Finally scuba certified

A few Sundays back I became PADI certified for open water. This means I can dive on my own without a dive master there. It is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but just never got around to doing it. I’ve snorkeled all over, but diving definitely is a different experience. I’m happy I did it.

I took a two weekend course through Auqatech; 4 days, 8-5 each day, plus a few hours of outside study. The first weekend was class and pool time, getting ready for the ocean. Two weekends ago we finally got into the ocean. Two dives at La Jolla shores, and two at the Coronado Islands (Mexico). Both locations were great. The shores had 20 foot visibility (despite a lot of surf and surge), and a lot of life around the shallow thermocline. We saw a huge sheep crab, a few giant sea bass, and a lot of guitarfish and other bottom dwellers. The giant sea bass were very impressive. The first two we saw were quite large, but didn’t stick around. The next one was a bit younger, but still a decent size (about 3.5 feet long, 2.5 feet high, and a bit over a foot thick). He swam up within two feet of my mask three times, just checking us out while we did our alternate air source practice. It was incredible to watch his saucer sized eyes swiveling around to look us over.

The next day we spent two hours by boat to travel to the lobster shack area of the north Coronado island. There were a lot of starfish and urchins along the bottom, with a few sea cucumbers and other goodies. We first checked out an eight year old wreck not far from shore. Apparently someone set out from mission bay, set autopilot, went to bed, and ran into the island. The ship is now in sixty feet of water and mostly covered with marine life – there was even a spanish shawl walking on it. There were a lot of different smaller fish, but nothing much larger than the garibaldi. Our next dive we went along the coast where the harbor seals and noisy sea lions have a little bit of a base. The seals and pups were curious, popping their heads in and out of the water to check us out. Some were curious enough to pop their heads around rocks about eight feet away, but most were happy to keep their distance from us. The sea lions on the other hand weren’t too shy. The huge patriarch was doing his rounds and swam within a few feet of us on his patrols around his harem. I swam back later came back after the dive was done to grab a mylar balloon and do some snorkeling. He swam right up to check me out with his slightly foggy eyes.

I loved our ocean dives, and it would be easy to see how you could get hooked. But it is an expensive (and bulky) hobby, so I don’t think I’ll devote myself full time. But I’m definitely going to have to grab some rental gear for La Jolla cove a few times a year. The Channel Islands would make a great trip as well, I’d love to hit the kelp forests.

Escondido’s eccentric soap

Reading the bottle of Dr Bronner’s Soap I’ve always got a wiff of crazy mixed with peppermint. But the soap was damned good, so I didn’t really pay much attention. Someone else figured there was a story there. Grist has a post on a documentary called Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox that tells us all about the good Dr and his life. Sounds interesting. Quoth the post:

It turns out that Dr. Bronner — his actual name was Emanuel, but he adopted the “Dr.” randomly at some point — was a German-born, eighth-generation soapmaker. His parents were killed in a concentration camp during World War II, but Bronner immigrated to the United States in 1929. In the U.S., Bronner began a crusade to “unite mankind and spaceship earth,” traveling around and talking to anyone who would listen about his ever-evolving 30,000-word manifesto that he called “The Moral ABC.” The ABC is an odd hodge-podge of rhetoric from various world religions, boiled down to the main message that we’re all one people united in one god faith, with the “All-One!” mantra repeated, uh, repeatedly. Bronner was so obsessed that he abandoned his three kids with whatever random family was willing to take them so he could focus on his mission to unite mankind….

… The film also gets into some of the great work the company does today, in addition to creating organic, planet-friendly soaps. They also pioneered the 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic bottle, and they donate nearly 70 percent of their net profits to social causes around the world. They family has even capped their own salaries, making sure that they make no more than five times as much as their lowest-paid employees. Even though Bronner’s descendents seem to realize their granddad was a little off, his philosophies about fairness, equity, and doing right by the world have carried on. Which to too many people probably still qualifies them as crazy, sadly.

Rojo diablo

A tad on the dramatic side, but still a good read: UT story on Scott Cassell and the Humboldt squid.

“After hearing the red demon legend, Cassell researched Humboldt squid for two years before he began diving with them. Humboldts, named for a current in the eastern Pacific, have a sharp beak, eight muscular arms and two retractable feeding tentacles that they use to attack their prey with more than 40,000 needle-sharp teeth at once….

“..Cassell made his first dive with a group of Humboldts that were feeding off Baja California. The squid, which often grow to be 6 feet or longer, immediately attacked, Cassell said, pulling his right shoulder out of its socket, yanking him down so fast his right eardrum ruptured and cutting him so badly his wet suit was destroyed…”

“…they have three hearts, blue blood that is copper-based, the ability to swim at about 24 mph and excellent problem-solving skills. They live in water as deep as 3,000 feet, are as smart as dogs and are able to communicate with one another by changing their skin color from white to various shades of red”

Update: Outside magazine did a great article back in 2006 on the Humboldt squid and Cassell: Behold the Humboldt

A drive through Normandy

Juno Beach tank and carousel Mont Saint-Michel Mont Saint-Michel
Photos of Normandy, France

April 2-4, 2007

If you ever rent a car from a Paris airport (CDG in my case), make sure you book it from the net first. I spent a while talking up all the counter people up to get a decent rental rate. The price started at €500, and I eventually got them down to €320 by calling bluffs. Still not exactly great for two days. I remembered much better rates online when I looked the day before, so we walked over to a terminal with internet access. Reassured by the better rates online I returned and tried to bargain some more, but I think the agents were locked out from the better prices. Back to the terminal with internet, and a few minutes later I had knocked a further €80 off the price with a reservation. Lesson learned; reserve ahead.

