Ken Kurtis
Contributor
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Want to travel??? Upcoming 2016-2017 vacation trips:
• November 2-18 - Maldives on the Manthiri [ 1 FEMALE-SHARE SPOT LEFT ]
• March, 2017 - Bonaire (???)
• June, 2017 - Isla Mujeres (early in the Whale Shark Season)
• 2017 - July 7-19 - Yap Immersion #1 (special 13-day trip featuring all that Yap has to offer) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 5 SPOTS LEFT ]
• 2017 - July 21-August 2 - Yap Immersion #2 (week #2 - same sked as above) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 9 SPOTS LEFT ]
• October or Nov/Dec of 2017 - Ultimate Indonesia - A week at Murex in Manado, 7-10 days in Raja Ampat, 3-4 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:
• October 22 (this coming Saturday) - Avalon Underwater Park (3 dives - include tank rentals) - $150
• October 26 (Wednesday) - Vets Park night dive (single tank) - 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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Go Dodgers . . .
GO DIVING - We're going to Avalon Saturday to dive the UW Park and would love to have you join us. However, we will need to keep an eye on the weather. There's a large system that was hitting the Pacific NW over the weekend (remnants of a Pacific cyclone) and some of that will slide through here Monday morning. Once that part of the system passes, the forecast calls for the winds to shift and come out of the NE (aka "Santa Ana") which means they will blow from the land out to the sea. And while this will warm things during the middle part of the week, it can also cause havoc at Catalina because when the wind blows Santa Ana, it blows right into Avalon which can not only muck up the Park but can also cause waves big enough that we have to shut the place down. So check with me if you're interested in going and let's keep an eye on the weather. They've been having numerous sightings of Black Sea Bass in the Park in the last week or so and hopefully they'll still be hanging around on Saturday. And the wind forecast isn't too strong, so hopefully it may not actually blow all the way out to Catalina. But if you're interested, let me know either by e-mail or with a call to 310/652-4990.
GO TO INDONESIA - I'm working on finalizing our 2017 travel sked and one of the big pieces of that puzzle is starting to come into focus and that's the planned "Ultimate Indonesia" trip. Those of you who already expressed a specific interest will get a more detailed note from me (probably tomorrow) about this but the short version is that we're building this around boat availability and tacking on a week in Manado on the front end and a few days at Lembeh on the back end. This all gives you the most bang for your buck, because this will not be an inexpensive trip. I have two possible itineraries in mind, one in October 2-24 (assuming I have the airline dates right as you can't fly in to all of these places every day of the week) and the other November 20 - December 16. The October plan is 15 days of diving (out of 23 total) and the Nov/Dec one is 19 days of diving out of 27 total. The price difference between the two will probably be around $2,000. In both instances, we'll start with 7 days at Murex in Manado, then fly to Sorong to get on the Raja Ampat Aggressor, and finish up with 3-4 days in the Lembeh Straits. It's going to be a great trip and the most amazing thing about all of this is that I just looked at the airfare from LAX into Manado (this does NOT include Manado-Sorong) and right now, it's coming in under $1,100 on Singapore Air. Normally this airfare runs closer to $2,000 so that can represent a significant savings. Anyhow, I hope to finalize all of this shortly.
SOME PERSPECTIVE ON AIRFARES - I also just checked the LAX-YAP airfare that we'll use for our "Yap Immersion" trips next July. Those are hanging at $2,000. Amazing how you go a shorter distance and pay more but it's also not a competitive route at all, since United has a monopoly on flights once you leave Hawaii.
