Diving conditions lately have sucked hard in Southern California, but thanks to our friends at The National Park Service, there is no longer a need to even get wet to enjoy SCUBA diving!
This is apparently a project that was originally aimed at classrooms, but is now availble to the general public.
Live streaming diving broadcasts from Anacapa Island will start today at 2 PM and continue through Labor Day.
Channel Islands Live is an exciting new way to experience the wild, isolated land and seascapes of your national park and national marine sanctuary. Take a virtual visit to the Channel Islands through live broadcasts from Anacapa Island that highlight the remarkable natural and cultural resources of the islands and their surrounding waters.
Live programs are weather and equipment dependent. Visible color bars during scheduled live events are due to canceled programs. In case of that occurrence click on Archived Programs to view a previous broadcast.
Live Dive Program – 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
Once again, The SCUBA Show has arrived at the Long Beach Convention Center – and this time, I’m actually planning on taking a dive vacation sometime within the next year.
I mean a REAL dive vacation, not just a day trip to Catalina, so I paid close attention to the travel packages.
I was disappointed that Cuba was not represented at the show – my friend Bruce went diving in Cuba a few years ago and said it was one of the best trips he has ever taken.
Professional Debriefer Paul came along to inquire about SCUBA Certification and sample the beer that we stashed in his backpack.
We annoyed this really hot chick from Guam.
At it’s narrowest, Guam is only four miles across, but apparently there is an abundance of spectacular dives there.
“Fantasy Island” in Honduras seemed interesting, and the chick at the booth said that there are no ugly women in the entire country.
The only thing that sounded weird about their resort is that it’s on a small island, which gives me a feeling that it might be a tourist prison, but I was assured that it isn’t.
When I go to Mexico, I drink with Mexicans, not American tourists, so one thing that I always scrutinize on a potential vacation is the interaction with the locals.
I will have to go over all the travel brochures that I collected and figure out where I want to go, and how broke I want to be when I return.
One of the attractions that I’ve overlooked in previous years has been the Wyland Art exhibit.
Robert Wyland was there, working on his next masterpiece.
Me with the famous Robert Wyland.
We stopped by Pacific Wilderness and spotted my next major purchase – an auxiliary air supply for $380 – the price is good through June, so I have plenty of time to sell blood to finance the purchase.
We also annoyed the ECO Dive Center booth and inquired about Open Water Lessons for PDP.
There’s a rumor going around that ECO has the hottest female dive instructors on the West Coast, and so far, I can’t dispute that claim.
As soon as PDP mentioned “Divevets,” “Dan” and “discount,” the Open Water class price doubled.
When PDP actually gets certified remains the question, but hopefully it will be this year – with diving, he may one day be as macho as me.
We arrived later in the day, but still managed to meet a few of our friends from around the diving scene.