special 13-day trip featuring all that Yap has to offer) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 2 SPOTS LEFT ]
• July 21-August 2 - Yap Immersion #2 (week #2 - same sked as above) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 7 SPOTS LEFT ]
• September 1-6 - Great White Sharks of Guadalupe on the Nautilus Belle Amie
• Nov. 20 - Dec. 16 (dates can be trimmed) - Ultimate Indonesia (A week at Murex in Manado, 10 days in Raja Ampat on the Aggressor, 4 days in the Lembeh Straits)
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
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Upcoming local dives:
• December - TBA
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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Lovely drops coming from the sky . . .
BACK FROM THE MALDIVES - The short version (I'm working on the longer version) is that we had a wonderful trip to the Maldives, diving with our friends aboard the Manthiri. Over the course of nine days, we got in 27 dives, and that even included a day when the dhoni (which is the actual dive boat) broke down. We had Mantas, a Whale Shark, Nurse Sharks (at night no less), a fabulous baitball of Silversides that encompassed us fully (and stunk things up when they got lodged in our gear overnight and died), massive schools of Anthias, Snapper, and Jacks, plenty of sharks, a few Leaf Scorpionfish & Bearded Scorpionfish, and a whole lot more. The Maldives has very healthy reefs and one reason for that is that they don't do any fishing of their reef fish. Most of the fish they eat - and fish is a main staple of their diet - are things like Wahoo and tuna, which they catch offshore, not on the reefs. Because they don't fish for things like Parrotfish or Snappers, these populations are abundant on the local reefs. Corals are very healthy too although mostly what you see are hard corals, with only a few soft corals. That's a bit surprising given that the Maldives can have currents but, by the same token, sometimes those currents can be ripping, so may not be conductive to soft coral survival. But we had a really great time and will detail as much of this as we can in the trip report. In the meantime, here are 20 pix (including one of the Manthiri) to give you some idea of what we observed: Maldives 2016 teaser (20 pix) - kenkurtis.
INTRIGUING ISTANBUL - At the end of the trip, since we had to fly back through Istanbul anyhow, we stopped for a 3-day tour of that city. pretty amazing, especially when you realize the rich history it has, going back to the Roman Empire. (There's even a small section of the Roman Aqueduct still standing which I thought was really impressive.) We toured some of the 2,047 mosques they have there including the Blue Mosque and Ayasofya, went to the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar, and had a lovely cruise up and down the Bosphorus where we got on in Europe and disembarked in Asia since Istanbul straddles both continents and the Bosphorus separates the two. Here's a little taste of what we saw:
TRAVEL WARNING - We knew going in that there was a travel warning from the State Department because of the July attack on the Istanbul Airport as well as the fact that Turkey borders on Syria to the south (about 550 miles from Istanbul, or about the same as from L.A. to Salt Lake City). On the one hand, we knew we weren't going into a war zone but that we were going to visit a thriving city of 14 million, which is roughly the population of the Los Angeles metro area. By the same token, you can't just dismiss this stuff out-of-hand. But we can honestly say that the entire time we were there, we didn't feel any tension or danger, nor did we notice any ramped-up police or military presence. What puts it all in perspective is that post-election, apparently (according to our guide), the Turkish government issued a travel warning of its own, advising against travel to the U.S. because of the many anti-Trump demonstrations and the possibility that a Turkish citizen could stumble on to one of them and get caught between protesters and the police and get shot. And while we might consider that to be a preposterous position for their government to take, our impression was that they feel the same way about State's travel warning. It's all a matter of perspective and I did hear someone at the airport discussing it by saying, "It's like saying someone was shot in Chicago so you shouldn't go to America because everyone is getting shot." It's hard to know what level of concern or veracity to assign to these things, but any time you're traveling, you should be ware of what the political climate is.
