Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2018 vacation trips:
• March 24-31 (DATES MIGHT CHANGE) - Bonaire (Buddy Dive)
• June 8-20 - Yap Immersion (same 10-day format we did this year)
• July 14-28 - Sulawesi, Indonesia with our friends at Murex (includes a day at Lembeh Straits)
• August 18-25 - Isla Mujeres (Whale Sharks, Cancun Underwater Museum, Cenotes)
• October 27 - November 3 - Roatan at Anthony's Key
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: Foreign Trips
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Upcoming local dives & classes:
• Tues., Nov. 28 - Night dive (Squid???) - Redondo, Veterans Park (FREE!!!)
• Sat., Dec. 9 - Catalina Express - Avalon Underwater Park, maybe more BSBs ($150)
• Wed. Dec. 13 - (CLASS) Fish ID - Reef Seekers West(wood) ($25)
• Thu., Dec. 28 - Night dive (Squid???) - Redondo, Veterans Park (FREE!!!)
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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That was one heck of a heat wave . . .
RECORD TEMPS - It was the warmest L.A. Thanksgiving ever recorded. I guess the joke would be that it was so warm, if you left your turkey out, it didn't get cold. Hopefully you had a good holiday, didn't go too nuts on Black Friday, supported your local dive shop on Small Business Saturday, and are now prepping for Cyber Monday.
DEALS ALL OVER - There are certainly deals to be had and it's worth your while to check out (and buy from) your favorite dive shop. I'm on a number of e-mail lists so have gotten all kinds of specials and holiday sales offers. One that blew my mind and was severely tempting came from Samy's Camera in the form of a Nikon D750 with a 24-120mm lens. This is the camera I shoot with (I've already flooded one as you may recall so it's tempting to have a backup - plus it's a REALLY great camera) and the lens would be nice for topside but has no underwater application. Normally, the camera body alone is $2,500. The lens is another $1,000-ish. The suggested full retail on them is just under $3,500. But the offer of the two together - along with a multi-power pack, extra battery, 64GB fast card, and a camera bag (and who knows how much this adds) - is $1,996.95. You save almost $1,500 plus get all the other stuff thrown in. Now I'm not mentioning this to shill for Samy's or Nikon but to point out that there are some really seriously deeply-discounted deals out there, including on scuba gear that you may want, but you're going to have to keep your eyes open and be aware. And make sure you read the fine print because some of these deals might be good until the end of the year but some may also be for a limited time or on-line only or whatever. But the savings exist if you want to go find them.
BONAIRE TRIP MAY SHIFT - For a number of reasons, we may be moving the Bonaire trip from late March to mid-April. One big advantage of doing this is that the airfare DROPS (how often do you get to say that nowadays) by close to $1,000. Perhaps a more realistic way in looking at it is that United (and other carriers) are taking advantage of high demand during Spring Break and Easter (which is when our original trip dates fall) and are jacking prices up. It's truly nuts to think that a ticket to Bonaire, which last year was going for around $800, is the same as a ticket to Yap. By shifting our dates (we're looking at April 14-21) we can save money on the airfare, Buddy Dive and Bonaire in general will be a little less crowded, and we don't have to overnight in Newark on the way back. So if you were giving any thought to Bonaire be aware of the potential date shift and if you wanted to go but couldn't do our original dates, perhaps these will work better for you. Feel free to give us a call at 310/652-4990 and we can chat.
POTENTIAL FOR A GUADALUPE TRIP - I don't have Guadalupe officially on the sked . . . yet . . . but can add a trip. September is what appears to work best from my standpoint. But I want to get bodies-in-hand first. (FYI, that's not an Al Franken joke.) Because of the nature and cost of the trip, I'd like to get people ready to go and then we'll nail down the specifics. A number of you have inquired about doing this trip in 2018 so what I'd ask you to do is get in touch with me again (phone or e-mail) and give me some general dates that work for you and we'll see if we can make this all come together. I can certainly book you as an individual if that's what you like but it's always more fun (I think) as a group. Also remember that Nautilus Explorer will allow non-divers to go into the surface cages and breathe off of hookah, so this is NOT a trip that's strictly limited to certified divers. In fact, on each of the four trips out to Guadalupe that I've done, there have generally been four or five non-divers on each one. (The allure of going nose-to-nose with a Great White is pretty strong.) So if you're interested, let me know.
