Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Election, Cousteau plaque, wind, and more
(please scroll down for details)
Whew . . . !!!
TIME TO MOVE FORWARD - It was "The Election That Wouldn't End." Those of you who will recall that I'm from Delaware (let alone my political leaning) will know that I'm happy that the election is over and happy with the Presidential outcome. The nice thing about living in a small state like Delaware is that just about everybody meets their elected officials. So we've known Joe Biden for quite some time and I'm very hopeful that his demeanor and outlook are exactly what this country needs to start healing the divisions that plague our nation and society. And just from an ocean standpoint, I think we'll now have someone who is much more attuned to climate change and environmental needs which, strictly from a diving perspective, should benefit us all in the long run.
TIME TO UPDATE THE JACQUES COUSTEAU PLAQUE - Another big change this week involved the Jacques Cousteau plaque in the Avalon Underwater Park. The Cousteau Monument was originally created and installed in the Park in 1997, shortly after Cousteau died. As many of you have seen when you've been diving the Park, the monument consists of a plaque - which we now know was aluminum - placed on a large rock. (The rock was originally upright but eventually tipped over.) But 23 years underwater takes its toll, as you can see from the picture below. On the left is what the plaque looked like in 1997 and on the right, what it looks like today.
So, "we" decided it was time for a change. I have been thinking about this for quite some time and contacted someone I know in DF&W - since the Park is an MPA, it's under their jurisdiction - and got permission to proceed. As fate would have it, I mentioned this casually to Dr. Bill one day and he said, "There's another group working on that too." So he put me in touch with Signature Underwater Divers. I had permission but no know-how. They had the know-how - a bunch of them are underwater mechanics - but didn't know how to get permission. Once we merged efforts, we were able to get things going in relatively short order. In fact, it was two months from when we first discussed this to when we actually installed the new bronze plaque last Wednesday. Here's what it looks like and - we might modestly say - we think it's a nice improvement. We kept the wording of the original plaque (although we corrected two grammatical errors) and added a picture of Cousteau, which we hope personalizes it a bit more:
This absolutely couldn't have been accomplished without the help of the Signature folks (they're the dive club affiliated with Signature Scuba in Rancho Cucamonga) and we are happy to make it a joint effort and our collective collaboration and donation to the diving community. I've put together a 4-minute video (with music of course) of the process if you'd like to see what it took to get this done. It's a little more complicated than glue-and-go: COUSTEAU PLAQUE INSTALLATION.
TOO MUCH WIND - The weekend wind has also forced us to cancel our Monday (11/9) trip back to the Park. 10-foot seas Saturday, 7-8 foot Sunday, "subsiding" to 3-5 on Monday. Doesn't sound too pleasant. Plus, on Wednesday when we did the plaque installation, viz was pretty bad and these conditions certainly won't make that any better. So since "enjoyable" is part of the formula we use to decide go/no-go, we're staying home. Now, we might postpone to either 11/16 or 11/23 (or just wait until our December trip) but if anyone's interested in an alternate date, lemme know.
NIGHT DIVE IS OUT TOO - We also have a night dive on the books for this coming Thursday but from the way Redondo has looked all weekend, that's a no-go as well.
On that note, we'll give it a rest. Hopefully as election turmoil settles down, regardless of who you wanted to win, we can remember that we're all AMERICANS first and partisans second and that when we all come together for the greater good, wonderful things happen.
Have a great week, wear your mask, and let's go diving . . . maybe NEXT week.
- Ken
(please scroll down for details)
Whew . . . !!!
TIME TO MOVE FORWARD - It was "The Election That Wouldn't End." Those of you who will recall that I'm from Delaware (let alone my political leaning) will know that I'm happy that the election is over and happy with the Presidential outcome. The nice thing about living in a small state like Delaware is that just about everybody meets their elected officials. So we've known Joe Biden for quite some time and I'm very hopeful that his demeanor and outlook are exactly what this country needs to start healing the divisions that plague our nation and society. And just from an ocean standpoint, I think we'll now have someone who is much more attuned to climate change and environmental needs which, strictly from a diving perspective, should benefit us all in the long run.
TIME TO UPDATE THE JACQUES COUSTEAU PLAQUE - Another big change this week involved the Jacques Cousteau plaque in the Avalon Underwater Park. The Cousteau Monument was originally created and installed in the Park in 1997, shortly after Cousteau died. As many of you have seen when you've been diving the Park, the monument consists of a plaque - which we now know was aluminum - placed on a large rock. (The rock was originally upright but eventually tipped over.) But 23 years underwater takes its toll, as you can see from the picture below. On the left is what the plaque looked like in 1997 and on the right, what it looks like today.
So, "we" decided it was time for a change. I have been thinking about this for quite some time and contacted someone I know in DF&W - since the Park is an MPA, it's under their jurisdiction - and got permission to proceed. As fate would have it, I mentioned this casually to Dr. Bill one day and he said, "There's another group working on that too." So he put me in touch with Signature Underwater Divers. I had permission but no know-how. They had the know-how - a bunch of them are underwater mechanics - but didn't know how to get permission. Once we merged efforts, we were able to get things going in relatively short order. In fact, it was two months from when we first discussed this to when we actually installed the new bronze plaque last Wednesday. Here's what it looks like and - we might modestly say - we think it's a nice improvement. We kept the wording of the original plaque (although we corrected two grammatical errors) and added a picture of Cousteau, which we hope personalizes it a bit more:
This absolutely couldn't have been accomplished without the help of the Signature folks (they're the dive club affiliated with Signature Scuba in Rancho Cucamonga) and we are happy to make it a joint effort and our collective collaboration and donation to the diving community. I've put together a 4-minute video (with music of course) of the process if you'd like to see what it took to get this done. It's a little more complicated than glue-and-go: COUSTEAU PLAQUE INSTALLATION.
TOO MUCH WIND - The weekend wind has also forced us to cancel our Monday (11/9) trip back to the Park. 10-foot seas Saturday, 7-8 foot Sunday, "subsiding" to 3-5 on Monday. Doesn't sound too pleasant. Plus, on Wednesday when we did the plaque installation, viz was pretty bad and these conditions certainly won't make that any better. So since "enjoyable" is part of the formula we use to decide go/no-go, we're staying home. Now, we might postpone to either 11/16 or 11/23 (or just wait until our December trip) but if anyone's interested in an alternate date, lemme know.
NIGHT DIVE IS OUT TOO - We also have a night dive on the books for this coming Thursday but from the way Redondo has looked all weekend, that's a no-go as well.
On that note, we'll give it a rest. Hopefully as election turmoil settles down, regardless of who you wanted to win, we can remember that we're all AMERICANS first and partisans second and that when we all come together for the greater good, wonderful things happen.
Have a great week, wear your mask, and let's go diving . . . maybe NEXT week.
- Ken
