Sole Searchers Newsletters

Szilvia Gogh at our Sept meeting

shawn_broes — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:42:49 +0000

Please join us in welcoming Szilvia Gogh this Monday night.
I had a change in schedules, and she was gracious enough to come out on short notice
(although she’s been on my hit list for some time).

Many of you may know her from her days in our local Burbank dive shop, her great photos, or her Miss Scuba group.
She will hopefully talk about exploring the Red Sea, or whatever she feels like!
Since 1989 Szilvia has been involved in International Competition Level Orientation Diving, and has logged close to 5000 dives, including training, competition, and recreational dives. She decided to travel around the world and make a living of scuba diving. She has lived and dived pretty much all around Europe, Australia, Thailand and Mexico. In 2003 she became a Course Director. She is proud to be the youngest female world-wide ever excepted to become a CD. She teaches dive instructor courses for the LAPD Dive Unit leaders, works as a safety and stunt diver in the motion picture industry. Recently she worked on Green Hornet, Piranha 3D, Flash Forward and Desperate Housewives.
She loves to travel off the beaten path to expose herself to anything new and unusual, as she believes this is how we learn more about local culture and people. She is a founder of Miss-Scuba, the online resource for female divers. www.miss-scuba.com. Miss Scuba is a culture of its own; an expression of free will, untamed souls, a rebellion against mediocrity and the yearning for finding adventure and excitement in life.
She is-
PADI Course Director
PADI Specialty Instructor Trainer
EFR Instructor Trainer
DAN Instructor Trainer
Dive Travel Specialist
SAG Member
Stunts and Water Safety

http://www.szilviagogh.com
http://www.miss-scuba.com
http://www.oceanadventuresdiveco.com/about_us_staff.asp

July and August raffle winners!

Fishtail — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 22:28:07 +0000

Here are your lucky raffle winners! Great thanks goes out to Hollywood Divers for their contribution to our monthly raffle.

August Raffle winners

Trauma shears: Barbara Potter
Wrist strap: AC Krinke
Mask strap: Cesar P.
Defog: Laura Steckler
Aussie hat: Dave
Micro retractor: Kaz
Document holder: Rosa G.
Dry bag: Jimmy Q.
Mask: Chris
CSTR Polo shirt: Dave G.

July Raffle winners

Underwater Magnifier: Jimmy Q
Lanyard: Gary T.
Mini pocket light: Gary F.
Pelican 1020 case: Kaz
Pelican 1010 case: Mike Mendelle
Beanie: Lars Dennert
T shirt: Michelle Baden
Ball cap: Jovy B.
Yukon dive card: Gary F.

California Ships to Reefs for August 9 meeting

shawn_broes — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 05:21:39 +0000

This Monday we have Kevin Sullivan of California Ships to Reefs returning to our club to update us on everything that’s been going on with their great organizattion.

California Ships to Reefs vision is to establish a regional system of reefed ships along the California coast for purposes of an international dive destination, to enhance the tourism industry centered on fishing and diving, and to improve and enhance the California fish populations.

California Ships to Reefs was originally a committee of San Diego Oceans Foundation (SDOF). In 2000, SDOF reefed HMCS Yukon, a former Canadian Navy frigate. Subsequent studies of Yukon have demonstrated that it is not only a premier dive site, but an economic success for the San Diego area.

Since 2000, the HMCS Yukon has proved to be even better for the local economy of San Diego that the RAND report projected. RAND 2001 projected that the costs of approximately $1.2MM would be recovered in approximately 12 years. In fact, Yukon has injected approximately $4.5MM per year into the local economy, with $450,000 going into the City of San Diego tax revenues.

In 2005, Dick Long and John Daley of SDOF decided to make California a statewide premier dive destination and took the Ships to Reefs message on the road.

Come on out & let’s support one of our best local groups!

http://www.californiashipstoreefs.org/

UB88 at our June meeting

shawn_broes — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:27:16 +0000

Monday, June 14, we have Kendall Raine and John Walker, of the UB88 organization. I mentioned it briefly at our last meeting, but here’s a short version of who they are from their website.

The UB88 Project began in early 2001 as a collaboration between Gary Fabian and Ray Arntz to locate the elusive WWI German submarine UB88. The story of that collaboration, through the discovery of the sub, the addition of deep divers Kendall Raine and John Walker, photo documentation of the sub and reproduction of rare photographs and wartime records, is recounted on their website http://www.ub88.org/.

What began as a search for one sunken vessel has evolved into a quest to locate other “lost” submerged wrecks. Sometimes this involves solving mysteries surrounding their crews and bringing closure to families, some of whom have wondered for decades as to the fate of their loved ones. These wrecks are both ships and aircraft. Each is afforded a section on the UB88.org website and they have compiled histories of the crews, the loss of the craft, history of the respective search efforts and photo documentation of the craft then and now.

