KenKollwitz & RobWeinerth

Transcription

1 Volume 19 Issue 10 October 2010 Bottom Times From Your President... Abenefitof Clubmembership DiveAssure As club members, we receive many great benefits. Not only do we have great speakers (usually at no charge to the club) at our monthly meetings, but we also get great deals on dive events, and the local dive shops give significant discounts to current club members. (Remember to always mention Channel Islands Divers when visiting dive shops, and be sure to show your current membership card.) I think most everyone knows about our deals on dive trips and about the dive shop discounts, but did you know as a club member you can also participate in a dive insurance program that actually gives you a rebate because you are a member of Channel Islands Divers? The club is a partner (or sponsor) with Dive Assure, and by being a partner the club and its members participate in 10% discounts from Dive Assure, which are passed along to our members in the form of rebates (yes, you get a check back!). So, what exactly is Dive Assure? Dive Assure is a company that is targeted to meet the needs of divers, meaning, the company provides insurance that covers dive accidents, travel disasters, loss of gear or a flooded camera. There are other companies and organizations that may provide one type of insurance, such as dive accident/medical problems, but Channel Islands Divers found that Dive Assure is a sort of one-stop shopping, for divers. For this reason, and the 10% rebates, of course, the club joined in as a partner many years ago. Continue on page 2 October s Speakers: KenKollwitz & RobWeinerth For our October meeting, we will be showing the video California Lobster Diving, followed by a few of our more successful lobster hunters sharing some of their own advice. This is a most informative and interesting film made by Steve and Kristine Barsky of Santa Barbara. After the video presentation, club members Ken Kollwitz, Rob Weinerth, and Steve Peterson will explain some of their special secrets for successful lobster diving. Hopefully, some of these ideas will make your lobster season more productive. Everyone has thier own ideas, theories and things that work well for them in bug diving. Here are Ken s secrets. He will explain them in more detail at our meeting Be comfortable to dive solo, be physically & mentally fit. Swim fast and cover ground. Try to get to areas other divers have not covered yet. 3. If you see one lobster, look for others around the general area Take long walks down the beach, Use a punch bag with gauge attached. 6. Have your equipment in good working order: use gloves with Kevlar or some type of coating, keep spare gloves, have an extra bug gauge, use extra knee pads, use an old wetsuit, 7. Attach a small light on side of mask, use a bug buddy attached to light, homemade lanyard to attach light to you. 1 Continue on page 3

2 Southern California Commercial Abalone? Article submitted by Wally Burke Signers of SCAN s Petition to Oppose a Commercial Abalone Fishery at San Miguel Island Dear Friend, Thanks for taking the time to sign the Petition to Oppose a Commercial Abalone Fishery at San Miguel Island. Sonoma County Abalone Network (SCAN) is pleased to inform you that because of the public outcry, that you helped us create, the proposal has been tabled for the time being. After the DFG spent a lot of money doing surveys of the abalone populations at San Miguel, they decided, what we already knew, that the resource cannot sustain a fishery, and needs more time to recover. We need to remain vigilant, as the Commercial interests have no intention of stopping their efforts. This episode shows how important divers can be when key decisions are made, if we can speak with one voice. If you dive for, or care about, abalone in California, you should know that the legal fishery is under severe pressure from poachers who illegally commercialize abalone for profit. SCAN was founded to combat this problem, and has been working for 16 years to reduce this threat to the sport we enjoy. SCAN is the ONLY organization in the state dedicated to the interests of the abalone resource and divers, we were forced to broaden the scope of our mission to protect divers rights to access a healthy sustainable fishery. Simply put, we ve had to fight for the very existence of our fishery, even though the resource is extremely healthy. It will not be possible to turn around the tide of misinformation and bad management decisions unless we have several thousand abalone divers ready to back up SCAN s leadership. There are nearly 40,000 abalone divers in the state and we provide $800,000 per year to DFG, for abalone management, and we still do not receive an adequate fishery analysis. 2 Organization is essential in effecting management decisions. Without it we simply don t stand a chance. We have had a number of successes working with almost no support. Imagine what we could do with your support, your friends and thousands of divers who want nothing more than a sustainable and healthy abalone fishery! SCAN dues are only $20 a year and you can t get more representation for $20, as our Board Members are all unpaid volunteers. Take a minute and follow this link to the SCAN web site. Click on join SCAN to protect the resource and promote a healthy sustainable fishery. Sincerely, Milo Vukovich President, SCAN JOIN SCAN to protect your sport Bottom Times From Your President continue... Dive Assure provides three types of insurance coverage: Gold - Basic diving accident protection. Platinum - Supreme diving accident protection with basic trip protection. Diamond - An all-in-one dive medical and dive travel program that includes such options as flight/accommodations for extra expenses following a diving accident, both diving and non-diving vacation interruption coverage, and dive gear coverage for loss, damage and theft. Dive Assure also offers the option of a one-time upgrade for specific dive trips. So, if you don t normally need the travel insurance part of the coverage, but you are making your once a year trip to a foreign county, you can sign up for the travel insurance for that one trip. Another big benefit of Dive Assure is it is a Primary Insurance, which means it will pay directly to emergency or medical service providers. Policies that are secondary usually require the diver to make an out-of-pocket payment and then be reimbursed by the insurance carrier at a later date. To find out more about Dive Assure, visit their website at Assure.com.

