Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Zoom Seekers, Avalon, Surfing duck, and more
(please scroll down for details)
Lots of stuff for you to digest . . .
CHAMBER DAY 2021 IS UNDERWAY - You likely already knew that, but I thought we should lead with it anyhow. This is not only an important event for the diving community and our Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, but also for Reef Seekers as we've served as Ch-Day HQ since (seemingly) the dawn of time. There are three areas where Reef Seekers divers have always excelled: (1) Signing up for the Flying Dutchman, (2) Contributing to the Chamber Challenge, and (3) Signing up for our virtual Ch-Eve table. Because we're not out of the COVID woods yet, Chamber Day 2021 will be 100% virtual again this year. And while we know it's been a tough year for everyone, we've kept our Chamber open through all of this and we hope you'll be able to come through again. To find out more of the details and to sign up, go to www.chamberday.org. Thanks!!!
ZOOM SEEKERS THIS TUESDAY @ 7:30PM - Our March speaker will be well-known disaster preparedness expert Mike Emmerman, who has agreed to stay up late (he lives in New York City) to talk about "Life in the Fast Lane." While researching a series of diving fatalities in the 1990s, Mike found a correlation between a particular set of personality traits that the divers exhibited that may have contributed to actions they took on the dives that cost them their lives. Mike will discuss these traits and how we all can take steps to understand our own personal risk profiles. Q&A will follow Mike's talk. I'll send a reminder out Tuesday afternoon, but here's the Zoom link: ZOOM SEEKERS - MIKE EMMERMAN.
BIDEN'S MASK MANDATE - As many of you know, I've long been a strong proponent of wearing face coverings as COVID mitigation. Shortly after being inaugurated, President Biden signed Executive Order #13998, which mandated that masks be worn on all forms of public transportation, including ferries. DEMA sent out a reminder that this also includes dive boats. Now whether or not individual boat captains ask you to follow that is another issue, but the point is that if they do, they are simply asking you to comply with a federal requirement for which they can be cited if you don't. Please don't put them in that position.
LUXFER GETTING OUT OF THE TANK BUSINESS - If you dive with a aluminum tank, chances are it was made by Luxfer. The company announced last week that they are divesting themselves of their aluminum scuba tank manufacturing product line. Their American division has been sold, but they didn't say to whom or what the new owners will do. One thing that could come into play, and it did a few years ago, is that if any permits Luxfer holds for the aluminum tanks expire, and it happens to be a tank you own, you won't be able to get it hydro'd which means you won't be able to get it filled. This actually happened a few years ago and only a last-minute agreement to renew by Luxfer and the DOT saved thousands upon thousands of aluminum tanks from becoming obsolete. Don't panic as I'm not suggesting this is about to happen again. But keep this issue in the back of your mind and if we hear of anything going on, we'll let you know.
SCHEDULE CHANGE - We have an Avalon trip listed for Wednesday, March 17 that we're going to move to Friday, March 19 (just two days later). The reason is that it's a better boat sked on Fridays. 9AM out of San Pedro and you leave Avalon at 6PM. Plenty of time for three dives. $160/person this year. Although it's dangerous to predict conditions that far out, the Park has generally not been too crowded on weekdays and that's likely to hold, which makes for nice relaxed diving. (Plus I want to see how our new Cousteau plaque is holding up.) Give us a call at 310/652-4990 if you're interested.
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A CUTTLEFISH? - Cuttlefish (and octopuses too) are known to be fairly smart and clever. The short version of this is that some cuttlefish have passed a cognitive test given to small children. So your average Cuttlefish really may be as smart as a five-year-old. You can read more about it here: SMART CUTTLEFISH.
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME STARTS NEXT WEEK - Hard to believe, but you'll be rolling your clocks ahead one hour next Sunday at 2AM as Daylight Savings Time kicks back in. Yes, it was the beginning of November that we went off it and yes, it seems rather early this year. But the law says it goes from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November so it's actually right on schedule. But it just feels weird IMHO.
BODY-SURFING DUCK - We'll leave you with this cute video of a pet duck whose Aussie owners took him to the beach one day and discovered that he loves to body-surf and will do so for hours on end. It's pretty adorable, actually: BODY-SURFING DUCK.
And that'll do it for now. Wear your mask, wash your hands, hopefully you can get an appointment to get a vaccine, and let's go diving sometime soon.
