Letter to the Editor
It’s always weird starting these newsletters. Imposter Syndrome and all that jazz.
Michael Menduno once told me that he loved reading the shop’s newsletters, because “they’re always bordering on completely unhinged.” Mike passed away last year, but as one of his friend’s described him, “Menduno was a force of nature.”
I would agree.
Michael Menduno (aka “M2”) is the guy that coined the term “technical diving.” Like, he made the word up. First person to use it. He founded and ran aquaCORPS, which was one of the first forays into independent diving journalism that wasn’t completely bought-and-sold by gear manufacturers and agencies. He also was the driving force behind InDepth, which remains one of my favorite diving publications today.
M2 was one of, if not the, most influential journalist in recreational scuba diving history. Whether it’s in terms of his reach, ability to shake hands across the aisle, remain aloof from industry politics while still engaging with the people involved, or his wit and humor, it’s truly impossible to understate his impact on diving and the industry that keeps it afloat (heh, dive pun).
He was rare in that regard; he was even more unique in that he never lost his love of diving. He was “in love” with diving, in a way that few can maintain, and while he was often one of the smartest people in any given room, he was also always one of the kindest.
When I was the one writing these Letter to the Editor sections, in the back of my mind, I was always trying to sneak something in there to make M2 laugh. Sometimes, he would acknowledge it, but rarely. Just enough to keep me on my toes.
Talk about Imposter Syndrome…
“The Michael Menduno is reading my words.”
“The Michael Menduno is reading my dumb words and thinks they’re funny.”
Small praise, but from a dude that was a big deal to me.
Everyone who knew M2 misses him. I certainly do. October 3rd, 2025; the Day That Diving Journalism Died.
This ain’t very funny, is it?
Maybe that’s the joke. Maybe the joke is that the diving industry is a small, backwards industry that is more interwoven and twisted than the bloodline of a British monarch. Maybe the joke is that it makes the gems shine a little brighter when they show up.
Maybe the joke is that the Michael Menduno read these IdiotScreeds.
Maybe the joke is that a handful of offhand remarks from ol’ M2 means that everyone is subject to these asinine and borderline-unhinged editorials forever, even when he’s not around to encourage it anymore.
Maybe the joke is that I’ll probably always write these with Mike in the back of my mind.
A good joke is a good joke.
I don’t have anything poignant or insightful to say here. The next one will be funnier, I promise.
We love you all.
Let’s. Go. Diving.
-RLF
Table of Contents
- Attic Sale #5 (It’s Tyme to Dive ‘n Jive)
- Can You Take Me Hire? (Shop Staff Opening)
- Spring Training (Upcoming Spring Courses ‘n Classes)
- Trippin’ All Summer (Kayaker’s Cove & Fox Island Shop Trips)
- Summer Loving (Upcoming Summer Courses ‘n Classes)
- Heli-SZN Summer Slam: It’s A-Coming
- The Dive Alaska Monthly Mixer & Just. Go. Diving. Club
Attic Sale #5: It’s Tyme to Dive ‘n Jive
(Thursday, May 28th to Saturday, May 30th)
Thursday, May 28th to Saturday, May 30th, Dive Alaska is very pleased, and slightly concerned, to be hosting our fifth Attic Sale of All Tyme.
We’re calling in Attic Sale #5: Diving ‘n Jiving.
We r poets.
This is always a slightly concerning time for us at Dive Alaska.
For those that don’t know, the Attic Sale is when we pull everything out of everywhere, and, for one day only (repeated three times, successively), everything is out-in-the-open and for sale.
Everything at Dive Alaska is always for sale, but this is the time of year when it’s cast upon the counters and parking lot tables like so many dice, and it is your opportunity to steal. Or get a steal of a deal. Or just a deal. Steal deal. Big steal deal on steel.
Long story, short (a phrase never observed in these newsletters), this is the time of year to haggle, buy a vintage set of regulators, pick up some used hoses, get an old HID cannister light, pick up a classic DPV, get a few repurposed SCBA cylinders to use as a shop tank in your garage, and more.
It truly is the most magical time of the year.
And we have food and drinks all day, every day.
Exact sales will be published closer to the actual date of the sale, and this isn’t like a “Yearly Store-wide 15% Off!” kind-of-sale. It’s no Toyotahon December to Remember Sales Event.
This is the yearly “Weird/Whacky/WTF” Sale.
Deals and items include:
- Rental line BC’s and regulators
- Mini emergency oxygen kits
- Military, Pelican, and Hardigg cases
- SCBA tanks for argon or shop air
- Dredging and working drysuits for $1,200
- Vintage dive gear
- Compressors and boosters we absolutely don’t need
- Tanks. Just…. so many tanks.
