Reef Seekers Dive Co. Home Page

• • • REPAIR DEPARTMENT IS UP & RUNNING • • •
Contact Robert Stark directly at 310/947-8523 or RSREPAIR@PACBELL.NET
(Please note that Robert's in Aruba through August 4.)

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Call us at 310/652-4990 to join in on any of these activities:
Upcoming local trips & beach dives in 2010:

• Sat., July 31 - Great Escape to Catalina (over half full - special departure time @ 5:00AM)

• Wed., August 11 - Redondo Canyon night dive (meet at 8:00PM)

        • Sat., August 14 - Redondo Canyon daytime dive (meet at 9:00AM)
        • Sun., August 29 - Great Escape to San Clemente Island
                        (staterooms available - 12:30AM departure)

• Wed., September 8 - Redondo Canyon night dive (meet at 8:00PM)

        • Sat., September 25 - Great Escape to Farnsworth/Catalina backside
                        (staterooms available - 4AM departure)

For our full 2010 schedule, click here: http://www.reefseekers.com/FLYERS/2010%20RSD%20Boat%20&%20beach%20sked%20(final).pdf

Need rental gear for these trips? Get a 20% discount at Hollywoodivers near Universal City, Ocean Adventures in Venice, or Scuba Haus in Santa Monica
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Upcoming 2010 vacation trips:

        • October 10-17 - Sea of Cortez on the Don Jose (out of La Paz - our 23rd year doing this trip)

• January, 2011 - Easter Island (TBA - have just started finalizing dates)
• February 13-19, 2011 - Manatees & Caverns in Florida (Crystal River & Ginnie Springs)

GET FULL INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: http://www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
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What a lovely we had in Avalon on Sunday. The vis was so-so (about 30-40 feet and particulate in the water) but the animal life was outstanding.

Our group ended up doing three dives overall, an hour dive and then two 45-minute dives (with lunch in-between). Highlight of the day had to be the (fleeting) sight of not one but TWO giant Black Sea Bass. But it was only a glimpse as they went streaking by, as if they were responding to an alarm bell. But they were huge and others reported seeing them (plus a third one) in the Park over the last few days.

There were also a lot of Bat Rays sighted, many Treefish (including lots of juvies), lots of Scorpionfish, some juvy Pile Surfperch, a huge school of Jack Mackerel, many juvy Blacksmith, the usual compliment of Kelp Bass, Garibaldi, Blue-Banded & Black-Eyed gobies, and - best of all - we even found an Arrow Crab.

Normally you'd expect this to be an animal you only find in warm water but I've seen them at Catalina before. They are likely a remnant of the last El Nino, when these animals migrated northward on the warm waters, settled in to Catalina, and stayed. (Good thing they didn't land in Arizona or the folks there would want to deport them.) The Arrow Crabs have likely adapted to our colder waters and although they're a rare find, they're findable.

To see the Arrow Crab (bottom row) and some of the other cool things we saw on our dives, click here: This Week (in pictures) at Reef Seekers .

All of this bodes well for our trip on the Great Escape this coming Saturday. We're going to Ship Rock and we've still got about 10 spots left (as of this writing). Remember that this is our experiment of leaving early, at 5AM, so that we can be in place and diving by around 7:45AM, but at also means we'll be back in San Pedro around 3:30PM. It makes the day a bit easier in terms of lunch, because we don't have to interrupt the dive day (which would normally go until around 2:30PM) for food. Instead we'll serve breakfast during the first surface interval and lunch as we leave the island.

Give us a call at 310/652-4990 to grab one of the final spots. Cost is $130 ($5 discount for Reef Savers) which includes food and up to three airfills and all the fun you can handle. Remember that you can board the boat anytime after 9PM Friday night (we'd like to do the briefing at 10:45PM), go sleep, and wake up at Catalina. It’s gonna be fun and I hope you can join us.

Next local Great Escape boat trip after this will be Sunday, August 29, with the intended destination being the backside of San Clemente Island (Seal Harbor, Swiss Cheese, etc.). There are still staterooms available for this along with plenty of regular spots as well.

We're starting to get down to the relative wire for our Sea of Cortez trip October 10-17. Definitely more spots available than I'd like at this point but it is what it is. But it’s always a great trip, even in the years when we've had weather problems (and we're due now for a weather-problem-free trip), and it’s one of those trips that always produces at least one of those Lifetime Memories that you'll be talking about for years to come. Maybe this is your year to go with us???

We're also trying to nail down the Easter Island trip in January. The first thing is to decide which week we should go. According to the hotel, it'll be less crowded in the first half of the month than in the second half, but I‘m open to any week. Once we get the dates down, we'll then need to look into the flight routing to get there. The most direct route is LAN Chile, through Santiago or Lima, but it’s a bit pricey. It’s cheaper to go through Papette, Tahiti (on Air Tahiti Nui), but they don't fly into Easter Island (on LAN) every day from there.

I sent an e-mail out Sunday morning to all those who were on my initial “interested-in-going” list. If you didn't get one of those, let me know and I'll send it to you. Regardless of how the airfare shakes out, it looks like the land portion (up to 3 dives/day, hotel w/breakfast daily, some land tours of the giant stone heads, & crew tip) will run somewhere around $2200 or so. And if you’ve got miles on American (which partners with LAN), you might be able to do the air on miles (which is what I’m looking into). But it’s going to be a very special trip and one you should be thinking about. (Also note that I’m probably going to be limited to only 10 divers - but can add non-divers beyond that number - on this trip due to the capacity of the dive boats.)

Finally, we end on a very happy and congratulatory note. We went to a summer party Saturday at Hal Greenberg’s but the invitation mentioned not to worry about bringing any food since Hal would have the evening catered. A bit unusual for him, but the radar was up. And so we were very pleased to walk in to Hal’s to see the caterers, a DJ, and photographers. You see, this wasn't going to be “just” a summer party at Hal’s. It was a wedding reception.

It seems that Hal and longtime girlfriend Day Vinson tied the knot earlier that afternoon and invited their friends to join them for an unannounced celebration of their union. They're planning on honeymooning at some unspecified time in Paris, even though I explained to Hal that there’s no diving there. (Oh well.) If you'd like to send congrats to the happy couple, you can do so through Hal’s e-mail address: hag52@aol.com. On behalf of all of us at Reef Seekers, congrats, and here’s to many happy years together.

And that’s about it for now. Have a great week, and let’s go diving soon!!!

- Ken