Greetings from the President, September 2024
Jim Driggers | Published on 9/29/2024
Hello Aqua Tutus,
Thanks to those who attended the September general meeting at Round Table Pizza in Castro Valley. Due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict, Natasha Benjamin wasn't able to give her presentation on the kelp ecosystem collapse along the U.S.'s western coastline. She has, however, agreed to give the presentation this coming November 7th. In Natasha's place, we had an impromptu sharing of diving related questions and answers among those present. I hope people enjoyed and learned something that made the meeting worth their time.
In the October 3rd meeting, we'll have this year's second semi-annual club Members Night. I know folks have been playing with underwater cameras on dives in the last few months. If you have, please share your photos and video, so those who didn't dive can see what they missed. Click the club website Forums and post a message in the ATDC Members Night, October 3 message thread to coordinate with Dave Chervin. He can provide a way for you to send your media to him and get it pre-loaded in the club's laptop so it can be shared more easily. The meeting is only a few days away, so don't delay.
Sounds like club members enjoyed this month's club dive at Wharf II. I led a mentoring session on using an underwater compass to navigate, and Dave Chervin and I laid a pair of 100' lines, so members could accurately time and count their fin-kicks to cover that distance. After using the lines, everyone explored Wharf II and saw the amazing amount of marine life encrusting the wharf's pilings.
After the dive, some of us walked over to San Carlos beach and saw the sea lions who've taken over the beach and made it impossible to dive there. Click the thumbnails below to enlarge the images.
Hopefully, the sea lions will relinquish the beach and enable us to try the underwater navigation course laid out by past club member Guy Alcala in 2009. For those interested, Guy's files are located in the "Breakwater Guy Alcala" sub-folder in the Document Library.
After the dive, many folks attended the visit to the Sunflower Star Lab in Moss Landing that Alan Throop coordinated. Many thanks to Alan for doing that. We got a very interesting presentation and were able to see view and shoot pictures of the tiny sunflower stars in their individual containers. Who knew that young sunflower stars eat their siblings? Below is a picture of one thumbnail sized cannibal.
Finally, be aware the October club dive at Still Water Cove on the Sonoma Coast is coming up soon and this Monday night is the time to make a reservations at Point Lobos for the November dive. See the Club Dive communication forum for more news.
Hope to see you all this coming Thursday for our October general meeting.
Jim Driggers,
Club president