Sole Searchers Newsletters

It was great seeing many Sole Searchers at Chamber night.  Chamber Night is becoming a Southern California dive community social event, but the main purpose is to raise funds for the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, and boy did we ever.  Below is from Karl Huggins.

The first accounting last night at Chamber Evening indicated that Chamber Day 2009 raised $115,000 to support the USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber! This is a very impressive figure, especially in the current economic environment.

One reason Chamber Day works is because of the wide participation of the Divers, Dive Boats, Dive Shops, Dive Clubs, Equipment Manufacturers, Publishers, and other Diving (and Non-Diving) Related Organizations. The other reason it works is because of the time and effort our Chamber Day Steering Committee puts in planning and organizing over the five months leading up to the event. Members of the Chamber Day Steering Committee this year included: Rusty Berry, Paul Dimeo, Clara Galvan, Linda Gorman, Roy Houston, Debbie Karimoto, Laurie Kasper, Ken Kurtis (chair), Steve Ladd, Jerry Lewis, Alberto Mantovani, Jerry Nickelsberg, Annette Rocha, Mark Tulin, and Tom Wetzel.

And we are not done yet. Since some of the Chamber Day fleet of dive boats did not run yesterday because of weather concerns, we will be working with them to set up an alternate date for the dives and tour of the Chamber. If you were scheduled on one of these boats, we will be in contact with you to let you know what the plans are (we kept back 1/3 of the raffle prizes for you).

Once again, thank you all for your support!!!

Karl Huggins – Director, USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber

After being a staple magazine in California dive stores for 25 years, CDN creates a strong online presence with its newly revamped website.

California Diving News is proud to announce a newly redesigned CADivingNews.com. The newest version will include a searchable database featuring articles dating back to the inception of the magazine 25 years ago. The new site will also include a searchable database of stores and boats throughout California and surrounding states. The dive boat trip calendar, an immensely popular feature on its previous sites and in the magazine itself, has also become much more user friendly. The site was designed to let any diver, California native or potential California visitor, research dive sites, locate a store or look up a boat trip, all in one place.

When designing the site, CDN wanted to put the most amount of information possible at the diver’s fingertips. “There have been so many good articles published in CDN over the years, we wanted a way to let everybody out there access it,” said marketing director Christopher D. Sheckler. “We want everyone to have the opportunity to learn about the hundreds of dive sites that are along the shores of California. We really believe this is the premier website for California divers. Finally, one website has just about anything you wanted to know about California scuba diving.”

The site also includes past articles about diving techniques, photography, marine life and gear reviews, written by regular contributors such as Bruce Watkins, Nancy Vander Velde, Bonnie Cardone, Ken Kurtis and Dale and Kim Sheckler.

Visit the new California Diving News website at www.cadivingnews.com or for more information e-mail: mail@cadivingnews.com.

Sport Chalet is offering Free Discover Scuba’s on the third Saturday of every month. If any of the Club members have friends that want to try Scuba, they can do it for Free! All they need is a bathing suit and towel, they’ll supply all the rest of the equipment.

The new Sport Chalet building in La Canada had its Grand Opening on the weekend of 8-22-08.  Loading the car with my wife, son, and Jimmy, we went to check it out on Sunday. The new store is pretty huge compared to the cozy Sport Land building they used to occupy across the street.

Apparently they had such a successful sale weekend, that they had to open the warehouse on Sunday to send truckloads of merchandise to fill the emptying shelves.  “It’s like Christmas shopping season,” said one of the floor manager.   Of course, I was more interested in checking out the new dive shop then all the other sporting goods, but it’s good to hear they were doing well.

The dive shop is located right near the front by the cashiers to the left of the entrance.  For the air fill station, head to the wall with all the masks and snorkels, and then take a right.  For the pool, head straight toward the sign that says “Scuba training area.”

And here’s what the pool looks like.  It’s a nice size pool for scuba classes.  I hear the Arcadia store as well as the Burbank store will be using this pool for scuba classes.  You can see divers already training, ready to start their underwater adventure.

When Kaz mentioned that he wanted to check out the SCUBA Show to help plan the next club resort trip, I figured it would be a great opportunity check out some new wetsuits. Being an avid beach diver, I’ve gotten plenty of use out of my old Body Glove suit and it just isn’t as warm as it used to be. Kaz had JMJ cut him a custom suit and he is really happy with it.

