MichaelMc
Working toward Cenotes
Any thoughts from those local to the Bay or California on the healthy and safe exercise of diving within the new restrictions.
For those not familiar, California regions face new state restrictions if the remaining intensive care unit capacity in the region falls below 15%. Much of the state is expected to be there in a week on so on current trends. Most counties in the Bay region decided to trigger the restrictions early instead of waiting. The restrictions mean being in close contact with only your household except for essential activities and doing those with a face covering, and distance limits on travel or facing quarantine.
Right now Monterey, within the Bay region, is not under the new order restrictions.
Health | Monterey County, CA,
As Bay Area closes to slow COVID-19, Monterey Co. weighs its options
For diving, a light reading of the restrictions suggests:
- Buddies from separate households looks problematic. A pair of friends from different households going hiking is excluded from the approved recreation methods under the new guidelines, or doing several other example activities.
- Buddies within a household seems great.
- Solo seems good, physically distanced from any others at the same beach, no congregating outside your household there. Properly trained, experienced, equipped, and done conservatively.
- Dive shops are able to be open as retail with capacity restrictions. Whether solo and same household buddies make that economical seems questionable.
- Boats for sport fishing seem closed. I imagine Scuba ones are as well.
- Shore diving sites are mostly roads or city parks that might stay open, San Carlos Beach.
- Some state parks are closing, so Lobos might.
- Monterey is within two hours of much of the Bay, so local-ish under the current discussion of exercise and recreate locally. It is under the 150 mile limit for quarantine, though it is a few counties away.
- I have not read carefully to see how outdoor classes fair. Particularly those where exhalation filtering masks are fairly challenging, being inches from the water line or submerged, outside of those rebreather classes with full comms that stay on the loop.
- The Santa Clara FAQ lists water safety and swimming classes as approved with restrictions. Presumably, as toleration of one risk to reduce another risk. I'm not sure that a Scuba class falls under water safety.
- On masks, the Santa Clara FAQ (as a proxy for finding the Monterey rules) reiterates earlier guidance of using a face-covering within 6' of others. It reiterates that coverings with an exhale valve are discouraged as ineffective. So while not very helpful for those you pass, walking from car to water on your second stage is likely compliant.
Santa Clara County's implementation references various quarantine rules if you've traveled more than 150 miles. I mention theirs just because I found their's, they have a detailed FAQ covering sports, and did not see that they were adding anything extra to the state rules.
Public Health Order Frequently Asked Questions - Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) - County of Santa Clara
Also, "Under the revised State Guidance, everyone must wear a face covering at all times when they are outside their home, with only a few exceptions." They also discuss that neck gators, one way exhale valves, and face shields alone are not effective mitigations.
Public Health Order Frequently Asked Questions - Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) - County of Santa Clara
To be clear: I'm wondering how to or if we can go diving, but wearing an exhale and inhale filtering mask, physical distancing, avoiding crowded places, washing hands, not touching our face, and helping our health professionals and population survive this are crucial. As we've been told for many months now.
Sorry for the length. This started with just the first bit, but then I found more references that might help people.
More References:
The state order:
https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/12.3.20-Stay-at-Home-Order-ICU-Scenario.pdf
https://covid19.ca.gov/stay-home-except-for-essential-needs
"Members of the same household are encouraged to maintain physical and mental health by safely going to a park, a beach, hike, walk, or bike ride with members of their own household."
"Stay in your county if you can. Don’t drive more than 2-3 hours."
The new lockdown: What you need to know (SFChronicle pay link, supporting local journalism)
ETA: Notes on masks, water safety classes, reorder bullets.
For those not familiar, California regions face new state restrictions if the remaining intensive care unit capacity in the region falls below 15%. Much of the state is expected to be there in a week on so on current trends. Most counties in the Bay region decided to trigger the restrictions early instead of waiting. The restrictions mean being in close contact with only your household except for essential activities and doing those with a face covering, and distance limits on travel or facing quarantine.
Right now Monterey, within the Bay region, is not under the new order restrictions.
Health | Monterey County, CA,
As Bay Area closes to slow COVID-19, Monterey Co. weighs its options
For diving, a light reading of the restrictions suggests:
- Buddies from separate households looks problematic. A pair of friends from different households going hiking is excluded from the approved recreation methods under the new guidelines, or doing several other example activities.
- Buddies within a household seems great.
- Solo seems good, physically distanced from any others at the same beach, no congregating outside your household there. Properly trained, experienced, equipped, and done conservatively.
- Dive shops are able to be open as retail with capacity restrictions. Whether solo and same household buddies make that economical seems questionable.
- Boats for sport fishing seem closed. I imagine Scuba ones are as well.
- Shore diving sites are mostly roads or city parks that might stay open, San Carlos Beach.
- Some state parks are closing, so Lobos might.
- Monterey is within two hours of much of the Bay, so local-ish under the current discussion of exercise and recreate locally. It is under the 150 mile limit for quarantine, though it is a few counties away.
- I have not read carefully to see how outdoor classes fair. Particularly those where exhalation filtering masks are fairly challenging, being inches from the water line or submerged, outside of those rebreather classes with full comms that stay on the loop.
- The Santa Clara FAQ lists water safety and swimming classes as approved with restrictions. Presumably, as toleration of one risk to reduce another risk. I'm not sure that a Scuba class falls under water safety.
- On masks, the Santa Clara FAQ (as a proxy for finding the Monterey rules) reiterates earlier guidance of using a face-covering within 6' of others. It reiterates that coverings with an exhale valve are discouraged as ineffective. So while not very helpful for those you pass, walking from car to water on your second stage is likely compliant.
Santa Clara County's implementation references various quarantine rules if you've traveled more than 150 miles. I mention theirs just because I found their's, they have a detailed FAQ covering sports, and did not see that they were adding anything extra to the state rules.
Public Health Order Frequently Asked Questions - Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) - County of Santa Clara
Also, "Under the revised State Guidance, everyone must wear a face covering at all times when they are outside their home, with only a few exceptions." They also discuss that neck gators, one way exhale valves, and face shields alone are not effective mitigations.
Public Health Order Frequently Asked Questions - Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) - County of Santa Clara
To be clear: I'm wondering how to or if we can go diving, but wearing an exhale and inhale filtering mask, physical distancing, avoiding crowded places, washing hands, not touching our face, and helping our health professionals and population survive this are crucial. As we've been told for many months now.
Sorry for the length. This started with just the first bit, but then I found more references that might help people.
More References:
The state order:
https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/12.3.20-Stay-at-Home-Order-ICU-Scenario.pdf
https://covid19.ca.gov/stay-home-except-for-essential-needs
"Members of the same household are encouraged to maintain physical and mental health by safely going to a park, a beach, hike, walk, or bike ride with members of their own household."
"Stay in your county if you can. Don’t drive more than 2-3 hours."
The new lockdown: What you need to know (SFChronicle pay link, supporting local journalism)
ETA: Notes on masks, water safety classes, reorder bullets.
