Ken Kurtis
Contributor
This will be relatively short due to me not starting until after the Oscars finished . . .
CONGRATS TO THE WINNERS - One of the fun things about being a Beverly Hills-based dive operation is that a number of actors who are divers are people we've either certified, or they've gone diving with us, or they simply do business with us. So when we talk about some of our divers being presenters or winners, we're telling the truth. The best ever was back in 1984. On the day before the Oscar ceremony, I was doing a beach dive with a private student and we got to talking between dives and the "What do you do" question came up. And he said he was a song-writer. I don't know if I said "Anything I might know" but at some point I gave the perfunctory "Well, good luck with that." So imagine my surprise when the next night I'm watching the Oscar telecast from home and I hear my student's name - Keith Forsey - announced not only as an Oscar-nominee but then the winner for "Best Song" for co-writing "Flashdance - What a Feeling." My "Good-luck-with-that" felt a little silly at that point.
CONGRATS TO THE AVALON CLEANUP DIVERS - Many thanks to all of you who participated Saturday in the 38th annual Avalon Underwater Cleanup. Unfortunately, in the harbor area certainly, the visibility was generously being called zero. It sounds like it wasn't too bad at first but when you put a couple of hundred divers in (I think we had 188 at the Green Pier), things get kicked up quickly. I didn't get any actual trash numbers yet in terms of weight of what was taken out but many of us thought we were running a bit lighter than usual because a lot of divers seemed to be coming out with very little trash, and mainly because they couldn't see what they were doing. But it was a gorgeous clear day, and we were delighted and amazed to be able to gaze out over our divers and see our snow-capped mountains as well. How many places (other than Alaska) can you do that?
MORE FROM THE CLEANUP - Here are some numbers I did get:
• 536 - People participating
• 425 - Divers registered
• 34 - Non-divers registered
• 77 - Volunteers to make it all run smoothly
• 257 - Divers who were part of a group or dive club
• 52 - Divers brought over by Signature Scuba (largest group of the day)
Plus congrats to our Reef Seekers diver Jeff Reimer who ended up winning the Grand Prize of a three-night stay at the Hermosa Hotel, round-trip tix on Catalina Express, a 2-tank dive on the Scuba Cat, and a new Tilos dive bag (total retail value $2,000). Not a bad reward for doing a good deed. Ironically, Jeff had said to me earlier in the day, "I never go to the raffle and I never win anything. Maybe I'll go this year and I'll actually go home with something." Good plan.
OF COURSE THERE ARE PICTURES - I don't dive the event anymore but am sort of the unofficial photographer for the morning and then I MC the afternoon awards ceremony. So here are the pix of what went on, at least in terms of the Green Pier and the awards: AVALON UNDERWATER CLEANUP 2019 PIX .
DIVERS DAY AT THE AQUARIUM OF THE PACIFIC - The next big dive event is Saturday, March 9, as that's the annual Divers Day at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Your certification card gets you in for free. Doors open at 9AM and there will be dive presentations, videos, and lots of good stuff going on all day. Hopefully you'll come on down and see what's what.
CLASS THIS WEEK - For those interested in NAUI Nitrox certification, that class is being offered this week on Wednesday evening at the palatial Reef Seekers West(wood). As many of you know, I was not an early-adopter of nitrox but it has some practical uses and benefits, mainly of extending your available bottom time. So learn the ins and outs from someone who doesn't worship at the feet of lessened N2 and increased O2 PPs . . . and learn what those terms actually mean and how they affect you. It's $75 for the class plus some other course materials fees. If you're interested, give us a call at 310/652-4990.
BACK TO THE OSCARS - Much as I enjoyed "Bohemian Rhapsody," I was very happy to see "Green Book" win as Best Picture. If you haven't seen it, you really should it. The movie deals with racism, especially in the South, in 1962. I was personally drawn to this because members of my family, especially my late cousin - Unitarian minister Dr. Homer Jack - were very involved in the fight for civil rights. (Homer often marched in Alabama, Mississippi, and elsewhere with Dr. King.) When I first went to work as a disc jockey in Vidalia, Georgia, in 1973, vestiges of the Old South were quite evident, from driving by a building where you could still see a bricked-up doorway with fading paint that read "Colored Entrance" to a radio commercial running on the station I was going to work for from a local palm reader where the tag line was "Readings for colored and white." And even though that was a little over 45 years ago, racism is something that still IMHO pervades our society but sometimes in more subtle ways than back then. So a movie like "Green Book" will hopefully get you to think or at least get you to look at our society in a different way. Excellent film and a message that everyone can benefit from. End of lecture.