In reality, what I wanted was a semi dry suit. My zipperless Body Glove has a fair number of folds that allow water to creep in. A drysuit keeps all the water out but at the cost of carrying much more lead and about fifty percent more swimming resistance. Drysuits also have multiple valves that don’t much like beach sand or rocky entries for that matter.

So back at the Show, we alternated between resort booths and wetsuit manufacturers. At one point we stopped in at the Hollywood Divers booth which was packed with people. We stood in line to say hi to Nikki as I hadn’t seen her for quite a while. As we chatted, I noticed that people were furiously filling out slips of paper to enter a drawing. Turns out they were giving away a Semi-dry wetsuit! I can’t pass that drawing up!

I didn’t think much more of it. Experience at our club raffle has shown that it’s always the most fun when someone, really in need, gets something they need. More often than not, I notice that when the newest people in our club win, they have the biggest smile because they often have very little gear to begin with. That suit will go to someone who really needs it. I still have have a suit I can use for a while and just I’ll start looking for a new one.

The SCUBA Show came and went and I tried on a few suits here and there but didn’t find a suit that fit my frame without some expensive cutting. While sitting at the July club meeting my phone beeped with a new email from Hollywood Divers announcing the winner of the contest. Wouldn’t you know it, I guess I needed that suit because there was my name. I was ecstatic!

The next day I shot on over there to check out the prize. Hollywoodivers is near the 134 and 101 Freeways and pretty easy to find with validated parking in their structure. Turns out the wetsuit is a Scubapro Nova Scotia 6.5mm semi-dry. With double skin in seals, a nicely designed drysuit zipper, a fleece type lining and an included hood it looked to be cozy warm. Nikki pulled one off the rack and said, “Give it a try.” The off the rack suit fit pretty well and she said, “Your good to go.” Good thing because it got hot quickly. I crawled back out and asked for a tour of the shop.

Many of you already know Nikki as she has presented to the club on creating photo books and dive trips she has organized. What you may not know is that Hollywoodivers caters to advanced divers. The shop is stocked with the experienced diver in mind. Steel tanks for sale; I didn’t see any aluminums. Reels, backplates and rebreathers litter the shop. Recreational gear abounds too. Less seen brands like Atomic , HydroOptix and Uwatec are carried there for discerning tastes. Need another cert? A full range of PADI, NAUI, SDI and TDI courses are offered regularly as well as having one of only fifty GUE instructors in the country. Besides mixing air, they mix Nitrox and Trimix too.

Ok, maybe I’m sounding like an ad but I was impressed and since my CPR/AED has expired, I think I’ll paste that on their Resue course when I get the chance. Maybe I’ll just take that new suit along. It’ll have a few dives on it by then. If nothing else I’ll give it the plunge at the Aug 2nd Picnic dive at Leo Carrillo. See you there! Lars

    Beach diving in Southern California is easy, fun and exciting. Clear, life-filled waters, and game (including lobster) are right in Southern California’s back yard. Southern California’s most outstanding beach dive sites—70 in all—are covered in the newly released book A Diver’s Guide to Southern California’s Best Beach Dives, 4^th Edition.

All information in this revised edition has been updated. Many new dive site chapters have been added. Inside, you will also find informative and entertaining sidebars on marine life, hunting, photography, beach diving techniques and more.

Dive sites covered were chosen for their consistently good conditions, quantity and quality of marine life, and ease of the dive. Site descriptions include native marine life, depths, skill level required, hazards, facilities, directions, important phone numbers, website addresses, and more. Detailed maps are included with many of the dive site descriptions. This 4^th edition has many stunning color photos. Also included are beach diving tips to make your excursion as fun and easy as possible.

A Diver’s Guide to Southern California’s Best Beach Dives, 4^th Edition is published by California Diving News, the foremost authorities in California underwater exploration. This guide is authored by Dale and Kim Sheckler, editors of California Diving News. It is the most extensive and detailed guide of its type available. Additional books from California Diving News include A Diver’s Guide to Monterey County and A Diver’s Guide to Northern California, both by Bruce Watkins.

A Diver’s Guide to Southern California’s Best Beach Dives, 4^th Edition is 6” X 9”, 156 pages with numerous color photos. The book is available at Western dive stores or by sending $24.95 to Saint Brendan Corporation, P.O. Box 11231, Torrance, CA 90510 or visit www.saintbrendan.com on the web. Dealer inquires call (310) 792-2333

Email mail@cadivingnews.com to request a review copy