OUR LOCAL BIG GUYS - They're not as big as a 15-foot Great White, but the Black Sea Bass in Avalon are in the 5-6 foot range and that's still pretty impressive underwater. We're going back again on December 9 to see if we can find them in the Underwater Park. Since their presence is generally considered to be somewhat seasonal, this may be one of the last opportunities to observe them up close for a while. We'll be taking the Catalina Express out of San Pedro around 9AM (a civilized hour), do three dives in the Park, and then take the late afternoon ferry back. $150 covers you for everything including tanks (but you gotta bring your own weights). If you're interested, give us a call at 310/652-4990 and get signed up.
LOCAL TRIPS & CLASSES FOR 2018 - I've actually started working on this sked for next year and have the preliminary stuff up on the Reef Seekers website (www.reefseekers.com). The short version is that I'm going to try to offer Avalon day trips each month (usually on a Saturday), daytime Beach Dives every other month, night beach dives (sometimes looking for squid) most months but on Thursdays now instead of Wednesdays, and some sort of a non-OW class (Fish ID, Navigation, Photo Workshop, or Nitrox) every six weeks or so, also on Thursdays. Generally I can do a class or dive with only a few people and obviously some of this will change based on foreign trips/vacations and my personal schedule. But it's there if you want to take a peek and I'll likely have it in a full-page form with the December newsletter, suitable for tacking up on your bulletin board or refrigerator for future reference. And I'm also happy to book one of our local charter boats for a single-day boat dive in 2018 (Oil Rigs or maybe Outer Islands) if there's enough interest.
And on that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
• March 24-31 (DATES MIGHT CHANGE) - Bonaire (Buddy Dive)
• June 8-20 - Yap Immersion (same 10-day format we did this year)
• July 14-28 - Sulawesi, Indonesia with our friends at Murex (includes a day at Lembeh Straits)
• August 18-25 - Isla Mujeres (Whale Sharks, Cancun Underwater Museum, Cenotes)
• October 27 - November 3 - Roatan at Anthony's Key
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: Foreign Trips
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives & classes:
• Tues., Nov. 28 - Night dive (Squid???) - Redondo, Veterans Park (FREE!!!)
• Sat., Dec. 9 - Catalina Express - Avalon Underwater Park, maybe more BSBs ($150)
• Wed. Dec. 13 - (CLASS) Fish ID - Reef Seekers West(wood) ($25)
• Thu., Dec. 28 - Night dive (Squid???) - Redondo, Veterans Park (FREE!!!)
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
—————————————————————————————————————————————
That was one heck of a heat wave . . .
RECORD TEMPS - It was the warmest L.A. Thanksgiving ever recorded. I guess the joke would be that it was so warm, if you left your turkey out, it didn't get cold. Hopefully you had a good holiday, didn't go too nuts on Black Friday, supported your local dive shop on Small Business Saturday, and are now prepping for Cyber Monday.
DEALS ALL OVER - There are certainly deals to be had and it's worth your while to check out (and buy from) your favorite dive shop. I'm on a number of e-mail lists so have gotten all kinds of specials and holiday sales offers. One that blew my mind and was severely tempting came from Samy's Camera in the form of a Nikon D750 with a 24-120mm lens. This is the camera I shoot with (I've already flooded one as you may recall so it's tempting to have a backup - plus it's a REALLY great camera) and the lens would be nice for topside but has no underwater application. Normally, the camera body alone is $2,500. The lens is another $1,000-ish. The suggested full retail on them is just under $3,500. But the offer of the two together - along with a multi-power pack, extra battery, 64GB fast card, and a camera bag (and who knows how much this adds) - is $1,996.95. You save almost $1,500 plus get all the other stuff thrown in. Now I'm not mentioning this to shill for Samy's or Nikon but to point out that there are some really seriously deeply-discounted deals out there, including on scuba gear that you may want, but you're going to have to keep your eyes open and be aware. And make sure you read the fine print because some of these deals might be good until the end of the year but some may also be for a limited time or on-line only or whatever. But the savings exist if you want to go find them.
