Went on the Peace boat yesterday to Anacapa Island, full of people and photographers. Two of the people on the boat were LAUPS members, a Todd Winner and a woman whose name escapes me right now. Regardless, the trip to Anacapa was fairly uneventful, but that water was *cold*. Coming up from my first dive shivering, I was about to move up onto the swim step when I noticed boots sticking out over the ladder. A middle-aged man was down on the deck, smothered in blankets and being given oxygen. Apparently, he had in some manner become unconscious underwater and had popped to the surface. By this time, USCG had been called and they showed up in no less than 10min. They didn't have the equipment necessary, and it was determined that the individual would need a helicopter evacuation, eta of 5 minutes. We spent the better part of an hour getting the guy airlifted, but it was for the best when we heard by the end of the day that he was going to be ok.
In terms of the diving - cold, but great critters. Insane amounts of Spanish Shawl nudibranchs (every 10ft, if not more), with their eggs everywhere, and a few other types of nudibranchs I hadn't seen much of previously. Lots of Painted Greenlings and Crevice Kelpfish as well that were willing to pose. The sun didn't cooperate, so I stuck with macro the whole day, and I'm happy with a few of the shots I came away with. Here's a sampler:
20D, 100mm, 1/160, f/11, ISO100, FF
Disclaimer: WB may be *completely* off in this photo. I'm away from my calibrated monitor and my primary editing computer...notice the different copyright 
Enjoy.
~Matt Segal
...but I was instrumental in pointing the strobe 