From Gary and Ray’s work on the UB88 came a growing collaboration with aircraft archaeologist Pat Macha (aircraftwrecks.com). Pat’s work centers on finding lost aircraft, civilian and military, in the mountain and desert regions of California. Working with Pat, the Project is in its fifth year of trying to locate the remains of Gertrude Tompkins Silver and her North American P-51 Mustang which went missing in 1944 - presumably in Santa Monica Bay. During the search for the missing P-51D, the Project located, identified and documented the wreck site of a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star in Santa Monica Bay which went missing on a training flight in 1955. Pat also collaborated on the Project’s location and documentation of the Convair B-36 Peacemaker lost off San Diego, CA in 1952.

They maintain active search efforts for other submerged wrecks off the Southern California coast and publish our finds from time to time.

Kendall Raine

Kendall Raine is Executive Managing Director of Marshall & Stevens, Inc. where he leads the Financial Institutions Group. In his off hours, Kendall is an active technical diver with special interests in shipwreck and underwater cave exploration. Kendall was a lead diver on the discovery and salvage of gold coins from the Civil War era side wheel paddle steamer S.S. Brother Jonathan, the discovery and photo documentation of the German U-boat UB88, the discovery and photo documentation of a Convair B-36D in the ocean off San Diego, California and most recently of a lost Lockheed T-33 jet trainer off Santa Monica, California. He has also dived on deep wrecks including the Andrea Doria, Pan Penn, Norness, Triple Crown, Comet, Zillah, U. S. S. Wilkes Barre and U. S. S. Ozark. Kendall is also currently involved with on-going survey of several the largest known underwater cave systems, located near the village of Tulum, Mexico. In addition, Kendall has assisted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Enforcement Bureau in the recovery of drowning victims from deep water near Catalina Island and in Lake Castaic, CA.

John Walker

John Walker is an IUEC Elevator Constructor and has been a certified diver since 1978. His occupation is what helps him pursue his true passion, exploring our world, underwater. His exploration is diverse, extending from beaches and lakes to shipwrecks and caves. John was an underwater educator from 1984 to 2004, specializing in mix gas diving and overhead environments such as caves and shipwrecks. He had taught through accredited agencies such as NAUI, IANTD and GUE. He is an accomplished cave cartographer and wreck explorer, diving hundreds of shipwrecks such as the USS Monitor, USS Wilkes Barre, UB88 as well as many aircraft casualties. But nothing intrigues him more than finding the skeletal remains of ancient human and prehistoric animals or Mayan pottery thousands of feet inside of a water filled cave. Since John’s retirement from teaching scuba, there is a better chance of finding him behind a video camera underwater than a chalk board in the class room.
Ken’s very passionate about this, so it should be very cool! He’s bringing stuff not found on the website, and will also talk about the process of wreck archaeology, location, and identification. He will touch on tech diving theory and practice, as well as show some really cool cave diving videos.

Is is just me, or does this sound amazing?
Please join us in giving our very best Sole Searchers welcome!

Casino Point dive was thankfully not a blast

Fishtail — Tue, 11 May 2010 05:27:33 +0000

On Saturday May 1, Bromley, David, John, and I took the Catalina Express to Avalon to dive Casino Point. The weather was perfect, and Bromley was kind enough to help me break in my new dry suit. For me, it was the first time diving a dry suit, but it all went pretty well. Amazing how you don’t feel cold at all at 100 fsw.

During our first early morning dive in the underwater park, Bromley and I surfaced so we can adjust the weights, then Bromley says “Hey, they’re calling us in.” I look towards the shore to find a Sheriff officer waiving all of us divers out of the water. A dive accident? was my first thought. After exiting the water, we approached one of the officer and asked what was going on. “The underwater park will be closed off for the rest of the day” she said. At first she wasn’t telling us why, but soon she revealed that someone had found a World War II artillery shell right near the stairs. Ummmm… right near the stairs we just exited? Yikes! Our guess was that it was a left over practice shell from the early years. Soon, the bomb squad was called in, and the dive area was taped off.

Although Casino Point was closed off, the trip wasn’t a loss at all due to the harbor master opening up Descanso Bay for us divers. Descanso Bay is usually closed off to divers and can only be dived by permission from the Harbor Master. So, after we grabbed a quick lunch at the burger place right next to the Casino (where we chatted with Karim and his GUE friends), we walked over to Descanso Bay for our next dive. It was an easy beach entry and a short swim to the outer buoy. Following the buoy chain down, we hit bottom at about 80 fsw. John and David enjoyed the wreck of the Valient, and Bromley and I watched many large bat rays swimming around us. Oh yes, and we spotted one angle shark in the sand perfectly hidden… well almost perfectly. Anyway, the day gave us a different kind of excitement we never expected on Catalina. By the end of our dive, it was (as Shawn would say) Beer O’clock. We headed towards town and grabbed some really tall glasses of beer.

