Divers Return for Underwater Pumpkin Carving

Byline: Nu Yang

Divers Return for Underwater Pumpkin Carving

AVALON — An underwater pumpkin-carving session and a diving poker run are just two of the events scheduled for divers at the sixth annual Specialty Weekend, Oct. 14-16 in the waters off Catalina.

The activities begin at 10 a.m. Oct. 14, when divers will meet in Long Beach and cruise to Catalina. Once they are there, divers can take courses in their choice of areas — including deep diving, night diving, navigation, search and recovery, peak performance buoyancy, dry suit diving and wreck diving.

An underwater pumpkin-carving specialty divers’ course offers open-water dives on Saturday afternoon to enhance basic skills — and it will give divers the opportunity to fine-tune their buoyancy skills with the added challenge of carving a pumpkin. Participants will complete a pool dive and two ocean dives. The class fee is $75, plus a certification fee.

Participants can also join in an optional underwater costume contest during the pumpkin-carving dive.

Shoreside spectators will be invited to vote for the best pumpkin carving, and the winner will receive a prize. Last year, one lucky pumpkin carver won a whitewater rafting trip.

A diving poker run is set for Sunday afternoon, in which divers will navigate a course to an underwater location to find their cards. The dive will end with a game of poker.

Weekend activities will conclude at 6 p.m. Sunday.

Instructor Jen Doidge said last year’s event brought out about 30 divers. In past years, as many as 55 divers have participated.

For more information, contact Doidge at jendoidge@gmail.com or at (909) 855-5334.

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