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.
Big congrats goes out to Melani, Jovy, Gary Faland, Heather, and Sheree, for getting their rescue diver certification. I hear Nelson will also finish up soon. Good job everyone!
Sheree said “It was definitely the hardest diving thing we’ve ever done but oh so gratifying and confidence building.”
We thank Sport Chalet for their generous donations of raffle prizes to our club!!!
And the winners for the October club meeting raffles are….
Dry box ——- Dean Greenman
Mask Strap——-Dean Greenman
Dive saver kit—–Gary Falung
First aid kit——Gary Tollack
Wrist slate——–Bromley Beadle
Lobster dive book——Ricardo Kalfyan
Tube signal float—–Jimmy Quan
Multi Tool—-Jovy Belmonte
$100 Sport Chalet Gift certificate—–Liliana Ortiz
Sheepishly I’m categorizing this article under Dive Reports though the water was zero visibility on the short night dive but Refugio is about so much more than diving. We’ve been going for years and reserving extra spots for whomever wants to join. This year we ended up with seven sites and I found out that you are allowed to have three vehicles on a site.
We got up there on Friday, set up camp and relaxed in the sun until others trickled in. Gary had brought a couple of kayaks and Lucy brought a double, two of which was thoughtfully donated for use by Sport Chalet. Kudos and thanks to Sport Chalet and Gary and Lucy. Gary and I paddled out to the kelp bed on the south side to check the conditions and they didn’t look ideal so we headed off to the north side and played in the swells with the surfers until it started to get dark. I figured at least my wetsuit got wet even if it didn’t get compressed. That night people filed in to camp and we all told stories around the fire. A couple of serious divers went for a dip but it didn’t pan out. No worries, the showers are hot.
Early the next morning we heard the sound of rain drops but by early morning the clouds had burned off and the sun shone brightly on our camp. We spent the day chasing the kids, bike riding, walking down the beach and trying to give kayak lessons. Kayak lessons are no substitute for getting dumped a few times in the surf and the students learned quickly after that. They had fun though and four at a time would try their hand at the water. Others drove in to Solvang for a lunch and explore. The bikers reported that the trail to El Capitan had been fenced off due to imminet collapse which required lifting bikes. We hooked up the bicycle trailer, loaded in the kids and Gary to go explore. We ended up on a quiet beach instead of braving the cliff. On the way back we found Kaz strolling in the afternoon sun. We put him on a bike and insisted he get some practice. By Saturday night we had the full contingent of people show up in camp: Fin, Mary, Gary, Kathleen, Lucy, Steve, Kaz, Jimmy, Soco, Jesus, Juni, Jessica, Enrique, Daniel, Esperanza, Erika, Glenn, Cecille, Cecilia, Cecilia (yep three), Max, Sven and me (Lars). Hopefully I forgot no one.
The fire was stoked properly. Cecilia, my wife, made her Ceviche salad with chips. One of the other Cecilias brought quiche. Mary cooked sausage with honey mustard. Someone else had a delicious spread of cheese. Fin made some toxicly sterilizing Margaritas which preempted all the bottles of wine that people assisted with. Those were only the appetizers. People would sneak off to cook their main courses. We ignited the BBQ and piled on a few pounds of Carne Asada and sauteed mushrooms feeding anyone who looked lonely and hungry. Kaz and Jimmy brought a sinful cheesecake for desert and I helped myself to S’mores after we settled back to the fire. Juni broke out the guitar and with a neighboring camper from Oregon, we pelted out songs if we could manage to remember the verses. They went on long after I retired to bed.
Another spectacular day emerged on Sunday with just some wind in the morning. Many didn’t crawl out of bed until late. Apparently they had a fun night. After a relaxing breakfast, we started clearing and packing our gear. The kids helped pack the truck. We moved to the day use area and went for a walk up the beach to watch the surfers ride in on the wind swept tide. Others lay on the beach tanning themselves in the October sun that is California.