Monday April 13, 2015 Meeting Speaker info

I'm happy to announce our speaker for this Monday is the one and only Captain Patrick Smith! He's going to be showing us Long Wharf - a mile long wharf built in the 1890s that most divers and people don't know about. An amazing local dive! Pat is a California native with a BA in History from UCLA & MA in Public History / Historic Preservation from Cal State, Dominguez Hills. He has been diving since 1961(!) and a NAUI scuba instructor since 1979. He is a US Coast Guard Licensed Captain - 100 ton vessels, worked sport and commercial fishing/diving vessels 10 years, worked NOAA & National Park Service projects & vessels 20 years. He's a commercial diver, scientific diver, Co-author of Shipwrecks of Southern California, published papers with the Society for Historical Archaeology and the Society for California Archaeology. He's written articles in such publications as California Diver, California Diving News, Skin Diver Magazine, Pacific Diver, Underwater USA, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Sub Aqua Journal. He's consultant to NOAA, US Army Corps of Engineers, National Park Service, and the State of California, he's one of very few non-military, non-government divers permitted to carry out UW research on the USS Arizona, he's done numerous presentations to students from elementary to university level, as well as historical societies, dive and other groups. He's the recipient of SSI 5000 Platinum Pro award for service to the diving community and over 7,000 dives, recipient of 2012 Lighthouse Award from Department of the Interior for 20 years of Submerged Cultural Research work with the National Park Service. Board of directors, Los Angeles Maritime Museum Research Society Board of directors, Coastal Maritime Archaeology Resources-CMAR Board of directors California Ships to Reefs Education Director, California Ships to Reefs Yikes, right? Plus... he's the guy that was married underwater last week at the Aquarium of the Pacific. May need some champagne, I'm thinking. Be there Monday April 13, 2015