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REPLACING C-CARDS LOST IN THE FIRES -
One of my friends lost his house in the Altadena
fire. One of the things we discussed was getting
duplicate c-cards for him. If you were certified
in the early 90s or later, chances are pretty
good that NAUI or PADI - depending on who issued
your card - will have a record of your cert and
can easily issue you a replacement. But my buddy
was certified in the mid-80s, and a lot of those
records were lost when the agencies computerized
everything. On top of that, his original
instructor is deceased and the shop where he
took the lessons has closed, so none of his
original certifiers are around to vouch for him.
And while there may not be thousands of people
in this situation, he's certainly not the only
one. And the last thing you need to deal with on
top of all of the other issues you might be
facing, would be for someone to tell you that
you need to take another class to get your card
back. I e-mailed both NAUI and PADI last week to
see what we can do in situations like this,
especially when you have an active instructor or
dive shop that will vouch for the person who
needs the card. Both of agencies assured me that
they'll work with us to get your card replaced
as quickly and painlessly as possible. You can
call them to see if there's a record of your
card but if not, contact me or any other
shop/instructor who can vouch for you, and we'll
get things worked out to get you a replacement
card.
IPE ISSUE??? GET EVALUATED -
There's a problematic condition that can occur
when diving known as Immersion Pulmonary Edema
(IPE). IPE - also referred to as IPO (Immersion
Pulmonary Oedema) - is a build-up of fluid in
the lungs which makes it difficult to breathe.
This can happen during a dive or while someone
is snorkeling or swimming. The cases I'm
familiar with have involved heavy exertion but I
don't think that's always required. But the
bottom line in all of this is that if you
experience an IPE incident, you should pause
your diving until you can be evaluated by a
physician trained in hyperbaric medicine. An
Australia-based group recently came out with a
position paper about this and you can read about
it here: DIVING
AFTER AN IPE INCIDENT.
MALDIVES SPOTS HAVE BEEN FILLED -
I mentioned last week that we had one and
possibly two openings on one of our Maldives
trips and within an hour of sending out TWARS, I
had someone scoop up the spots. But we are
always happy to put you on a waiting list, no
charge for that, so if you'd like to be put on
stand-by for this or an other trip that's full,
just let us know.
BUT PLENTY OF SPOTS FOR ROATAN JUNE 28 - JULY 5 -
That being said, we've got rooms available for
our return to Roatan trip, leaving L.A. on June
28. Call us at 310/652-4990 for details.
SQUID REPORT -
We didn't do the Squid Dive last week but a
friend of ours did go out on their own and
reported about six feet of visibility, a few
eggs clusters, and a few live mating squid. So
not totally skunked but not immersed in squid
either. We'll keep checking on things and keep
you posted. The rain we got today certainly
won't help conditions in the short run.
WANNA BECOME A MEMBER OF THE CHAMBER CREW? -
The Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber is always
looking for new volunteer crew members and if
this is something that might interest you, a
mainland-based training class is being held
February 8-9 at the Aquarium of the Pacific in
Long Beach. If you're interested, contact chamber@usc.edu to
find out more and to get signed up.
LONELY MOLA-MOLA -
A Japanese aquarium had a novel problem to
solve. They closed for renovation in December.
So there were no visitors but the fish were
still in their exhibits. They noticed a
particular Sunfish (Mola-Mola) suddenly stopped
eating and seemed to be depressed. They wondered
if it had anything to do with a lack of people
that the Sunfish could see. So they made some
cardboard cutouts of people, taped them to the
outside of the exhibit plexi and . . . voila!!!
. . . the fish perked back up. You can read more
about it here: CHEERING
UP A DEPRESSED FISH.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and
let's go diving together in 2025!!!
- Ken |