- Ken
(please scroll down for details)
Lots of stuff for you to digest . . .
CHAMBER DAY 2021 IS UNDERWAY - You likely already knew that, but I thought we should lead with it anyhow. This is not only an important event for the diving community and our Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, but also for Reef Seekers as we've served as Ch-Day HQ since (seemingly) the dawn of time. There are three areas where Reef Seekers divers have always excelled: (1) Signing up for the Flying Dutchman, (2) Contributing to the Chamber Challenge, and (3) Signing up for our virtual Ch-Eve table. Because we're not out of the COVID woods yet, Chamber Day 2021 will be 100% virtual again this year. And while we know it's been a tough year for everyone, we've kept our Chamber open through all of this and we hope you'll be able to come through again. To find out more of the details and to sign up, go to www.chamberday.org. Thanks!!!
ZOOM SEEKERS THIS TUESDAY @ 7:30PM - Our March speaker will be well-known disaster preparedness expert Mike Emmerman, who has agreed to stay up late (he lives in New York City) to talk about "Life in the Fast Lane." While researching a series of diving fatalities in the 1990s, Mike found a correlation between a particular set of personality traits that the divers exhibited that may have contributed to actions they took on the dives that cost them their lives. Mike will discuss these traits and how we all can take steps to understand our own personal risk profiles. Q&A will follow Mike's talk. I'll send a reminder out Tuesday afternoon, but here's the Zoom link: ZOOM SEEKERS - MIKE EMMERMAN.
BIDEN'S MASK MANDATE - As many of you know, I've long been a strong proponent of wearing face coverings as COVID mitigation. Shortly after being inaugurated, President Biden signed Executive Order #13998, which mandated that masks be worn on all forms of public transportation, including ferries. DEMA sent out a reminder that this also includes dive boats. Now whether or not individual boat captains ask you to follow that is another issue, but the point is that if they do, they are simply asking you to comply with a federal requirement for which they can be cited if you don't. Please don't put them in that position.
LUXFER GETTING OUT OF THE TANK BUSINESS - If you dive with a aluminum tank, chances are it was made by Luxfer. The company announced last week that they are divesting themselves of their aluminum scuba tank manufacturing product line. Their American division has been sold, but they didn't say to whom or what the new owners will do. One thing that could come into play, and it did a few years ago, is that if any permits Luxfer holds for the aluminum tanks expire, and it happens to be a tank you own, you won't be able to get it hydro'd which means you won't be able to get it filled. This actually happened a few years ago and only a last-minute agreement to renew by Luxfer and the DOT saved thousands upon thousands of aluminum tanks from becoming obsolete. Don't panic as I'm not suggesting this is about to happen again. But keep this issue in the back of your mind and if we hear of anything going on, we'll let you know.
SCHEDULE CHANGE - We have an Avalon trip listed for Wednesday, March 17 that we're going to move to Friday, March 19 (just two days later). The reason is that it's a better boat sked on Fridays. 9AM out of San Pedro and you leave Avalon at 6PM. Plenty of time for three dives. $160/person this year. Although it's dangerous to predict conditions that far out, the Park has generally not been too crowded on weekdays and that's likely to hold, which makes for nice relaxed diving. (Plus I want to see how our new Cousteau plaque is holding up.) Give us a call at 310/652-4990 if you're interested.
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A CUTTLEFISH? - Cuttlefish (and octopuses too) are known to be fairly smart and clever. The short version of this is that some cuttlefish have passed a cognitive test given to small children. So your average Cuttlefish really may be as smart as a five-year-old. You can read more about it here: SMART CUTTLEFISH.
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME STARTS NEXT WEEK - Hard to believe, but you'll be rolling your clocks ahead one hour next Sunday at 2AM as Daylight Savings Time kicks back in. Yes, it was the beginning of November that we went off it and yes, it seems rather early this year. But the law says it goes from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November so it's actually right on schedule. But it just feels weird IMHO.
BODY-SURFING DUCK - We'll leave you with this cute video of a pet duck whose Aussie owners took him to the beach one day and discovered that he loves to body-surf and will do so for hours on end. It's pretty adorable, actually: BODY-SURFING DUCK.
And that'll do it for now. Wear your mask, wash your hands, hopefully you can get an appointment to get a vaccine, and let's go diving sometime soon.
- Ken
