Aloha From Maui!

     Jeff and I have been in Hawai'i for the past four days working on a project that Jeff was hired as a consultant on.  When he asked me if I wanted to come with him last week I didn't think I'd be able to do it, but flights were dirt cheap and I couldn't say no.  At this point I can't really discuss the project in public due to an NDA but hopefully sometime in the future I'll be able to go into it further because it is incredibly cool.

     At any rate we arrived in Honolulu on the 15th and met one of our gracious hosts and Jeff's business partner, Harry Donenfeld.  Harry is an awesome guy and we had a blast hanging out with him during our stay in Hawai'i.  Not only did he put us up in his home on Maui and go to great lengths to share his favourite parts of Hawai'i with us but he's just a fantastic, high energy personality and a lot of fun to dive and hang out with.  We spent our first night on the North Shore of O'ahu with one of Jeff's former students, Nick.  Nick is a really nice guy and interesting character and I could probably write an entire bog entry or two on him alone.  He's definitely got a taste for adventure and is an avid helicopter pilot, kite boarder, big wave surfer, rebreather diver and amateur film maker among other things.  It would be an understatement to say that our accommodations were 'plush' and we had a very nice dinner that night at the Turtle Bay Resort with Harry and Katie Laing, the 1993 Rolex Scholar.

     The next morning Harry Jeff and I set off for Maui where we would be meeting up with Jeff's client and working with a local dive operation, North Shore Explorers.  Todd, Liz, Chris and the rest of the gang at North Shore Explorers have a sweet operation running, and took care of all of our diving needs during our stay.  The jewel in the crown of NSE is the Pailolo, a converted US Navy rigid hull inflatable powered by two 300 horsepower diesel jet drives. Although one of the engines was having maintenance issues during our visit the Pailolo is apparently a beast when she's up and running and this allows NSE to run trips to spots and under conditions that would usually be impossible for run-of-the-mill cattle boat operators to handle.

     The four days we spent in Maui were absolutely jam packed with amazing diving, people, food and exploration.  Harry, Todd, Chris, Liz, John and everyone else made sure that we kept busy and had an awesome time.  It was also a privilege (and a lot of fun) to get to help Jeff out with his work (we did do a little...).  After a quick last minute dive with some turtles on the leeward side of the island Jeff and I set off for O'ahu, where Jeff will be catching a flight back to California but I'll have a few more days to hang out and explore with Katie Laing.

The Bozanics

     Since the end of our rebreather course I've been staying with Jeff, Rebekah, Evan, John Aaron and Taleah Bozanic in Huntington Beach, CA.  They've been incredible hosts, and I've an amazing time diving, playing and generally acting like a member of the family.  They even took me out to dinner for my birthday and got me an awesome cake with a little scuba diver on it.  Jeff and I are leaving for Hawai'i tomorrow to work on a project with one of Jeff's partner's Harry Donenfeld.

     Harry and Jeff have been working on a few interesting projects of late that I might be able to write about in more detail a little bit later on, but I wanted to post a video they have on youtube that I think is pretty cool.  It starts Jeff's seven year old son, John Aaron.

 

Rebreathers!

     The most exciting opportunity to arise at DEMA was an invitation for all three scholars to join a rebreather class being taught by Jeff Bozanic.  Jeff has an incredibly varied and interesting background in science and in diving, and a talk he gave at the LA County Natural History Museum that I attended while a junior at USC was a major factor in inspiring me to take up diving.  Jeff has been a strong supporter of the scholarship for a very long time, and quite a few former scholars have said that this course was the highlight of their scholarship year.

Jeff

     Jeff's courses are also known for their intensity and thoroughness.  With less than a day to recover from DEMA madness, Magne (one of Jeff's students from Norway), Steve, Eline and I arrived at Jeff's house excited and a little nervous to begin what would be the most challenging week of diving any of us had ever gone through.  After picking up the units we would be using from the course from Richard Graff of Xtreme Scuba, the first few days were focused completely on lectures regarding the history, physics, physiology, design and practice of diving rebreathers.

The three scholars hard at work

     All of us would be learning to use an Evolution, Inspiration Classic and an Inspiration Vision, all three of which are electronically controlled close circuit rebreathers (eCCRs).  This means that they have a fully closed breathing loop, complete with a suite of sensors that monitor the oxygen levels inside the loop.  If the controller detects low levels of oxygen within the loop, a solenoid will fire, injecting oxygen into the loop.  This type of rebreather is usually flown 'fully automatic' meaning that the diver allows the computer to control the partial pressure of oxygen.  However, we would be learning to fly the rebreathers completely manually, using the electronics purely as a backup.  If any of that is unclear, and you want a little help understanding it, read this.  If you really want to know how a rebreather works, you should read Jeff's book, Mastering Rebreathers.  If you are at all interested in diving technology or rebreathers it's a must-read.  If you can't be bothered to read either, know that a rebreather differs from SCUBA in that it recycles the air the diver breathes by removing CO2 via a chemical 'scrubber' and periodically replacing the oxygen that the diver metabolizes.  When used properly it can offer vast benefits in decompression obligation and gas consumption.  In technical diving rebreathers can sometimes be used to complete dives that would be impossible on open circuit due to gas consumption.

Cookie-check, Rolex-check, problem sets-check

     After completing the first few days of our training, we were really excited to be getting in the water and trying out our units.  On Thursday we met our assistant instructor, Ian Martin, and spent most of the day in Jeff's pool, working on emergency drills, managing our PO2 and our buoyancy.  On  Friday we headed down to San Pedro and boarded the Psalty V, captained by Gary Jackson and his dog, KO.  We were also joined by Jeff's friend and partner, Elaine Jobin, who was there to photograph the trip and join in on the fun.  Jeff, Ian, Magne, Eline, Steve, Gary, Elaine and I would spend the next three days on the Psalty V completing the class and diving all over Catalina.

Karl checking up on us

     Learning to dive rebreathers can be difficult and dangerous at best, especially when your students are a trio of young divers who have just enough experience under their belts that they're beginning to think they know what they're doing underwater, so Ian and Jeff approached every open water dive with extreme caution and careful planning.  Rebreather diving is very different than open circuit; it requires extreme focus and concentration at all times.  The dives were really exciting and fun, but very challenging.  Ian and Jeff didn't hesitate to throw every emergency or problem imaginable at us at any time, often several simultaneously.  On top of all of this we were expected to constantly monitor and maintain our set points without any assistance from our electronics.  It was frustrating at times, but Jeff and Ian are fantastic teachers, and by the last few dives of the course we were beginning to feel like real divers again.

Bailing out

     After the week was over, I definitely understood why so many scholars had spoken so glowingly about Jeff and his courses.  Jeff and his family were wonderful to us during our stay at his house.  They truly made us feel like members of the family.  Gary and KO were also terrific hosts, the food, diving and accommodations on the Psalty V were absolutely top-notch. One of the coolest parts of the week was going to spots I'd dove on dozens of times before and seeing them in a completely new light thanks to the lack of noisy bubbles from our rebreathers.  We also had a chance to see some old friends on the island including T-bird and Karl and check out the Two Harbors' haunted house!  Best of all, each of us encountered and overcame some significant obstacles during our training, and I know that we all really improved as divers.  If anyone is feeling extra generous around Christmas-time, a rebreather is now definitely holding down the top spot on my list.

DEMA

     It's difficult to describe what DEMA is like for people who have never been there or who aren't intimately involved with the diving industry.  It's a frighteningly massive mix between a trade show, family reunion, high pressure sales pitch and non-stop party.  It's a place to meet up with old friends, meet new ones, make plans for the future and experience Las Vegas (kind of creepy actually).  

