Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2017 vacation trips:
• November 2-12 - Fiji (SE Viti Levu area near Suva) on the Fiji Aggressor [ SOLD OUT!!! ]
• March 24-31, 2018 - 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)
• STILL WORKING ON A COUPLE OF OTHER DATS & DESTINATIONS
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
————————————————————————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives & classes:
• Sat., Oct. 7 - Beach diving & Navigation - Vets Park in Redondo ($25)
• Thu., Oct. 12 - Night dive - Vets Park in Redondo (FREE!!!)
• Wed., Oct. 18 - Photo Workshop - Westwood ($25)
• Sat., Oct. 28 - Catalina Express - Avalon Underwater 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
———————————————————————————————————————————
Gonna make this relatively short since you just got the newsletter last night . . .
ONE FATALITY OPENING WEEKEND - I hate to be the bearer of sad news, but we didn't make it through the lobster opener unscathed. Details are still a little sketchy, and there may be a medical component involved, but the bottom line is that the start of lobster season frequently sees a higher number of problems than other weeks. This can be due to the excitement of the pursuit, or the fact that people haven't been diving in a while and the thrill of the chase has gotten them back into the water. Chamber Director Karl Huggins even went so far as to put the notion that this is a more dangerous time than other times of the year to a statistical test. He took the first two weeks of lobster season each year going back to 2008 and compared it to the other 25 2-week periods over the course of a year. The analysis says that the Chamber sees 1.5 more patients those first two weeks of bug-chasing than at other times during the year. (Bear in mind as well, that there may be other SoCal lobster divers who have a problem, fatal or not, but don't end up at the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber for a variety of reasons.) Bottom line is that safety should always be a priority, but especially so during this time. Karl also posted some links and tips of what you can do to be safer in the water which you can read here: Be Safe Out There - Lobster Season is Almost Here.
BLUE PLANET II IS COMING - And they've got a trailer out that looks pretty good: .
OCTOPUS CITY DISCOVERED - In Australia, they've come across a "city" of octopi that they're called "Octlantis" for want of a better term. 15 of the animals seem to live together in some sort of 8-armed harmony. Read more about it here: Octopus 'City' Found Off the Coast of Australia | Smart News | Smithsonian
LIGHTNING CAN STRIKE TWICE - You have hopefully read either in last weeks TWARS or in the October newsletter about our amazing Black Sea Bass encounter last Saturday in the Underwater Park in Avalon. Anthony Nex, who was part of the group last week group, went again this weekend with his son, who was unable to join us the first time. And he hoped they could replicate our previous success. Here's the e-mail he sent me Sunday afternoon: "Still thinking about the amazing dives last weekend. Griffin was so bummed to miss the sea bass that we can back today. Half the crowd this time, and we headed straight out where we saw the BSB last week. Sure enough, there they were. We approached slowly and they let us hang out with them almost half an hour. 4 big ones, probably the same ones. I felt like Jane Goodall, sitting for hours with chimps. By the 2nd dive one started bumping up against me, like a dog. I didn't move an inch and it just stared at me, less that 2' away. One BSB had what looked like a hook in him and a float the size of a single a battery dangling from it. I shot close ups but didn't feel qualified to help and wasn't positive it wasn't tracking of some sort. It wasn't bothering him and hopefully it won't get infected. Vis wasn't quite as good as last week but it was still really nice. The thermocline was about 8-10' shallower than last week. It's funny, you travel all over the world and find some of the best diving is in your own backyard, where I first snokeled 50 years ago as a little kid. It's a great time of year to dive Catalina." Yes, it is.