3 Once you ve decided on the insurance you want, it is very important that you log onto the club s website at channelislandsdiver.org to actually sign up and be eligible to receive your rebate. Once you have logged into our site, you will see the link for Dive Assure in the middle of the page. Click on the link to start your insurance registration process. A final note: Even if you decide Dive Assure is not for you, it is very important to carry some sort of dive insurance. Hyperbaric chamber treatments costs thousands of dollars, and if you are outside the United States, dive insurance can make the difference between receiving treatment and being transported home, or being stuck in a country without medical care and no way to get home. Just something to think about Best wishes for great (and safe) diving! c As you know, elections for club board members took place at our September meeting. We have several new members on the board, and we should tell them how much we appreciate that they volunteered. However, the point of this short article is to thank the outgoing board members for their year (and sometimes years) of service to the club. When you get chance, at the next club meeting please be sure to thank these individuals for all their time and energy they devoted to Channel Islands Divers during this last year: Ann Hoagland served as our secretary for the last 4 years. Bob Cartier served as our raffle coordinator for 6 years! Jonathan Hanks served as our webmaster this last year, and prior to that he was our newsletter editor. Tamas Antal served as our membership coordinator this past year. Sandy TJ Snow spent many, many hours as our newsletter editor this year. October Speaker continue... Don t worry about hurting the lobsters. Show them who s the boss & don t be gentle. One thing I always remembered, a friend (Dave Satterberg) told me along time ago is go after the bugs with Reckless Abandonment and he was right. The only time I don t is when there are many urchins around. 8. Be first to jump off boat, dive day and night. 9. Respect mother ocean. Don t keep the larger bugs or females with eggs. Know when to say No. Don t be greedy, 10. Another thing I like is deeper dives (with nitrox) and drift dives. I have had good luck on these types of dives. 11. Now you re probably wondering where I like to go for bugs or where my secret spots are. I don t really have any secret spots and my best ever lobster diving days where at Naples Reef (Santa Barbara), Deep Hole area (AKA-Neptune s Outer Coastal Reefs) and San Nick/Santa Barbara. 12. The biggest tip I can give is you have to get out and dive and avoid places like Deer Creek where lots of other divers have already been. 13. Remember to take your license and lobster card. Even the best bug hunters get skunked from time to time. The limit is 7 it may take lots of diving in a day to get 7. However, you might find a glory hole and get your limit in 15 minutes (I wish). Steve agrees with Ken s tips and would like to add: Stay streamlined. Avoid taking any unnecessary gear with you. When you find a really productive reef area, make sure you can locate it again for future harvesting. Steve will explain his methods on this at the meeting. Thank you again, for helping to coordinate club meetings, hosting board meetings, planning and leading club events during this past year! 3

