 |
 |
Aqua Lung Regulator Rebates
From now through July 31, 2004, $100 instant rebates will be offered on the Aqua Lung’s top of the line regulators including the Legend LX and Legend. A $75 instant rebate is being offered for the Titan LX Regulator. The Legend LX was voted “Tester’s Choice” by Rodale’s Scuba Diving magazine; all three regulators are backed with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.
Aqua Lung’s Legend series are among the easiest breathing regulators available. Legend’s unique over-balanced diaphragm provides increased flow rates as you dive deeper and also environmentally seals the first stage, providing exceptional durability.
Aqua Lung introduced the world to SCUBA diving more than 60 years ago with the invention of the Aqualung, a compact pressure regulator developed by the pioneering ocean explorer Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Aqua Lung’s rich history of innovation continues today, as the company manufactures and markets a complete line of diving and swim equipment for recreational, technical and military applications.
A leader in product design of high quality scuba equipment, Aqua Lung’s products are used by police and fire departments, emergency medical services, and government rescue agencies that conduct water based rescue and recovery operations. The company’s closed and open circuit diving equipment is also used by the Department of Defense, State and Municipal governments, and many international military commands.
Aqua Lung’s family of premiere brands includes Sea Quest, Deep See, Apeks, Drager, U.S. Diver’s, Aqua Sphere and Suunto, and are available at dive shops where Aqua Lung products are sold. For more information call (760) 597-5000, or www.AquaLung.com.
Peace Expands Service with Opening of Scuba Center
The Peace dive boat was built in 1972 and began life as a sport fishing boat. A few years later the boat was turned into a dive boat and the famous hot tub was installed, the first to be placed on a dive boat on the west coast.
In 1981, Bill Magee bought the boat. Bill, an avid underwater hunter catered to a hunting clientele and built a true “hunting” boat. He was also the first to fill tanks to 3500 psi.
These efforts were carried on when Eric Bowman bought the boat in 1998. He has kept a hunting clientele, but also built a very diverse photography, freediving and sightseeing base. Eric has also built one of the best crews aboard the Peace.
Eric has now expanded the boat even further by opening Ventura County’s newest Scuba Center with his fiancée, Angie Moritz. Angie has been teaching and working in dive stores since 1988. The Peace Scuba Center, a SSI Training Facility, is modeled after the boat’s success and philosophies, which include making diving fun and safe.
Peace Scuba Center is a full retail and service facility featuring Oceanic, Henderson and Sherwood Products. The store also offers air and membrane nitrox fills up to 40 percent. They are offering a complete line of rentals, DUI Dry Suits and Sea & Sea MM II Cameras, and free delivery and pickup to all the Ventura Harbor dive boats, including.
Peace Scuba is located at 4572 Telephone Rd. #906 in Ventura. For more information visit www.peacescuba.com on the web.
 |
|
Chamber Day committee chairs Billy Wright (left) and Ken Kurtis (right) present Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber director Karl Huggins at "check" at Chamber Evening.
|
Chamber Day Raises $77K
Thanks to the collective efforts of roughly one thousand divers, Chamber Day & Evening, which was held on May 5, netted a whopping $77,006 for the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber. The event, originally created in the late 1980s to face budget cutbacks for the Chamber - the first one netted about $15,000, has grown considerably and is now the largest single-day scuba charity event in the US.
This year, 424 divers (including 69 on the mythical Flying Dutchman) participated in the daytime activities, doing two dives at Catalina plus a walking tour of the Chamber facilities at Two Harbors. Chamber Evening was held at the Aquarium of the Pacific, where another 392 divers showed up for dinner in the Great Hall.
Additionally, there were daytime and evening raffles, plus the Chamber Challenge, a way for divers to make a direct cash contribution to the Chamber. The Challenge alone accounted for close to $20,000 of the total.
“Every year we try to make the event a little bigger and a little better,” said Chamber Day co-chairman Bill Wright, “and every year it’s gratifying to see every aspect of the diving community rise to the occasion. It’s really become a very ecumenical event.”
