Posted by Wayne on July 02, 2001 at 18:57:19:
In Reply to: Will the mountain come to Michael? posted by seahunt on July 01, 2001 at 22:11:57:
I grew up in the area and dove around PV and Catalina. My ocean boating experience is in this area, too. So I know a little bit about the local conditions. But then there is that San Diego Area...
Last summer and fall I did a bunch of playing with my boat in San Diego. I had a slip in Mission Bay and loved the idea of the Yukon just a few short minutes from the breakwater. It took longer to get through the 5mph zone to the ocean than it took to get from the harbor entrance to the Yukon! So let me tell you what I think of San Diego: I hated it!
What it has wrong with it is the nasty swell that comes in unabated. Here we are protected and live in the shadow of the channel islands. Look at the swell map and you can see how these nifty islands give us the flat water and good vis that we love so much. Everytime I took the boat outof Mission Bay, I was amazed how big the swell was and the surge on the Yukon was ALWAYS present. Everytime we dove her we commented how if this was off P.V., Long Beach, or Redondo it would be so much better!
I agree with Seahunt that this could forever change the face of our diving activities here and could greatly increase the tourist divers on our local boats. For that reason, I support the idea of having the first one really shallow. It gives bad press when a tourist dies (come on, relax everyone it was a joke!). But I also think that we should have our own Wreck Alley of sorts with some deeper boats for those inclined to dive deeper (not me, I like long shallow single tank dives).
I suspect that we need to get more folks involved from all over the area. Rather than just have Waxman getting the letters, we all need to push our local representatives. But to do this we need to have a committee that we can refer to. Once the organization is set up we can really lobby the congress. The non-fringe environmentalists should love it since it will bring enhanced awareness of the ecosystem. We can push educational stuff with an eco-cam or other tie-ins with the educational system. These things would allow us to tie in to the PTA, NEA, and other powerful lobbies. If it's done right, we should be able to get some funding from the energy companies (they need the good press and have budgets for donating to the environment).
Because I travel way too much, I can't be involved as much as I would like, but I want to help. As this takes shape and as a plan is established, I will take up arms in the battle.
Wayne