BEACH DIVE SATURDAY - Don't forget we have Saturday morning beach dive scheduled for the coming weekend at Redondo's Vets Park starting at 9AM ($25 plus bring quarters for the parking meters). It's a great way for you to hone or develop your beach diving skills. We'll go over general aspects of beach diving, look at good and bad entry techniques, do some practice wetsuit-only entries, and then do a one-tank dive. Should be done by Noon. Call us at 310/652-4990 to sign up.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
• November 2-12 - Fiji (SE Viti Levu area near Suva) on the Fiji Aggressor [ SOLD OUT!!! ]
• March 24-31, 2018 - 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)
• STILL WORKING ON A COUPLE OF OTHER DATS & DESTINATIONS
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
————————————————————————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives & classes:
• Sat., Oct. 7 - Beach diving & Navigation - Vets Park in Redondo ($25)
• Thu., Oct. 12 - Night dive - Vets Park in Redondo (FREE!!!)
• Wed., Oct. 18 - Photo Workshop - Westwood ($25)
• Sat., Oct. 28 - Catalina Express - Avalon Underwater 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
———————————————————————————————————————————
Gonna make this relatively short since you just got the newsletter last night . . .
ONE FATALITY OPENING WEEKEND - I hate to be the bearer of sad news, but we didn't make it through the lobster opener unscathed. Details are still a little sketchy, and there may be a medical component involved, but the bottom line is that the start of lobster season frequently sees a higher number of problems than other weeks. This can be due to the excitement of the pursuit, or the fact that people haven't been diving in a while and the thrill of the chase has gotten them back into the water. Chamber Director Karl Huggins even went so far as to put the notion that this is a more dangerous time than other times of the year to a statistical test. He took the first two weeks of lobster season each year going back to 2008 and compared it to the other 25 2-week periods over the course of a year. The analysis says that the Chamber sees 1.5 more patients those first two weeks of bug-chasing than at other times during the year. (Bear in mind as well, that there may be other SoCal lobster divers who have a problem, fatal or not, but don't end up at the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber for a variety of reasons.) Bottom line is that safety should always be a priority, but especially so during this time. Karl also posted some links and tips of what you can do to be safer in the water which you can read here: Be Safe Out There - Lobster Season is Almost Here.
BLUE PLANET II IS COMING - And they've got a trailer out that looks pretty good: .
OCTOPUS CITY DISCOVERED - In Australia, they've come across a "city" of octopi that they're called "Octlantis" for want of a better term. 15 of the animals seem to live together in some sort of 8-armed harmony. Read more about it here: Octopus 'City' Found Off the Coast of Australia | Smart News | Smithsonian
LIGHTNING CAN STRIKE TWICE - You have hopefully read either in last weeks TWARS or in the October newsletter about our amazing Black Sea Bass encounter last Saturday in the Underwater Park in Avalon. Anthony Nex, who was part of the group last week group, went again this weekend with his son, who was unable to join us the first time. And he hoped they could replicate our previous success. Here's the e-mail he sent me Sunday afternoon: "Still thinking about the amazing dives last weekend. Griffin was so bummed to miss the sea bass that we can back today. Half the crowd this time, and we headed straight out where we saw the BSB last week. Sure enough, there they were. We approached slowly and they let us hang out with them almost half an hour. 4 big ones, probably the same ones. I felt like Jane Goodall, sitting for hours with chimps. By the 2nd dive one started bumping up against me, like a dog. I didn't move an inch and it just stared at me, less that 2' away. One BSB had what looked like a hook in him and a float the size of a single a battery dangling from it. I shot close ups but didn't feel qualified to help and wasn't positive it wasn't tracking of some sort. It wasn't bothering him and hopefully it won't get infected. Vis wasn't quite as good as last week but it was still really nice. The thermocline was about 8-10' shallower than last week. It's funny, you travel all over the world and find some of the best diving is in your own backyard, where I first snokeled 50 years ago as a little kid. It's a great time of year to dive Catalina." Yes, it is.
BEACH DIVE SATURDAY - Don't forget we have Saturday morning beach dive scheduled for the coming weekend at Redondo's Vets Park starting at 9AM ($25 plus bring quarters for the parking meters). It's a great way for you to hone or develop your beach diving skills. We'll go over general aspects of beach diving, look at good and bad entry techniques, do some practice wetsuit-only entries, and then do a one-tank dive. Should be done by Noon. Call us at 310/652-4990 to sign up.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
