Meetings

MEETINGS

When We Meet

Marin Scuba Club meets on the second Wednesday of each month from January through November from 7:00 – 8:45pm.

We meet at the Sausalito Parks & Rec Center at 420 Litho Street AND via Zoom.
(WE WILL CONTINUE MEETING IN THE EXERCISE ROOM INDEFINITELY.) There is FREE PARKING in the lot, Bee, Bonita and Litho Streets. NOTE: The Rec Center has an entrance on Bee St., so do not enter upstairs through the parking lot.

 

Upcoming Events

Check out our Club Calendar. It includes:

          • Guest speakers discussing all aspects of diving
          • Slide shows, multi-media presentations, and videos
          • Valuable travel tips and dive resort reviews
          • Diving weekends (campouts with abalone diving when available)
          • Club dive trips (Northern/Southern California cold water & tropical warm water)
          • Holiday parties and club picnics
      • Wednesday, April 9, 2025 Meeting: Tiffany Duong and Louise Edwards, co-developers of the video game, “Found in The Fjords”, an Arctic Ocean VR Experience.Three Otters Media (TOM) is a female-founded virtual reality and new media studio that creates digital worlds to give our physical one a fighting chance. They strive to inspire empathy, wonder, and awe for the natural world, leveraging immersive technologies to create genuine connections to the planet from our schools and homes.

        TOM’s first game, “Found in The Fjords”, was designed to bring awareness, empathy, education, and support to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 14 Life Below Water. It was named as the Top Prizewinner in the UN’s Metaverse for the SDG’s competition.

        Tiff & Lou

        Meet The Team
        Dr. Louise Edwards, AKA “Lou” is one of Tom’s co-founders, lead VR developer, an Earth scientist, educator, explorer, science and educational consultant. She believes that everyone should feel empowered not only to thrive in the world that we find, but to strive to build the world we want to live in.

        Putting people in the driving seat of their own learning supports deeper understanding, and enhances their sense of self-worth and curiosity. She’s based in the Rocky Mountains of Western Canada.

        Tiffany Duong, AKA “Tiff”, another of TOM’s co-founders, is an explorer, storyteller, and producer. She holds degrees from UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Inspired by an epic dive trip, she left corporate law to campaign for our planet.

        Now, she writes, speaks, and leads from dense jungles to remote oceans to the changing Arctic. Through her varied work, Tiff gives voice to what’s happening in the natural world in order to inspire meaningful action and lasting change. Follow her on Instagram: @tiffmakeswaves.

        Aya Walraven is the third co-founder of TOM, the technical director, and sound producer for “Found in The Fjords”. Her background is in emerging tech, such as augmented reality (AR), video streaming, and data analysis.

        She’s also an avid freediver with a strong interest in the history of the ocean’s relationship to food and culture, as well as sustainable harvesting.

        “Found in The Fjords”
        TOM’s award-winning game is a virtual world based on real data. It takes you on a leap into frigid Arctic waters to experience first-hand how North Atlantic orcas are adapting to a changing ocean and planet.

        For 20 minutes, you’ll become a juvenile orca experiencing your first winter in Norway’s fjords as you learn how to navigate the threats and opportunities brought by the annual winter herring run and others competing for its rich bounty.

        Watch this VR game: https://foundinthefjords.org/

        Watch the Vimeo of their presentation: https://vimeo.com/channels/1611110

        He says, “Photography is my medium; light is my paintbrush.”

        Wednesday, March 12, 2025 Meeting: Nirupam Nigam, PhotosFromTheSeas.com, “Finding and Photographing the Jewels of the Sea of Cortez”. A live, in-person, and Zoom event from 7:00 to 8:45 pm PT in the Exercise Room.

        The Sea of Cortez is often overlooked as a dive destination. Yet hiding in the underwater desert of sand are some of the world’s most charismatic critters, from blue-spotted jawfish to orange throat pike blennies. Join us for this meeting as Bluewater Photo’s Nirupam Nigam presents the best method for approaching, finding and photographing these charismatic critters.

        While growing up in L.A., he fell in love with the ocean and pursued Channel Islands underwater photography.

        Scuba diver and rockfish in the Hood Canal, WA.

        At 15, Nirupam was first introduced to underwater photography. At 22, he became the Editor-in-Chief of the www.uwphotographyguide.com –– the world’s leading underwater photo and video retailer. It’s also the world’s most popular online resource for underwater photographers, with a mission to disseminate practical knowledge regarding underwater photography.

        After receiving degrees in Aquatic & Fisheries Science and General Biology, plus an Arctic Studies minor, Nirupam worked as a fisheries observer, spending months on vessels in the Bering Sea to North Pacific.

