Ken Kurtis
Contributor
From GO DODGERS to OH NO DODGERS (so near, yet so far) . . .
LOBSTER OPENER REPORT - Well, it looks like we made it through the first week of lobster season with the only victims being lobsters. Whew!!! Traditionally - and this is one time we're happy to break with tradition - we see one or two fatalities in the first week. Not so this year, so congrats and kudos to all of you safe divers out there. And let's keep up the good work. There was an accident on the opening day but I wouldn't call this a lobster season accident in the way we normally would. Down in the San Diego area about an hour after the start of lobster season, a young man was bitten by a large shark while free-diving for lobsters. And while some have called this a lobster season accident, it's not in the way we normally think about it. Normally, when we talk of accidents of this nature, we're referring to some aspect of diver error factoring in. This could be out-of-air, entanglement, etc. And lobsters are generally not on a shark's palette, although sea lions are. My presumption is that this wetsuit-clad lad resembled a sea lion to the shark, and that's why he got bitten. Wrong place, wrong time. (I also haven't seen anything one way or the other to indicate that the kid was even carrying any caught lobsters at the time of the bite.) The good news is that, even though his bites were severe and potentially life-threatening, quick action by bystanders got him to shore and medical attention at a San Diego hospital did the rest. He's been released as of this writing and is expected to make a full recovery.
SULAWESI EARTHQUAKE & TSUNAMI REPORT - Many of you have written to ask is our friends at Murex in Manado were affected by the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi, Indonesia, the other week. Fortunately, they were not. They released a statement that includes a map showing where they are in relation to the most-affected areas of Palu (not to be confused with Palau) as well as some suggestions as to how you can help if you'd like to. You can read their statement here:Sulawesi Tsunami, News and Latest Update - Murex Dive Resorts
HOW ABOUT AVALON THIS SATURDAY? - This coming Saturday, we'll make another one of our one-day forays over to dive the Avalon Underwater Park. We'll once again leave out of San Pedro on the 8AM Catalina Express boat and leave Avalon at 5:30PM. This gives us plenty of time to do three dives and take a nice break for lunch. And the extended weather forecast is looking very good, with a sunny day and a high of 79º as the prediction. So if you're looking to get out and go dive, come join us!!! The Giant Sea Bass are still around, the water's warm, and the viz was pretty good a week ago so you never know. Either e-mail us here or call us at 310/652-4990 to get signed up.
BY THE ROCKET'S RED GLARE - I'm not going to win any photo contests with this but I was able to take a break at 7:21PM this evening (Sunday) to go up to our rooftop and could see the launch of the Space-X rocket from Vandenberg. I'm a space nut from way back when. When I was a kid, I used to wake up in the middle of the night and turn on the (black-and-white) TV to watch the Ranger probes smash into the moon. In 1973 when I was working in Florida, I got press passes to be at Kennedy for one of the Skylab crew launches. So this was right up my alley. For those photographically-inclined, this was shot hand-held, 70mm lens, 1/4 sec exposure @ f4.5, ISO-6400.
BEWARE THE KRAKEN - Thanks to Gina Lee-Lua for turning me on to this. It's the story of a ship call the "Kodiak Queen" but it had a special history. Although it was an Alaskan fishing boat, it's original identity was as a ship that survived the bombing of Pearl Harbor and which was eventually converted to other duties. It was rusting in the British Virgin Islands when some people wanted to see about turning it into an artificial reef and then learned of its past. Richard Branson got involved as well and it was decided that the ship could be converted into a diveable wreck as well as made into an underwater art project (which is where the Kraken comes in). If you've got 16 minutes to spare, take a look at the documentary they made about the entire project and the value they hope it will provide to BVI, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma:
.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
LOBSTER OPENER REPORT - Well, it looks like we made it through the first week of lobster season with the only victims being lobsters. Whew!!! Traditionally - and this is one time we're happy to break with tradition - we see one or two fatalities in the first week. Not so this year, so congrats and kudos to all of you safe divers out there. And let's keep up the good work. There was an accident on the opening day but I wouldn't call this a lobster season accident in the way we normally would. Down in the San Diego area about an hour after the start of lobster season, a young man was bitten by a large shark while free-diving for lobsters. And while some have called this a lobster season accident, it's not in the way we normally think about it. Normally, when we talk of accidents of this nature, we're referring to some aspect of diver error factoring in. This could be out-of-air, entanglement, etc. And lobsters are generally not on a shark's palette, although sea lions are. My presumption is that this wetsuit-clad lad resembled a sea lion to the shark, and that's why he got bitten. Wrong place, wrong time. (I also haven't seen anything one way or the other to indicate that the kid was even carrying any caught lobsters at the time of the bite.) The good news is that, even though his bites were severe and potentially life-threatening, quick action by bystanders got him to shore and medical attention at a San Diego hospital did the rest. He's been released as of this writing and is expected to make a full recovery.
SULAWESI EARTHQUAKE & TSUNAMI REPORT - Many of you have written to ask is our friends at Murex in Manado were affected by the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi, Indonesia, the other week. Fortunately, they were not. They released a statement that includes a map showing where they are in relation to the most-affected areas of Palu (not to be confused with Palau) as well as some suggestions as to how you can help if you'd like to. You can read their statement here:Sulawesi Tsunami, News and Latest Update - Murex Dive Resorts
HOW ABOUT AVALON THIS SATURDAY? - This coming Saturday, we'll make another one of our one-day forays over to dive the Avalon Underwater Park. We'll once again leave out of San Pedro on the 8AM Catalina Express boat and leave Avalon at 5:30PM. This gives us plenty of time to do three dives and take a nice break for lunch. And the extended weather forecast is looking very good, with a sunny day and a high of 79º as the prediction. So if you're looking to get out and go dive, come join us!!! The Giant Sea Bass are still around, the water's warm, and the viz was pretty good a week ago so you never know. Either e-mail us here or call us at 310/652-4990 to get signed up.
BY THE ROCKET'S RED GLARE - I'm not going to win any photo contests with this but I was able to take a break at 7:21PM this evening (Sunday) to go up to our rooftop and could see the launch of the Space-X rocket from Vandenberg. I'm a space nut from way back when. When I was a kid, I used to wake up in the middle of the night and turn on the (black-and-white) TV to watch the Ranger probes smash into the moon. In 1973 when I was working in Florida, I got press passes to be at Kennedy for one of the Skylab crew launches. So this was right up my alley. For those photographically-inclined, this was shot hand-held, 70mm lens, 1/4 sec exposure @ f4.5, ISO-6400.
BEWARE THE KRAKEN - Thanks to Gina Lee-Lua for turning me on to this. It's the story of a ship call the "Kodiak Queen" but it had a special history. Although it was an Alaskan fishing boat, it's original identity was as a ship that survived the bombing of Pearl Harbor and which was eventually converted to other duties. It was rusting in the British Virgin Islands when some people wanted to see about turning it into an artificial reef and then learned of its past. Richard Branson got involved as well and it was decided that the ship could be converted into a diveable wreck as well as made into an underwater art project (which is where the Kraken comes in). If you've got 16 minutes to spare, take a look at the documentary they made about the entire project and the value they hope it will provide to BVI, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma:
.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