We piled into the rental and navigated the freeways out of sprawl-land into the lush green of Normandy. We headed to Rouen first and enjoyed the half timbered buildings and the Gros Horloge before grabbing some dinner. We spent the night in Caen and the next morning in the WWII memorial museum. Some of the exhibits were interesting, but I think the €18 ticket price soured us on it. Forty junior high kids running around didn’t help much either. After that we headed out through the back roads towards Courseulles-sur-Mer.

I really enjoyed the drive. Every few miles you drove through a quaint little stone village with a stone chapel. There are still farms here, but it is obvious that industrialization means a whole lot less people live in the countryside. Which turns out to be a bit of a mixed blessing. There is very little ugly suburban development, only old stone buildings that blend in perfectly with the landscape. But the towns can feel a bit ghostly.

We picked up a delicious lunch at a little bakery in Courseulles-sur-Mer before walking to Juno Beach. It is a bit odd to see a WWII tank beside a carousel, but I suppose it makes a point. We all really enjoyed the Juno Beach Centre, a museum dedicated to the war effort made by all Canadians that opened three years ago right near the beach. Perhaps we are a bit biased, but the €6 ticket seemed more than worth it. I was quite impressed by the amount of information they packed into exhibits.

We walked the beach for a bit and watched the kite surfers before packing up and heading west along the cost. Eventually we reached Arromanches and the remains of Mulberry Harbour. After poking around we got lost in Bayeux for a while before heading to Saint-Lô, Avranches, and eventually arriving at Le Mont-Saint-Michel for a blazing sunset. We grabbed a cheap hotel and shared a mostly empty restaurant next door with a Japanese tour group. Definitely not high season, just the way I like it.

I woke up early to walk out the spit of land towards Mont Saint-Michel with the relatives of my dinner the night before. Each morning the sheep wander around the salt marsh and trim the grasses back. They also seem to enjoy running in front of cars later in the day. The fortress, abbey, and town are beautiful and amazing. Once inside, it can be a bit of a glorious tourist trap on the main drag. But it is worth braving the commercial gauntlet to explore the town.

We chose a different rural route back to Paris, rather than the toll-ways, and I was happy we did. Once again the countryside was lush and filled with great old stone buildings and chapels. We arrived full of cider and camembert. I really enjoyed Normandy, and the slower pace of off season car travel. Definitely a spot to come back to again.

Waiting for my camera niche

While I love the photos from my Canon Rebel XT, I hate its size. The Rebel is actually one of the smallest SLR cameras out there, but it is still something you have to bring a bag for, or sling it over your shoulder. It also attracts much more attention than my old camera – either from people just eying me over with this big ass camera, or others wanting to talk shop. I’ve been longing for a camera that has 1) Good quality sensor with RAW files 2) Has at least a 28mm wide angle 3) Gives me plenty of manual controls. My old Fuji F810 came close in some ways for its time, but was only 32mm wide, and had limited shutter speeds. I’d still be using it, but it got dropped somewhere along the way and now has interlaced while lines in the photos. I’ve been watching ebay for a used one, but no luck in several months.

But there are two cameras that just might fit the bill, but in different ways. The first is the Sigma DP1. This camera has a fixed 28mm F4 lens. This might be an issue for some, but 90% of my photos have been at that angle, so I don’t see it as much of a trouble – though I’m not sure why they couldn’t make the lens faster. The big deal about this camera is that it has an APS-C sized sensor. This means the sensor is the same size as my much larger Rebel. The larger sensor should give a much better photo quality, as well as much better high ISO and low light performance. It isn’t perfect though, the camera is a little too thick, and there is no anti-shake. Both I would assume because of the large sensor. But I think the size is still manageable. I’ll have to see how the no IS goes, I’ve become used to it on my Rebel. I’d have more to go on, but no one really knows when it is coming out. When it does, I’ll be pouring over the reviews.

The other one that looks promising is the Ricoh Caplio GX100. It has a great form factor, full manual controls, anti-shake, RAW, and a 24-72mm f2.5-4.4 lens. On paper, it looks like a dream camera. Unfortunately, it also uses a small compact sensor. This means the photo quality isn’t going to be the greatest, and the ISO performance is going to be poor. The early reviews seem to suggest anything over ISO400 is pretty bad. They also say it takes several seconds to shoot RAW files, which would be a pain in the ass. I’ll have to wait for more reviews to see if the image quality and performance will meet my expectations.

It looks like it might take some time for all the reviews and comparisons to come out. Which isn’t really an issue, as I’m content to wait. Hopefully more people will get in on the action, and drive development for this niche.

Update: DPReview.com has posted their review of the GX100 here. Unfortunately it looks like my fears are true. Great camera, crappy sensor. It looks like you can get quality out of the camera if you are willing to put in the time to work around its limitations. Four to five seconds to save a raw file would get old pretty fast though.

Still waiting on the DP1…