Chamber Day & Chamber Evening is an annual tradition and will next be held on Wednesday, May 4, 2005.
DiveLog for Mac OS
Scuba diving Mac users can now record their underwater adventures with DiveLog 1.0. Spotted Snake Software released an interactive logbook for the Mac that allows divers not only to easily track technical data like bottom time and weather conditions, but also to add personal comments and photos. Eric Friedman, founder of Spotted Snake Software and a passionate diver himself, developed DiveLog. He searched for a Mac compatible computer program, and after he couldn’t find anything that met all his requirements he decided to write his own program, just for the Mac.
“One of the big advantages of recording your dives with DiveLog is that you actually can work with the data instead of just writing it down”, Friedman explains. “So if I want to know how many times I went diving in Monterey, the program just sorts out all the data for Monterey. In the same way, I can monitor my own progress; how long I stay down with how much air, and so on.” Users also save time logging dives, because DiveLog remembers the names of buddies and locations.
Divers can download a restricted version of DiveLog for free from the Spotted Snake Software website: http://homepage.mac.com/eric_friedman/sss/. A license for the full version costs $19.95 (USD). Technical requirements: 64 Mb RAM, G3 or better, Mac OS X native (10.2 “Jaguar” or later).
Scuba for At-Risk Kids
The Buddy Up SCUBA Foundation is a non profit organization that helps kids learn responsibility through teamwork and trust. At-risk kids from neighborhoods all over Southern California will be experiencing what 10 kids from South LA recently learned. In one day they learned how to use scuba equipment and the buddy system—some in water as deep as 16 feet.
Pilot participants from another Los Angeles based program, “A place called home” were taken to Hollywoodivers in Los Angeles to be fitted with the “strange” gear. Not only did they try on scuba gear, they were told that by the end of the day they would be able to live and breathe underwater. They completed a academic session and then were taken to The USC Swim Stadium pool. Some kids were naturals and able to master skills immediately; others needed to overcome fears and get acquainted with the water. But all learned to buddy up and scuba dive.
The Buddy Up SCUBA foundation of Los Angeles is seeking your help and donations to provide training, transportation, and equipment so that at-risk youth of Southern California can learn a skill with potential to turn these kids around.
“I saw a transformation in these kids in one day. This is not tennis or playing checkers; this is like going into outer space for these kids,” said Hal Wells, founder of Buddy Up.
If you would like to donate to Buddy Up, please contact Wayne Wilson at 323-813-2520 or e-mail hal@buddyupscuba.org.
California Dive Center Awarded
California Dive Center has received the Project AWARE Foundation prestigious Environmental Achievement Award for its work on raising the awareness of ecological tourism. Worldwide, a total of 15 dive centers and resorts were selected for this award.
To qualify for this award, dive center and resort operators were evaluated on criteria in the following six areas: 1) Environmental Events, 2) Environmental Education, 3) Responsible Business Practices, 4) Project AWARE Program Support, 5) Public Awareness, 6) Responsible Diving Practices.
California Dive Center is a PADI 5-Star Dive Center and 5-Star Instructor Development Center. California Dive Center provides dive equipment, travel, kayak and swim accessories, as well as diver education. California Dive Center is based in San Bruno, California, phone (877)5-CALDIVE, (650)588-4998 or www.cadive.com online.
The Project AWARE Foundation, established by PADI in 1992 is a non-profit organization committed to conserving and preserving the aquatic environment and its resources. Project AWARE teaches the world about the importance and responsibility of preserving the aquatic environment. Further information about Project AWARE is available at www.projectaware.org.
PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) is the world’s largest recreational diving membership organization. The membership includes dive businesses, resort facilities, academic institutions, instructor trainers, dive educators, divers, snorkelers and other watersports enthusiasts. Professional PADI Members (dive centers, resorts, educational facilities, instructors, assistant instructors and divemasters) teach the vast majority of the world’s recreational divers, issuing over 1000,000 certifications each year. PADI Further information about PADI can be found at www.padi.com.