Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Don't forget this coming weekend is Memorial Day Weekend . . .
HALF-TIMES, TISSUE COMPARTMENTS, SIT, RNT, AND MORE - We had a really nice evening with our Tables & Computers class last Wednesday. It's something I really enjoy teaching and it seems like all six of those attending got something out of it as well. (Plus, it was a freebie.) We'll offer it again in October so keep it in the back of your mind if you'd like to improve your knowledge skills in this area.
WE DIDN'T MAKE IT OUT FOR TUNA CRABS - And this is a good example of how mercurial the ocean can be. We had hoped to go out on Saturday. On Monday, I looked at the Redondo live cam that shows Vets Park and it was like a lake. By Wednesday, with the wind picking up, it looked like Victory at Sea. It stayed that way Friday and, although it calmed down a bit on Saturday, it still didn't look diveable to me. I checked again Sunday around Noon just to see what was what and . . . it was like a lake again. And as I'm writing this now (6PM Sunday evening), it's picking back up again. So conditions can change, in either direction, somewhat quickly and this is why you not only check things out as best you can ahead of time, but also be prepared to find that you arrive at the dive site and should cancel because conditions deteriorated from what you thought they were.
UPDATED REDONDO LIVE CAM - They've changed the URL on this. The new one is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH2TvmjxIFM. It's a great resource to have if you beach dive there.
ONE GROUP'S EXPERIENCE - To that end, Jarrett Lee relayed that their group did a Reef Check training dive over the weekend (not at Redondo) and said one of their group described the conditions as: “Yup...we went there, we battled the surf, we dealt with the negative vis, became one with the surge and maxed out on turban snails...rock on Reef Check Training!!!"
BONAIRE-BOUND??? - Just a reminder that the new annual Marine Park fees have kicked in. It's now $45 annually (up from $25) and they base it on a calendar year. I think it's still unclear as to what will happen for anyone who's doing a week that starts in December and ends in January, since a new calendar year will have begun. Also, whereas you used to generally pay this in cash, they now ONLY take credit cards. (You pay the fee at your resort upon arrival and get a small tag for your BC.)
GLOBAL WARMING - If I tell you it was 84º over the weekend, you might say "So what?" If I add that this was in Russia at a spot around the Arctic Circle where the high shouldn't be over 54º, maybe that gets your attention. Some day, and hopefully soon, as a planet working and not just on a country-by-country basis, we need to really tackle this. We mobilized to beat Hitler during WW2 so I don't know why some people don't see this as an equally evil threat. Here's the article if you'd like to read it: GLOBAL WARMING.
ALFONS STETTLER HAS DIED - I'm very sad to report that Alfons lost a battle with cancer last week. He was 77 and dove with us for a number of years. His daughter Cookie called to share the news with me. Alfons had stopped diving a few years ago. He called back then to let me know and said, "I just did my 1,000th and I think I'm going to stop because I'm getting to an age where I may not be as sharp as I used to be." Always a hard decision to make as when to hang things up and I admired his rationale for doing so.
MY FAVORITE ALFONS STORY - Alfons was a professional chef so always came with his speargun (and he was a responsible hunter to boot). But he also had a bit of a stubborn streak in him. We were at Santa Barbara Island and conditions weren't the greatest. For our final dive, I had the boat pull into the area known as Dry Arch because we got some protection. But I also knew it wasn't a good hunting spot. And it was shallow. Sure enough, Alfons came up and was grumbling a bit about my spot selection. I tried to explain that we really didn't have much choice and he'd just have to make the best of it. I told him, "Try out that way and see what's what." He told me later than he went in the water and went in the direction I'd suggested and it was mostly sandy bottom. And he said he wasn't too happy and was muttering to himself as he dove, "That Ken Kurtis. Who does he think he is? This is a lousy dive spot. He's just sending me out in crap. I'm not too happy about this . . ." About a half-hour into his grumbling, he hapened to look up and was quite taken as a 40-foot female Gray Whale and her calf very slowly and calmly came by, gave him the once-over, and then went on their way. He said it went from his worst dive ever to his best dive ever and from "What does Ken Kurtis know?" to "Oh thank you Ken Kurtis for sending me this way to have this magical experience!!" He came back on the boat babbling excitedly about it and was so moved that he commissioned a mural artist to paint the side of his garage with the image he had in his mind. That garage mural is still at his house and hopefully will serve as a reminder to his family and friends of all the good times and good dives that Alfons had. RIP.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!! (Maybe well even see Alfons' whales . . .)