- Magic. Also, magic herbs and beans. Not drugs. Actual magic.
- Filing cabinets and shelves
- Oxy-eggs! It’s like an egg, but for oxygen. (We don’t know either!)
- Everything else, including things that may be affixed to the building and/or structural.
- If the shop had a catalytic converter, we’d rip that out and sell that too.
It’s Attic Sale 5: Tyme to Dive ‘n Jive.
Can You Take Me Hire? Dive Alaska is hiring full and part-time staff.
This is probably as good of post as any to say that we’re hiring for full-time and part-time staff, for long-term positions.
Full-time includes:
- Starting pay $17.50 p/hour, with tiered raises based on capacity
- Health insurance
- Matching IRA
- Free dive training and education, through instructor and technical
- Free equipment and/or at-cost discounts
- Free travel and guiding opportunities
- PTO (based on accumulated time)
- Flexible scheduling
- No cap on OT hours
- Paid, on-the-job training
- Learn how to sharpen machetes and other directly-applicable skills
It’s not a perfect job, but it’s an honest, exceptionally fun job. The work is diverse and you get to meet cool people.
You need to have some mechanical capacity, an ability to interact with people comfortably, and a strong attention to detail. Obviously, punctuality and the ability to seek out work matter as well.
If you’re not a diver… perfect. You don’t need to be a diver, or even passionate about diving, to work at the shop. But we would use an extra set or two of able hands, for what is hopefully a fun gig with a ton of opportunity to grow and learn everything from the diving industry, to how to make sure you keep oxygen from exploding.
Love you all.
Resumes or inquiries can be sent to [email protected].
Please include, 1) why you would think you would be a good fit, 2) availability for an interview, as well as work schedule, and 3) why you want to work here. It doesn’t need to be extensive or eloquent; we don’t care about that.
We’re just trying to get a bead on what we can do for you, and vice versa.
Spring Training: Spring Courses ‘n Classes
Spring, Sprung, Sprang, Sprong
This here’s a non-exhaustive list of the classes that Dive Alaska will be running in the next few weeks. The dates are a range; these aren’t full days.
Unless you want ’em to be.
While all our classes are great (obviously, and no follow-up questions), this an exceptional time of year for certain classes, such as the upcoming Freediver course on March 18th, or the Doubles Diver class on March 26th. Water clarity is great, boat traffic is minimal, and the weather, while brisk, has been largely predictable.
Get u sum Sea! And spring training.
- PADI Open Water Referral: Wednesday, April 22nd – Sunday, April 26th
- PADI Open Water & Drysuit: Wednesday, April 22nd – Sunday, May 3rd
- Scuba Review: Saturday, April 25th
- PADI Advanced Open Water: Saturday, April 25th – Sunday, April 26th
- PADI Drysuit: Thursday, April 30th – Sunday, May 3rd
- Thu – Fri (evenings) / Sun (morning-afternoon)
- PADI Open Water Referral: Wednesday, May 6th – Sunday, May 10th
- PADI Open Water & Drysuit: Wednesday, May 6th – Sunday, May 17th
- Scuba Review: Friday, May 8th
- PADI Enriched Air (Nitrox): Monday, May 11th
- PADI Drysuit: Thursday, May 14th – Sunday, May 17th
- Thu – Fri (evenings) / Sun (morning-afternoon)
- PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy: Saturday, May 16th
- PADI Deep: Saturday, May 16th
- PADI Diver Propulsion Vehicle: Saturday, May 16th – Sunday, May 17th
- PADI Freediver: Wednesday, May 20th – Sunday, May 24th
- Wed – Friday (evenings) / Sat – Sun (morning-afternoon)
- PADI Open Water Referral: Wednesday, May 20th – Sunday, May 24th
- PADI Open Water & Drysuit: Wednesday, May 20th – Sunday, May 31st
- PADI Advanced Open Water: Saturday, May 23rd – Sunday, May 24th
- PADI Drysuit: Thursday, May 28th – Sunday, May 31st
- Thu – Fri (evenings) / Sun (morning-afternoon)
Want to know more, or don’t see a class? Just ask! We’re flexible. Or we’re not. But you don’t know if you don’t ask!
Weeeeeee!
Trippin’ All Summer: Kayaker’s Cove & Fox Island Shop Trips
It’s all so trippy, maaaaan. Here’s a couple of the shop trips in SC Alaska we’re running this summer. The Fox Island trips are obviously uncapped. We don’t own that island. We don’t own Kayaker’s Cove either, but there is a limit on space for those, so spots are first-come, first-serve.
