Ocean Explorers
Society
July 2002
Sponsored by Ocean Enterprises
Contents
Monthly
Meeting
The meeting will be held
a week later than usual due to the holiday; Thursday July 11, 2002 6:50PM-- at Ocean Enterprises. . . No speaker yet, so bring
a few slides, we'll plan some trips and have the raffle. Meet
at Appleby's for dinner at 5:30.
From
the President
Greetings Divers. It's the day
before our June beach dive and conditions are just horrible. It
is just uncanny how crappy conditions are locally on a routine
basis.
It is for this reason that I want to let everyone know that our spring trip is now in the planning stages. The "gang" all want to go back to Curacao so we will be returning to the "Habitat" next year from May 4th through May 11, 2003. I promise that I won't be making the auto reservations!
We intend on talking to the travel specialists at the Scuba show to start working on the fall trip to an exotic location…hopefully Palua/Truck or possibly Papua New Guinea.
There are still plenty of spots on the Channel Islands trip for anyone that is interested.
Please take note that our July meeting will be 1 week later than normal due to the July 4th holiday. Don't forget to fly your flag. See you at the meeting. -- Mark Clausen
Shore
Diving
We'll plan something at the meeting,
or wait until conditions look good, then e-mail everyone.
If you want to go dive, let me know and I'll send out an e-mail to the rest of the club. If you don't have email acess, please let me know and I will be happy to send out an invitaion for you.
Club
Trips
No formal boat trips planned
for this month. The Lois Ann is running regular dive trips. You
can find their schedule at http://www.loisann.com/schedule.html
We are planning on carpooling to the SCUBA show in Long Beach on June 29th. If you want to carpool, we'll meet at the Carlsbad Country Stores lot near Starbucks (located under the flower fields off Palomar Airport Road-behind windmill) at 9:15am. We also have discount coupons good for a dollar off the admission price.
Flotsam
New Web Site Article - There's a new article on our web site about
underwater cameras. I'd appreciate any feedback and suggestions
you might have.
You Gotta Check This Out: http://momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=4251 There are just some things I would never do with a shark. This is one of them.
Volunteers Needed for Submarine Races -- Where I grew up, watching the submarine races was a polite euphemism for late night trysts in the Lawrence Hall of Science parking lot. These submarine races are for real. They hold them in Escondido every year, and they need some volunteer safety divers.
The event is Thursday, July 18 through Sunday, July 21. A commitment of only half a day is necessary to volunteer (plus, safety divers will be asked to attend an evening briefing about a week before the event. See application form for more details.)
If you have any questions about volunteering for this terrific event, please call Ellen Fenstermacher at home (evenings) at 619 280-3712. or email at efenster@cts.com.
Abalone Poachers Sentenced -- A San Diego Union Tribune article reports that two northern California men were sentenced to jail for commercially poaching abalone at Salt Point. The poacher who turned state's evidence got three months in jail while the other man recieved three years. No word on the punishment for the restaurant owner who bought the abalone.
Chocolate Lobster Dive -- The Cabrillo Aquarium is holding its annual Chocolate Lobster Dive on September 21st. Entrants search for hundreds of milk chocolate lobsters off Cabrillo beach. Each lobster is worth a prize, and some prizes are really good. This year, there will be over $35,000 in prizes given away. So, go dust off that old search and recovery chapter in your PADI advanced book. Visit http://www.cabrilloaq.org for more information.
Coastal Cleanup Day 2002 has been set for September 21st. The statewide cleanup will be held from 9am-noon. In an effort to make this year's event even bigger and better for San Diego County, I Love a Clean San Diego has joined forces with San Diego BayKeeper. They will be coordinating cleanup sites at both inland and coastal locations throughout the county. Inland sites have been added all over the state for this important cleanup to emphasize the fact that even a piece of trash dumped into our inland waterways can make its way to the ocean. Please contact Sarah Adams at volunteers@ilacsd.org for more information.
Killing the Coral -- A bacterium from the human intestine is apparently responsible for killing Elkhorn Coral in Florida and the Carribean. read the full story here. Many thanks to Mike Bear who spotted the story.
Local Diving Study -- Stewart Wong is a first year med
student at UCSD planning to do aresearch project on SCUBA
divers starting in mid-June. He is trying to see whether venous
gas microemboli form in the absence of symptoms associated with
decompression sickness. He will not require subjects to do anything
special except wear a dive computer. I would also need subjects
to perform simple pulmonary function tests at the lab at UCSD
three times: 1-2days before the dive, 1-2hrs
and 24hrs after the dive. Total time would be about one hour over
three days to do the test.
If you can help, please contact Stuart at s15wong@uscd.edu or (858) 558-6467.
Call for Entries - The Monterey Shootout - August 10th,
2002
The Monterey Shootout is now accepting underwater video entries
for review and consideration. The selected videos will be shown
at The Monterey Shootout 2002 Evening Film Festival. The Film
Festival, held at The Monterey Bay Aquarium, has become a showcase
for new and emerging videographers in California. Selected videographers
will be on stage to introduce their work.
If you would like to submit and entry for consideration please follow the guidelines listed below.
Please mail your entries by July 15th to Richard Todd - 17675
Riverbend Road - Salinas CA 93908; 831.455.2000. or drop them
off, in person, at Backscatter - 32 Cannery Row - Monterey, CA
93940 - 831.645.1082.
All entrants will be notified by July 25th if their work will be showcased.
