• August 23 (Saturday) - Great Escape to Santa Barbara Island
                              (1:30AM departure - only 2 spots left)

        • September 6 (Saturday) - Magician to Catalina West End (7:00AM departure)
        • September 21 (Sunday) - Magician to the Olympic wreck & then Catalina
                              (7:00AM departure)

        • October 4 (Saturday) - Cee Ray to Farnsworth & Catalina backside/west end
                              (6:00AM departure)

Upcoming foreign trips:

        • August 30 - September 12 - Indonesia (Sulawesi & Lembeh) 
        • October 11-18 - Sea of Cortez aboard the Don Jose (SOLD OUT)

        • February 8-14, 2009 - Florida Manatees & Caverns
                           (if you've got 50,000 miles on American, you can save $500)
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If there was a Scuba Olympics, what would the events be??? Air consumption? Buoyancy control scored like gymnastics??

While there's plenty of excitement coming out of Beijing, there's also a lot of excitement going on over here as the diving continues to be very good. If you're one of those people who check out the local swell models (http://cdip.ucsd.edu/?nav=recent&sub=nowcast&xitem=spc), you've probably noticed how flat everything is. Although that doesn't always translate into great visibility (it's ranged from a high of 60' to a low of about 20' lately), it certainly does translate into a nice ride over and back almost no matter where you're heading. And for those of you whose stomachs are sometimes a little . . . tender . . . these are the conditions that should make even the most queasy person smile.

We've got a bunch of good dives coming up. This coming Saturday (boarding Friday night) we've got the Great Escape going back to Santa Barbara Island. We've had some really great dives at SBI lately and we're keeping our fingers crossed for this one too. And we've only got TWO spots left. So . . . who wants to go diving????

Then we've got two trips coming up on the Magician. First on September 6 we go out to Catalina's West End and then on the 21st we do what is one of my favorite combos where we start out at the wreck of the Olympic which is always interesting to explore. Then we'll continue over to Catalina and sometimes we go to Italian Gardens (this is a good time of the year for Black Sea Bass), or we'll go to Ship Rock, or who knows where?

We follow that up on Saturday, October 4, with another one of my personal favorites (there's definitely an advantage in being the one who puts the sked together and chooses the destinations) and that's another trip out to Farnsworth Banks, this time on the Cee Ray. Farnsworth is always a terrific dive, a fascinating ecosystem, and simply gorgeous. We always try to get two dives in there, take a break for lunch, and then find another spot for the third dive of the day. To sign up for any of these, give us a call at 310/652-4990 and we'll get you all squared away.

Mike Lay passed on an interesting article to us from the Long Beach Press-Telegram about Oil Rig Eureka. You can read all about it here: http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_10227323 . Gives you something to think about the next time you're out there.

Finally, sort of a sad note. It seems that Haven's Reef in Eagle Rock has abruptly closed their doors. We got tipped to it Thursday and when we called, we got a message on their machine that they're out of business. Their website says they're "closed" for business but implies there might be more info down the road. We mention this just as a reminder that this is a very tough business in which to make a living, a lot of us do it because of our deep love for this sport, and we really do appreciate it when you choose to support your local dive shop (which includes Reef Seekers) in whatever form that takes.

And on that note . . . have a great week, and let's go diving soon!!!

- Ken