TWARS (This Week at Reef Seekers) - August 11-18

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Ken Kurtis

Contributor
Messages
1,907
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Location
Beverly Hills, CA
# of dives
5000 - ∞
THIS is the weather people move to California for . . .

SCHEDULE CHANGES - I was looking at what we have coming up and it was an Avalon trip on September 14 and a beach dive on September 21. But I've got the annual Aquarium Diver's Appreciation Party on September 14, so that would mean coming back early to make it to AOP on time. And then a little voice in my head said, "Why don't you switch the dates?" So that's what we'll do. So here's what's what.

BEACH DIVE, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 AT VETS/REDONDO - This is great for someone who can't spend a full day diving but wants to get wet. Obviously, it's weather/surf-dependent. But we're getting into the time of year - even though Redondo looked pretty green this weekend - of better conditions. Also, someone posted on a diving board about seeing a large Prickly Shark around 80 feel at night down there so maybe we'll just have to take a peek to see if he's still hanging around. We generally meet around 9AM for this single-tank dive and are out of the parking lot by Noon so I'll easily make my Aquarium thing and you'll get in a dive. Call 310/652-4990 to sign up.

AVALON UW PARK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 - No sense in having to come home early because I'VE got somewhere else to be. We'll do the 8AM out of San Pedro and the 5:30 from Avalon coming back. Three dives in the Park and the tanks are included in the $150 I'll get from you. If you haven't been wet in a while, this is a great way to get reacquainted with things. We should be able to find some of the Giant Sea Bass who seem to be a regular feature now as well as the usual suspects we can expect to find in Avalon. A good time will be had by all. As with the beach dive, call 310/652-4990 to sign up.

BUCK'S THE FIELD REPORTER AGAIN - He's our eyes and ears for some local conditions again this week. Buck was with a small group at Leo Carrillo on Saturday and reports ankle slappers but green water and 5-foot viz. Yikes!!! Amazingly, he came out of the water with the same number of divers that he went in with.

BIGGER OVERHEAD BINS ON THE A321 NEO - You may recall waaaaay back to the good ol' days when airlines didn't charge for every checked bag so overhead space wasn't at a premium. Not so anymore as fliers try to avoid those fees by stuffing everything they can into the overheads. Well, that may be changing a bit. American Airlines has added six new Airbus A321 Neos to their fleet which feature bigger overhead bins - 40% bigger in fact - which not only allow more bags overall but which are tall enough that you can put bags on their side instead of their bottom, which allows for even more storage. It's rumored that other airlines using Airbus planes are doing the same thing and Boeing is also designing larger overhead compartments. Especially for some like me who travels with almost all of my photo gear in a rollerboard carry-on bag, I dread each flight until I find some space for fear that I'll have to check the bag and some of the gear will get damaged in the handling. So this is certainly welcome news!!!

VEO 100 FOR SALE - If anyone's interested, we've got an Oceanic VEO 100 looking for a new home. This would be a great back-up computer for you (module only) but please note that the original VEO 100 was air-only. If you dive nitrox and have your computer set for nitrox, this is NOT a good choice for you. We just put a new battery in it so it's ready to go. Plus it's downloadable. I don't recall what these sold for new but I just checked eBay and there were some with an asking price of $150. If you're interested, let me know. Best offer.

YOUR FEEL-GOOD STORY OF THE WEEK - And a bit unusual too. It seems there was a young Melon-Headed Whale in Tahiti (we've seen them around Yap Caverns in Yap too) who was either orphaned or abandoned by its mother. While normally that would doom the animal, it seems like it was adopted by a female bottlenose dolphin. This is unusual on a number of counts, the first being that inter-species adoption is basically unheard of. And the second is that this mother dolphin already had a calf and usually one's the limit. So pretty cool. You can read about it here and see a video of the blended family as well:
DOLPHIN ADOPTION.

And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!

- Ken
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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