Eric Keibler will be offering an Open Water Side Mount course in June. This is a 3 night class with one to two days of open waters. It is intended for open water diving, not side mounting in caves or wrecks. You will find it to be an easy way to extend your bottom time.
If you would like to find out more, please send Eric a note. Or, if you are ready to sign-up just send Eric an email or sign-up now through our on-line system.
Pete Nawrocky: Pete is the Sales Manager for Dive Rite and is best known for his willingness to share his passion for diving with others. Pete has established quite a following of divers who enjoy his affable approach to teaching and Pete can be found at least once a month in the water with a group of divers who want to learn new techniques or try new equipment. Pete makes it a point to dive with all of his clients as often as possible; believing that diving is what builds lasting relationships and after all, is what draws everyone to this unique industry in the first place.
We are pleased to welcome Larry Elsevier to our monthly Club Aquarius meeting on 28 April 2011. The meeting is open to everyone. This month we will be meeting at the Black Labrador, 4100 Montrose. The meeting starts at 7:00. We are asking for RSVP’s so we know how many people will be joining us.
Larry is currently the Sales Manager for Cochran Consulting, manufacturers of the Cochran diving computers. But Larry’s love of diving started long before his move to Texas. As a commercial urchin diver and dive store owner in the Seattle area, Larry was the first dive facility outside of Key West Florida to offer nitrox to his divers and commercial clients. He operated one of the the largest Nitrox blending facilities in the world and pioneered the use of liquid oxygen in gas production.
Larry’s love of diving took him all over the world and he simply loves talking about diving with everyone he meets. An unassuming personnality Larry is a go to guy when it comes to diving technology, especially dive compuaters. He and Mike Cochran became friends when Larry was selling the then new dive computers in his store and their friendship continued until Mike talked Larry into mneung to Texas.
Larry believes that the Cochran computer is simply the best unit on the market and he is willing to tell you why without a lot of sales speak. Come visit with Larry and find out more about these incredible dive computers and the technology behind them.
The arctic is a place of great mystery, and even more so these days, when it’s never been warmer up there. Yes, that’s right. While a lot of the US is seeing snow, ice and excessive cold, the place that we think of as being the coldest on the planet is going through a warm season. Scientists are reporting the arctic just had the least amount of sea ice on record in January. Air temperature is way above normal, too, even as “down south” people are shoveling their cars out of the snow.
The experts are trying to understand if these two things are related. It’s well established that a warmer arctic is a fact – and it’s been going on like that steadily in recent years, but scientists don’t know yet if some of that arctic air mneung south is a trend or a blip. Just another mystery of the arctic, I think.
Here’s another arctic mystery for you: Polar bears might be facing their own population crisis. Why? Polar bears rely on sea ice when they hunt. They use it to get to the seals – their main food. Researchers have discovered that as the arctic becomes warmer, sea levels have dropped and there are fewer newborn polar bear cubs. Pregnant polar bear mothers go into hiding in a winter den and fast during part of their eight-month term. If they haven’t eaten enough before they do, they might not be able to sustain themselves. Scientists believe that having less food makes it less likely for a mother polar bear to give birth to a surviving cub. So there’s a relationship between the polar bear mom’s ability to survive and warmer weather. Since things seem to be changing in the wilds of the arctic, it seems like there’s no time like the present to have a look around there yourself.
I’d like you to experience some of the mystery, in mid-April. Will you join me? I’m leading an expedition to the high arctic of Canada, where we’ll see polar bear families emerging after months in their snow dens. We’ll see polar bear cubs learning to walk and play and track them when they head out to the edge of an ice floe to hunt for seals.
The days up there are 18 hours long – perfect for wildlife photography. Put your camera to your eye and you’ll capture spectacular images of baby polar bears and their mothers, the Aurora Borealis, endless white landscapes, seals and whales. We’ll have an opportunity explore Inuit camp life, too. There are only two spaces left on this trip, so I’d ask that if you would like to join us, please book today.
[If you would like to Join Amos on his Artic Adventure, please let Dive Mom know and she will help you set the whole thing up.]
This year, my family and I and other members of the Oceanic Ventures team were fortunate to meet an extraordinary individual, Dr. Sylvia Earle, who has a deep commitment to protecting and conserving the marine environment. Sharing a few impressions from our encounter will, I hope, show how we can all work toward having a lasting positive impact on oceanocean conservation.
You might ask why this topic is of any importance, and how protecting the oceans will affect you or your family. Simply put, the human race depends on the oceans for life. And as divers, we rely on the oceans for our recreation and exploration.
The oceans are responsible for the production of a major portion, up to 50-70%, of atmospheric oxygen. Oceans also sequester carbon dioxide that we produce but are unable to metabolize. Billions and billions of tiny microorganisms living in the ocean use photosynthesis to produce oxygen by capturing carbon dioxide and energy from sunlight. Furthermore, oceans support the essential water cycle that brings rain and freshwater to land, allowing us ample water resources for agriculture and recreation.
