Brief re-cap of the Whites Point Clean-up

September 23, 2006

I have many photos to put up, but little time for a few days.

In brief, about three dozen divers showed up this morning for the Clean-up. The first order of business was a certificate brought to the Clean up by a representative from Council Person Hahn's office. A congrats and a pat on the back from the City of Los Angeles.

Next, we prepared for our clean up dive. Dodie Meister was my "dive buddy". This was the first beach dive that I've done since Paul Died. Phil caught this rare picture of me wearing a wet suit. I don't do it often and when I saw this photo I thought to myself "hum, that's strange, I'm even smiling."

Conditions were good with unusually warm water temperatures. Visibility was almost 20 feet - outstanding for Whites Point! The rocky entry at White Point always presents a challenge. Dive squires were on hand to help us in and out. Some crawled in and out just fine on their own.

The cove didn't look as littered as it had several weeks earlier. I'm not sure if someone had done a "pre clean" or if a lot of the junk had just washed out to sea. Dodie and I did manage to fill our large mesh bag about half way. This is a photo of the bags of trash that the group collected from the beach and underwater in the cove.

After the clean up dive we went to the Royal Palms picnic area for lunch. Someone also needed to be awarded the "Reel of Doom". Evidentially, Jeff Shaw made this for himself, and, when he got done, he realized that he had screwed up size wise. There is something like 1,000 feet of line on this puppy.

The "Reel of Doom" was to be awarded to the person or persons that made everyone say "sheezzee" today. This year's winner was Ross Overstreet. He brought this extra barbecue from home.

"Shheezzee" Ross and thanks, you saved lunch!

A brief thanks to everyone - We had a terrific and safe day doing something worthwhile for the environment.

I want to work on a more in depth event report and of course get lots move photos of the day up. It wasn't until I was driving home that I really remembered some of the ideas and things that Paul Meister was really about. Something about today brought it all back, and the report will be an opportunity for me to share at least some of what made Paul so special.

• FANTASTIC DAY!!!! Walt 21:54:33 09/23/06 (3)
  • Thank you Walt, and Eric, and GLACD, and Dolores Canizales....... Elaine 22:39:32 09/23/06 (2)
    • www.glacd.org (nt) Website 10:16:34 09/24/06 (0)
    • Grand time! Jeff Shaw 22:46:07 09/23/06 (0)