BONAIRE TRIP MAY SHIFT - For a number of reasons, we may be moving the Bonaire trip from late March to mid-April. One big advantage of doing this is that the airfare DROPS (how often do you get to say that nowadays) by close to $1,000. Perhaps a more realistic way in looking at it is that United (and other carriers) are taking advantage of high demand during Spring Break and Easter (which is when our original trip dates fall) and are jacking prices up. It's truly nuts to think that a ticket to Bonaire, which last year was going for around $800, is the same as a ticket to Yap. By shifting our dates (we're looking at April 14-21) we can save money on the airfare, Buddy Dive and Bonaire in general will be a little less crowded, and we don't have to overnight in Newark on the way back. So if you were giving any thought to Bonaire be aware of the potential date shift and if you wanted to go but couldn't do our original dates, perhaps these will work better for you. Feel free to give us a call at 310/652-4990 and we can chat.
POTENTIAL FOR A GUADALUPE TRIP - I don't have Guadalupe officially on the sked . . . yet . . . but can add a trip. September is what appears to work best from my standpoint. But I want to get bodies-in-hand first. (FYI, that's not an Al Franken joke.) Because of the nature and cost of the trip, I'd like to get people ready to go and then we'll nail down the specifics. A number of you have inquired about doing this trip in 2018 so what I'd ask you to do is get in touch with me again (phone or e-mail) and give me some general dates that work for you and we'll see if we can make this all come together. I can certainly book you as an individual if that's what you like but it's always more fun (I think) as a group. Also remember that Nautilus Explorer will allow non-divers to go into the surface cages and breathe off of hookah, so this is NOT a trip that's strictly limited to certified divers. In fact, on each of the four trips out to Guadalupe that I've done, there have generally been four or five non-divers on each one. (The allure of going nose-to-nose with a Great White is pretty strong.) So if you're interested, let me know.
OUR LOCAL BIG GUYS - They're not as big as a 15-foot Great White, but the Black Sea Bass in Avalon are in the 5-6 foot range and that's still pretty impressive underwater. We're going back again on December 9 to see if we can find them in the Underwater Park. Since their presence is generally considered to be somewhat seasonal, this may be one of the last opportunities to observe them up close for a while. We'll be taking the Catalina Express out of San Pedro around 9AM (a civilized hour), do three dives in the Park, and then take the late afternoon ferry back. $150 covers you for everything including tanks (but you gotta bring your own weights). If you're interested, give us a call at 310/652-4990 and get signed up.
LOCAL TRIPS & CLASSES FOR 2018 - I've actually started working on this sked for next year and have the preliminary stuff up on the Reef Seekers website (www.reefseekers.com). The short version is that I'm going to try to offer Avalon day trips each month (usually on a Saturday), daytime Beach Dives every other month, night beach dives (sometimes looking for squid) most months but on Thursdays now instead of Wednesdays, and some sort of a non-OW class (Fish ID, Navigation, Photo Workshop, or Nitrox) every six weeks or so, also on Thursdays. Generally I can do a class or dive with only a few people and obviously some of this will change based on foreign trips/vacations and my personal schedule. But it's there if you want to take a peek and I'll likely have it in a full-page form with the December newsletter, suitable for tacking up on your bulletin board or refrigerator for future reference. And I'm also happy to book one of our local charter boats for a single-day boat dive in 2018 (Oil Rigs or maybe Outer Islands) if there's enough interest.
And on that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
