Reef Seekers Dive Co. Home Page

P.O. Box 11634 • Beverly Hills, CA 90213

(310) 652-4990
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• • • REEF SEEKERS REPAIR DEPARTMENT • • •
Contact Robert Stark directly at 310/947-8523 or via e-mail at ReefSeekersRepair@gmail.com
(Ask Robert about our unique "Repair Pickup & Delivery Service")

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Upcoming local boat trips & beach dives in 2012 (call us at 310/652-4990 to join in on any of these activities):

(Nothing in May due to our Dominica trip)

• Sunday, June 3 - Great Escape to Farnsworth Banks (1/8 full - LIMITED load - 4AM departure, 4PM return)
• Wednesday, June 6 - Vets Park, Redondo, Night Dive (8-11PM, single tank)
• Saturday, June 16 - Vets Park, Redondo, daytime beach dive (9AM-Noon, single tank)
• Saturday, June 30 - Great Escape to Santa Barbara Island

(NOTE DESTINATION CHANGE BECAUSE WE DIDN'T MAKE IT ON 4/29 - 1:30AM departure, 6PM return)

(Nothing in July due to our Indonesia trip)
• Saturday, August 4 - Great Escape to San Clemente Island

(NOTE DESTINATION CHANGE BECAUSE WE DIDN'T MAKE IT ON 4/7 - 12:30AM departure, 7PM return)

2012 LOCAL DIVING SKEDS:
Chronological for the full year: http://www.reefseekers.com/FLYERS/2012%20RSD%20Boat%20&%20local%20dives%20(chronological).pdf
By type of dive (boat, Avalon, beach): http://www.reefseekers.com/FLYERS/2012%20RSD%20Boat%20&%20local%20dives%20(by%20type).pdf

Need rental gear? Get a 20% discount at Hollywoodivers (near Universal City) or Scuba Haus (Santa Monica).
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Want to travel??? Upcoming 2012 vacation trips:

• May 12-20 - Dominica (JUST GOT BACK!!!)
• July 7-22 - Return to Indonesia and our friends at Murex in Manado (can you say "Pygmy Seahorse" and "Hairy Frogfish"???)

• September - Bonaire (working on exact dates - leaning towards 9/22-29)
• November 6-18 - Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea, AND a total solar eclipse (SOLD OUT!!!)

GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
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With all the excitement of completing the trip back from Dominica yesterday (we started the morning in San Juan, Puerto Rico) AND celebrating my birthday when I got back to LA, I totally forgot about getting TWARS out last night . . .

BACK FROM DOMINICA - We traveled for most of the day yesterday but it's always nice to be home, even though we love the spots we go to. We had a really nice time in Dominica and would definitely put that on our list of places to visit again. I was comparing notes with a marine biologist who was also visiting Dominica for the first time and we were commenting on things like the profusion of crabs and shrimps, how there were tons of chromis, hundreds and hundreds of conies, healthy turtle population, and stuff like that. It's really interesting (at least to me) how you can be in one general region but notice difference island-to-island. We see the same thing here to some degree that there are animals you see at Catalina that you don't see at SBI and stuff like that. I got the first draft of the trip report done on the plane, still have some pictures to tweak, and will strive to have those completed by the end of the week. In the meantime, here's a few more pictures to whet your appetite:

LET'S DIVE FARNSWORTH - What are your plans for Sunday, June 3? How about a nice dive to Farnsworth Banks on Catalina's backside? We've got the Great Escape that day and the plan is to do two dives at Farnsworth and then a third one somewhere else either along the backside or the western part of the West End. The boat is woefully wide open right now but by the same token, it's still two weeks ahead of the trip with Memorial Day in-between. Farnsworth can sometimes provide the most interesting diving in the area because it's located offshore and has an extensive profusion of purple hydrocoral. It's a great dive and a gorgeous one and when the conditions are right, simply spectacular. Give us a call at 310/652-4990 to reserve your spot. Staterooms still available as well. (4AM departure, 4:30PM return.)

DID YOU SEE THE ECLIPSE? - We were landing just after it peaked, plus the marine layer had moved in to LAX so we only got a hazy glimpse. LA only saw a partial eclipse whereas further north, you had a chance to get the full view of the annular phase, which is when the moon doesn't cover 100% of the sun but leaves a thin "ring of fire" around the outline of the moon. While annular eclipses can be spectacular, they pale in comparison total eclipses, and that's what we'll be seeing (hopefully) in Australia in November for our trip there with Mike Ball to dive the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea and to get 2 minutes in the shadow of the moon during the totality phase of that eclipse.

SWIMMING HORSE RESCUED - Did you hear about the horse that swam into the ocean and was rescued? Happened up around Santa Barbara. Story and CNN video here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/17/us/california-horse-sea-rescue/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 .

NEW SHIPWRECK DISCOVERED - Don't plan on diving it though as it's 4,000 feet deep. The wreck, in the northern Gulf of Mexico, was recently discovered during a NOAA mission (which had nothing to do with looking for shipwrecks) by one of their ROVs. Read about it here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/16/world/americas/shipwreck-discovery/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 .

DREAM-LIFTER - It's not a nocturnal experience but actually the world's largest cargo plane as you can see here:

They're heavily-modified 747s used exclusively for transporting parts for the Boeing 787 Dream-Liner to Everett, WA, for final assembly. We saw one sitting on the tarmac in San Juan as we took off yesterday. Pretty cool. More info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747_Large_Cargo_Freighter .

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

- Ken