READY TO RESPOND - I'll probably talk about it more in the trip report &/or newsletter but we had an incident that was solved routinely but which could have been tragic on the trip, and it underscores the need for all divers to be ready to respond at a moment's notice to something that might go wrong. We were doing a dusk/night dive at Shark Circus, where each evening 40-50 Nurse Sharks, each 8-10' long, are cruising about the reef looking for a snack. Really cool dive. But just partway into it, I heard a BANG!!! underwater and looked over to see that the low-pressure regulator of one of our divers had seemingly blown. The hose was whipping about wildly, spewing air quickly, and he was there with a second stage in his mouth but nothing supplying it. I quickly grabbed my octo and swam over to him, handed it him (he was still very calm) and he put it in his mouth. That was the key move because now that he had air again, we could either abort the dive (which was my original thought) or solve the problem. But there was still the whipping hose to deal with. I managed to grab it and hold it steady, and then reached over to turn off the tank air. At that point, we realized that his hose hadn't blown, but that a second stage regulator swivel - which screws on the hose and then screws into the reg second stage - had loosened, had come unscrewed, and suddenly detached from the hose (which caused the BANG!!!). He was able (while still on my octo) to screw it back together and reassemble it, I turned the air back on, checked his pressure (he'd lost maybe 500psi), and we were good to go again. But this underscores a number of things that people are sometimes too sanguine about: (1) Know your gear, (2) Check out said gear before each dive (or at least each dive day) to make sure it's all working correctly, and (3) Be ready to respond to any diver, not just your own buddy, if something should go wrong. And the way you do #3 is to practice/practice/practice so your reaction is instinctual. As an instructor, I'm used to drilling with students and as a dive Team Leader at the Aquarium of the Pacific, we do rescue drills regularly. And I really do do a mental checklist every time I go dive and sort of say to myself, "If something goes wrong with someone else, how can I get them air? If something goes wrong with me, who can I get air from?" Hopefully you'll never need to use these skills but in the event you do, it can literally mean the difference between life and death.
THANKSGIVING THIS THURSDAY - It's definitely a short week this week with Thanksgiving on Thursday and Black Friday on Saturday. But also don't forget about Small Business Saturday which is a time to support your local small businesses, like dive shops. Many shops will be having specials this weekend so be sure to go give them a visit. Since the time we closed (almost 10 years ago - hard to believe), we'd recommend you go to any of these retailers with whom we still work closely and who we feel will take good care of you (in alphabetical order): Hollywood Divers (near Universal), Malibu Divers (Malibu), Ocean Adventures (Marina del Rey), or Scuba Haus (Santa Monica). And if you're looking for something to do Thursday to get out of the house while cooking is going on, come give us a visit at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It's not only my personal day there (every Thursday in fact), but if you need to get away from the kitchen or have children you're trying to amuse or relatives out of town, it's a great place to spend the morning and early afternoon until it's time to feast. And if you do come, try to catch the two morning dive feeds at 10:30 (Tropical Reef) and 11:15 (Blue Cavern).
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week as well as Turkey Day and let's go diving soon.
- Ken
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2017 vacation trips:
• March 18-25 - Bonaire
• June 10-17 - Isla Mujeres (early in the Whale Shark Season)
• July 7-19 - Yap Immersion #1 (special 13-day trip featuring all that Yap has to offer) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 2 SPOTS LEFT ]
• July 21-August 2 - Yap Immersion #2 (week #2 - same sked as above) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 7 SPOTS LEFT ]
• September 1-6 - Great White Sharks of Guadalupe on the Nautilus Belle Amie
• Nov. 20 - Dec. 16 (dates can be trimmed) - Ultimate Indonesia (A week at Murex in Manado, 10 days in Raja Ampat on the Aggressor, 4 days in the Lembeh Straits)
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives:
• December - TBA
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Lovely drops coming from the sky . . .
BACK FROM THE MALDIVES - The short version (I'm working on the longer version) is that we had a wonderful trip to the Maldives, diving with our friends aboard the Manthiri. Over the course of nine days, we got in 27 dives, and that even included a day when the dhoni (which is the actual dive boat) broke down. We had Mantas, a Whale Shark, Nurse Sharks (at night no less), a fabulous baitball of Silversides that encompassed us fully (and stunk things up when they got lodged in our gear overnight and died), massive schools of Anthias, Snapper, and Jacks, plenty of sharks, a few Leaf Scorpionfish & Bearded Scorpionfish, and a whole lot more. The Maldives has very healthy reefs and one reason for that is that they don't do any fishing of their reef fish. Most of the fish they eat - and fish is a main staple of their diet - are things like Wahoo and tuna, which they catch offshore, not on the reefs. Because they don't fish for things like Parrotfish or Snappers, these populations are abundant on the local reefs. Corals are very healthy too although mostly what you see are hard corals, with only a few soft corals. That's a bit surprising given that the Maldives can have currents but, by the same token, sometimes those currents can be ripping, so may not be conductive to soft coral survival. But we had a really great time and will detail as much of this as we can in the trip report. In the meantime, here are 20 pix (including one of the Manthiri) to give you some idea of what we observed: Maldives 2016 teaser (20 pix) - kenkurtis.
