KAWIKA CHETRON MEMORIAL AWARD

Many of you will have known Kawika Chetron. He was a regular diver seen at the Coast Guard Breakwater in Monterey with his Boston Whaler and red high-top sneakers. Kawika was also a gifted underwater photographer and would go the limit to visit the most remote Northern California reefs to capture a great shot. He was famous for a self-portrait of himself and one of his harbor seal friends. Kawika was also very personable and well-liked by other divers and underwater photographers. Visit Kawika's website, http://www.coldwaterimages.com , which his family and friends are dedicated to keeping up, and where his images and thoughts on diving, underwater photography, and life are displayed.

A little over a year ago Kawika trailored his boat to Eureka to dive some of California's far northern reefs. He put out to sea by himself and was never seen again.

A group of friends and family wanted to do something in Kawika's memory and approached NCUPS about hosting a one-time memorial award at the California Beach Dive Photo Competition, where Kawika had been a frequent competitor; and often a winner. They raised funds to purchase the prize for the award and the funds left over will be donated in his name to the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, www.reef.org, a marine environmental organization that he was involved in.

And the winner of the Kawika Chetron Memorial Award is... Clinton Bauder!

So how the prize was awarded…After entrants had selected and entered all of their images for regular competition, they were able to select one more to enter in the Kawika Memorial Award. There was no extra fee and entering the class was optional. Only one image per entrant was allowed. The image entered could have been of anything underwater taken that day and was judged as a separate class. The class was not eligible for a "Best of" award and was not awarded points. Rules and regulations were the same as for the regular competition.

The prize was a charter for two (2) with Cypress Charters, plus a couple of nudibranch and marine ID books donated for the award.

Special thanks to those who donated the funds for the award, to Melissa Litwicki for organizing the memorial award, and Clinton Bauder for donating the ID books (Clinton donated back the books to NCUPS after winning the award).