        This West Coast native calls Southern California and Western Washington home, where he calls himself “a full-time u/w photographer and photo gearhead.”

        Join Nirupam on Wednesday, March 12th.
        He’ll be on Zoom at 7:00 Pacific Time, but we hope to see you live in Sausalito.
        Contact him through his website www.photosfromthesea.com or send an email to nirupam@uwphotographyguide.com.

        Watch his presentation on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/1066398009

        Wednesday, February 12, 2025 Meeting: Ken Stewart, Diving With a Purpose, “The Guerrero Project and More”. A Zoom hybrid event live, in-person, and via Zoom from 7:00 to 8:45 pm PT in the Exercise Room.

        From InDepth Magazine: “Ken Stewart has arguably done more for Black scuba divers over the last 45 years than most of us can even imagine.”

        Born in New York City, he moved to Nashville, TN, in 1979, then retired. Along the way, he earned his Open Water certification in 1989 at age 44.

        Ken founded his NPO Diving With a Purpose in 2005. Today, at 79, his multiple benevolent programs focus on training more than 500 young Black and brown divers and more. He’s been featured in NatGeo, ABC, CNN, NBC, the Washington Post, and Smithsonian.

        Watch the trailer: https://www.theguerreroproject.org/

        Combining Maritime Archaeology & Veteran Divers.
        Ken’s flagship program is related to the Atlantic slave trade with 18 documented shipwrecks in six countries with 18,000 volunteer hours.

        The Wreck of The Guerrero Slave Ship.
        In 2003, Ken was the Southern Region Representative for the National Black Scuba Divers (NABS) when he received a phone call about a documentary called “The Guerrero Project”. It focused on the search for a pirate Spanish slave ship which sank off the Florida coast in 1827. It was carrying 561 Africans to Cuba; 41 who were entrapped in the ship’s hold tragically drowned.

        After that call from the director/producer, Karuna Eberl, looking for black divers she could interview for her documentary, Ken emailed many of his NABS brothers and sisters, beginning the correspondence with “Tired of the same old dives? Let’s dive with a purpose!” That became his “A-Ha” moment.

        The Guerrero Was One of About 35,00 Slave Ships.
        These vessels brought nearly 12.5 million captive Africans to the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries. Of the estimated 500 to 1,000 ships that purportedly wrecked, only five have been found and of those, only two have been documented. This was one of them.

        Join us on Wednesday, February 12th.
        Ken and his Lead Instructor, Kamau Sadiki, will join us on Zoom that night starting at 7:00 Pacific Time. We hope to see you live in Sausalito or on Zoom for this event.

        Watch Kenneth and Kamau’s presentation on Vimeo.

        Wednesday, January 8, 2025 Meeting: Ana Blanco and Steve Peletz, IOFF, “Ocean Conservation: Inspiring Action Through Film and Photography”. Live, in-person and via a Zoom hybrid event from 7:00 to 8:45 pm PT in the Exercise Room.

        We’ll kick off the new year with two very special guests: Ana Blanco, Executive Director and Member, Board of Directors, of the International Ocean Film Foundation; and Steve Peletz, a research diver, retired dive instructor, videographer, and ocean advocate.

        Since the official list of selections is still in progress, they’ll share a variety of short films and photography by Steve, all focused of ocean conservation.

        Ana joined the IOFF in 2011 with more than a decade of experience in executive nonprofit management. In 2012, she established the International Student Film Competition. In 2013, she launched the IOFF Traveling Program for students worldwide.

        A certified PADI diver, a sailing aficionado, and a volunteer with the Blue Water Foundation, she’s currently co-producing and co-directing her debut film, “Sequoias of the Sea” about the vanishing bull kelp along Northern California’s coast.
        Read Ana Blanco’s Bio.

        The second presenter, Steve Peletz, also manages Deep Blue Monthly, an online magazine featuring news on marine science and ocean conservation.

        As a Board Member of MigraMar, an organization of 24 marine scientists who study, track, and advocate for migratory species of sharks, whales, turtles, and rays in the Eastern Pacific, he’s been tagging sharks since 2016.

        Among other projects, he’s filming “Shark Finale”, a documentary on the economic, political, and physical challenges that marine scientists face in seeking greater protections for migratory sharks, whales, and turtles in the Eastern Pacific.
        Read Steve Peletz’s Bio.

        PS: The 22nd Annual IOFF, attended by many MSC members, will be held from April 11-13 at the Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, San Francisco.

        Watch Ana’s and Steve’s presentation on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/1046538030