BRUCE WILL BE YOUR BUDDY IN THE CAGE - You have likely seen this video already but here's the link to the Great White Shark at Guadalupe who got INTO the cage with a diver (diver's OK) and then the shark panicked and finally leapt out of the top: . If you have not seen this yet, rest assured it's pretty intense and also rest assured that the blood you see on the shark when it leaps out of the cage is not from the diver inside. Supposedly the shark was OK (but I'm not sure how they determined that). The boat was the Solmar V and they've already put out a statement (Solmar V releases statement about Great White shark video ::) that essentially congratulates themselves for doing a good job and suggesting a meeting with dive operators to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. I'm not so sure I'm buying the way they're spinning this. (I've been watching too much political stuff lately so I don't trust ANY self-serving statements.) And the caveat here is that I've never dove the Solmar (here or anywhere else). For our Great White trips to Guadalupe, we've always used the boats of the Nautilus Explorer. And one reasons for that is that Mike Lever and his people REALLY seem to be sensitive to the environmental concerns, the idea of not altering natural behavior, and the general well-being of the sharks. I like that. But when I watched the video, it seemed to me like Solmar's intent was to feed the shark directly, not just use the bait to lure/tease him in close. I have also heard over the years that people have said Solmar has a special permit where they can feed sharks directly, which (my understanding is) other boats are prohibited from doing. It also seemed to me and my limited (9 dive days) of viewing these sharks, that the shark was swimming fast but not excessively so. There's no doubt in my mind he was going for the bait nor did it seem to me that they tried to pull it away and he simply got it. When the story really gets a little dicey is that apparently when the shark rammed the cage - and the adults can weigh 2,000 pounds or so - part of the cage broke or came apart and THAT'S how the shark got inside. It was VERY good that the crew guy immediately flipped open the cage top when he realized what was going on and when the shark comes out of the top, it's pretty dramatic to say the least. I'm just hoping that this doesn't cause Mexican authorities to rethink allowing public access at Guadalupe. I'd hate to see what seems to me to be the cavalier actions of on operator negatively impact everyone else as well. I'll be curious to hear how this all plays out.
ENDING ON A QUIETER NOTE - Courtesy of Mark Geraghty, here's a nice National Geographic article on diving in the Gardens of the Queen area in Cuba: Cuba’s Underwater Jewels Are in Tourism’s Path.
That'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon.
- Ken
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2016-2017 vacation trips:
• November 2-18 - Maldives on the Manthiri [ 1 FEMALE-SHARE SPOT LEFT ]
• March, 2017 - Bonaire (???)
• June, 2017 - Isla Mujeres (early in the Whale Shark Season)
• 2017 - July 7-19 - Yap Immersion #1 (special 13-day trip featuring all that Yap has to offer) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 5 SPOTS LEFT ]
• 2017 - July 21-August 2 - Yap Immersion #2 (week #2 - same sked as above) [ LIMITED TO 12 DIVERS - 9 SPOTS LEFT ]
• October or Nov/Dec of 2017 - Ultimate Indonesia - A week at Murex in Manado, 7-10 days in Raja Ampat, 3-4 days in the Lembeh Straits
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
————————————————————————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives:
• October 22 (this coming Saturday) - Avalon Underwater Park (3 dives - include tank rentals) - $150
• October 26 (Wednesday) - Vets Park night dive (single tank) - FREE!!!!
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
————————————————————————————————————————————
Go Dodgers . . .
GO DIVING - We're going to Avalon Saturday to dive the UW Park and would love to have you join us. However, we will need to keep an eye on the weather. There's a large system that was hitting the Pacific NW over the weekend (remnants of a Pacific cyclone) and some of that will slide through here Monday morning. Once that part of the system passes, the forecast calls for the winds to shift and come out of the NE (aka "Santa Ana") which means they will blow from the land out to the sea. And while this will warm things during the middle part of the week, it can also cause havoc at Catalina because when the wind blows Santa Ana, it blows right into Avalon which can not only muck up the Park but can also cause waves big enough that we have to shut the place down. So check with me if you're interested in going and let's keep an eye on the weather. They've been having numerous sightings of Black Sea Bass in the Park in the last week or so and hopefully they'll still be hanging around on Saturday. And the wind forecast isn't too strong, so hopefully it may not actually blow all the way out to Catalina. But if you're interested, let me know either by e-mail or with a call to 310/652-4990.
