It is, however, a long drive... https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/mysterious-object-northern-california-coast-19579541.php jky

A couple of items of possible interest to the list: - We were just diving in the Philippines where dive operations use dishwasher paste as a mask defogger. It works extremely well! I've always been a spit-in-your mask kind of guy, but a quick smear and rinse of this stuff kept my mask from fogging for at least three dives without reapplying. Much better than what I always thought was my crystal-quality saliva. It's not readily available in the U.S. (although Amazon offers imports of Axion). If you're in the Philippines you can pick up a giant tub of it, enough for 20 lifetimes of diving, for about a dollar instead of the $10 Amazon wants for it. - I've been immersed in figuring out o-ring replacements for regulators, hoses, and BCs, and found this web site extremely helpful and interesting: https://scubagaskets.com/. If you're interested in your own regulator maintenance, I like the fact that they offer service kits (not OEM, but claimed to be OEM quality) for a wide variety of regulators and other gear. It's a bit odd that they're located in Cyprus, but they claim to ship worldwide. I have not tried them, but may at some point if shipping isn't too much. In the meantime, if anyone knows more about them, I'm interested in hearing about it. Mike Boom

Hi there, Anyone looking to clear out some used booties? Need some soled booties for Bonaire for my teen diver. Could be 3mm or above. Oakland-based. Thanks! Eric Elia

Have a trio diving together tomorrow and an available 4th spot. We have our hands full with a new diver as our third, so this is not seeking a 4th for our group but an available rez to go solo or with another party who already has a rez. Assume we have to arrive together or I leave your name at the gate? Would arrive 8-9am if we need to arrive together. Thanks! Eric Elia

More for tourists, but I haven't seen Wharf II mentioned in the news in a long time: https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/calif-oceanfront-landmark-nobody-visits-19518935.php Why nobody visits this California oceanfront landmark The last commercial fishing outpost in Monterey, a California oceanfront landmark, is never busy, but it should be. www.sfgate.com jky

Hi all - for those who are itching to dive the Southern Channels, there is a four day on the Vision over the fourth of July holiday. Pretty good price too (compared to some) For more info, contact Diver Dan's in Santa Clara I'll be there...should be great. Still black (and white!) sea bass season Best Deborah Stewart

Cleaning out the garage.. I have a few items to sell, please see below. Everything is sold as is. I am in the North San Jose/Milpitas/Fremont area Let me know if you are interested or have any questions. Thanks Frank Drewer -------------------------------------- 2 XS Scuba X7 steel HP 100 scuba tanks, in excellent condition, out of vis and hydro, new $320, asking $240 each or $450 for both Luxfer 19cuft pony bottle, in good condition, out of vis and hydro, new $110, $45 Catalina S80 80cuft aluminum tank, blue, out of everything, decent condition, free. Tusa regulator RS130U BK, in excellent condition, but out of service, ideal as a back up regulator or for a pony bottle setup, $100 BCD Zeagle Ranger size L/M; good condition, may need servicing, new $470, asking $250 Bare SB Drysuit undergarment, size L/G, used once, $220 (retail $300) Henderson Thermoprene wetsuit 3mm, size M, in very good condition, $100 Henderson Thermoprene wetsuit 5mm, size M, in as-new condition, $150 (Unfortunately both wetsuits have “shrunk” over the years and don’t fit me anymore.) Mesh gear bag, new $35, $20

In trying to track down my dry suit inflator valve leak, I notice that the rubber valve gasket (or port) on the exterior of the suit is coming off, but just a bit, not extending to the valve's shank hole. I suspect it doesn't really matter and I can't see a leak there in a soapy water test. But if I want to cement it down, what adhesive should I use? Steven Lindblom's excellent "Wetsuit and Drysuit Maintenance and Repair" book lists a whole slew of adhesives, but no particular recommendation for this task. I might have to replace the gasket completely, so I don't want to use Aquaseal, which I gather is very difficult to remove once in place. I suspect Cricket is our list expert on this, and would like to note that Lindblom speaks admiringly of Otter Bay in his book. The book is now 19 years old, and since Lindblom died a couple of years ago and Airspeed Press looks like it's out of business, I'm sad there's no update in the works. Trying to prevent unwanted suit off-gassing, Mike Boom

For sale: 2 Ikelite DS-161 strobes Includes: 3 NiMH battery packs with covers 3 NiMH chargers spare o-rings Ikelite 4401.1 - allows using optical trigger on the strobe Ikelite 4403 - also an optical trigger, but allows for using the strobe as a slave. Unfortunately, this one doesn't seem to be working, but Ikelite is pretty good with support and repairs if you want it to be. 2 CM Custom dome diffusers for macro 2 CM Custom dome diffusers for wide-angle 1 Y-cable, lets you drive two strobes off of one port on your housing 1 single cable - drives one strobe from the housing port. When the 4403 was working, I used this to drive one strobe, and that devince to drive the other. Photos available on request Whole package: $1200, plus shipping in the continental US Contact: Andy Wallace andy@... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Andy Wallace andy@... andywallacephoto.com Follow My Instagram!