INTRIGUING ISTANBUL - At the end of the trip, since we had to fly back through Istanbul anyhow, we stopped for a 3-day tour of that city. pretty amazing, especially when you realize the rich history it has, going back to the Roman Empire. (There's even a small section of the Roman Aqueduct still standing which I thought was really impressive.) We toured some of the 2,047 mosques they have there including the Blue Mosque and Ayasofya, went to the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar, and had a lovely cruise up and down the Bosphorus where we got on in Europe and disembarked in Asia since Istanbul straddles both continents and the Bosphorus separates the two. Here's a little taste of what we saw:
TRAVEL WARNING - We knew going in that there was a travel warning from the State Department because of the July attack on the Istanbul Airport as well as the fact that Turkey borders on Syria to the south (about 550 miles from Istanbul, or about the same as from L.A. to Salt Lake City). On the one hand, we knew we weren't going into a war zone but that we were going to visit a thriving city of 14 million, which is roughly the population of the Los Angeles metro area. By the same token, you can't just dismiss this stuff out-of-hand. But we can honestly say that the entire time we were there, we didn't feel any tension or danger, nor did we notice any ramped-up police or military presence. What puts it all in perspective is that post-election, apparently (according to our guide), the Turkish government issued a travel warning of its own, advising against travel to the U.S. because of the many anti-Trump demonstrations and the possibility that a Turkish citizen could stumble on to one of them and get caught between protesters and the police and get shot. And while we might consider that to be a preposterous position for their government to take, our impression was that they feel the same way about State's travel warning. It's all a matter of perspective and I did hear someone at the airport discussing it by saying, "It's like saying someone was shot in Chicago so you shouldn't go to America because everyone is getting shot." It's hard to know what level of concern or veracity to assign to these things, but any time you're traveling, you should be ware of what the political climate is.
READY TO RESPOND - I'll probably talk about it more in the trip report &/or newsletter but we had an incident that was solved routinely but which could have been tragic on the trip, and it underscores the need for all divers to be ready to respond at a moment's notice to something that might go wrong. We were doing a dusk/night dive at Shark Circus, where each evening 40-50 Nurse Sharks, each 8-10' long, are cruising about the reef looking for a snack. Really cool dive. But just partway into it, I heard a BANG!!! underwater and looked over to see that the low-pressure regulator of one of our divers had seemingly blown. The hose was whipping about wildly, spewing air quickly, and he was there with a second stage in his mouth but nothing supplying it. I quickly grabbed my octo and swam over to him, handed it him (he was still very calm) and he put it in his mouth. That was the key move because now that he had air again, we could either abort the dive (which was my original thought) or solve the problem. But there was still the whipping hose to deal with. I managed to grab it and hold it steady, and then reached over to turn off the tank air. At that point, we realized that his hose hadn't blown, but that a second stage regulator swivel - which screws on the hose and then screws into the reg second stage - had loosened, had come unscrewed, and suddenly detached from the hose (which caused the BANG!!!). He was able (while still on my octo) to screw it back together and reassemble it, I turned the air back on, checked his pressure (he'd lost maybe 500psi), and we were good to go again. But this underscores a number of things that people are sometimes too sanguine about: (1) Know your gear, (2) Check out said gear before each dive (or at least each dive day) to make sure it's all working correctly, and (3) Be ready to respond to any diver, not just your own buddy, if something should go wrong. And the way you do #3 is to practice/practice/practice so your reaction is instinctual. As an instructor, I'm used to drilling with students and as a dive Team Leader at the Aquarium of the Pacific, we do rescue drills regularly. And I really do do a mental checklist every time I go dive and sort of say to myself, "If something goes wrong with someone else, how can I get them air? If something goes wrong with me, who can I get air from?" Hopefully you'll never need to use these skills but in the event you do, it can literally mean the difference between life and death.
THANKSGIVING THIS THURSDAY - It's definitely a short week this week with Thanksgiving on Thursday and Black Friday on Saturday. But also don't forget about Small Business Saturday which is a time to support your local small businesses, like dive shops. Many shops will be having specials this weekend so be sure to go give them a visit. Since the time we closed (almost 10 years ago - hard to believe), we'd recommend you go to any of these retailers with whom we still work closely and who we feel will take good care of you (in alphabetical order): Hollywood Divers (near Universal), Malibu Divers (Malibu), Ocean Adventures (Marina del Rey), or Scuba Haus (Santa Monica). And if you're looking for something to do Thursday to get out of the house while cooking is going on, come give us a visit at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It's not only my personal day there (every Thursday in fact), but if you need to get away from the kitchen or have children you're trying to amuse or relatives out of town, it's a great place to spend the morning and early afternoon until it's time to feast. And if you do come, try to catch the two morning dive feeds at 10:30 (Tropical Reef) and 11:15 (Blue Cavern).
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week as well as Turkey Day and let's go diving soon.
- Ken
