Sole Searchers Newsletters

Anacapa on the Spectre 2/17/2008

What a great day for diving! Bromley, Andrea H. & I had some of the best local visibility I have ever seen on Sunday at Anacapa. 40+ feet was the norm! We hit Outer Coral Reef, Channels, Underwater Arch, & Rat Rock, South side. Amazing terrain featuring swim through canyons, drop off walls, kelp forests, and the great arch greeted us. Depths were not great, so the dives were nice and long. The spiny brittle stars were so thick, they looked like tall grass in a meadow. Quite a sight! The sea lions insisted on playing with us, as well as lots of the usual suspects… Harbor Seals, Cabazon, Garibaldi, lots of Blacksmith, baby Halibut, Rubberlip Surfperch, Blackeyed Gobis, Sheephead, and many others I cannot identify! Water temps were around 54 degrees, with very little current or surges. The hot tub was cooking, Tim fired up the BBQ’s on this sunny Sunday in February, and all were pleased. The highlight of the day came when someone on board spotted a large purple jellyfish, and pointed it out to me. Wow… what an odd creature!

Pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9175704@N02/sets/72157603932569724/detail/

First and foremost, I would like to thank the following dive shops, and persons for contributing to our February raffle.

Sport Chalet
Hollywood Divers
Jeff Laity
Anastasia Laity

Also thank you Jack Leeflang for being our raffle chair.

We had some great prizes to give away at our February meeting, and great thanks goes out to those who contributed to our raffle. Your support of our club helps keep it a “fun club.” My personal take on diving is “Life can be hard, diving should be fun.” And if we keep the activity of diving fun, we dive more, the more you dive, the more experienced you become, so hopefully you’ll become a safer diver at the same time. Well you get the idea.

Our guest speaker for February meeting was Nikki Pieper. She gave us some pointers on underwater photography, and a way to organize and present those images using a service called Creative Memories. You can check out the service, and I’m sure if you have any questions, Nikki will gladly answer them for you. You can contact her through Hollywood Divers, or check out her website at divinin.com.  In fact, she has a trip to Borneo in May if you’re interested. They’re diving Sipadan, Kapalai, and Mabul.

As you can see below under “March Speaker Info.” Lisa Queen has generously volunteered to give our club a PADI Equipment Specialty presentation next month. The presentation is free to anyone, but if you would like a PADI Equipment Specialty certification along with it, then there is a nominal fee of $20 for club members. Oh yes, you also need to have your C-card, or a photocopy. It’s such a great deal that I’m bringing my $20, and my C-card. Thank you Lisa!

For those of you going to the Avalon Harbor Cleanup (see more info below), please utilize the club group e-mail to request carpooling. You do need to be a member in order to be on the group e-mail list, so if you haven’t joined yet, more reason to join the club.

We also have some new boat dives added thanks to Shawn and Bromley. Thanks guys, you’re awesome! Also Shawn sent a link to a very interesting website called Vintage scuba supply. I really want one of those oval dive masks now.

The Philippines trip is sold out now (23 members are going), but there’s already talk about Cozumel for next year. It looks like the trend is to dive the Pacific side one year, and then the Caribbean side the next. Of course there’s always the Sea of Cortez too

PADI Equipment Specialty
MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2008

PRESENTED BY:

LISA QUEEN, PADI OWSI

AS A BENEFIT OF BEING A MEMBER OF THE SOLE SEARCHERS DIVE CLUB AND THE COST OF A PADI PIC CARD ($20.00) YOU CAN EARN YOUR PADI EQUIPMENT SPECIALTY CERTIFICATION

THE MEETING IS FREE LIKE ALWAYS, THERE IS ONLY A CHARGE IF YOU WANT TO GET THE SPECIALTY CERTIFICATION

Through the PADI Equipment Specialty Course you will get familiar with the operation and maintenance of Equipment

Learn about equipment, theory, principles, operation, routine and recommended care, maintenance and equipment storage. Common problems with equipment and recommended professional maintenance procedures. Simple suggestions for comfortable equipment configurations and an introduction to new equipment

PREREQUISITE: MUST HAVE A PADI OPEN WATER OR QUALIFING CERTIFICATION FROM ANOTHER ORGANIZTION

THIS EQUIPMENT SPECIALTY CERTIFICATION CREDITS TOWARD THE PADI MASTER SCUBA DIVER RATING

PLEASE BRING YOUR CURRENT CERTIFICATION CARD OR A COPY

This is a great opportunity to join the Club and reap one of the many benefits

Here is the list of the winners. It’s long. Jack Leeflang
$25 gift card- Kaz Aizawa
$25 gift card- Jimmy Quan
multi hanger- Jimmy Quan
nylon headstrap- Jimmy Quan
dry sack- Wendy
heavy duty scissors- Shelly
weight belt strap- John Marin
mini retracator- Jimmy Quan
So. Cal. dive book- Jimmy Quan
weight bag-Shelly Meachen
calender-Tami Ursem
calender-Wendy
T shirt-Gary
pelican case- Dave Gaines
ball cap-Kaz Aizawa
ball cap-Bromley
air card-Dave Gaines
air card- Dave Gaines
nitrox card- Gary Faland
computer program- Wendy

Nikki Pieper

Most of the club members probably remember Nikki Pieper, and remember that she is an excellent and enthusiastic speaker, with lots of interesting topics. For our February 11 meeting she will be talking about managing digital photographs and putting together StoryBooks, a great way to display all of your dive photos! She also will talk about an upcoming trip to Borneo trip (May 21-31 2008)

For those of you who do NOT know Nikki, here is her bio:

Nikki Pieper started diving in 1996 and soon fell in love with it once she got a camera in her hands and shot her first photo of a sea lion. Underwater Photography quickly became her favorite activity underwater. Fish identification naturally followed as a close second since people always want to know what fish are in the pictures. She’s dived all over the world and still loves California waters with the abundant life in the kelp forests. Teaching others to dive is a joy to Nikki. She is a NAUI, PADI and SDI Instructor teaching all levels with Underwater Photography being her favorite class. Being a travel agent she also puts together many of our exotic dive trips to places in the Caribbean, Central America, Asia-Pacific and anywhere else they’ll let her go.

Full Calendar Here!

Monday February 11 Dive Club meeting at El Torito. Speaker Nikki.
Saturday February 23 Avalon Cleanup See article below.
February 24 Magician
March 28-April 6 Philippines A spot may have opened!
April 12 Refugio Contact lars@larsdennert.com
April 19 Sea Bass