Ken Kurtis
Contributor
It's very easy to practice "social distancing" if you don't have any friends to begin with . . .
MOST DIVING HAS BEEN CURTAILED - I know a couple of boats went out last weekend but I'm not sure if any went out this weekend. Not so sure about beach diving although access would have been extremely difficult since all the parking lots and sand are now closed. The live cam on top of the Redondo Pier shows not a soul on the beach, bike, or walking paths, as well as surf high enough to make the area not divable anyhow. I chose the word "sand" deliberately because I think technically, they can't close the ocean. But you can be prevented from walking across the sand (owned by the city/county/state) to get to the water. A surfer at El Porto learned that the hard when when a police officer walked up (this was all caught on a security cam as well as a bystander cam) and explained the beach was closed and he wasn't allowed to surf. He went into a tirade and apparently challenged that assertion with language that included, "I'm not leaving!! What the f**k you gonna do about it?" The answer was that the surfer is now the proud owner of a misdemeanor citation and a potential $1,000 fine. He's lucky he didn't get arrested and hauled off. Use common sense here folks, and be nice if officials confront you.
BONAIRE POSTPONED - After consulting with Buddy Dive and our travelers, we've decided to postpone the Bonaire trip that was scheduled to depart May 15. Simply cutting it too close in terms of when things might return to normal. Bonaire has suspended ALL incoming flights until around May 9, and this would assume we'd be able to leave the USA. We'll likely push back to August, although I haven't firmed up any dates yet. But I did get a note Sunday from Buddy Dive dive manager Augusto Montbrun who told me it's pretty quiet now with all the tourists gone. But there haven't been ANY cases of Coronavirus on Bonaire and they're trying to keep it that way.
REEF SEEKERS CLASSES PERHAPS VIA ZOOM? - We've got a Fish ID class coming up this Wednesday that I think we'll postpone that for a little bit. I just signed up for ZOOM and have had a couple of good meetings via that platform but need to figure out how I can show my PowerPoint presentations to anyone watching. Since most of our classes involve that kind of a component, once I get that squared away we can certainly do these classes remotely. And maybe we'll add some stuff to the sked since you're all (hopefully) cooped up at home with nothing to do. We could even maybe do classes during the day. I know I'm set to give two dive club talks in April through ZOOM so this should work out OK.
CHAMBER DAY 2020 VIRTUALLY CHUGS ALONG - You should have gotten a plea from me earlier today about signing up for Chamber Eve and the Reef Seekers table as it's now a 100% virtual event. There's no limit to how many people we can now have at our table and instead of dinner, you'll now get a Chamber Eve t-shirt, along with raffle prize tickets. We're even trying to figure out a way to live-stream the event. Go to www.chamberday.org to learn more and get signed up. (Dutchman too.)
PIECE OF SAD NEWS FROM THE OCEAN INSTITUTE - This is a place down in Dana Point that teaches thousands and thousands of kids each year all about the ocean. One way they do that is to take them out on their tall sailing ship, the Pilgrim. Sunday morning, the Pilgrim was discovered to be severely listing at the dock and appears to be a total loss. This will be a big blow to their program as the ship was valued around $6 million. Here's the story from the Orange County Register: PILGRIM IS SINKING.
SCUBA EQUIPMENT HELPS COVID PATIENTS - The irony in this story is that these pieces of equipment have been implicated in a couple of snorkeling deaths but now they may be saving lives. You may have seen these full-face snorkeling masks, with the snorkel coming out the top. Turns out they can be somewhat easily modified and made into a either a piece of PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) or even used with a forced-air machine to obviate the need for a ventilator for COVID patients who are having trouble breathing. Here's the scoop on the first: MASK AS PPE. And here's the scoop on the second: DON'T NEED A VENTILATOR.
And that'll do it for now. Take a deep breath, wash your hands, have a great week, and let's go diving one of these days soon!!!
- Ken
MOST DIVING HAS BEEN CURTAILED - I know a couple of boats went out last weekend but I'm not sure if any went out this weekend. Not so sure about beach diving although access would have been extremely difficult since all the parking lots and sand are now closed. The live cam on top of the Redondo Pier shows not a soul on the beach, bike, or walking paths, as well as surf high enough to make the area not divable anyhow. I chose the word "sand" deliberately because I think technically, they can't close the ocean. But you can be prevented from walking across the sand (owned by the city/county/state) to get to the water. A surfer at El Porto learned that the hard when when a police officer walked up (this was all caught on a security cam as well as a bystander cam) and explained the beach was closed and he wasn't allowed to surf. He went into a tirade and apparently challenged that assertion with language that included, "I'm not leaving!! What the f**k you gonna do about it?" The answer was that the surfer is now the proud owner of a misdemeanor citation and a potential $1,000 fine. He's lucky he didn't get arrested and hauled off. Use common sense here folks, and be nice if officials confront you.
BONAIRE POSTPONED - After consulting with Buddy Dive and our travelers, we've decided to postpone the Bonaire trip that was scheduled to depart May 15. Simply cutting it too close in terms of when things might return to normal. Bonaire has suspended ALL incoming flights until around May 9, and this would assume we'd be able to leave the USA. We'll likely push back to August, although I haven't firmed up any dates yet. But I did get a note Sunday from Buddy Dive dive manager Augusto Montbrun who told me it's pretty quiet now with all the tourists gone. But there haven't been ANY cases of Coronavirus on Bonaire and they're trying to keep it that way.
REEF SEEKERS CLASSES PERHAPS VIA ZOOM? - We've got a Fish ID class coming up this Wednesday that I think we'll postpone that for a little bit. I just signed up for ZOOM and have had a couple of good meetings via that platform but need to figure out how I can show my PowerPoint presentations to anyone watching. Since most of our classes involve that kind of a component, once I get that squared away we can certainly do these classes remotely. And maybe we'll add some stuff to the sked since you're all (hopefully) cooped up at home with nothing to do. We could even maybe do classes during the day. I know I'm set to give two dive club talks in April through ZOOM so this should work out OK.
CHAMBER DAY 2020 VIRTUALLY CHUGS ALONG - You should have gotten a plea from me earlier today about signing up for Chamber Eve and the Reef Seekers table as it's now a 100% virtual event. There's no limit to how many people we can now have at our table and instead of dinner, you'll now get a Chamber Eve t-shirt, along with raffle prize tickets. We're even trying to figure out a way to live-stream the event. Go to www.chamberday.org to learn more and get signed up. (Dutchman too.)
PIECE OF SAD NEWS FROM THE OCEAN INSTITUTE - This is a place down in Dana Point that teaches thousands and thousands of kids each year all about the ocean. One way they do that is to take them out on their tall sailing ship, the Pilgrim. Sunday morning, the Pilgrim was discovered to be severely listing at the dock and appears to be a total loss. This will be a big blow to their program as the ship was valued around $6 million. Here's the story from the Orange County Register: PILGRIM IS SINKING.
SCUBA EQUIPMENT HELPS COVID PATIENTS - The irony in this story is that these pieces of equipment have been implicated in a couple of snorkeling deaths but now they may be saving lives. You may have seen these full-face snorkeling masks, with the snorkel coming out the top. Turns out they can be somewhat easily modified and made into a either a piece of PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) or even used with a forced-air machine to obviate the need for a ventilator for COVID patients who are having trouble breathing. Here's the scoop on the first: MASK AS PPE. And here's the scoop on the second: DON'T NEED A VENTILATOR.
And that'll do it for now. Take a deep breath, wash your hands, have a great week, and let's go diving one of these days soon!!!
- Ken