The San Diego 3 R's - 3R's is an in-the-water snorkeling tour, jointly sponsored by the San Diego City Lifeguard Service and the San Diego Council of Divers. I've gone to a couple of these. they were a boat load of fun and very informative.
|
July 6 |
North Bird Rock 6000 Camino de la Costa |
|
July 27 |
Goldfish Point (La Jolla Caves) 1325 Coast Blvd. (old Shell Shop) |
|
Aug. 10 |
Marine Street 300 Marine Street |
|
Sept. 7 |
Hospital Point 400 Coast Blvd (south of Cuvier) |
If you would like to be added to the 3R's e-mail list, send a blank e-mail to: rocks-rips-reefs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
They use the e-mail list to send out reminders and site information 2 or 3 days before each session and to let people know of weather-related cancellations.
Los Angeles 3R's -- The Greater Los Angeles Council of Divers (GLACD) and the Los Angeles County Underwater Instructor's Association (LACUIA) have joined forces to produce an entire series of courses designed to safely introduce divers to popular, local dive sites.
Participants are required to wear a full wetsuit, mask, snorkel, and fins. A weight belt with no more than half of the normal diving weight is optional. Tanks and regulators are not allowed during the program, but may be brought along if you plan to make a dive after the class is over. After completing the in-water practice, we finish the session with a noon time Bar-B-Que, so bring along a picnic lunch and plan on socializing afterwards.
SCUBA certification is not required in order to participate in the 3R's courses!
They teach the 3R's at six different challenging dives sites each year:
|
July 13th |
Reef Point |
|
August 10th |
Point Dume |
|
September 14th |
Marineland |
|
October 12th |
White Point |
Saturday classes begin at 8:00 a.m.
Arrive and check in at 7:45 a.m.
Courses are free!
When registering for class, we request a donation of $5.
No donation requested if you have GLACD membership.
Pre-Registration will help us determine proper staffing for the event.
You can Pre-register by calling:
Greater LA Council of Divers
(310) 379-5681 (please call in the evening, calls will not be returned during the day)
Or by writing to (please pay at the event, prepayment is not necessary):
Greater LA Council of Divers
P.O. Box 6255
Torrance, CA 90504
Underwater Film Festival -- The Diving Locker is very pleased to announce the 3rd Annual San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition scheduled for Friday and Saturday evening, October 18 & 19, 2002 at the new state-of-the-art, large-format theater at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park! Last year's Film Exhibition at the San Diego Natural History Museum, was an overwhelming success and we hope this year's will be even better!
Each evening's program will consist of fourteen to fifteen short films of the undersea world, submitted by both accomplished professional and aspiring amateur underwater filmmakers and videographers.
Tickets are now available, but buy them soon because they usually sell out in a month or so.
MPLA Working
Group Formed
Fish and Game has formed working groups to help draw up a new
plan for marine protected areas. There are several that cover
various areas of the state. The first meeting of the Southern
California MLPA Regional Working Group will be:
Wednesday, July 17th
10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
West Coast Long Beach Hotel
700 Queensway Drive
Long Beach, CA
These meetings are open to the public and the agenda includes time for representatives to get input from constituents and to pass that along to the working group (45 minutes are in the agenda for constituent comments, concerns, etc.).
This working group includes LA, Orange and San Diego Counties (Pt. Dume to Mexico). The diver representatives on this group are
San Diego
Council of Divers
The next SDCD meeting is Tuesday,
July 9, at 6:30 pm at Rock Bottom Brewery. Their last meeting
featured Chuck Nicklin and was well worth attending. I don't have
their July speaker, but you can check their events
calendar, or subscribe to the SDCD mailing
list.
La Bufadora - The Dive Animals Scuba Club organizes several Camp & Dive trips south of the border. They have the reserved the dormitory-style bunkhouse at Dale's Dive Center on the cliffs overlooking the boat launch. Adjacent camping is available for those that prefer a bit more privacy or just like to camp!
This trip is open to all divers (and non-divers) that want to go. For those of you with non-diving spouses/friends/kids/whatever, this is a weekend trip that they'll equally enjoy. There's plenty to do here (hiking, horseback riding, snorkeling, shopping at the nearby village, partying in Ensenada, napping), or nothing at all. (some compadres just bring a beach chair and a book!) Last year we had 30-40 people on each trip. It was a blast!
Cost of admission is $30 (covers 2 nights of lodging, parking, breakfast, necessities like toilet paper, firewood, etc.). Diving is $30 per day for 2-tank dives. Add on tank rentals, air fills, gas, meals, sodas, cervesa and margaritas, and you'll have a dive adventure to another country for about $120 for the entire weekend (depending on how much cervesa you buy!)
And the diving is incredible...! Check out the website http://www.diveanimals.com "Where we dive" - La Bufadora and also "Club Photos 2001" for detailed info and photos of our last few trips.
Sign up now with diveanimal@pacific-ocean.com. The 15 bunkhouse spots go early. $30pp deposit required to hold your spot.
Dates of future trips:
Aug 2-4
Sept 13-15
Channel Islands - Dive trip aboard the"Vision"-July 14-16 Cost is $495.00. So far, we have four people going. Trip includes all meals and non alcoholic beverages and air fills. the sooner you book, the better your berth. 25% deposit required to hold spot. Call (805)962-1127 to book.
Other trips - We're also in the planning stage for Grand Cayman, and Palau. Cayman Madness runs from August to October. Palau is in the works for 2003.
Dacor Extreme Plus regulator with octopus; excellent condition, but needs its annual rebuild. No console, but I can supply an SPG. $200 takes it. Call Dave Ambrose at 858-679-7817 or email me at stargazer1@cox.net
Membership
Renewal rates are $20 single;
$30 for a family. Send your renewal to Mark Clausen; 1862 Willow
Way; Vista, CA 92083.
OES
Info
OES members can receive $30 off
the regular OE price for specialty classes.
Subscriptions to Rodale's Scuba Diving Magazine are available through the club for only $10. See Mark Clausen for details.
For more information: