The Humboldt Will Be Here Soon!
Believe it or not, our new dive boat, The Humboldt, is
scheduled to arrive in San Diego a tad early. It gets
here early April and we start booking trips early May.
We can’t wait. Shore diving’s fun and all but
sometimes you want to just sit back, relax and jump
off the back of a boat and have somebody else make
you lunch.
Come on by our Mission Bay shop and say
hello to our captain, Ryan, he’ll be the one scrubbing
off the Louisiana dust, getting ready to put her in
commission.
Schedule and Prices for The Humboldt
Quick Links...
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Happy March everybody. Spring’s around the corner
and divers everywhere are starting to awake from
hibernation. And the lobster are starting to get brave
and peer out of their holes, knowing it’s now safe to
be big. Speaking of big, read up below on the status
of our excellent NEW dive boat. It’ll knock the booties
off your feet. So enjoy our newsletter and be sure to
take advantage of our big, blue, beautiful backyard.
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DiveTrippers
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Hey! Check out the new DiveTrippers Dive Forum. It’s
a
new non-commercial forum for divers with info on
local diving conditions, dive travel, gear reviews, U/W
photography info and a bunch of other stuff related to
diving. Register and contribute posts with your own
experiences and share them with others of like-mind.
Should be a lot of fun- Enjoy!
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Gear Review - DX-8000G Underwater Camera from Sea & Sea
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By OEX Resident Underwater Photography Expert
Jim Metzger
The DX-8000G underwater camera from Sea&Sea is
amazing. I just started shooting with it and I’m very
impressed. It is easy to work and manipulate which is
extremely important in the underwater environment.
Team this baby with the YS-27DX external strobe and
wide-angle lens and you’ll get some very impressive
shots. Look for it at the La Jolla shop. It comes with a
hardy Pelican case with custom foam inside to protect
it during travels.
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Did you hear? Giant Squid Caught “Alive”
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A Japanese research team has succeeded in
capturing and filming a giant squid. It is the first time
a giant squid has been filmed alive. The squid,
measuring 24 feet, died during the event. Giant squid,
formally called, Architeuthis, are the world’s largest
invertebrates. They have long been wrapped in
mystery and embellished in the folklore of sea
monsters. The giant squid, a female, was caught off
the Ogasawara Islands, south of Tokyo. The largest
squid on record is 60 feet.
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Where did we get the term “bends?”
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Over the years various terms have been used to
describe what we call today decompression
sickness/illness. Here are a few examples from the
historical
record:
caisson disease, diver’s palsy, tunnel disease,
aeropathy, hyberbaric pneumatosis,
aerebullosis, pompholyhaemia and even
luftdruckerkrankungen. But the name we’re
most familiar with is, of course, the bends. But where
did it come from?
In the late 19th Century, most victims of DCS were not
divers but laborers who worked on the seabed
in pressurized enclosures called caissons. Those
afflicted with non-critical forms of DCS
sought relief by walking in an abnormal, contoured
manner. As it happened, it was also quite
fashionable for ladies of the time to walk in an
affected, forward-leaning stance
called the “Grecian Bend.” Thus, caisson workers
suffering from DCS were said to have
the Grecian Bend or simply “the bends.” Whether the
term came into common use as a result of the
Brooklyn or St. Louis bridge project is still argued
among diving history buffs. Nonetheless, the
term “bends” has stuck.
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