The Aqua Tooter
September 2026
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Announcements and Club News
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Greetings from the President
Jim Driggers' monthly
| | | | Club Meeting September 3rd
Our meeting this month will include our ever popular Member's Night! With many of us having visited the Philippines this Summer, I'm sure that will be a focus, but any dive-related photos, videos and stories are welcome. If you would like to include your digital work, please reach out to David Sheh via the Forums. Navigate to "Club Events", click on "Member's Night September 2026" and post in the thread.
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| | | | Club Dive September 12th
Monterey
Lindsay will be leading our September dive in the balmy waters of Monterey Bay. We are currently waiting on the Sea Lions to decide when they will be wrapping up their summer vacation in the area before we choose a location. Stay tuned to the Calendar and Forums for more details! | | |  | |
Well, the ocean was as calm as forecast. South monastery had 6 inch waves. Visibility 35 to 40 feet further out. They were two teams of gonzo divers there, all with DPV – I believe they were going deep in the trench. Their dives were a shorter than my first dive ( of course I was diving a single) and they spent most of it out in the sand doing decompression. I swear one of them must’ve had 100 pounds on their back! Also I got to do a second dive!
So for you folks who are in the DP class, or are using your own DP‘s now, it was a great example of drag. These divers had lots of gear on, including separate deco bottles, doubles, rebreather. I don’t know what else. I noticed that when they were in cruising speed on their vehicles, they were barely moving – looked like gear one for a black tip to me. I was literally motoring around them. I also noticed one of the divers either didn’t have their trim set or was heavy. That is not neutral buoyancy. Probably was heavy – this was the guy with doubles deco tank and some other stuff. In any case, he was decidedly tilted down in the water, dragging along the water while he was trying to move.
I went left that is east towards granite point in point Lobos. Fabulous relief, Corian actress, rockfish sitting on top of the rocks, Ling cod, schools of blacks, and I believe I saw a 6 foot shark take off fast as I came around a corner. -Oliver | Calling a Dive
“Anyone can call a dive, at any time, for any reason” – you’ve probably heard this – particularly if Dennis has taught you. A recent article in DAN about this was valuable, but, in my opinion, missed the mark. In this opinion article I’ll lay out related rules we follow and comment on the Dan story:
“Anyone can call a dive, at any time, for any reason” – what does it really mean? Simply, any diver in a group can stop a dive immediately, no matter what the reason. No one needs to explain (although talking it over later can provide valuable learning), justify, or feel bad. It also implies:
Zero judgement: divers should never mock or doubt someone who feels uncomfortable.
Equal power: a new diver and an instructor both have the same right to say stop.
Avoiding hidden issues: one small problem could be annoying, two may be concerning, three could be deadly.
A related principle we follow is: If you have apprehensions or a bad feeling about doing a dive, don’t do the dive. Again, there should be no judgement. This acknowledges the power of a “gut feeling”.
I strongly believe in these principles. I’ve backed out of dives before. Sometimes due to a clear problem; other times due to an uncomfortable feeling. I’ve called dives while we were underwater before. There have been very few cases where there was disagreement (underwater!) about the call.
So how do these thoughts relate to the DAN article? First, I don’t believe it was a good example / demonstration of the principle. The story says that the dive leader called the dive – that’s hardly anyone. Second (and perhaps more importantly) the dive wasn’t ended safely. The leader called the dive due to a ripping current they experienced on the downline (a rope from the surface to the dive site on the bottom). Fine enough. However, due to the early call, the dive boat had not attached itself to the dive line. So, as they surfaced, diver after diver was propelled by the current from the line to the boat and forcefully slammed into the dive platform, frantically holding on to avoid being swept under the boat (possibly hitting the propellers/rudder), requiring extreme efforts by the dive crew to get them out. NOT a good situation. Not a safe way to end the dive. In my opinion, since the conditions were threatening but not critical, the leader should have come up with a better abort.
How might it have been handled better? We were taught by Dennis to be prepared to safely ascend without the downline. This could occur because we were ripped from the downline, we decided to let go (due to extreme current), the current prevented us from swimming back to the downline after the dive, or perhaps we couldn’t find the downline when it was time to ascend. It’s best to do this in groups of course, but every diver was prepared to do it alone if need be. That’s the solution I would propose the divers in the DAN story should have taken. As soon as you let go of the downline the current “disappears” and you’re floating without stress. Then the DAN group could have ascended, staying close together, deployed their SMBs (they did have SMBs when diving in open water with strong current, didn’t they?), safely surface, and wait for the boat.
-Oliver | | An Underwater Mailbox?
A struggling Japanese beach town needed tourists, so its postmaster sank a mailbox 30 feet underwater. Susami is a small fishing town in Wakayama Prefecture with a population of around 3,700 people. It was the kind of place tourists drove through without stopping. In 1999, Toshihiko Matsumoto, the town's 70-year-old postmaster, thought he could fix that. His solution was to sink a working mailbox into Susami Bay, 30 feet below the surface. Matsumoto arranged for waterproof plastic postcards to be sold at the local dive shop, along with oil-based markers that wouldn't smear. "I thought it would be interesting if divers could send letters from under the sea." Today, divers deposit up to 1,500 pieces of mail each year.
| | | | 200-pound Bluefin Tuna All Over Northern California?
Experts Explain.
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Club Minutes and Business
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