Sole Searchers Newsletters

The forecast called for rain with possible thunder.  It sounded like an awful day to be staging our dive gear outside at Casino Point.  I have to admit, I almost cancelled, but when I got an e-mail from John Marin saying “Andrea said she is going no matter what, and I’m going along with her,” well… I just couldn’t wimp out. Surprisingly, the day turned out to be a beautiful day with blue skies and just some scattered clouds.  Looking around I wasn’t sure if there was as many participants as last year (perhaps scared off by the weather forecast?), but there seemed to be still a good number of divers participating.   We staged our gear near the casino, right by the Hollywood Divers canopy.  Our friend Karim was there representing Hollywood Divers, and armed with some photo gear looking very high-tec.

The cleanup dive was actually a good dive with vis of 15-25.  Even though it’s a shallow dive, it’s beautiful to see the kelp with many juvenile fish schooling near them.  Also the harbor seems cleaner every year.  John was nice enough to carry the goody bag full of (heavy) found objects, as Andrea and I casually swam collecting more objects and passing it to him to carry (what a guy!).  We found the usual critters in the harbor but with the added bonus of a horn shark, a torpedo ray, and the biggest navanax ever seen by Andrea.

Feeling great after the dive, we headed for a hearty lunch with cheese burgers, kielbasa, and some tall glasses of beer.  Well, it turned out to be a great day, thoroughly enjoying the rest of the day laughing and relaxing with John and Andrea.  We really should do this again soon… and I’m so glad I didn’t wimp out.

Oh yes, I almost forgot, I saw a whale really close, around 40 feet or so from the Catalina Express as we sped our way home.  If I didn’t look just at the right moment, I would have missed it.Kaz

With water temperatures 12 degrees below normal it was perfect dry suit weather in the Florida Keys. Some really brave divers were wearing 3 mm suits.

The trip started with most of us meeting up in Miami airport where we demonstrated that a Lincoln Town car was the perfect dive vehicle. It holds 4 people and 12 bags, has room for tanks in the trunk recess and a wide bumper for putting on gear. That must be one testimonial they have not had before!

Most of our dives were with Conch Republic Divers who did an excellent job of looking after us and providing replacement equipment to anyone who needed it. The dives on the Spiegel Grove, a 510’ Navy supply ship, were the highlight of the trip for many of us with plenty of wreck penetration opportunities which were laid out with guidelines where an exit was not clearly visible.

The other wrecks we dove near Key Largo were the Eagle, a 287’ freighter lying on its side and broken in two, and the Duane, a 327’ Coast Guard cutter. All of the wrecks were accessible and well within recreational limits.

The other highlight of the trip was the Vandenberg, a 524’ missile tracking ship near Key West with the signature tracking dishes. We saw large barracuda at many of the safety stops but on the Vandenburg there were more than I had seen before patrolling the deck.

My thanks to Gary & Gary, Heather, Kathleen, Melani, Sheree, Carolyn and Kurt for making this trip. I would definitely like to do this again but preferably without the dry suit.

Bromley

Great thanks goes out to Hollywood Divers and Ken Kollowitz of CIDA for their generous raffle prize donations.

$100. boat dive certificate donated by Ken Kollwitz of CIDA:  Gary Tollack

Save a dive kit__Lars Dennert
Jon line with carabineer__Sheree
Sink the stink__Jovy
Signal mirror__Cecilia
Wet notes__Jimmy Quan
Mask strap__Ken Kollwitz
Mask strap__Jim Babor
Ball cap__Melani
Mesh bag__Cecilia
Air car__Jovy
Air car__Jimmy Quan
Air car__Kaz Aizawa
Air car__Jim Babor

And from the January meeting,

T shirt__ Alex Broes
T shirt__ Jim Babor
Ball cap__ Nelson
Dive bag__ Cesar
Dive book__ Carolyn Chester
Picture frame__ Gary Tollack
Tank carry handle__Mike Bell
Safety sausage__Cesar
Avalon map__ Jimmy
Ruby E map__ Sheree Lahey
Whistle__ Lisa Queen
Trauma shears__ Tom Ruffner
Palsar light__ Rosa Gaiarsa
Casino map__ Mike Bell
Yukon map__ Cesar
Take care  Jack

Ken is returning to our club Feb 8 with his renewed commitment to keeping our local diving interesting. We have at least two of his trips on our calendar this year, so I thought it would be great to support his new effort and have him come back out.

Channel Islands Dive Adventures mission is to offer well organized dive trips to unique and interesting destinations with a dive/travel guide present, to help foster new friendships with other like minded divers and above all to promote safe and fun diving.

CIDA is owned and operated by Ken Kollwitz, an insured NAUI Divemaster and diver for over 30 years. Ken has planned and organized many trips from San Diego to British Columbia, Canada (Ken’s favorite) and has dove the Channel Islands for over 20 years. Ken has a sense of adventure and enjoys all types of diving such as; hunting, wrecks, photography, drift, deep, tech, deco and more. He last visited us when he worked for the Sunfish dive boat as a Divemaster and Operations Manager.

CIDA organizes and plans trips (mainly charters) on various dive boats with 5 main goals in mind. Those 5 goals are to offer trips to specific unique dive destinations, to have fewer divers on trips (limited loads), to promote diver safety, to offer reasonable priced trips and above all to have fun with other like minded divers.

CIDA also has partnerships including K2 Scuba www.k2scuba.com, Divers One www.diversone.com, Scuba Nation www.scubanation.com, and some others that will benefit all divers and not only in California. The focus of the group is to provide excellent service, good pricing and something different for divers, their families and friends (just like what I have been offering with CIDA, but on a larger scale). CIDA will be setting up many events/adventures locally and abroad and would be happy to have your club on some of them.

Ken was certified at 16, had a 10 year surface interval and has been diving the last 20+ years mainly around the Ventura-Monterey-Channel Islands area. He considers himself a true cold water diver with his favorite diving around Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Other places Ken really enjoys to dive are Jade Cove, Port San Luis / Avila / Morro Bay area, Monastery beach and San Clemente Island. Ken is always looking for new exciting out of the way dive sites and hard to get too dive sites.

Ken is an insured NAUI Divemaster and a brand new NAUI Scuba Instructor. He is certified in limited wreck penetration (TDI); advanced nitrox/decompression procedures (IANTD), open water buddy for disabled divers (HSA) and he is a DAN diving emergency specialist provider.

Ken has been a member of the Channel Islands Divers dive club for the past 17 years where he has served as President and Dive Coordinator. He also has been a member and helped out with various other local dive clubs and organizations such as the Channel Islands Underwater Photographic Society and the Channel Islands Council of Divers. He has also helped out the Ventura College advanced NAUI dive program for the last 5 years.

Besides diving, Ken enjoys planning, organizing and leading dive trips locally and abroad and he really enjoys meeting new divers and working as a Divemaster. Ken believes safety is #1 and having fun is #2 .

Hope to see everyone there!