Diver Dans shop is doing a southern channel island trip on the vision July 3-7. They are looking for more divers to make the trip happen. Adventure sports is going august 29 to September 3 and may be sold out. Very chill diving. Regina

Last week I spent four days diving with friends off Catalina, enjoying the kelp forests and getting back in touch with my dry suit. My dry suit, however, was not kindly inclined to me. I had a wet chest on every dive, and have had real problems figuring out where the water might be coming in. Someone here might be able to help me solve the mystery. Some specifics: On my first few dives, it felt like hitting the inflator valve sprayed water on my chest, but I only noticed it after 15 minutes or so in on the dive. I assumed it was because it took that much time for spraying water to soak through my polypro jacket to my t-shirt. One friend on board who's had decades of experience servicing all kinds of dive equipment suggested we take the inflator valve apart and replace the central piston o-ring that keeps external water out when pressing the inflator button. Done! But to no effect. I still had a wet chest after the next dive. To test the valve, I rolled onto my back underwater and hit the valve to look for rising bubbles. No bubbles, so the valve wasn't leaking. Next step: remove and replace the valve on the dry suit to make sure it sealed tightly and didn't leak. Likewise no effect, so I had a wet chest on all the rest of my dives. The wet patch on my t-shirt had its top right where the inflator valve was located and extended to the bottom of the t-shirt. Not fun, but survivable, and no catastrophic floods of water. Once I got home, I tried various tests over the weekend. I plugged the wrists and neck seals, zipped up the suit, and fully inflated it so that it lay on the floor like a bloated corpse, then doused all over it in soapy water to look for bubbles. Nothing. I took the inflator valve off, connected it to a tank, put it inside-suit side up in a bucket of water so the inflator hose was submerged and hit the button: no spray of water. My conclusion now is that the leak had to have come from my neck seal, probably whenever I looked up and stretched my neck. The water then dripped down, hit the inside of the inflator valve, and then dropped onto my chest which is why the water stain always started right under the valve location. Once the undergarment was wet, anytime I hit the inflator valve evaporation made it cold, which felt like being sprayed by cold water. If you've read this far, I assume you might have had a similar experience or at least an opinion. Whaddaya think? Wishing dry humor would keep a suit dry, Mike Boom

It seems like the number of operating California dive boats has dwindled significantly in the last ten years, especially after the twin punches of the Conception disaster and Covid. I'm curious what boats people on the list have been using, their experiences good or bad, and anything they may have heard from other divers. I was just out on the Bottom Scratcher out of San Pedro, which has a justifiable claim to being the first California liveaboard and is certainly the oldest liveaboard. Howard Hall, who put our trip together, remembers teaching classes on it back in late sixties and meeting his wife Michele onboard. Kevin Bell, the current owner, bought it right at the beginning of the pandemic and although she shows her age, he's constantly improving her. It's fortunate that he's an electrician and diesel mechanic by trade, that he loves the boat and its history, and that he's put a fine crew together that keeps coming back for charter after charter. We had a limited load of eight, so we had plenty of room for lots of big camera equipment and ourselves. Some of the bunks are smallish, so with a full boat it might be a different matter. Charging equipment with lots of divers might be a challenge as well if there are a lot of photographers, especially now that the Coast Guard prohibits power strips. The food was excellent. Kevin pumps high-pressure fills quickly between dives, but does not have nitrox. That was okay for our charter since we dove relatively shallow most of the dives. That's my brief boat description. Any others? That includes local Monterey boats, which seem to have dwindled significantly as well. Looking for more wear on my dry suit, Mike Boom

DAN tells me there's only one dive doc in the entire Bay Area, which I found hard to believe. They gave me the name Jamie Bigelow in San Francisco: https://jmbigelow.com/ Anyone have experience with this doc? I see other docs mentioned in the list archives, but I don't think they were on the DAN list. Not sure why. Perhaps they retired.

Backscatter has open registration for the shootout August 23-25 and Beachhopper has spots available, come join the fun! Regina

I just had six cylinders hydroed at Ace Fire in Palo Alto, a fine place with relatively quick turnaround -- thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately, one of my aluminum cylinders failed eddy-current testing so it didn't pass hydro. I had this happen 5 or 10 years ago with two cylinders that, in subsequent eddy tests, passed. My understanding of eddy-current testing is that it's not required by the DOT, that it only applies to aluminum tanks of alloy 6351, and -- from experience -- that it's an unreliable test. Catalina and Luxfer both state that they don't require or recommend eddy-current testing. What's the experience of folks on the list? Should I insist, if my tank is not alloy 6351 (it's not) that the shop pass the cylinder as long as it passed the hydro part of testing? On to some valve questions: Before I replace the valves on my hydroed cylinders, I noticed that a couple of the valves have PSI ratings on them. One is rated 3442 psi, the other 3000 psi. If I understand correctly, the pressure label isn't actually what the valve itself will safely withstand, but the working pressure that the burst disk is set up to handle. (A burst disk typically goes up to 1.5 times the working pressure.) Is that so? Or is there a danger in using a 3000 psi-labeled valve on a 3500 psi tank -- other than a lower burst disk threshold that should still be well above the 3500 psi working pressure? And what about valves with no labeled PSI rating? What rating should you assume? One more question: Any time a valve comes off one of my cylinders it gets a new cylinder o-ring. I noticed that the old o-rings had two different hardnesses: most were a bit softer, and had their original shape. One was a bit firmer, and was tapered flat in the shape of cylinder's o-ring seat. They both worked fine filled with no leaks, but it makes me wonder if there's a preferred o-ring hardness for cylinder o-rings? The softer o-rings I believe are Viton, the harder o-rings are FKM. I thought the two were synonymous, but it appears they're different hardnesses. Anyone know what the standard is? Still under pressure, Mike Boom

Selling Worthington HP120s twinset, Halcyon manifold, Highland bands. The rig is currently filled with 18/45. Born 2011. Hydro due 7/25, but they’ll need a visual inspection after you use the current fill (so might want to do the hydro as well). The 18/45 fill alone is worth ~$250, which should more than cover the cost of the hydro/viz. Selling the rig for $900. Located in Mountain View. Best, Paul