Paradise Dive Club

Join us for our annual underwater pumpkin contest! We will meet at Refugio State Beach (West side) at 10am. Bring your own pumpkin (cleaned out ahead of time) and a knife to carve it -- ideally a dive knife. This is a perfect opportunity to flex your Rambo knives.

Divers will go for a dive to carve their pumpkins and return by noon for pumpkin judging and a barbecue.

The barbecue will be a potluck! Please bring a side dish to share. The club will provide impossible burgers and chicken as a main dish. Please RSVP ahead of time so that we know how much food to bring!

Join us to camp and dive at Refugio! We have rented one of the group sites (the Anapamu site) at Refugio, which can accommodate up to 32 people. Bring a tent and set up for one or both nights, hang out, and join us for some diving.

To help offset our costs, we will collect $20 per attendee for the weekend, with the exception that kids are welcome for free.

The site accommodates up to 8 vehicles, after which additional vehicles will incur an additional cost. For the free parking priority will be given to those who carpool to the event, so please do carpool!

For the dinner on Saturday night the club will provide the main dish -- our usual veggie burgers and chicken. Please bring something to share for this meal! For other meals, please plan to provide your own food.

Our monthly limited load trip on the Raptor dive boat out of Ventura! Join us for a day of diving out at the Channel Islands.

Here’s a few reminders for those of you who might not have done one of these before.

• The trip consists of three dives aboard the Raptor to Anacapa or Santa Cruz Island. Includes use of the Raptor’s steel cylinders (HP72s or LP85s), or you can bring your own. There’s no compressor so you’ll have to bring 3 if you want to use your own cylinders. The trip is basically BYO food/drink. There are some “hot water” meals aboard that are pretty good, but that’s it.
• We run with 10-12 divers, compared to the Raptor’s usual ~22 — this makes for a very comfortable experience.
• This is an “all levels” trip open to all club members. Unless it turns out that EVERYONE aboard is advanced certified or equivalent experience and we want to do something more challenging, the dives will be generally 50’ or above in the kelp forests. Hunting is allowed, but not the focus of the trip. Conditions on the day will dictate where we dive, which might mean we can’t get to hunting areas, or we spend all day in hunting areas.
• The cost is $140. That’s subsidized by your club dues, which means you’re paying less than the normal rate for this kind of trip. Really, a limited load three-tank trip would run you about $200 or more if you booked it yourself.
• You MUST be an active club member with dues paid to join. If you’re behind in your dues, you can get them current at the same time you pay for the trip. The trip is not open on non-members.
• You have to pay to hold your spot. The easiest way is by Venmo to our treasurer — let me know if you need the information. Make sure to note that the payment is for the club Raptor trip, and note the month you’re paying for. I know some of you prefer to pay by check. If you email me and let me know you’re sending a check, I’ll put you on the roster for a couple of days until I get the check.
• Once you pay, you’re committed to the trip. If you have to back out, we won’t do refunds unless we can sell your spot to another club member. We keep a waiting list and will do everything we can to help out a member who gets sick or otherwise can’t make the trip, but the closer to the trip someone backs out, the harder it will be.