- Ken
HALF-TIMES, TISSUE COMPARTMENTS, SIT, RNT, AND MORE - We had a really nice evening with our Tables & Computers class last Wednesday. It's something I really enjoy teaching and it seems like all six of those attending got something out of it as well. (Plus, it was a freebie.) We'll offer it again in October so keep it in the back of your mind if you'd like to improve your knowledge skills in this area.
WE DIDN'T MAKE IT OUT FOR TUNA CRABS - And this is a good example of how mercurial the ocean can be. We had hoped to go out on Saturday. On Monday, I looked at the Redondo live cam that shows Vets Park and it was like a lake. By Wednesday, with the wind picking up, it looked like Victory at Sea. It stayed that way Friday and, although it calmed down a bit on Saturday, it still didn't look diveable to me. I checked again Sunday around Noon just to see what was what and . . . it was like a lake again. And as I'm writing this now (6PM Sunday evening), it's picking back up again. So conditions can change, in either direction, somewhat quickly and this is why you not only check things out as best you can ahead of time, but also be prepared to find that you arrive at the dive site and should cancel because conditions deteriorated from what you thought they were.
UPDATED REDONDO LIVE CAM - They've changed the URL on this. The new one is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH2TvmjxIFM. It's a great resource to have if you beach dive there.
ONE GROUP'S EXPERIENCE - To that end, Jarrett Lee relayed that their group did a Reef Check training dive over the weekend (not at Redondo) and said one of their group described the conditions as: “Yup...we went there, we battled the surf, we dealt with the negative vis, became one with the surge and maxed out on turban snails...rock on Reef Check Training!!!"
BONAIRE-BOUND??? - Just a reminder that the new annual Marine Park fees have kicked in. It's now $45 annually (up from $25) and they base it on a calendar year. I think it's still unclear as to what will happen for anyone who's doing a week that starts in December and ends in January, since a new calendar year will have begun. Also, whereas you used to generally pay this in cash, they now ONLY take credit cards. (You pay the fee at your resort upon arrival and get a small tag for your BC.)
GLOBAL WARMING - If I tell you it was 84º over the weekend, you might say "So what?" If I add that this was in Russia at a spot around the Arctic Circle where the high shouldn't be over 54º, maybe that gets your attention. Some day, and hopefully soon, as a planet working and not just on a country-by-country basis, we need to really tackle this. We mobilized to beat Hitler during WW2 so I don't know why some people don't see this as an equally evil threat. Here's the article if you'd like to read it: GLOBAL WARMING.
ALFONS STETTLER HAS DIED - I'm very sad to report that Alfons lost a battle with cancer last week. He was 77 and dove with us for a number of years. His daughter Cookie called to share the news with me. Alfons had stopped diving a few years ago. He called back then to let me know and said, "I just did my 1,000th and I think I'm going to stop because I'm getting to an age where I may not be as sharp as I used to be." Always a hard decision to make as when to hang things up and I admired his rationale for doing so.
MY FAVORITE ALFONS STORY - Alfons was a professional chef so always came with his speargun (and he was a responsible hunter to boot). But he also had a bit of a stubborn streak in him. We were at Santa Barbara Island and conditions weren't the greatest. For our final dive, I had the boat pull into the area known as Dry Arch because we got some protection. But I also knew it wasn't a good hunting spot. And it was shallow. Sure enough, Alfons came up and was grumbling a bit about my spot selection. I tried to explain that we really didn't have much choice and he'd just have to make the best of it. I told him, "Try out that way and see what's what." He told me later than he went in the water and went in the direction I'd suggested and it was mostly sandy bottom. And he said he wasn't too happy and was muttering to himself as he dove, "That Ken Kurtis. Who does he think he is? This is a lousy dive spot. He's just sending me out in crap. I'm not too happy about this . . ." About a half-hour into his grumbling, he hapened to look up and was quite taken as a 40-foot female Gray Whale and her calf very slowly and calmly came by, gave him the once-over, and then went on their way. He said it went from his worst dive ever to his best dive ever and from "What does Ken Kurtis know?" to "Oh thank you Ken Kurtis for sending me this way to have this magical experience!!" He came back on the boat babbling excitedly about it and was so moved that he commissioned a mural artist to paint the side of his garage with the image he had in his mind. That garage mural is still at his house and hopefully will serve as a reminder to his family and friends of all the good times and good dives that Alfons had. RIP.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!! (Maybe well even see Alfons' whales . . .)
- Ken