Oh yea, we never did hear a big boom, so I take it that they disposed the shell without any difficulty

-Kaz-

Wreck Diving at Santa Cruz Island

shawn_broes — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:48:54 +0000

We had our first outing of the year with Ken Kollwitz and Channel Islands Dive Adventures (CIDA) on the Raptor out of Ventura Harbor. The trip was to the wreck of the Peacock off Santa Cruz Island. The Peacock is a WWII minesweeper and sits upright on a sandy bottom at about 65′ deep.

Our first attempt to get on the wreck had to be aborted as the anchor was dragging along the bottom and only two divers managed to find it. We all managed the second attempt without any problems. The hull structure was fairly intact with some superstructure left as well. Visibility was around 40′. There was plenty of life on and around the the wreck with the most numerous, and largest, Spanish Shawls that I have seen in one place.

The second dive was at ‘No Name Reef’ with some pretty big sheephead and lobsters here. The last dive was at ‘Let’s See 2′. The urchins had been out in strength here so it was fairly barren.

Thanks to Jim Babor, Gary, Shawn, Jack and Anastasia for a great day out. You can see the photographs from the trip on the club web site.

For anyone who is interested we are looking at another trip with CIDA on July 17th again on the Raptor but this time to to Anacapa for the TBM Avenger Plane Wreck. The Avenger is a WWII Navy torpedo bomber that crashed on a training mission in the early 50’. It sits in about 115’-120’ close to a shallower reef.

Bromley

Finally, the weather improved enough to have a beach dive!

Fishtail — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:13:35 +0000

We finally had our first Sole Searchers Dive Club beach dive of the season. This year, the weather had been so bad that every time we even mentioned the words “beach dive” it would start to rain. There were 12 Sole Searchers who showed up at the new Terranea Resort (a.k.a. Old Marineland). Nine of us dove and the rest enjoyed the improved topside of the resort.

The conditions weren’t the best at Old Marineland, but I’ve dove there in worse conditions. The freedivers said as they were getting out that the vis was 4-5 ft max. I’ve dove enough times to know not to trust either overly pesimistic or overly optimistic reports of vis by other divers. The usual entry at the point looked iffy due to some larger swells coming in, so we decided to enter and exit from the cove. The cove is made up of smaller rocks making an easier entry, but it can be tricky to get your footing while the waves come in. Also, since the bottom drops off quickly, you need to put on your fins just a few feet from the shore while keeping your eyes on the waves coming in and then quickly swim past the surf zone. On a calm day, this entry is very simple, but on a day where there’s some surf, be very cautious.

We all entered and surface swam west toward the point and dropped down about quarter of the way there. At first the vis was about 8 ft at best, but as we swam deeper and farther west, it greatly improved to 10-15 ft. Also the surge was minimal at depths of 30+. The farther west we went, we saw plenty of healthy red, brown, and golden gorgonian as well as lots of fish including some large male sheephead. We spotted a good-sized octopus in between a couple of rocks and two sheepcrabs mating. Several sunflower stars were scattered throughout our dive, and being Old Marineland, we spotted some nice nudibranchs. Garibaldi were busy starting to tend their red algae to lay their eggs. The kelp looked healthier than I’ve seen in years past. I was totally happy to be back in the water at Old Marineland. I am really looking forward to the warmer months with lots of beach diving to do in our wonderful Southern California coast… did I just sound like Huell Howser? Later we ate some awesome burgers at “Five Guys Burgers and Fries” in Carson.

Thanks for a fun day! Lars, Gary T., Jimmy, Jovy, Bromley, Shawn, Sheree, Keelah, Barbara, Kari, Landen, Andrea, and John Marin.

April 12 meeting: Bob Meistrell, founder of Bodyglove

shawn_broes — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 05:05:37 +0000

Please join us next Monday, April 12 when we have Bob Meistrell, co-founder of Bodyglove,
makers of the first neoprene wetsuit. Bob’s brother Bill has passed on, but Bob still loves to get out
and talk about his love for the ocean and diving. As I understand it, he did a dive on his 81st bday to 162 feet!
That’s a foot for every year of he and his brother’s life. Nice.

Bill and Bob Meistrell

In 1953 twin brothers Bill and Bob Meistrell co-founded Body Glove when they designed the first practical wetsuit. Fifty-six years later Body Glove is one of the last family owned surf brand in the world. And it all began in a pool in Booneville, Missouri…..

Twin brothers Bill and Bob were fascinated with the water. When they were 14 years old they fashion their own diving helmet out of a vegetable can and a tire pump. They explored the bottom of a pool reading bad magazines while the other manned the air pump on the surface.