GO TO INDONESIA - I'm working on finalizing our 2017 travel sked and one of the big pieces of that puzzle is starting to come into focus and that's the planned "Ultimate Indonesia" trip. Those of you who already expressed a specific interest will get a more detailed note from me (probably tomorrow) about this but the short version is that we're building this around boat availability and tacking on a week in Manado on the front end and a few days at Lembeh on the back end. This all gives you the most bang for your buck, because this will not be an inexpensive trip. I have two possible itineraries in mind, one in October 2-24 (assuming I have the airline dates right as you can't fly in to all of these places every day of the week) and the other November 20 - December 16. The October plan is 15 days of diving (out of 23 total) and the Nov/Dec one is 19 days of diving out of 27 total. The price difference between the two will probably be around $2,000. In both instances, we'll start with 7 days at Murex in Manado, then fly to Sorong to get on the Raja Ampat Aggressor, and finish up with 3-4 days in the Lembeh Straits. It's going to be a great trip and the most amazing thing about all of this is that I just looked at the airfare from LAX into Manado (this does NOT include Manado-Sorong) and right now, it's coming in under $1,100 on Singapore Air. Normally this airfare runs closer to $2,000 so that can represent a significant savings. Anyhow, I hope to finalize all of this shortly.
SOME PERSPECTIVE ON AIRFARES - I also just checked the LAX-YAP airfare that we'll use for our "Yap Immersion" trips next July. Those are hanging at $2,000. Amazing how you go a shorter distance and pay more but it's also not a competitive route at all, since United has a monopoly on flights once you leave Hawaii.
BRUCE WILL BE YOUR BUDDY IN THE CAGE - You have likely seen this video already but here's the link to the Great White Shark at Guadalupe who got INTO the cage with a diver (diver's OK) and then the shark panicked and finally leapt out of the top: . If you have not seen this yet, rest assured it's pretty intense and also rest assured that the blood you see on the shark when it leaps out of the cage is not from the diver inside. Supposedly the shark was OK (but I'm not sure how they determined that). The boat was the Solmar V and they've already put out a statement (Solmar V releases statement about Great White shark video ::) that essentially congratulates themselves for doing a good job and suggesting a meeting with dive operators to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. I'm not so sure I'm buying the way they're spinning this. (I've been watching too much political stuff lately so I don't trust ANY self-serving statements.) And the caveat here is that I've never dove the Solmar (here or anywhere else). For our Great White trips to Guadalupe, we've always used the boats of the Nautilus Explorer. And one reasons for that is that Mike Lever and his people REALLY seem to be sensitive to the environmental concerns, the idea of not altering natural behavior, and the general well-being of the sharks. I like that. But when I watched the video, it seemed to me like Solmar's intent was to feed the shark directly, not just use the bait to lure/tease him in close. I have also heard over the years that people have said Solmar has a special permit where they can feed sharks directly, which (my understanding is) other boats are prohibited from doing. It also seemed to me and my limited (9 dive days) of viewing these sharks, that the shark was swimming fast but not excessively so. There's no doubt in my mind he was going for the bait nor did it seem to me that they tried to pull it away and he simply got it. When the story really gets a little dicey is that apparently when the shark rammed the cage - and the adults can weigh 2,000 pounds or so - part of the cage broke or came apart and THAT'S how the shark got inside. It was VERY good that the crew guy immediately flipped open the cage top when he realized what was going on and when the shark comes out of the top, it's pretty dramatic to say the least. I'm just hoping that this doesn't cause Mexican authorities to rethink allowing public access at Guadalupe. I'd hate to see what seems to me to be the cavalier actions of on operator negatively impact everyone else as well. I'll be curious to hear how this all plays out.
ENDING ON A QUIETER NOTE - Courtesy of Mark Geraghty, here's a nice National Geographic article on diving in the Gardens of the Queen area in Cuba: Cuba’s Underwater Jewels Are in Tourism’s Path.
That'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon.
- Ken