4 DEADLINE FOR PHOTO CONTEST IS FAST APPROACHING!! October 20 is last day submit entries It s getting close. The deadline for submissions to the Annual Photo Contest is this coming Wednesday, October 20. The winners of the contest will be announced at the Holiday Party, which is on Saturday, December 4, By popular demand, it will be held once again at our club s secretary s house! A quick reminder about the rules for this year s contest: There are two categories this year, scuba (under water), and scuba-related ( above water ). Only photos taken from November 1, 2009, through October 20, 2010, are eligible for this year s contest; each category will have a first and second place winner; and there is no third place this year. Once again, the photos will be judged by a Ventura College class, and the winning photos will be professionally framed and presented to the winners at the Holiday Party. The details of the photo contest are: 1. Categories: Scuba (under water) Scuba-related (above water) 2. Eligible time frame: Photos taken November 1, 2009, through October 20, Number of entries allowed: 2 photos per person, per category 4. Media: Electronic submissions, only, on either DVD or flash drive Submission deadline: October 20, 2010, general meeting Also, don t forget, all entries automatically place the member s name into our Participation Raffle, so you could win twice for the same photo! In addition, all submissions will be on continuous play again this year at the Holiday Party, so all the photos will be appreciated by club members. 4 Good luck! We had some fantastic photos at last year s party, and I know we will have great photos again this year. Membership New Members Kyle Mcilveen, Ron Clough, Joanne Testa-Cross Expiring Memberships: October 2010 expiring memberships: David Matras, Jacqueline Pinson, Mark Thompson, Pattis Thompson, Diane Stevenson. November 2010 expiring memberships: Debra Sankovich, Robert Sankovich, Steve Peterson, Jack Schoemperlen, Marybeth Gregg, Michael Harvey. December 2010 expiring memberships: TJ Snow, Michelle Tomillo Membership Policy: Club policy is to drop members from the roster after ONE MONTH OF MEMBERSHIP EXPIRATION. You must renew your membership within one month of your expiration date to receive the renewal rate. If you renew beyond this time, the new membership rate will apply. You may renew your membership as early as one month prior to the expiration date. Your membership will continue as of your expiration date, not the day you renew. For more information, and to renew your membership, our Membership Coordinator, Jeff Larson at: membership@channelislandsdivers.org New Membership: Single - $35 Family - $50 Renewing Members: Single - $25 Family - $40 Please mail renewals to: CID Membership P.O. Box 5801 Ventura, CA 93005

5 Board of Directors Sandy Bickford, president Steve Peterson, vice president/speaker seeker Connie Young, secretary Karen Duran, treasurer Rob Weinerth, raffle coordinator Bob Weaver, webmaster Jeff Larson, membership coordinator Robert Soriano, dive coordinator September Raffle Winners Due to technical difficulties, the list of winners from the September meeting wasn t available, but it will be provided in the next newsletter. SPORT CHALET VENTURA DIVE & SPORT CHANNEL ISLANDS SCUBA PIRATES GRUB N GROG MANY THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! Please support these businesses, dive shops and dive boats that support us! Let them know you are a Channel Islands Divers Club member when you visit, and be sure to thank them for their support of the club. Remember, most of our sponsors provide discounts and other benefits to club members, so also be sure to show your current club membership card when making purchases. Michael Alvarez, newsletter editor editor@channelislandsdivers.org Visit the Club s website: Our next board meeting is Wednesday, October 27, All Club Members are WELCOME and ENCOURAGED to attend the board meetings. If you wish to attend, please ask one of the board members for information and directions to the meeting location. 5

6 Channel Islands Divers P.O. Box 5801 Ventura, CA NEXT CLUB MEETING: Wednesday, October 20, :00 PM 7:00 PM LOCATION: Pirates Grub n Grog Corner of 5th Street & Victoria Avenue Oxnard, CA PLEASE SUPPORT OUR HOSTS BY HAVING DINNER AT THE MEETING!! Calendar of Events OCTOBER 9 La Janelle Beach Dive 16 Santa Cruz trip on The Raptor 20 Monthly Club Meeting Progressive Prize Drawing Deadline for Annual Photo Contest submissions 27 Board Meeting NOVEMBER 6-8 Annual Catalina Trip & Dive on Scuba Cat 17 Monthly Club Meeting Participation Prize Drawing FINAL PAYMENT DUE FOR KONA, HAWAII TRIP No Board Meeting DECEMBER 2 Board Meeting 4 Annual Holiday Party and Photo Contest No Club Meeting JANUARY 19 Monthly Club Meeting Progressive Prize Drawing 26 Board Meeting FEBRUARY 16 Monthly Club Meeting Participation Prize Drawing Kona, Hawaii Manta Dive Trip 23 Board Meeting MARCH 16 Monthly Club Meeting 23 Board Meeting Newsletter layout and art done by Kilometer Fifty Nine Visit our Club s website for copies of newsletters, calendar of events, and other information: 6