The Meistrell family packed up and moved to Manhattan Beach in 1944. They immediately fell in love with the ocean. Bill and Bob soon began surfing as balsa boards started to catch on and were among the first to glass the nose of their foam-filled plywood boards. During their time at El Segundo High School the boys bought a dive helmet for $25, it was so cheap because the previous owner died while using it. The two boys marched all over the breakwater and it opened up a whole new world for Bill and Bob.

The Meistrell’s became full-time lifeguards after graduating El Segundo High. Shortly after the brothers were drafted into the Army, Bill was sent to Korea while Bob was transferred to Monterey. Bill earned a Bronze Star during his time in Korea and Bob spent his nights surfing Santa Cruz by car light.

In 1953, Bill’s friend Bev Morgan made Bill an offer to buy into his local sports shop, Dive N’ Surf. Bev owned the shop with Hap Jacobs, who later pioneered the modern surfboard, but Jacobs wanted out, Bill accepted the offer on one condition, that his brother Bob be brought in as a partner as well. Bev agreed, Bob and Bill borrowed $1800 from their mother and each bought one third of the business. To keep themselves afloat the twins continued lifeguarding on a part-time basis.

Bob and Bill needed to find a way to combat California’s cold water. They tried everything from electrically heated flyers’ suits from the war to wool sweaters that lasted only as long as they were dry. Finally in 1953, they discovered an insulating material used in the back of refrigerators. This material was called neoprene and with it the Meistrell brothers fashioned the first practical wetsuits. Their new innovation helped them buy out their remaining partner in 1957 and Dive N’ Surf became the home of Body Glove Wetsuits. Body Glove’s success was not lost on Hollywood. Hired to consult, they provided equipment and custom wetsuits for “Sea Hunt,” the TV show that made Lloyd Bridges a star. The custom wetsuit sported by Bridges was integral to his character. They have been involved in dozens of movies since. Bill and Bob taught the entire Bridges family to dive as well as Gary Cooper, Hugh O’Brien, Charlton Heston, Jill St. John, and Richard Harris. Bill and his son, Billy even made a custom wetsuit for LA Laker legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Bill also retrieved millions in gold coins from shipwreck Brother Jonathan off the Northern California coast.

It is this history of innovation and love of the ocean that challenges Body Glove to make products to fit the needs of every waterman. Body Glove is proud to be one of the last family owned surf businesses and pledges to continually build products that enhance and protect both above and below the ocean’s surface.

May won’t be nearly as exciting, so let’s make this fun for Bob!

http://www.bodyglove.com/

House Cleaning…

Lars — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:45:35 +0000

Hi all,

If anyone is receiving calendar feeds, I have switched calendars to the google calendar and no longer updating the localendar version. The google calendar is very easy to update and (currently) has no ads. If you use google calendar personally and would like to have the dive club calendar overlaid on your own calendar (shared) just let me know and I will add you.

The calendar is also embedded on the club’s site here http://www.solesearchersdiveclub.com/calendar/index.html

The new calendar will also allow mapping locations of events. The Scuba Show event has been updated with location, Discount coupon and link to the show site.

Lars

0

Lars — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:24:39 +0000

CALENDAR ANNOUNCEMENT:

SCUBA Show 2010 — May 15-16, 2010
Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, CA

The SCUBA Show, America’s Largest Consumer Dive Expo, will take place May 15-16 at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. This is the 23rd year of this popular event. The show will consist of 76,000 square feet of diving related exhibits including new and revolutionary dive gear, travel pros (many offering show discounts), and diving experts. Several exhibitors also offer free drawings for valuable prizes. The first 1,000 people in attendance on Saturday and Sunday will receive complementary tote bags, and door prizes will be taking place throughout the day. Over $38,000 in door prizes will be given away.

Highlighting the exhibit hall will be a personal appearance by world famous artist Wyland. On Saturday he will be interacting with attendees while painting a new piece of art and on Sunday will be painting with over 200 children who have pre-registered in advance.

Legendary underwater filmmaker Stan Waterman will be headlining a weekend of seminars that include some of the most popular dive experts around. Some of the presenters include Jack and Sue Drafahl, Bruce Watkins, Dale Sheckler, Ken Knezick, Ken Kurtis, and many more. Subjects covered include underwater photography and video, marine life, dive travel, and more.

A continuous underwater film festival will be running in the exhibit hall on a three-story high screen and will feature films from around the world by over a dozen underwater imaging experts.

Exhibit hall hours are Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is $12 and includes admission to exhibit hall and film festival (seminars are an additional charge). Discount coupons are available at California dive stores, on California dive charter boats and through California dive clubs. Age 13 and under are admitted free. For information on SCUBA Show 2010 call (310) 792-2333 or visit the web site www.scubashow.com. Advanced registration online at ScubaShow.com is strongly encouraged to save time and money.