June Training Update
4 new Open Water Divers and 3 new Perfect Buoyancy Divers
Open Water dives were done on the Marissa Dive boat out of San Diego – Instructor Sal and Dive Master Waco initiated 4 new divers into the WAVES Alumni group!
Three divers completed their additional training in the Perfect Buoyancy course with Instructor Todd. Additional training and practice makes everyone better divers and diving more fun. Congratulations to all who have chosen to improve their skills and continue learning!
Shore Diving with Patrick Runion – WAVES Project Alum
Shore diving has been rough for the last few months, between work and our wet winter and spring, dive conditions have been less then idea. With a couple buddies I tried Shaw’s Cove in March. Conditions were not great. The surge was very bad, current was heavy carrying us 100 yards south in less then 5 minutes, and visibility was under 10 feet. By the time we got out from our first dive, the surf was about 4 feet and was beating us up getting out. Needless to say, we didn’t even attempt a second dive that day.
I was able to get back out to Laguna at the beginning of April and got a couple decent dives in at Divers cove. Conditions were A LOT better although visibility still wasn’t great, they did turn out to be good dives.
Even in less then perfect conditions you can still get dives in! Check into the local areas, even locals lakes there may be a way to work out dives there also. Any dive is better then no dive, so grab a buddy and get out and dive!
Leopard Sharks
It’s almost time to start seeing Leopard sharks at La Jolla so we asked WAVES Project Volunteer Trina to give us information about them.
Leopard shark (stegostoma fasciatum) are 6 foot long docile sharks species. They have small barbels like whiskers hang out of their nostrils close to front of head to help sniff out prey item. They pump water over their gills so that they don’t need to move all the time in order to breathe unlike most sharks. These sharks are oviparous, meaning that they lay leathery eggs which hatch after about 170 days. The babies come out fully developed. Few predators eat leopard sharks. They are most commonly found at La Jolla. Leopard sharks are no threat to humans unless you provoke them. You can photograph and admire them safely in close proximity. Leopard sharks are a very interesting species.