That'll do it for now. Have a great week, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
CONGRATS TO THE WINNERS - One of the fun things about being a Beverly Hills-based dive operation is that a number of actors who are divers are people we've either certified, or they've gone diving with us, or they simply do business with us. So when we talk about some of our divers being presenters or winners, we're telling the truth. The best ever was back in 1984. On the day before the Oscar ceremony, I was doing a beach dive with a private student and we got to talking between dives and the "What do you do" question came up. And he said he was a song-writer. I don't know if I said "Anything I might know" but at some point I gave the perfunctory "Well, good luck with that." So imagine my surprise when the next night I'm watching the Oscar telecast from home and I hear my student's name - Keith Forsey - announced not only as an Oscar-nominee but then the winner for "Best Song" for co-writing "Flashdance - What a Feeling." My "Good-luck-with-that" felt a little silly at that point.
CONGRATS TO THE AVALON CLEANUP DIVERS - Many thanks to all of you who participated Saturday in the 38th annual Avalon Underwater Cleanup. Unfortunately, in the harbor area certainly, the visibility was generously being called zero. It sounds like it wasn't too bad at first but when you put a couple of hundred divers in (I think we had 188 at the Green Pier), things get kicked up quickly. I didn't get any actual trash numbers yet in terms of weight of what was taken out but many of us thought we were running a bit lighter than usual because a lot of divers seemed to be coming out with very little trash, and mainly because they couldn't see what they were doing. But it was a gorgeous clear day, and we were delighted and amazed to be able to gaze out over our divers and see our snow-capped mountains as well. How many places (other than Alaska) can you do that?
MORE FROM THE CLEANUP - Here are some numbers I did get:
• 536 - People participating
• 425 - Divers registered
• 34 - Non-divers registered
• 77 - Volunteers to make it all run smoothly
• 257 - Divers who were part of a group or dive club
• 52 - Divers brought over by Signature Scuba (largest group of the day)
Plus congrats to our Reef Seekers diver Jeff Reimer who ended up winning the Grand Prize of a three-night stay at the Hermosa Hotel, round-trip tix on Catalina Express, a 2-tank dive on the Scuba Cat, and a new Tilos dive bag (total retail value $2,000). Not a bad reward for doing a good deed. Ironically, Jeff had said to me earlier in the day, "I never go to the raffle and I never win anything. Maybe I'll go this year and I'll actually go home with something." Good plan.
OF COURSE THERE ARE PICTURES - I don't dive the event anymore but am sort of the unofficial photographer for the morning and then I MC the afternoon awards ceremony. So here are the pix of what went on, at least in terms of the Green Pier and the awards: AVALON UNDERWATER CLEANUP 2019 PIX .
DIVERS DAY AT THE AQUARIUM OF THE PACIFIC - The next big dive event is Saturday, March 9, as that's the annual Divers Day at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Your certification card gets you in for free. Doors open at 9AM and there will be dive presentations, videos, and lots of good stuff going on all day. Hopefully you'll come on down and see what's what.
CLASS THIS WEEK - For those interested in NAUI Nitrox certification, that class is being offered this week on Wednesday evening at the palatial Reef Seekers West(wood). As many of you know, I was not an early-adopter of nitrox but it has some practical uses and benefits, mainly of extending your available bottom time. So learn the ins and outs from someone who doesn't worship at the feet of lessened N2 and increased O2 PPs . . . and learn what those terms actually mean and how they affect you. It's $75 for the class plus some other course materials fees. If you're interested, give us a call at 310/652-4990.
BACK TO THE OSCARS - Much as I enjoyed "Bohemian Rhapsody," I was very happy to see "Green Book" win as Best Picture. If you haven't seen it, you really should it. The movie deals with racism, especially in the South, in 1962. I was personally drawn to this because members of my family, especially my late cousin - Unitarian minister Dr. Homer Jack - were very involved in the fight for civil rights. (Homer often marched in Alabama, Mississippi, and elsewhere with Dr. King.) When I first went to work as a disc jockey in Vidalia, Georgia, in 1973, vestiges of the Old South were quite evident, from driving by a building where you could still see a bricked-up doorway with fading paint that read "Colored Entrance" to a radio commercial running on the station I was going to work for from a local palm reader where the tag line was "Readings for colored and white." And even though that was a little over 45 years ago, racism is something that still IMHO pervades our society but sometimes in more subtle ways than back then. So a movie like "Green Book" will hopefully get you to think or at least get you to look at our society in a different way. Excellent film and a message that everyone can benefit from. End of lecture.
That'll do it for now. Have a great week, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
