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 4^th 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!

 

 

http://www.sharksavers.org

Borneo Scuba Adventure

Eleven Sole Searchers Dive Club members made the long trek, to dive the world famous Sipadan Island in May of 2012. The diving at Sipadan is like being in a traffic jam of sea life. Turtles everywhere, sharks, barracudas, bumphead parrotfish, clownfish, pristine coral, leopard shark, and on and on...  If fish had horns, you'd hear honking noises the whole time you're diving. 

Since diving at Sipadan is done by permit only to protect its ecosystem, some resorts can only allow guests to dive Sipadan just one day during their week's stay.  Borneo Divers Mabul Resort having fewer rooms than the other resorts, the odds of having two trips to Sipadan was much greater, and sure enough everyone in our group got to go dive Sipadan two days (8 dives).  

On days not at Sipadan, diving was around Mabul or on another island in the area.  And for me, the added surprise was the beauty and diversity we found on every islands we dove, Mabul, Si Amil, and Mataking.  

In addition to dive sites we motored to, we did several dives at the house reef, and I couldn’t believe how good the reef was just right in front of the dock at the resort.  Most destinations you would have to take a long boat ride to get near such life filled reefs. There is so much to see and experience just at the end of the dock. 

After the diving was done, the second part of our Borneo adventure was to head North to the Sepilok nature reserve on the mainland. We spent two nights at the Sepilok Nature Resort located next door to the jungle and the Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center.  

We even took a night time nature walk through the jungle, got leeched, rained on, and saw some bizzare looking spiders and other bugs.  Very educational indeed.  Borneo has one of the oldest rainforest in the world, and you really take notice when the jungle sounds envelops you.

The next day we visited The Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center.  There is a multi-media presentation, and then a tour to the feeding area which are basically platforms on trees.  The juvenile Orang Utans come to feed on fruits and milk, along with some aggressive Macaque monkeys.  After the feeding time, we had 4-5 Orang Utans hanging out near the walk path, and at times they were only 3-4 feet from us.  What a great experience!  

Next we headed over to Labuk Bay to see the Proboscis Monkeys.  Again, these monkeys are not shy at all, and to show their dominance, the males will come running right past you while banging the floor boards with their hands. And it can be startling! 

The silver hair monkeys also made a showing, but they are amazingly calm and friendly.  Jimmy had one walk right over his arm while he was focusing his camera. 

Our trip rapped up with a day in Kota Kinabalu. A bustling city in North West part of Borneo to do some gift shopping and people watching.  

Culture, nature, and blood sucking leeches... what more can you ask from a scuba vacation ;-)

And this trip would not have been what it was without the people who participated. Big thank you to: Rosa, Sheree, Melani, Marie, Cecilia, Bromley, Jovy, Jack, Lenoard, Jimmy, and that guy that keeps showing up the meetings ;-) To see more on the club photo gallery go to here.

Our vacation package was put together by Gene Dold of Scuba Travel Ventures.

The lucky winners for May

First off, thanks again to Sport Chalet and Hollywood Divers for their always generous support. By the way, Hollywood Divers has a Galapagos Trip scheduled for June 24-July 1, 2012 if anyone wants a last minute trip of a lifetime. Call them at 323-969-9666. So with no further delay, here are the lucky ones: $50 Sport Chalet Gift card - Paul, First Aid Kit - Lars Dennert, Headlight - Lars Dennert, Underwater slate - Scott, Weight pocket - Bob James, Divers Log - Mini, Dry bag - Bob James Mask Straps - Chris H, Aussie Hat - John Marin, Hollywood Divers Nitrox card - John Marin, Hollywood Divers Nitrox card - Paul, T shirt - Laura Steckler, Booties - Laura Steckler,

What we divers do sometimes

This mention is kind of late... actually something like three years late, but I felt it was worthy of being told.  On our annual club resort trip in 2009, we stayed at the Sunset Waters Beach Resort in Curacao.  Towards the end of this week long stay, our member Dave Gaines motivated our group to help clean up the shore near our resort.  