- Fox Island Overnighter: Saturday, June 20th – Sunday, June 21st
- Kayaker’s Cove Weekend: Friday, July 24th – Sunday, July 26th
- Fox Island Overnighter: Saturday, August 1st – Sunday, August 2nd
- Kayaker’s Cove Weekend: Friday, August 14th – Sunday, August 16th
Here’s the deets on the diving meets (a sentence we will never use again):
Kayaker’s Cove:
- Cost is $245 per/person, for two nights. Includes use of the whole property, sleeping quarters.
- Price is for the whole weekend, Friday to Sunday, and does not change if you only come for one night.
- Does not include water taxi (booked separately/indepently)
- Both weekends offer the possibility for training. The first weekend will be hosting a two-day GUE Technical Fundamentals Upgrade course. The second weekend will be a Recreational Fundamentals course, for those who have never taken the class.
- Non-diving family and friends are more than welcome; they do need to pay for their spot, but Kayaker’s is a phenomenal getaway to play, swim, kayak (no kidding) and more.
- Pets are unfortunately not allowed. For all the rules, feel free to visit their website, or call the shop.
Fox Island Overnighters:
- Cost is entirely free. Book your own water taxis.
- Family and friends are always welcome, as are pets.
- The highest attendance we’ve ever had at one of these things was 46 people. We can beat that this year. C’mon, let’s beat that this year!
Let’s. Go. Diving.
Summer Loving, Summer School, Summer Vacation
It’s Summer School! Here’s a handful of classes in the middle-distance, if you’re looking to make some summer plans, beyond the above spring training dates.
- PADI Emergency First Response: Monday, June 1st
- PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider: Monday, June 1st
- PADI Rescue: Wednesday, June 3rd – Sunday, June 7th
- PADI Open Water Referral: Wednesday, June 3rd – Sunday, June 7th
- PADI Open Water & Drysuit: Wednesday, June 3rd – Sunday, June 14th
- PADI Nitrox (Enriched Air): Monday, June 8th
- PADI Drysuit: Thursday, June 11th – Sunday, June 14th
- Thu – Fri (evenings) / Sun (morning-afternoon)
- PADI Freediver: Wednesday, June 17th – Sunday, June 21st
- Wed – Friday (evenings) / Sat – Sun (morning-afternoon)
- PADI Open Water Referral: Wednesday, 17th – Sunday, June 21st
- PADI Open Water & Drysuit: Wednesday, June 17th – Sunday, June 28th
- PADI Wreck: Saturday, June 20th – Sunday, June 21st
- PADI Drysuit: Thursday, June 25th – Sunday, June 28th
- Thu – Fri (evenings) / Sun (morning-afternoon)
- PADI Advanced Open Water: Saturday, June 27th – Sunday, June 28th
Heli-SZN Summer Slam: It’s A-Coming
It’s Heli-SZN, Fellas!
Obviously, we are using “fellas” in a strictly gender-neutral sense, because the Sea and the Sky are for all of human kind.
Biologists and aviation experts may say “Akshually, humans are not equipped to do either of those things without significant amounts of technology.”
Well, we would politely respond, “Shut up, nerd! Sky Bird, take us to the Big Blue Beyond!”
If you can’t tell, we really enjoy getting to do this.
The 2026 season for helicopter ice diving (freediving or scuba) is open now. This is in partnership with our good friends at Sheep Mountain Lodge, and Sheep Mountain Air, and more information on diving in a glacier can be found on our website.
For those who aren’t keen on jumping into a sapphire-blue, glacial moulin… c’mon, seriously? Do you know how few people have ever done that?
That said, Sheep Mountain Air provides the absolute premier flight-seeing experience in SC Alaska, regardless of diving. Sheep Mountain Lodge is also a wonderful place within driving distance of Anchorage to take visitors, guests, or maybe even straight-up elope.
Not actually kidding about that last one; check their website.
We cannot recommend them enough, as if trusting them to fly us around isn’t enough of an endorsement.
“Oh, hi Mark!”
The Dive Alaska Monthly Mixer
For those who don’t know… on the last Thursday of every month, Dive Alaska hosts a “Monthly Mixer”.
Divers and non-divers alike are welcome, as are pets, friends, family, whoever. Food and drinks are provided, and contributions to the communal eats are always appreciated.
This is a very (sometimes exceedingly) informal opportunity to hang out with friends, make new dive buddies and plan, unwind after a long week, talk diving, chat about whatever, with whoever, and overall, just relax amongst like-minded company.
All are welcome, and we always love to see you there.
The Alaska “Just Go Diving Club”
If you’re on Facebook, and you’re an active local diver who always looking for a dive buddy, check out The Alaska “Just Go Diving” Club. It’s a space reserved purely for helping local Alaskan divers find dive buddies, and that purpose only.
This is group is explicitly not affiliated with any dive shop, instructor, or agenda. The sole purpose of The Alaska “Just Go Diving” Club to just go diving.