Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2018 vacation trips:
• April 14-21 (note new dates) - 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: http://www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
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Upcoming local dives & classes:
• Thu., Dec. 28 - Night dive (Squid???) - Redondo, Veterans Park (FREE!!!)
• Thu, Jan. 11 - Night dive (Squid???) - Redondo, Veterans Park (FREE!!!)
• Sat., Jan. 20 - Catalina Express - Avalon Underwater Park, maybe more BSBs ($150)
• Thu., Jan. 25 - (CLASS) Fish ID - Reef Seekers West(wood) ($25)
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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Amazing how those fires still keep burning and spreading . . .
THOMAS FIRE ENTERS SANTA BARBARA AREA - The SB Zoo has evacuated a few endangered animals and has other animals in portable cages ready to move if needed. The Zoo, which is in the eastern pat of SB, was closed today. Of concern to divers are areas west of there, specifically the harbor area that includes Truth Aquatics (and Stearns Wharf). I just checked their Facebook page and there's nothing there indicating fire issues. Their calendar looks fairly open right now and, obviously, they could easily move the boats out to sea and to safety. But seeing pix and videos of the fires burning with homes and businesses in SB in the foreground is rather daunting.
WINDS PICK BACK UP, AFFECTING AVALON UW PARK - I saw one note on FB today that indicated the Park was closed, but then saw other notes saying people were diving. Both were correct. Looks like it was too rough to dive the "normal" side of the park where the stairs are. So, either with permission of the Harbormaster or using necessity-in-the-mother-of-invention, it looks like everyone was diving the backside of the breakwater, which is inside the harbor and very well-protected. We'll do this on rare occasions when the Park is undiveable and it's actually a pretty nice dive. The mid-channel swell didn't look too bad but you never know. BTW, here's a lovely shot from this weekend of the Avalon "Christmas" Casino from Jeff Avveduto:
THE SQUID ARE STILL RUNNING AT VETS - Lots of great reports coming out of Redondo and Vets Park that the squid are still running and mating like crazy. Not sure how long this specific run will last but the egg clusters will be there for a while. That brings up another dive opportunity but much harder to time: Observe the new squidlings actually hatching out of the egg sacs. Gestation is usually around eight weeks so the eggs that are being laid now should start to pop sometime around the beginning of February. Sounds like most of the activity is in the 70-80' area. The general squid season is considered mid-December to the end of March, so this is certainly the right time. And it's not unusual for this to run in waves, with active runs for a week or so, then nothing, then a second wave beginning, and so on. We've got our next Squid Dive (and it's FREE) planned for December 28 with another to follow on January 11. Call us at 310/652-4990 if you want to sign up.
YAP IMMERSION IN JUNE IS A FIRM GO - We have enough people signed up that this is a firm "go" for June 8-20. We also discovered a modified routing on United which will take us to Guam through Tokyo instead of Honolulu. Not only does it cut over three hours off the travel time but, because LAX-Tokyo is an international flight whereas LAX-Honolulu is not, you get fed on the plane. Minor thing maybe, but a nice perk. The Tokyo airport at Narita (NRT) is also a fairly nice place to hang out. They have a fabulous United Club if you have access. This trip is going to be really a lot of fun for everyone and a repeat of the sked that we ran twice this year so you'll dive a lot and learn a lot too, all while having a great time in a wonderful dive spot. If you'd like to find out more, here's the link to the flyer:
http://www.reefseekers.com/FLYERS/YapImmersion2018flyer.pdf .
And if you want to sign up, call us at 310/652-4990.
WHY OXYGEN IS ALWAYS GOOD TO GIVE - Last week, a diver surfaced from a fairly routine dive, came back to the boat, took off his gear, and moments later collapsed. Oxygen was administered quickly, and he was evacuated to a local chamber where he was treated. But his symptoms didn't really improve after treatment. He was transferred to a hospital where it was discovered that he wasn't bent or embolised, but had had a stroke. He is expected to fairly fully recover. But the presumption is that a large factor in that full recovery is the fact that he was given O2 right away. We can't emphasize how important this is in treating ANY emergency, let alone a diving-related one. Giving oxygen to someone who doesn't really need it will NOT hurt them or injure them further. But NOT giving oxygen to someone in ANY type of distress might affect their ability to fully recover. So if you've got O2 available, hook it up and administer it as soon as you can.
FEEL-GOOD VIDEO OF THE WEEK - Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Dominic Biagini was flying his camera-equipped drone off of La Jolla last week when he came across a huge krill ball and a joyous Humpback Whale cavorting through it. Pretty amazing. Great visibility and it looks like the whale is literally jumping for joy. The video's only about a minute long and doesn't have any audio, but you'll enjoy it regardless:
.