Although not even being close to the trash you might see here on the freeways of L.A., due to the constant breeze near the inlet, plastic bags, cups, and other man made trash had collected on the shore of the waterway opposite the resort.  Some of the shrubs were decorated with shredded white plastic bags, which is sad to see on such a remote location.  It was enough to blemish this otherwise beautiful landscape, and enough to motivate Dave to suggest getting a group together to collect the trash.

Also, it felt good to volunteer one afternoon out of our week stay to do a little good deed for our host island.  

As you can see in the photos, the effort of the group yielded a good amount of trash.   And the resort people seemed happy too to see that American tourist can care enough to help clean and improve the environment, and not just dive, eat, drink, and throw our money around (not that I have any money to throw around).  One member, Rosa even took an urchin spine to her foot while collecting trash in shallow waters.  What a trooper!  But don't worry, she is fine and is still a great diver ;-)

So, a very late, but deserved Kudos goes to "Captain Cleanup" Dave Gaines for motivating everyone to help cleanup, and leave this earth a little better place.

Karl Huggins at our next meeting

We have Karl Huggins at our next meeting, Monday, April 9.

He'll be presenting "The Price of Panic" - Panic issues and diving accidents

Karl Huggins has been the Director of the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber Facility at the USC Wrigley Marine Science Center

since 1992 and has been involved with treating hundreds of divers over the last 20 years. He started diving in 1977 and has been a NAUI Instructor since 1980.

He is noted for his work in decompression theory and models, which resulted in the Michigan Sea Grant (HUGI) tables and his participation in the development of the EDGE dive computer. Karl enjoys educating divers in the area of decompression (making divers more aware of the limitations of dive tables and computers) and diving safety. To that end he has given hundreds of lectures, seminars, and workshops as a featured speaker at conferences around the world. He has authored many articles and publications on decompression theory including "The Dynamics of Decompression Workbook," and contributing to "Dive Computers - A Consumer's Guide to History, Theory, and Performance" and "Women and Pressure - Diving and Altitude." Karl is the 1990 recipient of the Leonard Greenstone Diving Safety Award, the DAN/Rolex Diver of the Year for 1993, the 2004 Conrad Limbaugh Memorial Award for Scientific Diving Leadership and the 2008 California Scuba Service Award.

March Raffle Prize Winners!

Sole Searchers Dive Club would like to thank Sport Chalet, Hollywood Divers, and Project Aware for their generous donations to this month's club raffle prizes!  The winners are.

$50 Sport Chalet gift card: Rosa
Pelican dry case: Leonard K.
Hollywood Divers 10 airfil card: Kaz
Hollywood Divers 10 airfill card: Michael
Hollywood Divers 10 airfill card: Leonard K.
Hollywood Divers 10 airfoil card: Kaz
Hollywood Divers 10 Nitrox fill card: Cesar
Yukon 3D card: Bob James
Mask strap: Leonard K.
Knife strap: Jovy
Hollywood Divers T-shirt: Paul Yochim
Trident BCD, Glove Hanger: Kaz
Cowboy style dive hat: Michael
Project Aware Polo Shirt: Sheree Lahey
Project Aware Polo Shirt: Laura H. Steckler
Project Aware Polo Shirt: Shawn Broes
Project Aware Polo Shirt: Paul Yochim
Project Aware Ball Cap: Lars Dennert
Project Aware Ball Cap: Paul Yochim

41st Annual California Wreck Divers banquet

Last night was the 41st annual California Wreck Divers banquet. Great turn out, and Zale did not disappoint. She had an amazing collection of old commercials, features, and of course Sea Hunt to share. She's out of my league for our club speakers, but it was great to finally meet her, and I sure met some other interesting folks, too. This group of women are some of the locals in the Women Divers Hall of Fame.
Their next monthly gathering is a joint meeting with the Adventurer's Club of L.A. hosted by David Finnern. He presented for us last year. Normally one must be a member to attend, but this time all are invited! It's Thursday, March 22 (yes, coming right up) at their downtown club. Details at our next meeting.

http://www.wdhof.org/

http://www.adventurersclub.org/