Bottom Times: May 2026

Greetings & Salutations, Amigos!

May is shaping up to be one heck of a month for the club! You all are an incredibly active group. It is nice to see how much you all like having fun. This is spectacular and we are not even half way into the year.

The good news is that Cozumel is officially sold out!! New member (April) Tad Dawson snagged the last spot, bringing us to 20 divers and 2 non-divers joining us on this EPIC adventure. Huge win!! Brining the cost down to the lowest possible rate.

Then… Ensenada trip sold out too!! These spots went quick. We have 17 divers heading down to dive near Punta Banda, Baja California Norte for an epic weekend of diving, fishing, exploring, practicing Spanish, and of course a gastronomical treat!! Oh yeah. Read all about it the trip on Page 10!

And Catalina? We sold out the original 11 rooms we reserved!! We could not have done that without your prompt commitment. THANK YOU!

So, because we fulfilled our commitment with the Pavilion Hotel, they graciously agreed to continue honoring our group rate while rooms are still available. Huge shoutout to Ann Hoagland for reaching back out to them after Melanie Kemmann was bummed that she had missed the original booking window. 😄 {Your board’s got your back!} This courtesy has now been extended to the rest of the club as well. Contact Divemaster Dan Perdue ASAP and get your room booked before the remaining rooms disappear! At this point we have 25 members going to the Catalina Veterans Day trip!

And if traveling is not your thing, no worries because the club has been VERY active locally too. Last month we dove Deer Creek and Point Dume, and you can read more about those spectacular dives in this newsletter. Big shout out to all those who attended!

Last but not least we have 12 members that will be diving on the Specter May 23rd. We have one open slot; contact Dive Master Dan and snag it for the win.

More on club business

We also have a NEW sponsor joining the Channel Islands Divers family — American Dive Co. Many of you got to meet Darvil McBride during last month’s presentation where he shared some wild stories involving sharks, freediving, and his passion for spearfishing. Some of our members took advantage of the one-time 30% discount and even 50% off select items that he extended exclusively to the club.

And the good news keeps coming… going forward, all current CID members can now receive 10% off gear through American Dive Co.

Contact our membership coordinator Rob Johnson (membership@channelislandsdivers.org) for the discount code.

On top of that, Darvil has agreed to support the raffle with donations and by selling items for the raffle at cost. Apparently, they get a lot of promotional goodies over there… so some of that swag may be heading your way too.

Darvil wanted me to pass along a heartfelt thank you to all of you for welcoming him so warmly. He mentioned that he had never seen such a large and active dive club filled with so many wonderful people. He was feeling our dive-tribe-vibe!! You all left quite the impression on him.

Honestly, it is pretty amazing watching everything happening within the club right now. The energy, participation, traveling, beach dives, boat dives….… it feels like the club is blooming right in front of us, with our membership numbers and meeting participation rising monthly.

It has been genuinely inspiring seeing how active and engaged everyone is, and I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for supporting this club. I am truly grateful to be part of such an awesome group of people.

Join us this Wednesday, May 20th, as we welcome our guest speaker/sponsor Josh Dykman from Scuba Solutions. Josh will be sharing the dos and don’ts of scuba gear care, maintenance tips, and how to keep your equipment running smoothly and dive ready. This should be a really informative presentation and a great opportunity to learn from one of our club sponsors and an experienced dive technician.

See you all at the meeting!