     Besides Robin getting run over by a crazy lady in a golf cart (get well soon!!!) everything else was fantastic.  I met a lot of new people and have some awesome new plans in the works for the rest of my year, I got to see my man Wes Skiles win a NOGI, OWUSS had a reception that I thought went terrifically and the other scholars and I had a great time at all the different parties and receptions, usually the guests of the ever-gracious Dan and Betty Orr!  All of the OWUSS gang had plenty of chances to hang out and have fun as well.

More from Catalina

     Catalina has continued to be awesome.  We've been to Avalon for some diving and mini-golf, done plenty of chamber ops, helped build a haunted house and much more.  We had a chance to visit middle ranch and Catalina Conservancy and found some time to play in waves over in Shark Harbor too.

     Karl has been a fantastic host and we've gotten a lot of great kelp forest diving under our belts as well.  My friends Jen, Anna and Ali even came back to the island and hung out for a few days.  The past two weeks have been a terrific reminder of why this is one of my favorite places in the world, and I'm glad I had a chance to share it with Steve and Eline.

Baywatch!

     Steve, Eline and I got to spend the afternoon with Baywatch yesterday!  After spending the morning diving with Karl we met up for lunch with Kevin and Joel, two members of the Two Harbors Baywatch team.  Baywatch is a part of LA County's lifeguard corps, which was recently incorporated into the Fire Department.  Catalina has one Baywatch team in Two Harbors and another in Avalon.  Not only are they responsible for looking after anyone who gets in trouble on or in the water, but as the only paramedics on the Island they get called in on anything that happens on land as well.  Needless to say these guys stay busy.

     After a quick lunch Kevin and Joel invited us to come check out the infamous Baywatch boat.  The boat itself is deceptively small.  Although its probably not much more than 25 feet long, it's packed to the gills with communication equipment, fire-fighting and rescue gear and medical supplies, not to mention two massive supercharged diesels that can easily push the boat to over 30 knots.  Kevin and Joel took us out on a great tour of the West End and even let us try out the fire pump mounted on the front of the boat.  We were a little disappointed at first that The Hoff wasn't around, but Kevin and Joel were much cooler anyways.  Thanks guys!

Homecoming

     Egypt was hard to leave behind, literally.  After seven hours on a bus, 18 on planes and a few lengthy lay-overs I was finally able to collapse into my own bed.  I had a few days to catch up on sleep, capture some video, do some laundry and pack up for my trip to the west coast.  On October 2nd I caught a flight into Long Beach.  After spending a three days with some relatives in Southern California I met up with Karl Huggins and Eline at the Long Beach Aquarium.  Eric, the assistant DSO took us diving in several of the larger tanks and gave us a quick look at some the stuff that goes on behind the scenes.  I'd been to the aquarium before, but they've added some really impressive leafy and weedy sea dragons to their collection since the last time I was there.

Steve's New Hoopty

     After our visit to the aquarium Karl and I had the pleasure of introducing Eline to the magic that is Trader Joe's while shopping for supplies for our time on Catalina.  The next morning we met up in San Pedro and caught a boat out to the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies.  I spent a semester here in 2007, studying marine science, learning to dive and volunteering at the hyperbaric chamber and was really excited to be returning to the island.  Karl, who's the director of the hyperbaric chamber, was the one who originally introduced me to the scholarship and suggested that I apply, so I really have him to thank for all of this.  I was also able to reunite with plenty of old friends from the island.

Two Harbors, CA

     Steve came down from British Columbia and joined us on Friday and since then we've been hiking, kayaking, diving and learning about the hyperbaric chamber.  Every year the chamber hosts a 'wash-down party' where a group of volunteers get together for a weekend of serious cleaning and maintenance.  Steve, Eline and I joined a few other volunteers inside the chamber where we were compressed to 165 fsw and tested the chamber's fire suppression system.  Obviously it's important to make sure the fire sprinklers and hoses are working properly, but at 165 feet the narcosis turns the whole operation into a bit more of a drunken water fight.  It's great to be back in California!