And on that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
• April 14-21 (note new dates) - 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: http://www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
———————————————————————————————————————————
Upcoming local dives & classes:
• Thu., Dec. 28 - Night dive (Squid???) - Redondo, Veterans Park (FREE!!!)
• Thu, Jan. 11 - Night dive (Squid???) - Redondo, Veterans Park (FREE!!!)
• Sat., Jan. 20 - Catalina Express - Avalon Underwater Park, maybe more BSBs ($150)
• Thu., Jan. 25 - (CLASS) Fish ID - Reef Seekers West(wood) ($25)
To sign up for any of these dives, either call us at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us at kenkurtis@aol.com
——————————————————————————————————————————
Amazing how those fires still keep burning and spreading . . .
THOMAS FIRE ENTERS SANTA BARBARA AREA - The SB Zoo has evacuated a few endangered animals and has other animals in portable cages ready to move if needed. The Zoo, which is in the eastern pat of SB, was closed today. Of concern to divers are areas west of there, specifically the harbor area that includes Truth Aquatics (and Stearns Wharf). I just checked their Facebook page and there's nothing there indicating fire issues. Their calendar looks fairly open right now and, obviously, they could easily move the boats out to sea and to safety. But seeing pix and videos of the fires burning with homes and businesses in SB in the foreground is rather daunting.
WINDS PICK BACK UP, AFFECTING AVALON UW PARK - I saw one note on FB today that indicated the Park was closed, but then saw other notes saying people were diving. Both were correct. Looks like it was too rough to dive the "normal" side of the park where the stairs are. So, either with permission of the Harbormaster or using necessity-in-the-mother-of-invention, it looks like everyone was diving the backside of the breakwater, which is inside the harbor and very well-protected. We'll do this on rare occasions when the Park is undiveable and it's actually a pretty nice dive. The mid-channel swell didn't look too bad but you never know. BTW, here's a lovely shot from this weekend of the Avalon "Christmas" Casino from Jeff Avveduto:
THE SQUID ARE STILL RUNNING AT VETS - Lots of great reports coming out of Redondo and Vets Park that the squid are still running and mating like crazy. Not sure how long this specific run will last but the egg clusters will be there for a while. That brings up another dive opportunity but much harder to time: Observe the new squidlings actually hatching out of the egg sacs. Gestation is usually around eight weeks so the eggs that are being laid now should start to pop sometime around the beginning of February. Sounds like most of the activity is in the 70-80' area. The general squid season is considered mid-December to the end of March, so this is certainly the right time. And it's not unusual for this to run in waves, with active runs for a week or so, then nothing, then a second wave beginning, and so on. We've got our next Squid Dive (and it's FREE) planned for December 28 with another to follow on January 11. Call us at 310/652-4990 if you want to sign up.
YAP IMMERSION IN JUNE IS A FIRM GO - We have enough people signed up that this is a firm "go" for June 8-20. We also discovered a modified routing on United which will take us to Guam through Tokyo instead of Honolulu. Not only does it cut over three hours off the travel time but, because LAX-Tokyo is an international flight whereas LAX-Honolulu is not, you get fed on the plane. Minor thing maybe, but a nice perk. The Tokyo airport at Narita (NRT) is also a fairly nice place to hang out. They have a fabulous United Club if you have access. This trip is going to be really a lot of fun for everyone and a repeat of the sked that we ran twice this year so you'll dive a lot and learn a lot too, all while having a great time in a wonderful dive spot. If you'd like to find out more, here's the link to the flyer:
http://www.reefseekers.com/FLYERS/YapImmersion2018flyer.pdf .
And if you want to sign up, call us at 310/652-4990.
WHY OXYGEN IS ALWAYS GOOD TO GIVE - Last week, a diver surfaced from a fairly routine dive, came back to the boat, took off his gear, and moments later collapsed. Oxygen was administered quickly, and he was evacuated to a local chamber where he was treated. But his symptoms didn't really improve after treatment. He was transferred to a hospital where it was discovered that he wasn't bent or embolised, but had had a stroke. He is expected to fairly fully recover. But the presumption is that a large factor in that full recovery is the fact that he was given O2 right away. We can't emphasize how important this is in treating ANY emergency, let alone a diving-related one. Giving oxygen to someone who doesn't really need it will NOT hurt them or injure them further. But NOT giving oxygen to someone in ANY type of distress might affect their ability to fully recover. So if you've got O2 available, hook it up and administer it as soon as you can.
FEEL-GOOD VIDEO OF THE WEEK - Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Dominic Biagini was flying his camera-equipped drone off of La Jolla last week when he came across a huge krill ball and a joyous Humpback Whale cavorting through it. Pretty amazing. Great visibility and it looks like the whale is literally jumping for joy. The video's only about a minute long and doesn't have any audio, but you'll enjoy it regardless:
.
And on that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
