Sole Searchers Newsletters

On the weekend of August 1-3 (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), Sport Chalet will hold its annual Tent Sale Event. This year, the Tent Sale Event will be bigger than ever with great savings on top brand equipment as well as diver education classes.

Sport Chalet Tent Sale location in Southern California: Huntington Beach, Point Loma, Rancho Cucamonga, and Thousand Oaks. Oh yes, since we have some Arizona Sole Searchers, try the Sport Chalet in Tempe.

Save up to $300 off select regulators
Save up to $400 off select dive computers
Save up to $300 off select BCDs
Save up to $75 off select fins

What a deal!

PDF flyer

Congrats to the raffle winners from our July club meeting.

Multi Hanger: Shelee Lahey
Nylon weight belt: Kaz
Yellow dry case : Gary Tollack
Heavy duty scissors: Kaz
Divers value pack: Melani Pippo
U. W. Magnifier: Gary Faland
Flash Light : Gary Tollack
Quarterly Prize $100 Sport Chalet gift card: Jack Leeflang

Great thanks goes out to Sport Chalet for the donations of club raffle prizes.

Saturday August 2. Meet at the far end of North Beach parking lot at Leo Carrillo at 9 am.

The entry is from a sandy beach. The surf here breaks short sometimes, so depending on the size of the surf I’d put your fins on before entering the water (anything above 2ft for me). There is a nice kelp bed straight out about 50 yards. Most of the good diving will be done in and on the outer side of the kelp bed. The depth is pretty shallow here, around 30-40, so you’ll need to get farther out to see better vis (outer side of the kelp bed). Last time Lars and I dived here, we found an abalone. Now that was a surprise.

Bring a picnic to eat for after the dive. Lars will bring the club pop up shade, but if you have a beach umbrella, bring’em. Near the Secos Rock area you’ll find rocky cliffs with some tide pools to explore if you’d like. You can always just take a nap under your umbrella too.

Here is a jpeg map of Leo Carrillo. The yellow line on the map below indicates the road leading to the North Beach parking lot. The road goes under the Pacific Coast Highway, and then curves right towards the North Beach area. Try parking as far to the end as you can since we’ll be setting up there.

Leo Carrillo’s North Beach area is mostly all wide sandy beach with no shade.

There is a $10 fee to enter the park.

Oh yea, and get this:

Wi-Fi Servicewifi
Leo Carrillo State Park now offers AT&T Wi-Fi Service!
This service enables park visitors with wireless enabled laptop computers or personal digital assistants (PDAs) to access the Internet. Park visitors will be able to gain Wi-Fi access when they use a wireless device within about 150 to 200 feet of the Camp Store located in the park.

The park was named after Leo Carrillo (1880-1961), actor, preservationist and conservationist, served on the California Beach and Parks commission for eighteen years, and was instrumental in the state’s acquisition of the Hearst property at San Simeon. He was related by blood and marriage to a long line of distinguished original Californians. Leo’s greatest fame came from his portrayal of Pancho, the sidekick to Duncan Renaldo’s Cisco Kid, an early 1950’s TV series.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/lat_long_map/default.asp?lvl_id=255

Official Leo Carrillo State Beach information site: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=616

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

We four, Lars, Ceci, Maggie and I headed for Laguna and a high tide of 12:30 pm today.  We got to Moss Street and Woods Cove at 9:15 or so. The sets were breaking pretty big at Woods. We almost convinced ourselves we could make it through on the lull until a big lone wave came in and broke in 6 feet of water, a bit out from the usual drop zone. That’s par for Woods on big day.

We headed up to Picnic Beach next. The closest parking was 2 blocks away. It looked good there but we decided we’d try to park somewhere closer. Finally we found parking at Crescent Bay. It was mid-morning and I considered myself lucky to get a spot up the street on PCH just past a bus stop with a bench to put my tank on.

Sets were breaking at about 3 to 4 feet. Wave length about 60 feet. We entered on the left side of Crescent Bay to reach the west side of Shaw’s Cove. The lull was good so we charged in. We still got knocked down by a wave and had to turn and swim through a few more. After that little mishap it was smooth sailing. The surge was pretty active at 20 feet but soon diminished as we made our way into deeper water. We cruised out to about 45 feet deep before the reef ended in sand. Lots of little schooling fish, star fish, scallops, sea hares, lobster and some kind of bass. None of the typical game fish like sheephead or calico bass; those must be fished out here. Plenty of sea urchins though; no sheephead to eat them. Go figure…

Temp on the surface: 65+ ( I didn’t notice, it was pretty warm)

Temp at depth: 60F at 25 feet, 49F at 45 feet

Visibility: 8 to 12 feet

Swells out of the south southwest

It was sunny and hot by mid-day when we finished. Still, all in all, I’m glad we went later for the high tide. The surge would have been much worse at the mid-depths earlier in the morning at low tide.

For a late lunch we cruised up PCH to MacArthur Blvd in Corona Del Mar for burgers, shakes and fries at Ruby’s. Yummy food and a good day of diving too.

Dave and Maggie

gainesengr@earthlink.net

Photo Gallery at:

www.whaleshark.smugmug.com

In February 2008 Southern California Edison (SCE) gained unanimous approval from the California Coastal Commission to create a 150-acre man-made giant kelp forest off San Clemente.  This project, now formally called the Wheeler J. North Reef, will be the largest man-made giant kelp forest ever developed in the United States.  The speakers at our July 14 meeting will provide details about this massive project that will significantly enhance Southern California’s marine recreation resources.

Our speakers will be Dr. David Kay and Mr. Patrick Tennant from the Environmental Affairs Division at Southern California Edison. 

Dr. Kay is Manager of Environmental Projects at SCE.  He received his Bachelor’s degree in biology from UCLA in 1979, followed by a Master’s in biology in 1982 from Cal State University, Northridge.  He then pursued a Doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA, which he received in 1988.  At Edison, he managed or contributed to a variety of projects over the years under the broad umbrella of regulatory compliance with state and federal clean water and hazardous waste laws.  Since 1999, Dr. Kay has managed the environmental mitigation projects required by the California Coastal Commission for Edison’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, including construction of the Wheeler J. North Reef. 

Patrick Tennant is an Aquatic Biologist for SCE.  He received his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Biology with a minor in chemistry from California State University, Northridge.  Mr. Tennant then received a master degree in Environmental Studies from California State University, Fullerton.

After working for the Orange County Water District as a Habitat Restoration Manager for 10 years, Patrick joined SCE full time in 2005 as part of the Environmental Projects team.  Mr. Tennant’s area of expertise is marine biology, and he deals with marine monitoring programs and has assisted the team in developing the construction plan for the Wheeler North Reef.  Patrick serves as the marine advisor for emergency response at all SCE’s marine facilities.  He maintains and operates SCE’s 25-foot marine research vessel that is used for transporting dive teams and researchers to the Wheeler North Reef, San Onofre, and Catalina Island.

Patrick is a certified recreational diver and has spent most of his time diving locally, in southern California.  Among his most favorite dive spots are Catalina Island and the Channel Islands.

Fin strap: Jon Chaus
Mini retractor: Jack Leeflang
Heavy duty scissors: Bromley
Jelly fish sting: Andrea Casanova
Multi Tool: Jack Leeflang
Whistle: Andrea Horwatt
Mesh Bag: Cecilia Dennert
$25 Gift card: Gary Tollack
$25 Gift card: Lars Dennert
Yekon DVD: Dave Gaines