Dive the Coast mass relay

Plans have become actions in forming the largest diving event in history, and it's happening right off the coast of California in 2013. A mass relay covering as much as legally possible the 840+ miles of California shorelines are expected to take place in fall of 2013, with a precursor dive of 40+ miles in October of 2011 going from Santa Cruz to Monterey. Go to Dive the Coast facebook page you can see it's growth. Reletively new, the webpage divethecoast.com is planned to be operating by the 5th of September 2011. Currently key contacts are being put together as organizers of specific counties. I have been given the contact spot of Los Angeles County, organizer and spokesperson of the event, (I'm gonna be diving with hardcorediveteam along the entire Palos Verdes peninsula!) Orange county is still open for organizing. If you'd like to be part of the Los Angeles county in organizing divers, your business or groups to fund the conservation organization of your choice, email me. There's been already statewide divers, clubs, shops, and conservation organizations showing their early support an interest. Minutes ago an international Washington, D.C.-based conservation organization has expressed interest in this. The plan is to spread the word, get active and qualified divers to be a part of this. For more info, brian@divethecoast.com.

It's growing fast, by the day collecting organizers, key contacts. Better get your foot in the door now. You could be the driving force in your county. Network with divers up and down the state.

Sounds like a terrific event.

The webpage is up and looking pretty good! Dive The Coast :: index

How exactly does a diving relay work? It sounds like a cool concept, but after thinking about the logistics a little (lots of rugged California coast, military bases, Point Conception, etc) and factoring in how much distance a typical diver can cover and the usual coastal underwater visibility, I'm left wondering about executing the vision.

Hi Geoff, it would seem nearly impossible, given the 800+ miles of not so predictable conditions, bypassing military bases, plant cooling runoff and intakes, shipping lanes, harbor entrances, piers, slight to extreme conditions, now comes the serious question...finding the small percentage of divers who would be ok navigating along the surf zone, and do fine in low viz! To me it's a very possible event from the experience of diving with hardcorediveteam the only things that have made us call any dives were tsunami warnings and hurricane swells were predicted couple weeks ago. We actually got in the remnants of late august hurricane swells, but went in anyways. At this very time there's divers getting the distance data that's comparable with caving at 1/2 mph..and thinking to use that as a reference taking into consideration diver differences. We get over nautical mile easy on 80cf tanks without trying for distance. I know it's gonna vary in extremes. Also I doubt there is gonna be any Ironman class of someone attempting to dive the (whole) coast, as much as I would like to try. Now the 40 nm dive that's scheduled in October 2011 in Monterey Bay is gonna determine alot, I was suggesting it to be completed in one day by legs of 4 or 2 miles, if 4 miles then 10 teams of 2 divers (+one extra team)with 10 kayaks carrying tanks, gps and sound device in case someone is heading out to sea in a bay. So 32 divers (22 divers + 10 kayaks(divers) all get in the water same time and complete the gps leg of 4 miles to where the team ahead started from...done deal. Instead it's gonna be a relay fashion of point to point taking like 2 weekends. Now thinking about the statelong dive as a relay, I'm guessing without even calculating anything it could take up to 200 to 400 days!! Media would get bored with that. This whole idea was born out of an ambitious desire, it's never been attempted. And so far it's grown to far reaches of interest nationwide. I'm a key contact person, organizer for LA county. As time moves on, there's gonna be a whole lot of help in LA county alone to push this project through. If you have any reasons to network with divers about a business or just diving, this is gonna be huge for that. You see all the contributors already on the webpage. I'm in the process of getting local environmental fund raising agencies, fishing groups, or any that want to jump on this involved. I think it's gonna be fun. If you're not already part of this, get in now and be a part of it. What you have to say in orgaizing it, may be what the event becomes founded on. Think about this, the largest diving event in history and you personally put in the ideas that helped make it possible....THAT would be pretty awesome! I plan on diving the entire PV peninsula for this, possibly if I can. I know HCDT will be right there on this! Possible land support may be funding the gas needs. It's up in the air and a major business opportunity for lots of companies.

Wow! My head is reeling just from everything you described. I never even considered everyone doing it from kayaks in parallel. That makes it sound a lot more doable. I was thinking in terms of traditional relay, where one team passes some form of baton on to the team in front of them, which sounds like what's planned in October up in Monterrey. I'm definitely going to stay tuned and see how this works out