The oceans are already showing the stress of human activities. If we fail to take action to further protect these vast and wonderful environments, we risk facing a world with insufficient oxygen, an altered water cycle with unknown consequences, and further buildup of toxic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
But the news isn’t entirely grim. Sylvia Earle emphasizes that we are living in the very best of times. We have the knowledge and resources to protect and conserve our marine environments, while also sustaining important activities for humans, including fishing, drilling for oil and oceanic shipping.
Sylvia is an oceanographer and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. Many of us would know her through her diving history. Sylvia holds the record as having made the deepest untethered dive to a depth of 1000 meters (3300 feet) for men or women, an amazingly impressive feat. Sylvia has logged over 6000 hours underwater, on par with Ann and Eric! She’s been diving all over the world, but has a deep passion for the Gulf of Mexico, where she first dove and spent many hours enjoying as a child.
Sylvia spoke on April 5 at the Progressive Forum in Houston. Her message was loud and clear. We must take action to protect and conserve our marine environments, while also finding better ways to utilize the oceans for human needs. Sylvia reported that we are seriously overfishing, particularly large ocean fish such as bluefin tuna and sharks. Beyond the absolute beauty and impressive size of these creatures, they are critical for maintaining the balance of life in the oceans. As animals near at or near the top of the food chain, they keep smaller fish species in check, which is important for the health of the rest of marine ecosystems such as coral reefs. Other long-lived and slowly reproducing species such as orange roughy are also threatened by overfishing.
What you can do: become more aware of how our lifestyle might inadvertently contribute to overfishing. The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California is a great place to get started.
Sylvia also emphasized that we must invest time and effort into finding better methods to better utilize the oceans for human activities. An obvious example was brought to light last year during the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster. This accident took the lives of 11 people and countless numbers of marine species. We still don’t understand the ecological ramifications of the oil that was spilled, or the dispersants that were used, particularly their effect at deep depths in the Gulf. A major impact may be on the tiny photosynthetic organisms that produce oxygen for our atmosphere, as well as larger marine and bird species. As the Deepwater Horizon disaster revealed, we need to ensure that we develop cutting-edge technologies to explore and drill, and contain unanticipated oil leaks. One mile (or 161 ATM in diver terms) or more beneath the ocean surface prneudes extraordinary challenges. Sylvia pointed out that the oil industry and Houston itself were leaders in developing the needed technology.
What you can do: support investments in education and technology development that prneude the most efficient methods of extracting and using energy resources such as oil.
A third point Sylvia discussed is to develop a system of protected marine environments, similar to the National Parks on land that prneude areas for human recreation and conservation of thousands of terrestrial species. President George W. Bush designated three Marine National Monuments within the last few weeks of his presidency that will prneude much needed protection for coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean. But more work is needed to protect areas in the Pacific as well as other oceans, and our own backyard, the Gulf of Mexico.
What you can do: become informed about conservation efforts through agencies such as the Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund and Sylvia’s own Mission Blue.
Mission Blue is specifically aimed at conserving and protecting the oceans. We are all capable of contributing to this effort, on large or small scales, depending on our resources, expertise and time. Protecting the oceans for our use, the vast numbers of marine species, the health of the planet, and future generations, is within our grasp. Here are a few ways to get started:
Part of being a self-sufficient diver is having the necessary redundant life support equipment and safety equipment on with you on a dive. This does not mean that you carry everything in your dive bag underwater with you, but rather, the items you need to execute the dive you have planned safely with back-up and safety equipment that you believe you will need or may need on the planned dive. The items a technical diver might carry are:
To safely carry these items underwater, you need to be able to store them out of the way. We do this using bungee or inner tube on the straps for some things, bungee on the sides of the plate and or under the plate for others.
However, there is only so much room on the plate and straps, so adding pockets will give you more room to stow the equipment you have decided to carry. There are a number of pocket styles that you can use with your kit. The most widely used pockets are those that fit on the harness waist strap. Horizontal pockets are the most traditional and are designed to carry flat items like slates, wet notes, small lights, whistles, etc. Traditionally, they are not wide or long because of the limited “real estate” on the waist strap. I am a fan of horizontal pockets but I do not carry too many items in a pocket.
Another pocket style is a waist pocket with a vertical orientation. These can either be thin like the horizontal pockets or bellows style pockets which expand to allow for more items to be placed inside. Again, you still have the problem with limited “real estate” on the waist strap. Some divers like vertical pockets and on some dives I have added a small spare mask pocket to the waist strap.
Dry suit divers discovered a solution to this lack of room on the waist belt years ago. They added thigh pockets onto their suits. You will now see wetsuit divers adding pockets to their suits as well. Of course, if you have multiple suits you have to glue pockets on each suit. One other thing to keep in mind is when your suit wears out, you have to cut off the pocket and re-glue it to your new suit.
The major problem with pockets on your thighs or hips is drag. When these pockets are full, they add about two to four inches to your profile. But remember, everything is a compromise and if you need the space, they are great to have but there is a trade-off.
Before deciding which system is right for you, you need to decide what items need to fit in the pockets. Do you need to carry flat items like slates and tables only or do you want to keep a spare mask and SMB handy?
My personal choice is a horizontal pocket on the waist strap with the addition of other pockets as I need them. While I have pockets on my drysuit, I only use them for small items like spare spools. Your decision may be different based on your style of diving and how you want to store your equipment for a dive.
