Monday, August 13, 2012

August Raffle Prize Winners!

Great meeting tonight, and again this month both Sport Chalet and Hollywood Divers generously donated prizes towards our raffle.  Our club really appreciate your support.

And the lucky winners are...

$50 Sport Chalet Gift Card: Joan Gonzalez
Travel Snorkel: Jimmy Quan
First Aid Kit: Kevin Sullivan of Shark Savers
Avalon 3D Card: Bob James
T Shirt: Wayne Lu
Beach Towel: Wayne Lu
Catalina Dive Book Wayne
Pelican Dry Box: Wayne Lu
Pelican Mini Light: Max Dennert
Hollywood Divers Nitrox Card: Bromley
Hollywood Divers Nitrox Card: Garry Tollack
Hollywood Divers Nitrox Card: Kaz Aizawa
Hollywood Divers Nitrox Card: Andrew Lim
Dive Book: Sven Dennert
Shark Saver T Shirt: Laura H. Steckler
Shark Saver T Shirt: Ryan
Long Sleeve Shark Saver T Shirt: Gary Tollack

Tuesday, August 7, 2012




Hay divers-
This month we have Kevin Sullivan returning to our club to talk about his latest work with shark rescue.
Growing up in southern Wyoming, Kevin Sullivan gained an interest in nature at an early age. This interest was continually encouraged and nourished by his mother Joette, a science teacher at the Rawlins, Wyoming middle school. After becoming SCUBA certified in 2002 he became increasingly interested in, and concerned for ocean conservation issues. Following a dive trip to the Sea of Cortez and learning of the dramatic depletions in shark populations from overfishing there, he made a personal commitment to become more actively involved in ocean conservation.
Kevin has served in various capacities for nine years on the board of his local dive club, the Pacific Explorers, where he is currently fulfilling a 4th term as its President. He is a certified Reef Check California citizen scientist, where he actively participates in local surveys of the California near-shore rocky reef ecosystem.
He has also previously volunteered for California Ships to Reefs as part of their Speakers Bureau and Public Relations committees.
The shark and ray conservation group Iemanya Oceanica rewarded Kevin’s volunteer work for their organization with their 2009 Shark Warrior award.
Kevin is now continuing his work towards shark conservation by helping organize a Los Angeles/Southern California chapter of Shark Savers.To support his SCUBA diving habit, Kevin is employed as a Test Engineer in the development laboratory at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne where he has worked for 25 years.
Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wyoming. During his time at Rocketdyne Kevin has specialized in vibration test engineering, and has worked on projects as varied as the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and expendable (unmanned) launch propulsion systems.
My two cents... he's one of the most 'involved' guys I've ever met, and I really look up to him for that.
I'm always happy to support his efforts.
Let's give him a warm Sole Searchers welcome back!